Notes
Future research / gaps identified: not stated
Key populations: resettled refugees employed in meatpacking facilities in rural Alberta
Community organizations: ActionDignity
Integration timeline: resettled refugees and their journey to either PR or citizenship
Key findings:
1) Resettled refugees were led to employment in meatpacking due to a variety of factors, including necessity of earning income; significant structural barriers in the labour market that led to precarious and low-paying jobs with minimal job security or benefits; language and literacy barriers; and a large pre-existing workforce of refugees who assist newcomers in finding employment.
2) Participants described an ‘impossibility of safety’ working at the meat plants. There was an alarming discrepancy between the legal rights Canadian PRs should have under OHS, and the extent to which these rights were not enacted in meatpacking plants.
Key recommendations:
Investigate pathways that allow PR status to fail to insulate certain categories of people against the precarity of dangerous work, particularly in meatpacking plants where there are high rates of injury and even death despite OHS.
Location: High River, Brooks and Calgary, AB
