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Janet McLaughlin

Associate Professor, Health Studies; Research Associate, International Migration Research Centre (IMRC); Faculty Member, Social Justice and Community Engagement master’s program

Research / Areas of Expertise

Migrant farm workers’ health and safety.
Health care and workers’ compensation access.
Impacts of autism services on family stress and well-being.

Biography / Academic Background

BA, International Development Studies (Guelph, 2002).
MA, Human Rights, (Sussex, 2004).
PhD, Anthropology (Toronto, 2009).
Postdoctoral Fellowship, International Migration Research Centre (WLU, 2011).

Research Interests / Ongoing Projects

I am an interdisciplinary scholar trained in medical anthropology, with interests in the areas of global and environmental health, food systems, labour, social justice, citizenship and transnational migration. My research projects have investigated various aspects of migrant workers’ health, rights and well-being, including: access to health care and workers’ compensation; women’s experiences of gender-based violence; occupational, mental, sexual and reproductive health; social determinants of health; and the impacts of separation on migrant families. Although I have conducted research with various migrant groups, I have primarily focused on temporary foreign workers from Mexico and Jamaica who labour in Ontario agriculture. I am co-founder of the Migrant Worker Health Project, www.migrantworkerhealth.ca, which promotes accessible health care for migrant workers. I am currently conducting research on the impacts of autism therapy and education services on family stress and well-being, using a social determinants of health framework.

Awards and Achievements

Award Recipient (2018), Leading Women and Leading Girls Building Communities Program, Kitchener-Waterloo, Presented by Catherine Fife, MPP

Faculty Merit Award, Wilfrid Laurier University

Student Opportunities / Supervising

I am willing to supervise students in areas related to migrant workers’ rights and health, and autism-related projects.

Selected Publications

Migrant Workers Research Highlights

McLaughlin, Janet and Michelle Tew (2018). Migrant Farm Worker Health Care: Unique Strategies for a Unique Population. Under-Served: Health Determinants of Indigenous, Inner-City, and Migrant Populations in Canada. Neil Arya and Thomas Piggott (eds.), Scholars’ Press: pp. 553-264.
Diaz, Aaraon, Janet McLaughlin, Don Wells and Andre Lyn (2018). Adapting Spousal Relations and Transnational Family Structures: Responses to Mexican-Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Migration. Norteamérica, 13-1.
Robillard, Chantal, Janet McLaughlin, Donald Cole, Biljana Vasilevska, and Richard Gendron (2018). “Caught in the Same Webs”: Service Providers’ Insights on Gender-based and Structural Violence among Female Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration 19 (3): 583-606.
McLaughlin, Janet, Don Wells, Aaraón Díaz Mendiburo, André Lynand Biljana Vasilevska (2017). ‘Temporary Workers’, Temporary Fathers: Transnational Family Impacts of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Program. Relations Industrielles 72(4) : 682-709.
Weiler, Anelyse, Janet McLaughlin and Donald Cole (2017). Food Security at Whose Expense? A Critique of the Canadian Temporary Farm Labour Migration Regime and Proposals for Change. International Migration 55(4): 48-63.
McLaughlin, Janet and Anelyse Weiler (2017). Migrant Agricultural Workers in Local and Global Contexts: Toward a Better Life? Review Essay. Journal of Agrarian Change 17(3)
630–638.
McLaughlin, Janet (2017), Strengthening the Backbone: Local Food, Foreign Labour and Social Justice. Nourishing Communities: From Fractured Food Systems to Transformative Pathways. Irena Knezevic, Charles Levkoe, Phil Mount, Erin Nelson and Alison Blay-Palmer (eds.), Springer, 23-40.
Hennebry, Jenna, Will Grass and Janet McLaughlin (2017). Women Migrant Workers’ Journey through the Margins: Labour, Migration and Trafficking. UN Women: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, pp. 1-114.
McLaughlin, Janet and Anelyse Weiler (2017). Migrant Agricultural Workers in Local and Global Contexts: Toward a Better Life? Review Essay. Journal of Agrarian Change 17(3) 630-638.
Mayell, Stephanie and Janet McLaughlin (2016). Migrating to Work at What Cost?: The Cumulative Health Consequences of Contemporary Labour Migration. Handbook of Migration and Health, Felicity Thomas (ed.), Edward ElgarPublishing, 230-52.
Diaz, Aaraon and Janet McLaughlin (2016). Vulnerabilidad Estructural y Salud en los Trabajadores Agrícolas Temporales en Canadá (Structural Vulnerability and Health among Temporary Agricultural Workers in Canada). Revista Alteridades. 26(51):83-93.
McLaughlin, J. and J. Hennebry (2015). Managed into the Margins: Examining Citizenship and Human Rights of Migrant Workers in Canada. Chapter in The Human Right to Citizenship: A Slippery Concept. Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann and Margaret Walton-Roberts (eds). University of Pennsylvania Press.
Narushima, M., J. McLaughlin, J. Barett-Greene (2015). Needs and Risks in Sexual Health among Temporary Foreign Migrant Farmworkers in Canada: A Pilot Study with Mexican and Caribbean Workers. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. (DOI) 10.1007/s10903-015-0189-x.
Hennebry, J., J. McLaughlin, K. Preibisch (2015). ‘Out of the Loop’: (In)access to Health Care for Migrant Workers in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration (JIMI); DOI: 10.1007/s12134-015-0417-1.
McLaughlin, J., J. Hennebry and T. Haines (2014). Paper versus Practice: Occupational Health and Safety Protections and Realities for Temporary Foreign Agricultural Workers in Ontario. Pistes: Interdisciplinary Journal of Work and Health 16(2).
Wells, D., J. McLaughlin, A. Lyn, A. Diaz (2014). Sustaining North-South Migrant Precarity: Remittances and Transnational Families in Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Program. Just Labour. Vol 22, Autumn.
Orkin, A., M. Lay, J. McLaughlin, M. Schwandt and D. Cole (2014). Medical Repatriation of Migrant Farm Workers in Ontario: Coding and Descriptive Analysis. Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) Open. July 22, vol. 2 no. 3 E192-E198.
McLaughlin, J. and J. Hennebry (2013). Pathways to Precarity: Structural Vulnerabilities and Lived Consequences for Migrant Farmworkers in Canada. Chapter in Producing and Negotiating non-Citizenship: Precarious Legal Status in Canada. Luin Goldring and Patricia Landolt (eds.) University of Toronto Press.
McLaughlin, J. (2013). The Hands behind the Harvest: Migrant Workers in Niagara's Wine Industry. Chapter in The World of Niagara Wine. Michael Ripmeester and Phillip Gordon Mackintosh (eds.) Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Hennebry, J. and J. McLaughlin (2012). The Exception that Proves the Rule: Structural Vulnerability, Health Risks and Consequences for Temporary Migrant Farmworkers in Canada. Chapter in Legislating Inequality: Canada's Temporary Migrant Worker Program. Christine Hughes and Patti Lenard (eds.) McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Pysklywec, M., J. McLaughlin, M. Tew and T. Haines (2011). Doctors Within Borders: Meeting the Health Care Needs of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada. Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) (183:9).
McLaughlin, J. (2011). Determinants of Health of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada. Health Policy Research Bulletin, Issue #17: Migration Health.
McLaughlin, J. (2010). Classifying the "ideal migrant worker": Mexican and Jamaican transnational farmworkers in Canada." Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 2010(57): 79-94.
McLaughlin, J. (2009). Migration and Health: Implications for Development. The Canadian Foundation for the Americas Labour Mobility and Development Project, Policy Paper #2, October.
McLaughlin, J. (2008). Gender, Health and Mobility: Health Concerns of Women Migrant Farm Workers in Canada. FOCALPoint: Canada’s Spotlight on the Americas 7(9): December.
McLaughlin, J. (2007). Falling through the Cracks: Seasonal Foreign Farm Workers’ Health and Compensation across Borders. The Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario (IAVGO)Reporting Service 21(1): October.

Autism Research Highlights

McLaughlin, Janet and Margaret Schneider (2018). Impacts of Autism Service Challenges on Family Wellbeing: Perspectives of Ontario Parents and Caregivers (Poster). Geneva Centre for Autism Annual Conference, Toronto, ON, October 24.
Schneider, Margaret and Janet McLaughlin (2018). “Inclusive Education is Very Exclusionary...”: Perceived Barriers and Challenges to Navigating the Education System for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Ontario (Poster). Geneva Centre for Autism Annual Conference, Toronto, ON, October 24.