Kanchi Uttamchandani | Assistant News Editor
Featured image: Temporary foreign workers tend to be concentrated in the construction, food service and agricultural sectors. | Amir Yazdanparast
The federal government’s ongoing review of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, or TFWP, has raised concerns among the York activist community.
The Canadian government describes TFWP as filling temporary labour and skill shortages in the absence of qualified Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Most temporary workers are limited to four years’ worth of employment in Canada before being required to return to their country of origin.
Over 192,000 temporary foreign workers entered Canada in 2011. Some 29,000 would transition to permanent status that year.
“What [people] fail to mention is that the TFWP provides the legal means for companies to violate basic labour rights of migrant workers,” says Jessa McLean, former president of Amnesty International at York.
McLean believes the program not only needs a major overhaul, including guaranteeing labour standards and human rights, but also a larger focus on the exploitation of human labour.
“The logic is also flawed. If a position is so specialized that no Canadian can fill it, why then is it paid less than average?” she questions.
McLean argues that with higher demand and lower supply of workers, it should result in increased cost of labour. “Under a guise of a labour shortage, the government has made it possible for employers to bypass our labour standards and take advantage of the conditions of poverty that exist in the countries these migrant workers often come from,” she says.
Administrative studies professor Kelly Thomson says constantly changing regulations around immigration create ambiguity for employers and employees alike.
“Continuous changing of rules makes it difficult for immigrants to make long-term decisions about their future in Canada. It also puts employers in a difficult position on whether they should hire foreign nationals [due to the] uncertainty of whether they would be able to stay in the country,” she says.
Moreover, sending people home wastes their skills and disrupts their lives, she adds.
Third-year biology student and Socialist Fightback activist Maral Nour concurs, saying that migrant workers should have the same rights as Canadian citizens, including access to the same economic benefits and the right to unionize and to vote.
“Big corporations want to keep migrant workers in a vulnerable position for the sole purpose of maximizing exploitation and TFWP allows them to do this,” she says.
Nour believes the vast majority of people, regardless of ethnic background, want the same things: good and secure employment, accessible education, decent housing and leisure time to enjoy life.
“We reject the right wing’s attempt to divide us. Working class people need to be united to win a better society for the 99 per cent,” she adds.
According to Statistics Canada, a record number of immigrants and refugees arrived in Canada this year, increasing the country’s population to more than 36 million. The population increased by 320,000 between Canada Day 2015 and 2016, the largest increase since 1988.
Toronto’s foreign-born population accounts for over 37 per cent of Canada’s overall immigrant population, according to the 2011 Census. Over three-quarters of new immigrants to Ontario between 2006 and 2011 settled in Toronto.
