Low‐skilled migrant workers provide an important labour source in Atlantic Canada's seafood industry. This research unpacks the experiences of 22 workers from Thailand and the Philippines working in one Atlantic Canadian seafood processing company. We pay particular attention to migration routes, labour conditions, and worker mobility, along with worker reflections on their experiences landing a Canadian job. We also consider the perceptions of migrant workers among company staff. We argue that despite the various unfreedoms associated with migrant worker programs, migrant workers in this particular facility have demonstrated agency in negotiating the program to their advantages. The success of the workers, however, is contingent on a conjuncture of elements that are not necessarily found elsewhere in the seafood processing industry. Worker experiences, both with other Canadian employers and elsewhere, offer a stark contrast to their current situation: migrant workers often experience significant unfreedoms to gain relatively free working conditions.
Increasingawareness of degradation in ocean ecologies and fisheries has made seafood a leading edge in the green marketing movement, with most major buyers in the global North committing to buying seafood that has been certified as sustainable. But what about the significant and growing Asian markets, where seafood has become a healthy and prestigious food choice among wealthier consumers? Is it possible to develop a market for sustainably produced seafood among Asian consumers motivated by civil and ecological concerns? To address these questions our research traces how a Thai Fisherfolk Shop, located 4 hours to the south of Bangkok, has worked to develop an alternative market for seafood caught by local, small‐scale fishers. Although we find that there is a mismatch between the volume of aquatic species that fishers catch, the ability of the Shop to process, store, and sell seafood, and consumer demand, our analysis suggests that it is possible to create a market for small‐scale, sustainably sourced seafood in Thailand.
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