People walk past damaged houses in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, in Black River, Jamaica, on Nov. 5.Raquel Cunha/Reuters
A migrant-rights group is calling on Ottawa to grant temporary work permits and employment insurance access to farm workers from Jamaica who have been affected by Hurricane Melissa – particularly those who are returning to destroyed homes after working the spring- and summer-farming seasons in Canada.
Justice for Migrant Workers, a Toronto-based advocacy group for migrant farm workers who enter Canada through the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program, said that they have been in contact with many workers who had just returned to Jamaica and are facing “near total destruction” of their homes.
In an Oct. 31 letter addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Immigration Minister Lena Diab and Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu, the group requested that the government grant temporary open work permits to enable workers affected by the hurricane to return to Canada and continue working.
The group also asked the feds to expedite the EI process to ensure farm workers can collect EI regardless of their work permit status.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada did not respond to requests for comment.
Jamaican Canadians worry about family back home in aftermath of Hurricane Melissa
Hurricane Melissa, which hit the Caribbean on Oct. 28, is the strongest-ever storm to have landed on Jamaica, killing dozens, cutting off roads and bridges, and devastating entire communities. Jamaican authorities have confirmed 32 deaths so far, and more than 100,000 damaged housing structures. Canada has sent a military team to Kingston, the capital, to provide assistance, Global Affairs said last week.
Thousands of Jamaicans enter Canada each year as agricultural workers – either part of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program or the Primary Agricultural Stream of the TFW program – to take up jobs at farms and greenhouses across the country. Statistics Canada data showed that in 2024, Canada brought in 78,079 foreign workers for the agricultural sector. Approximately 10 per cent of them hailed from Jamaica, the third-largest migrant worker inflow into agriculture in Canada, after Mexico and Guatemala.
Foreign workers who migrate through the TFW program are on closed work permits, meaning that their ability to work legally is tied to their employer. Like Canadians and permanent residents, they pay into the Employment Insurance Program, but they often cannot get these benefits if they are out of work. Accessing EI requires foreign workers to hold a valid work permit.
Labour advocates and migrants’ rights groups have long called for Employment and Social Development Canada, the ministry that administers the EI program, to expand the eligibility criteria for accessing EI benefits to migrant workers, regardless of visa status.
Hurricane Melissa dissipates, leaving at least 50 dead and destruction across Caribbean
These groups have also been campaigning for the government to re-evaluate the tied work-permit nature of the TFW program, arguing that it perpetuates employer abuse and puts workers in a position where they are unable to look for alternative employment.
Seasonal agricultural workers, for example, may come to Canada annually for years on end, starting in the spring and ending in the fall, but their work permits are tied to the length of their contracts, which are often six to nine months. To apply for a different work permit, they would have to seek out an employer willing to sponsor them.
There is also no clear pathway to obtain permanent residency for this category of workers, so many feel like they pay into a benefits system that they will never be able to access, according to Chris Ramsaroop, an assistant professor of politics and social justice at the University of Toronto and an organizer with Justice for Migrant Workers.
“This is not an act of charity. It is a call to ensure migrant agricultural workers are able to access their entitlements in time of need,” he said.
Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said that his group has also asked the federal government to grant open work permits to migrant workers still in Canada whose families have been affected by the hurricane, or who do not have homes to return to any longer. “The problem right now is they do not have grounds for an open permit. We want them to obtain open work permits so they can look for work while collecting EI.”
There is some precedent for the government offering enhanced EI access to workers affected by natural disasters. In the summer of 2024, ESDC introduced a pilot program in Jasper, Alta., and Bunibonibee Cree Nation in Manitoba that allowed workers affected by forest fires to claim EI regardless of the number of hours previously worked.