Income Support for Migrant Agricultural Workers: Differential Inclusion via Racialized Administrative Burdens Under Canada's Employment Insurance Program

ABSTRACT Under Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and Agricultural Stream, migrant agricultural workers (MAWs) arriving principally from Caribbean and Latin American countries are granted entry to Canada as essential workers. Yet they have limited access to social and statutory benefits and entitlements vis‐à‐vis citizens and permanent residents. Through an inquiry into rules governing access to benefits under Employment Insurance (EI) – a national contributions‐based unemployment insurance program providing income replacement in instances of job loss, sickness, maternity, parental, and caregiving responsibilities—this article analyzes administrative mechanisms contributing to MAWs' differential inclusion. Examining EI policy administration, an underexplored area of scholarly inquiry, it demonstrates how, given the structure of migrant work programs in agriculture, seemingly neutral rules governing the provision of income replacement contribute to disentitlement among MAWs otherwise fulfilling qualifying requirements. Bridging scholarship illustrating how policy design can shape differential access to EI benefits among social groups and research documenting racialized (im)migration policies opening exclusively temporary migration to MAWs historically and contemporaneously, the analysis highlights the role of racialized administrative burdens in impeding MAWs from accessing EI's full range of income supports.