“A Human Face”? The Social Movement for Migrant Farm Workers’ Rights in Canada during COVID-19

Abstract

With this paper, I explore the recent struggles of migrant farmworkers in Canada in the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. I investigate how media depictions and social-network- platform-based migrant-rights activism are framed and deployed to push for increased health and workplace protections and for full immigration status for migrant farmworkers. My analysis is grounded Sareeta Amrute's (2019) work in her article "Of Techno-ethics and Techno-affects”, in which she considers digital labour through the lens of affect and feminist theories of attunement to propose new ways of approaching ethical dilemmas between people and the technologies they create and use. I argue that this digital social justice movement — surrounding the struggles of migrant farmworkers during COVID-19 — reflects the complexities of migrant bodies and the tension between visibility, invisibility, and obfuscation in service of status and safety. I question whether those two things (being ‘seen’ and being safe) are at odds in this context.