Contributions

This study makes contributions to the fields of agricultural occupational health and safety, intercultural communications, adult education for migrant labourers, and migrant labour studies. It provides important insights into the intersections of seasonal/temporary migrant labour

programs, agricultural work, language and intercultural communications issues, worker culture, enterprise/employer culture, and adult education and training. The proposed adult education frameworks contribute to enriching or complementing existing health and safety education approaches that are frequently focused too exclusively on technical concerns and fixes. It is

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important that this work contributes to a recognition that we are dealing with human beings with personal and group histories, with conflicting interests (with conflicts that are sometimes internal and sometimes between and among social actors), and with feelings and emotions that can affect judgement and choices.

Because they sensitize us to a broader array of factors and considerations, attention to adult education principles and to social dimensions of sustainability in agriculture can help us to understand the design requirements for holistic and progressive agricultural OHS education and training. This implies going beyond more traditional and reductionist approaches that tend to focus more narrowly on key medical concerns (e.g., disease and injury) and/or

engineering/technical approaches (e.g., workplace risk assessment and hazard recognition). It is important to emphasize, however, that the more expansive and integrative adult education frameworks proposed do not represent a rejection of the knowledge and techniques of these more conventional OHS approaches. Rather they look to add in more of the human (or social)

dimensions of workplace relations with attention to the special challenges of intercultural

interactions. Part of the enhanced richness and power of proposed adult education frameworks for OHS derives from the integration of other worldviews and paradigms. Several different

frameworks were integrated in order to adequately address the key research questions and in order to frame a more adequate adult education approach and curriculum: the social dimensions of agricultural sustainability, empowering approaches to worker agricultural OHS education and training, critical ethnography, and a socioecological model of health.

Employing a sustainability lens that pays special attention to human or social dimensions of agricultural sustainability allows this study to ask questions about some relatively neglected aspects of agricultural development and agricultural sustainability. Along with the health and wellbeing of agricultural workers and employers, fair and equitable conditions of employment are key and fundamental facets of the social sustainability of agriculture. In this regard, critical ethnography helps us to reveal and analyze some of the equity challenges that relate to power differentials between workers and employers. Critical ethnography, in combination with (a more critical, multifactorial version) of intercultural communications theory, helps us to understand

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and to more effectively address the challenges of communication and interaction in the workplace.

This study can contribute to the scrutiny, analysis, and possible modification of labour market agreements and arrangements involving the governments of Canada, Mexico, and Nicaragua. In combination with other initiatives, the performance and wellbeing of workers who undertake international migration can be improved by providing more preparation to them and their prospective employers. This includes at a minimum, language training and study opportunities for migrants and their employers, enhanced and broadened OHS education and training for all involved, and education regarding worker rights and workplace relations for all who are party to such arrangements. Combined with other relevant research, this study can also serve as a starting point for the design of educational outreach initiatives that incorporate an awareness of the identities, cultures, and concerns of the various participants. Additionally, it provides insights into ways of strengthening both local and international labour relations by honouring the contributions of all participants by recognizing and taking steps to augment their capacities and capabilities as intelligent and creative human beings (see Timmermann & Félix, 2015).

Such initiatives are important for co-constructing a more fully and indisputably sustainable agricultural sector in Saskatchewan. Building on this study, governments, researchers, and other interested parties have opportunities to further investigate how various aspects of temporary foreign worker programs impact migrant farmworkers and their employers, and how OHS and OHS training can be reconceptualized to address broadly conceived sustainability issues more holistically. This study may also contribute to raising awareness among the general public in the Prairie region about the challenges faced by migrant farmworkers and their employers. If

implemented, the recommendations presented here can also benefit the families of migrant farmworkers. Concerns about workplace health and safety, communications, and general

employment conditions are a potential source of stress for family members left behind. Moreover, workers who come home injured, exhausted, or psychologically marked by their experiences in Canada cannot fully fulfill their roles as partners, parents and breadwinners. A much more positive scenario for sending communities—and a worthy contribution to the sustainable development of these areas/countries—would be for migrant workers to return home in good

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health, with enhanced skills and capabilities, and with new ideas about how to work collaboratively and safely.