My community activism is grounded in global struggles to end exploitative labour practices and exclusionary migration policies affecting those who move, whether their movement is motivated by necessity or in pursuit of a better life.
In 2013, I co-founded Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture or Red de Apoyo para Migrantes Agrícolas (RAMA), a migrant justice group that advocates for Latin American and Caribbean migrant farmworkers in the Okanagan Valley, unceded traditional territories of the Syilx and Secwepemc peoples.
(Re)Organizing communities for migrant justice
Together with workers, RAMA members and volunteers cook and share meals together, run errands, go dancing, and play sports, among other activities. For RAMA, socializing together in public spaces around the Okanagan is political work and constitutes one important way to foster migrants’ sense of belonging as we re-organize our communities and entrench radical inclusion.
Wasp- and mouse-infested trailer, designated housing for a migrant farmworker from Mexico, in the south Okanagan. Photo by Elise Hjalmarson.
Latin dance event in downtown Kelowna with migrant farmworkers as special invited guests, 2014. Photo by Amy Cohen.
Amy Cohen and Elise Hjalmarson participate in an agriculture-focused protest in Kelowna, British Columbia, 2014, Photo by Alberto Lopez.
Teaching English to a group of Mexican men in their shared housing on an Okanagan farm, 2013. Photo by Pearce Hahn.