Decent Work and Temporary Stay: An Overview of the ILO Agri-Food Guidelines Affecting Migrant Workers in Canada

Abstract

This report uses a realist review methodology, focusing on three Canadian provinces – Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario – to examine labour protections in the meat packing, agriculture, and seafood processing industries. The research team examined grey and academic literature on working conditions and social protections for temporary foreign workers, a group of workers particularly vulnerable to labour exploitation. The report synthesizes scholarly and grey literature from January 2020 to December 2024, using a comprehensive keyword strategy to address the realist review questions of What works? For whom? Under what circumstances? And how? – questions that pertain to the design and implementation of protective occupational guidelines across the three provinces.