A Critical Discourse Analysis of Seasonal Agricultural Workers within the Context of Agricultural Issues

Abstract

The aim of the research is to understand the role of the government in producing or reproducing inequalities faced by seasonal agricultural workers in Canada by applying critical discourse analysis to government news releases. The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, implemented by the Federal government, allows foreign workers to temporarily work in Canada when domestic workers are unavailable. While the structure of the program fills labour shortages in agriculture, it also creates inequalities for seasonal agricultural workers. The study establishes that the power imbalance and inequalities faced by seasonal agricultural workers partly stem from challenges in the Canadian agricultural sector and this is reflected in the government discourse. The results from the study suggest that the government news releases provide very small dialectic space to the topic of seasonal agricultural workers. Instead, they focus highly on domestic groups and their issues.