Understanding The Lives of Migrant Workers with Author Marcello Di Cintio

Three years ago, I interviewed labour economist David Fairey and UVic sociologist Anelyse Weiler about British Columbia's piece rate system — the legal framework that allows farm workers to be paid less than minimum wage. Although I've worked in hospitality for years, and thought I understood the labour behind a meal, that conversation made me realize otherwise.Enter Canadian journalist and author, Marcello Di Cintio, and his 2025 book Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers (Biblioasis). To gather research for Precarious, Di Cintio spent four years travelling across Canada, speaking with migrant workers in agriculture, caregiving, food processing, the Food & Beverage industry, and beyond. In the process, he uncovered stories of resilience and humanity, but also of the systemic exploitation built directly into Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program - a national program which a United Nations Special Rapporteur has referred to as a breeding ground for "contemporary forms of slavery".At a moment when Canadians are loudly proclaiming their values in the face of outside pressure, Di Cintio quietly points out that hundreds of thousands of people are toiling in unsafe conditions and cut off from permanent status, in order to keep our economy running and our grocery bills down.Precarious is a book that's both difficult to sit with and to put down. It's one of the most important Canadian books I've read in a while; and I hope that listeners enjoy our conversation, and are inspired to take stock of what he’s presented about who we are in Canada and the rules we’ve put in place for these workers (and also buy a copy of his book). Canadians should know.If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email at [email protected]