Temporary foreign workers used to drive down wages?
In recent years Canadian businesses have complained louder and louder that they are facing labour shortages and asked the federal government to upscale especially the temporary foreign worker program. While this had initially been created in 2000 to deal with a shortage of software specialist, it has now expanded to a manifold of industries. Temporary workers can now be found doing all sorts of work from assembly lines to serving coffees or doing agricultural work.
Up until now however there had been a (silent) consensus that foreign temporary workers would not be used to drive down wages in Canada since they had to be paid about the same wages. The Harper government however is looking to end this by allowing employers now to pay these temporary workers 15 percent less than Canadians. This would obviously create a strong incentive to rely on temporary foreign workers instead of either creating better conditions for Canadian residents unwilling to take these jobs or training unemployed Canadians for skilled jobs for which there are no suitable candidates.
There is an implicit bargain in Canada regarding immigration. Canadians agree to welcome newcomers. In return, the government agrees not to use immigrants to drive down the wages of those already living here.
While never formally acknowledged, it’s a bargain that’s been in place since at least World War II, one that has prevented the kind of anti-immigrant agitation now roiling Europe.
Human Resources Minister Diane Finley made the break specific this week when she announced that Ottawa will now let employers pay temporary foreign workers less than Canadians.In last month’s federal budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said employers would have to make every effort to hire unemployed Canadians before they’d be allowed to bring in temporary foreign workers.
But in reality, the federal Conservative government’s entire immigration policy is geared to just one goal: lowering wages.
Up to now, employers had to pay temporary foreign skilled workers the going rate. If comparable Canadian workers in an area received on average, say, $20 an hour, foreign workers would have to be paid the same.While the program technically is supposed to address labour shortages in skilled trades, temporary foreign workers now do an assortment of jobs.
Employers could solve their labour shortages by offering higher wages or — in the case of skilled trades — by training Canadians to do the job.
But, if government is willing, it’s easier and more profitable to import cheaper, trained labour from abroad.
And this government has shown that it’s willing. It says that if Canadians don’t want to see jobs going to foreigners, they should quit whining and accept lower wages.Which is why Ottawa’s answer to complaints made about temporary foreign workers is to toughen Employment Insurance rules.
Kenney has warned that unemployed workers who refuse to take low-wage jobs will have their EI benefits cut off. If Canadians agree to work for less, he explains, Ottawa won’t have to bring in as many low-wage outsiders.
All of this is a solution of sorts, I suppose, albeit a 19th century one. But it is a solution that threatens to bring with it the kind of agitation now seen in countries like France, Holland and Greece — where the racist right is on the rise and where far too many workers view immigrants as mortal enemies out to steal their jobs.
This development is a threat to both Canadians as well as foreign workers. In fact the only ones who stand to gain from this policy are those businesses who thus will manage to drive down labour costs while increasing profit.
More Canadians are being driven farther away from making a living wage and vulnerable foreign workers are being taken advantage of without the silver lining of ever being able to gain permanent residency in Canada.
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