The number of Temporary Foreign Workers in Saskatchewan has increased by 310 percent since 2005, yet there is little systematic understanding of their actual experience of work and residency in Saskatchewan. In 2014, there was an estimated 11,000 TFWs in the province.
This action-oriented research program represents an innovative collaboration between fields of study and also between institutions: applicants are based at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the University of Regina Faculty of Business Administration. As well, a knowledge user co-applicant within the team is directly involved in frontline public health practice and decision-making as a manager of frontline programs within Saskatoon Health Region.
This research will use qualitative methods including document and policy analysis, key informant interviews (with settlement workers, health care providers and officials), and structured interviews with migrant workers. We will:
- Collect and examine relevant policy documents, to develop an understanding of the current context for migrant work in Saskatchewan. Documents sought will include legislation, policy statements, evaluations and reports.
- Develop a key informant interview guide and use it to collect information and perspectives on the understanding of the regulations by those implementing them: public health managers, medical health officers, frontline workers in Regional Newcomer Gateway and settlement agency offices (N=8).
- Modify structured interview guides with generative questions for migrant worker participants. Existing interview guides employed in research among migrant workers will be modified and translated to address our study questions in the Saskatchewan context, based on existing research literature and the results of the analyses outlined in points 1 and 2 above.
- Generate participant data on how occupational settings, housing conditions and access to health services are experienced and influence health of two sectors of migrant workers, through interviewing 40 migrant workers.