Housing, health equity, and global capitalist power: Migrant farmworkers in Canada

Health scholars are becoming increasingly attuned to the intimate ties between a person's housing and their access to mental and physical health. However, existing models for understanding the link between housing and health equity do not adequately theorize why inequities arise and persist, who benefits from these social arrangements, and how they operate transnationally. How do domestic and global dynamics of political economy shape housing and health equity for migrant farmworkers? How can conceptual models of housing and health equity better account for political economy? To answer these conceptual questions, our study examines the empirical case of migrant agricultural workers in Canada. Migrant worker housing provides a pertinent case for better conceptualizing capitalist power dynamics in housing and health equity on a global scale. Specifically, we draw on in-depth interviews conducted between 2021 and 2022 with 151 migrant workers Ontario and British Columbia. Participants' housing and health concerns aligned with existing literature, including issues such as overcrowding and barriers to health care due to a remote rural location. Our analysis identified three empirical themes: Precarity, Paternalism, and a lack of Political Participation. Drawing from these insights, we recommend a refined model of housing and health equity that keeps an analytical lens trained on global racial capitalism. •Migrant farmworkers in Canada report a wide range of health hazards in employer-provided housing.•Housing concerns include overcrowding, environmental hazards, and structural deficiencies.•Poor, inconsistent, and undignified housing harms farmworkers' physical and mental health.•Inferior farmworker housing persists because migrants lack political power and can be deported.•Models of housing and health equity should account for globalized capitalism.