‘We need a change’: Protesters demand permanent status for temporary foreign workers [video]

New Brunswick’s seafood industry, worth $1.8 billion in exports last year, relies increasingly on the labour of temporary foreign workers. 

Advocates have renewed calls for those migrant workers to receive permanent resident status upon arrival in Canada, citing restrictions which they say make working conditions ripe for exploitation. 

The federal government says temporary foreign workers are already able to change jobs and access permanent residency, and that reforms to the controversial TFW program protect them from exploitation. 

Members of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change gathered in Shediac recently to renew longstanding calls for Ottawa to grant permanent residency to TFWs, along with undocumented migrants. 

Protests were also planned in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal following the adjournment of Parliament on June 21.

“We are here today to remind the Prime Minister and all the ministers that they went on vacation, and they didn’t bring any resolution to the undocumented workers and the migrant workers across the country,” said Niger Saravia, an organizer with the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. 

Researchers estimate that 3,670 temporary foreign workers workers entered New Brunswick in 2022, an increase of more than 1,000 compared to the previous year. 

TFW alleges racism, unfair treatment

Stacy Neish, a seafood industry worker from Jamaica, first came to Canada through the temporary foreign worker program in April 2013. 

Travelling overseas for work makes economic sense for people who struggle to support their families in Jamaica, she said, but her experience in Canada has been frustrating. 

She said foreign workers like herself have encountered unfair, racist discrimination on the job. One supervisor allegedly told her and other TFWs not to speak to each other during the workday, unlike Canadian workers.

“So if I’m not feeling well, I can’t come and say, Niger, I’m not feeling well, so he can assist me outside… but no they don’t want that,” she said. “It’s like racist.” 

She said she couldn’t disclose the name of the employer, noting concerns about potential retaliation. 

Neish, a single mother with a 17-month old baby and other children back home in Jamaica, said the feds should extend permanent resident status to TFWs, or at least provide them with open work permits, allowing them to search for a new job when working conditions are bad. 

“If we could get an open permit, we could do two jobs, or we could get a better job somewhere,” she said. 

She said other workers feel the same way, but many are reluctant to come forward. “We need a change,” she said. “We are the ones coming into this country to do all the work that Canadians don’t want to do.” 

Immigration Canada respond

A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada defended the temporary foreign worker program in an emailed statement, detailing a number of measures meant to “improve labour mobility and to reduce worker vulnerability.”

Those measures include a “policy to enable TFWs to more quickly change employers by allowing them to start a new job prior to the issuance of a new work permit.” 

In 2019, the Trudeau government also introduced an Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers, which “allows all foreign workers on valid employer-specific work permits who are experiencing or are at risk of abuse in their job to apply for an open work permit.”

The statement added that, under federal regulations, “all foreign nationals already in Canada on work permits are able to apply for a new work permit and change jobs, provided they meet eligibility criteria.” 

Altogether, those measures mean that foreign workers in Canada “have essentially the same right to change jobs as Canadians and permanent residents and are protected from exploitation,” the statement said.

You can read the full response from Immigration Canada here.  

But for Neish, the Jamaican woman working in New Brunswick, it isn’t so simple. She said that most potential employers tell her that “‘if you did have an open permit, you are welcome.’ But because our permit is only tied to one company, it’s hard for us to get another job.” 

Feds say reforms help protect TFWs 

A spokesperson for Dominic LeBlanc, the Cabinet minister and MP for Beauséjour, which includes Shediac, referred questions to Employment and Social Development Canada, which oversees the temporary foreign worker program.

In a written statement, the department pointed to a series of measures meant to protect TFWs. 

The statement said, in part, that “racism or any mistreatment and abuse of temporary foreign workers – or any worker – is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

The spokesperson encouraged TFWs who have faced mistreatment or abuse to call a confidential tip line (1-866-602-9448), which is open 24 hours a day. Agents offering services in 200 languages are available from Monday to Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time. 

There’s also an online reporting tool “where TFWs or other concerned parties can report situations of suspected program misuse or abuse.”

The spokesperson pointed to a $50 million dollar program that’s meant to help TFWs “learn, understand, and exercise their rights in Canada.”

The statement also noted recent changes to immigration regulations including a ban on reprisals by employers against their workers. 

The spokesperson added that Ottawa is implementing measures announced in last year’s budget, including “improvements to the quality of employer inspections and holding employers accountable for the treatment of workers.”

You can read the full statement here. 

Those statements are unlikely to satisfy activists who believe the TFW program is exploitative and unjust. 

Meanwhile, the government continues to face pressure from businesses that say they need TFWs to perform work that most Canadians won’t accept, at least under current working conditions.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).