New UN report urges changes to Canada’s migrant worker program
While history in North America tells us slavery is a thing of the past, some still relate the conditions being experienced by migrant workers in Canada as akin to a real form of bondage.
The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, which advocates for workers’ rights in Niagara-on-the-Lake and across the country, is highlighting a new report by the United Nations that found “Canada’s immigration systems are a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”
The UN report, dated July 22 but released to the public this week, echoes what the alliance has long been saying: that permanent resident status would increase freedoms and liberties by, for example, allowing migrant workers to choose their places of employment and housing.
“Canada has a well-deserved reputation for welcoming immigrants,” Tomoya Obokata, the UN rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, wrote in his report’s sub-section on migrant workers.
“However, to make this a reality, where all newcomers enjoy decent work and an adequate standard of living, Canada should end labour migration arrangements that foster exploitation by creating dependency situations that tie workers to their employers and give employers control (over) workers’ housing, health care and migration status,” he added.
Permanent status would also open up the ability for workers to obtain socioeconomic benefits such as regular employment insurance payments, for which they currently do not qualify despite having EI deducted from their paycheques.
In Niagara, thousands of migrant farmworkers, mainly from the Caribbean and Mexico, play a crucial role in the tender fruit and wine-growing industries.
Obokata praised Canada for its efforts to prevent contemporary forms of slavery and its willingness to face underlying drivers such as its colonial legacy, but warned that all those efforts may be overshadowed by its reluctance to address migrant workers’ rights.
“Canada risks failing to live up to its reputation as a global champion of human rights if it does not act more decisively to reform laws and policies that enable the exploitation of vulnerable workers,” he said.
Syed Hussan, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, is applauding Obokata for bringing these issues to the global stage.
“The UN report calls for permanent residence status for all migrants, criticizing the government’s piecemeal attempts to address the exploitation built into the immigration system,” he said in a media release on Aug. 9.
Canada’s system is based on quotas and caps rather than human rights and the government is bowing to racist pressures and rising anti-immigrant rhetoric, Hussan added.
Kit Andres, a Niagara-on-the-Lake-based organizer with the alliance, expanded on Hussan’s assessment of the government’s stance.
“I think the Canadian government is watching very closely to what’s happening in countries in Europe and seeing this rise of anti-immigrant racist violence,” Andres said in an interview.
“And they are cowering to these racist lies about immigration and then use that as a reason for not fulfilling their promises.”
In his report, Obokata further criticized the Canadian government by calling out its migration policies that put control into the hands of employers, a lack of communication between itself and migrants, and creating a system that fosters debt bondage.
“Under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, workers’ migration status depends on an employer-specific closed work permit,” Obokata pointed out.
“This arrangement has created a significant power imbalance given that if workers are fired they may be deported back to their countries of origin. Employers may have limited incentive to ensure decent working conditions as workers do not have a meaningful choice of alternatives.”
For many seasonal workers, the fear of losing their jobs and being deported is compounded by being saddled with debts incurred simply by trying to get to and remain in Canada, the report stated.
“Employers argue that closed work permits are necessary to enable them to recuperate the cost of recruiting and transporting workers, which itself creates a de facto situation of debt bondage,” wrote Obokata.
Many workers go into debt over the costs associated with participating in the programs and rely on their Canadian wages to repay their debts, the report said.
Many of the hardships facing migrant workers could be reduced if the government simply took the time to communicate with workers in a meaningful and direct manner, Obokata added.
“The government does not seem to proactively and effectively inform workers about their rights apart from publishing information online and providing ad hoc funding to civil society organizations for migrant rights education, although it does provide outreach sessions to employers, consulates, migrant worker support organizations and authorities on workers rights.”
