Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez Awarded SSHRC Small Research Grant

Congratulations to Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez on receiving the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Small Research Grant this year!

Many Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) in Canadian agriculture are from Guatemala and Indigenous of Mayan identity. Dr. Encalada Grez's research titled "Temporary Foreign Worker Programs, Indigeneity, and Livelihoods: The case of Mayan Migrant Farmworkers in Canada." and she proposes to examine their experiences in the context of settler-colonial violence (including disposability and displacement) both at "home" and in Canada where their labour is extracted by coercive immigration-labour practises imposed by a settler-colonial state. Mayan farmworkers in Canada have received limited attention in Labour Studies and Sociology of Work Migration literature, particularly beyond Quebec where they first started emigrating in 2003 to work in farms, greenhouses, and packing plants.

This research will utilize qualitative and decolonial research methods to explore the particular experiences of Maya farmworkers through the lens of Indigeneity, cross-border livelihoods, and immigration-labour policies with a focus on British Columbia and rural Maya communities in the highlands of Guatemala. This study endeavours to contribute to new knowledge about Indigenous migrant farmworkers and the intersections of colonialization, Indigeneity, and displacement within the context of hemispheric and national settler-colonial violence.