For Quebec's migrant farm workers, need to earn a living trumps fears over COVID-19
Source: CBC News
June 15 2020 - Less than half the temporary foreign workers expected for June in Quebec have arrived.
The few words of French that Geovany Perez Garcia has picked up in his six summers in Quebec aren't enough to carry on a conversation.
But he is able to get his message across when he goes to the bank in Sainte-Marie, in Quebec's Beauce region.
Every week, he sends money to his parents and younger brothers back home in Guatemala.
"Tengo una gran familia — I have a big family," Garcia said with a smile. The 29-year-old is one of the 7,275 temporary foreign workers who have made it to Quebec so far this year.
Normally, the province's farm industry employs 16,000.
Garcia considers himself lucky his paperwork was ready when the COVID-19 pandemic hit North America. Guatemalans who were still waiting to have their work visas processed were stuck, he said.
"They lost everything because they weren't able to travel," said Garcia. He knows how much there is to lose.