El Contrato: Immigrant Workers In Canada

The film El Contrato explores the lives of Mexican immigrant workers who spend 8 months of the year, leaving their families behind, working on tomato farms in Leamington, Ontario. It is critical to state that the Canadian Government has signed many agreements with the Caribbean Nations and Mexico that permit the hiring of agricultural foreign workers into Canada to work on farms. The film begins in Mexico City, where hundreds of Mexicans have lined up at the Ministry of Labour to provide feedback on their experiences that have occurred during their time working in Canada. One individual states that while working in Canada he is often called names, and that he is treated very poorly. Each of these individuals leave their homes in hopes of providing

Throughout the film it is clear that the individuals that behold the most power, such as the white business men, have a stronger impact on the situations concerning the exploitation of immigrant workers. Although these individuals have the ability and power to change the mistreatment of the workers, they choose to turn a blind eye to the situation at hand. Distressfully, the immigrant workers who are constantly fighting for these changes to be made do not withhold the power and authority needed to do so as a result of the constant inequality they are faced with. Over the length of the film, it is visible that the immigrant workers lack the basic human right of freedom. Throughout the film there are many times where the workers state that they are forced to do certain things while working, therefore limiting their freedoms. For example, these immigrants are frequently forced to work 7 days a week with long 10 hour shifts where there are no safety or health laws, no regulations when using pesticides, and no mandatory safety training, which commonly leads to many terrible