Migrant Farmworkers Clinic and Seminar

Do you want to help build community power? Start right here in your own backyard by enrolling in the Migrant Farmworker Legal Clinic. The Clinic is perfect for law students who want to problematize the role of the law particularly for precarious, racialized workers. The Clinic is also unique as it emphasizes the role of law in supporting community organizing with migrant farm workers.

The Migrant Farmworker Clinic is the first legal clinic for migrant farm workers in Canada and uses a "law and organising" framework.  It is an LFO-funded project founded by Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW) in collaboration with Windsor Law.  It is unique in offering a singular place for racialized migrant farm workers that will address their complex, intersectional legal needs while simultaneously building their structural power to challenge systemic oppressions 

Around 30,000-40,000 migrant agricultural workers from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and other Global South regions work in Ontario farms every year, with southwestern Ontario employing a majority of these workers. Migrant workers, as a racialized and marginalized group in precarious status, face numerous forms of exclusion and discrimination. The legal regime that affects them functions at the complex intersection of immigration law, international bilateral agreements, employment law, workers compensation law, human rights law, health law, food law, law and political economy of agriculture, among others. 

For students, the Clinic is an important and novel avenue to get a holistic understanding of social justice organizing, community engagement, and movement lawyering.  Students will learn how different areas of law intersect to produce legal marginalization, the historical and global policy and social environment around agricultural labour and immigration, and strategies on organizing, representing and advocating for Black and racialized migrant workers and similarly disadvantaged persons.

There are two components of the Clinic – a weekly seminar course, and a clinical component. The course is expected to be on Tuesday evenings for approximately two hours. The clinical component will involve working on cases and other systemic advocacy projects under the supervision of the Clinic Lawyer, as well as participation on two or three Sundays during the semester, to do outreach in Leamington, Ontario.

Weekly Seminar: The seminar will be taught by Profs. Vasanthi Venkatesh and Chris Ramsaroop, where students will learn about how to engage in legal advocacy for migrant workers through a law and organising framework. This will include an overview of the systemic challenges in representing migrant workers and advocating for their rights as well as the basics of immigration and refugee law, employment law, discrimination law, workers’ compensation law, and international law and policy. Previous students had the opportunity to hear from preeminent lawyers and scholars working on migrant work issues, migrant worker leaders and organisers, representatives from the Mexican and Jamaican Consulate, ESDC, and IRCC, transnational and international advocates from all over the world.

Clinical Component: Students will have the opportunity to work on a variety of casework and take part in outreach and systemic advocacy. This includes immigration and visa applications, employment and human rights work, public benefits, community outreach in the Windsor-Essex area, and possible systemic litigation in the areas of immigration, labour, healthcare, and human rights. Students are expected to participate in both law and organizing aspects of the clinic as organizing is essential to the Clinic's mandate.

Projects arise depending on farmworker needs and students can expect involvement in a variety of ad-hoc work. Due to the unpredictable nature of this work, students must be comfortable and willing to work in sometimes chaotic and rapidly changing projects. It is expected that successful students in this course are responsive, flexible, and committed due to the nature of our work.

Students are also expected to attend the summary advice and outreach clinic in Leamington on two or three Sundays during the term (approximately from 2pm-7pm) and support the administration of the clinic. Transportation help will be provided. This is a unique experience to engage directly with migrant farmworkers who work in the Leamington area.

 

 

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