A frosty welcome for seasonal workers

Many of us enjoy the fresh fruit and vegetables that are so abundant at farmstands and grocery stores at this time of year, but how often do we think of the human cost of this abundance? Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is often described as a “triple-win” for origin countries, Canada, and migrant workers; however, the story is different when we listen to migrant workers and their families. In addition, seeing temporary foreign workers as people who are voluntarily migrating ignores the complex factors that push people to work abroad.

Many workers apply for Canada’s TFWP out of desperation resulting from difficult economies, high unemployment rates and the effects of natural disasters on their livelihoods. In the 1880s, the perceived need for cheap labour and the desire to limit non-white immigration to Canada led to the temporary labour migration and exploitation of Chinese railway workers. Today’s TFWP, marked by a lack of permanent status, forced family separation and a tendency towards exploitation, can be directly traced back to this origin of temporary labour migration in Canada.

It is not only the migrant facing the pain of separation, but those left behind as well. In A Renewed Canadian Welcome, Dr. Evelyn Encalada Grez writes about her father migrating to Canada to find work and how they waited for two years to be reunited. The Canadian government does not allow families to accompany migrant workers or give workers access to permanent resettlement, regardless of how many years or even decades a worker has been in Canada. While families understand the necessity of sacrifice for providing basic needs, the effects of separation and lost time remain forever.

Divisive rhetoric

When it comes to attitudes towards refugees, migrants, and immigration policies, tensions are high and divisions are stark. From the scapegoating of migrants for the affordability and housing crises to ICE crackdowns in the U.S., our public discourse regarding immigration is contentious. Recent federal legislation, namely Bills C-2 and C-12, continue to erode refugee and migrant rights. The church has also not been immune to the divisive rhetoric of the media. The response of church leaders and members has varied from echoing anti-immigrant sentiments, to disengaged apathy, to advocacy for the rights of refugees and migrants.

Humankind has long fallen to the temptation of according partiality to people based on social categories and identifiers. Throughout history, God repeatedly calls his people to love the sojourners among them, just as he does, reminding the Israelites they know the heart, thoughts, and feelings of sojourners, because they were also sojourners (Ex. 23:9, ESV).

Paul reminds the Church of Galatia, “the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’” (Gal. 5:14, ESV). But who is our neighbour? Through the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus expands the definition of neighbour beyond societal boundaries. We are called to recognize our ultimate eternal citizenship and call to kinship with others based on the doctrine of imago dei, which transcends geographical and political borders and leads us to advocate for policies that honour the inherent dignity and value of every person.

The Christian witness

Religious groups in Canada have often played a valuable role in refugee advocacy and positively impacted immigration policies. One of the most well-known examples is Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. While religious groups were already involved in welcoming immigrants before WWII, after the war Christians began to play a more formal role in refugee sponsorship, including involvement in the establishment of Canada’s sponsorship program.

More recently, the Canadian Council of Churches, whose membership currently represents about 85 percent of Canada’s Christians, partnered with the Canadian Council for Refugees and Amnesty International to launch a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the Safe Third Country Agreement. This agreement is predicated on the idea that both the U.S. and Canada are safe for refugees, and states that asylum seekers need to make their refugee claim in whichever country they arrive first. In other words, if someone enters the U.S., they cannot cross into Canada to seek refuge; they must make their claim in the U.S., regardless of if they have family already in Canada or the fact that the U.S. does not readily recognize gender-based violence as grounds for asylum.

Citizens for Public Justice and other faith groups have also played a key role in the #WelcometoCanada campaign, including an interfaith statement that successfully brought an end to immigration detentions in provincial jails. The win was significant: in September 2025, Ontario became the last province to cancel its contract with Canada Border Services Agency.
our kingdom citizenship 

Canada has been deeply shaped by immigration and even the food we eat has been shaped by immigration. Our immigration policies and practices reflect what Canadian identity and values really are. As Christians, how are we called to respond when refugees and migrants are blamed for economic strains?

The Bible speaks of sojourners not as threats to be managed, but as people to be treated with dignity and impartial justice. Scripture asks us the spiritual question of who is our neighbour, and to whom is our ultimate allegiance? God’s people are sojourners themselves, in the physical sense and the spiritual sense, as we are journeying through life on earth as people whose ultimate citizenship and loyalty is to the Kingdom of God.

When we remember our primary citizenship, we experience the freedom and calling to see immigrants not as “other,” but as fellow image-bearers and kin in ways that break the boundaries of geographical borders and social categories. As people of faith, we are called to welcome sojourners and to play a role in advocating for policies that do the same.

Use your voice

There are many ways to welcome fellow sojourners. As Christ-followers, we can make a difference.

– Learn more about movements for justice through avenues like A Renewed Canadian Welcome. If there are migrant workers in your community, find out what local supports or initiatives are in place.
– Have conversations about current policy changes and challenge the dehumanizing rhetoric around you.
– Contact your MP to ask for harmful policies to be withdrawn, and to resume the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program, which was put on hold in November 2024.
– Advocate for a regularization program to allow access to permanent residency for temporary migrant workers.