Migrant worker program 'exploitative,' researchers warn

'Vast majority' come to Canada with hopes of staying, lawyer says

As the high season for temporary foreign workers in Canada kicks off, critics argue the program is broken, serving the short-term needs of the labour market while acting as an underground immigration pipeline and leaving foreign workers vulnerable to exploitation.

Researchers and advocates at a recent symposium at the Ontario Metropolis Centre, an immigration research centre, argued the program is "inherently exploitative" and one of the most important but ignored social issues in the country.

"There's no recognition of this and the really tragic thing is, if there's ever any recognition, it takes the form of Canadian Border Services Agency raiding workplaces and homes and deporting people, rather than saying, 'Why is it that we're developing this problem?' " says Yessy Byl, a lawyer and advocate with the Alberta Federation of Labour, and keynote speaker at the February symposium.


250,000 IMMIGRANTS IN 2008

Canada's temporary foreign worker program allows employers to hire from outside the country if they've demonstrated no qualified Canadian applied for the job, and workers are permitted to stay in Canada only as long as they have a valid work permit.

The program includes live-in nannies and eldercare workers, agricultural workers from Mexico and the Caribbean who help out on Canadian farms during planting and harvest, and low-skill service-sector jobs.

In 2008, the last year for which complete data is available, Canada admitted 250,000 immigrants as permanent residents and more than 192,000 temporary foreign workers, up from about 103,000 five years earlier.

There are seasonal ebbs and flows to the number of temporary foreign workers entering Canada, with nearly one-third of the annual total arriving between April and July.

"Immigration Canada has been pushing the idea of temporary workers because they are very into the idea of disposable labour," says Francisco Rico-Martinez, an advocate on the issue and director of the FCJ Refugee Centre in Toronto.

"You bring someone here to work and you don't spend any money training them, preparing them, nothing.

"And at the end of the two years working here, you send them back and you don't have any responsibility whatsoever about that person."

'BIG SURPRISES' OFTEN AWAIT

Temporary foreign workers hired overseas agree to certain work conditions, Rico-Martinez says, but when they arrive in Canada, there's often "a big surprise."

Agricultural workers may take a job that promises an hourly wage but find out when they arrive that it's paid according to what they harvest, he says, or employers may deduct money for food, clothing, or accommodations from their pay.

"If they complain to the employer, the solution for the employer is, 'You know what? I will send you home,' " he says.

"The employer can basically not honour the agreement and put someone on the street."

Dan Kelly, vice-president legislative affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which represents 100,000 small-business owners, says he doesn't doubt that some abuses occur, but he dismisses the idea that employers hire temporary foreign workers to take advantage of an "indentured relationship."

"I can tell you from speaking to thousands and thousands of employers, no one in their right mind would bring in a temporary foreign worker over an able and willing Canadian participant," he says, adding that regulatory hoops, airfare and recruitment fees make it much more expensive to hire a foreign worker than a Canadian.

"The temporary foreign worker program is not perfect but it's been an absolute godsend for many, many small businesses."

Jason Kenney, minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, says temporary foreign workers are afforded the same legal protections as all Canadian workers and employers must adhere to provincial labour codes and pay the minimum wage for their region.

Earlier this year, the government tightened regulations to penalize employers who don't conform to the rules, he says, and later this spring they'll introduce new measures to crack down on unscrupulous immigration consultants.

"The reality is that there are tens of thousands of Canadian businesses which would go under if they didn't have access to this labour," Kenney says.

"It's a very simple economic choice for the government: either we kill tens of thousands of businesses by refusing to allow them to have access to labour for jobs Canadians are not applying for, or we facilitate, on a limited and short-term basis, access to that skilled labour."

The government believes the "overwhelming majority" of foreign workers return to their home countries when their work permits expire, Kenney says, but he concedes: "There's not a seamless way to track it because Canada doesn't have exit controls."

BETTER TRACKING WITH PROGRAM

The seasonal agricultural worker program, which accounts for 15 per cent of temporary foreign workers in Canada each year, allows better tracking because workers must check in with the labour ministries in their home countries when they return, Kenney says, and the compliance rate is over 90 per cent.

But Byl says "the vast majority" of temporary foreign workers come to Canada expecting to immigrate permanently, and they're often misled by recruiters who have charged them illegal fees.

Rico-Martinez says the government is "in denial" about the huge number of temporary foreign workers who go underground and stay in Canada when their work permits expire.

"The biggest reason for that is that Canada has never had a reputation for being a migrant worker country," Byl says.

"Canada's reputation has been as a country to immigrate to, so there's been that mindset for people. I think we underestimate how desperate people are to improve their lives and the lives of their families."

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Foreign worker program reassessed

Airlines benefit most, minister jokes

EDMONTON - Canada's temporary foreign worker program is no longer working for Alberta, the province's employment and immigration minister said Tuesday.

"In my opinion, it was a program that had fulfilled its mandate, (by) suddenly providing a large number of workers to an economy that suddenly had a massive shortage of workers," Thomas Lukaszuk said.

"It's not working well now. It's a temporary solution to a permanent problem."


Starting this fall, Lukaszuk's parliamentary assistant -- Calgary MLA Teresa Woo-Paw -- will lead a series of roundtable discussions all over Alberta to reassess the federal temporary foreign worker program.

Woo-Paw's findings will be the basis for recommendations to Ottawa on how to change the program.

In recent years, federal restrictions on temporary foreign workers have eased, allowing people from a variety of skill and educational backgrounds to come to Canada on working visas no longer than two years.

Among all provinces and territories, Alberta has seen the biggest boost in temporary foreign workers in the last five years.


By December 2009, the province was home to nearly 66,000 people on temporary work visas. In December 2005, just 16,000 people lived in Alberta under the same visa restrictions.


According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ontario -- with a much bigger population -- counted 95,000 short-term workers in December. British Columbia had 69,000 and Quebec had just 31,000.


The temporary program is not supposed to be a gateway to long-term residency, an issue Lukaszuk said paves the way for the same employers to keep on hiring new foreign workers for the same jobs.


"Anecdotally ... probably the top 80 per cent of temporary foreign workers, given the chance, would love to just stay," Lukaszuk said.


"Why not consider some permanency (for) this workforce. I always joke the only group that really benefits from the current temporary foreign worker program is Air Canada, because they're flying people in and out."

The president of Alberta's Hotel and Lodging Association said the program had worked well for the service sector, but acknowledged the need for front-line labour exceeds short-term solutions.


"I think there is room for improvement," Dave Kaiser said, adding the program needs the flexibility to allow people to stay longer.


But Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan called the program a "train wreck."

While he was pleased Lukaszuk and Woo-Paw plan to review the program, he said it doesn't work for foreign workers, Canadian workers or employers.


"This is a program that's so dysfunctional it probably has to be scrapped entirely," McGowan said.

He pointed to a government report released this spring by the NDP that showed incidents of temporary foreign workers not being paid for overtime or statutory holidays.


McGowan said thousands of people have been brought to Canada with little understanding of their rights.


"What essentially we've done is create a European-style guest worker program," he said. "We think both the federal and provincial governments ought to go back to the drawing board."

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Cayetano Cabrera y Miguel Ibarra insisten en luchar hasta las últimas consecuencias

A punto de morir, dos de los electricistas en huelga de hambre, advierte médico

Patricia Muñoz Ríos

Periódico La Jornada
Miércoles 21 de julio de 2010

El ingeniero Cayetano Cabrera Esteva y Miguel Ángel Ibarra Jiménez, trabajadores del Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) en huelga de hambre desde hace 87 y 84 días, respectivamente, ya no se pararon hoy, dado lo delicado de su estado de salud; les fueron restringidas todas las visitas y sólo sus familiares pueden estar con ellos, señaló el médico Alfredo Verdiguel, quien los atiende desde el pasado 25 de abril, cuando empezaron el ayuno que la organización mantiene en el Zócalo capitalino.

Dada la crítica situación de ambos, les realizan revisiones médicas cada media hora, según señala el médico, quien advierte que el deterioro de sus signos vitales es de tal magnitud que a cualquiera de los dos les puede sobrevenir un infarto, un paro cardiorrespiratorio. De hecho, Cayetano Cabrera ya ha tenido dos amagos de infarto.

En el campamento hay tristeza y preocupación. Los familiares de ambos trabajadores y de los otros 13 en huelga de hambre salen con ojos llorosos, manifiestan su apoyo a los huelguistas y mantienen la esperanza de que se logre una solución a este conflicto: que les regresen su trabajo, que es lo que demandan Cabrera Esteva e Ibarra Jiménez como condición para levantar su ayuno.

Entrevistado afuera del campamento, porque ayer no se permitió el acceso de la prensa al campamento, el médico Verdiguel indicó que como ambos han determinado que sólo podrán sacarlos de ahí hasta que pierdan el estado de conciencia, la instrucción que tiene de ellos es que hasta que eso suceda podrán ser trasladados a un hospital. Pero el doctor es realista: ojalá que cuando eso suceda no sea demasiado tarde, dice mientras advierte que en cualquier momento pueden fallecer.

Con la camiseta bien puesta

Cabrera, con su camisola del SME puesta, se mantiene tapado con cobijas debido al constante frío que lo aqueja; sigue esperando la respuesta del presidente Felipe Calderón, a quien este lunes le hizo una petición pública para que lo reciba en Los Pinos, con todos los huelguistas, así como con el comité central del sindicato, para buscar una solución negociada al conflicto que dejó sin empleo a más de 44 mil trabajadores.

Verdiguel agrega que Cayetano ha perdido 21 kilogramos de peso y Miguel Ángel 25, y que debido a las crisis que tienen se determinó canalizarlos con suero y ponerles oxígeno en forma alternada. Añade que un grupo de seis médicos e igual número de enfermeras atiende a los 15 huelguistas. Al preguntarle por qué no recomienda su traslado, señala que lo ha hecho en innumerables ocasiones, pero la voluntad de ellos es resistir hasta las últimas consecuencias, o hasta que les regresen su trabajo: yo tengo la obligación ética de respetarla, tal y como lo señala el Tratado de Malta.

Luego de que la semana pasada fue víctima de amenazas anónimas vía telefónica si no sacaba a Cayetano de su huelga de hambre, el médico apunta que ya cesaron estas advertencias, pero: sí me puse nervioso. Me dijeron textualmente que no se trataba de una amenaza, sino de un consejo... se acuerda del compañero Juan Beltrán, del campamento de Reforma. También le avisaron así y lo esperaron en su casa y le dieron un balazo...; efectivamente, a este trabajador lo mataron.

Así es que no se trata de un juego. Quién sabe de dónde vino la amenaza; era un hombre el que me habló. Me dijo que hasta a la cárcel podía llegar o bien que podía pasarle algo a mi familia. No levanté denuncia, porque la Comisión de Derechos Humanos dice que no hay delito que perseguir, que no hay pruebas, añade el médico de los huelguistas, y asegura que va a seguir en el campamento: nos dio miedo, pero ya tomamos una decisión y es la de estar aquí hasta las últimas consecuencias.

Para este miércoles la dirigencia llevará a cabo un foro sobre la figura del patrón sustituto, que es su demanda central para detener la huelga de hambre y las movilizaciones, mismo que se llevará a cabo en el campamento y participarán abogados.

Video: Carmen Aristegui, entrevista al Ing. Cayetano Cabrera (parte 2/2)