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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 9:37 pm Post subject: Canada: Not such a warm welcome |
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Among the staff at the factory, police found 11 Filipinos, lured to Canada with the promise of jobs paying up to C$23 an hour. Some sold their homes or took out loans to cover C$10,000 or more in fees demanded by labour brokers. But once in Canada, they were �sold� to unscrupulous employers, kept in an isolated rural house, and forced to do menial jobs earning�if paid at all�a fraction of what they were promised. �They were economic slaves,� said a Barrie policeman who chanced upon them: �It turned my stomach.�
The case, still unreported, is just one of a growing number of instances of abuse stemming from the dramatic rise in the use of temporary foreign workers in Canada. The increase is the result of a quiet loosening of restrictions on foreign workers by Stephen Harper's Conservative government, designed, union leaders say, to keep wages low and to avoid a national debate on the sensitive issue of immigration.
It is Canada's thriving economy that is behind the big rise in demand for foreign workers. The jobless rate has fallen to 5.8%, its lowest level in more than 30 years. In provinces such as resource-rich British Columbia and oil-soaked Alberta, the abundance of jobs has actually become a problem; tens of thousands of posts, particularly in the construction and service sectors, remain unfilled.
It is not as if Canada is not already importing foreign workers. Last year more than 250,000 came in, most of them classified as �economic immigrants�. But they are chosen on a points system which rewards university education and advanced skills. In their countries of origin, many were part of the urban elite. Three-quarters settle in Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, where there are relatively few job vacancies. Besides, few of these highly qualified immigrants would be interested in pouring cement or coffee for a living.
Heeding the call of employers needing less qualified, lower-paid workers, the government has introduced a series of measures over the past two years designed to make the hiring of foreign workers simpler. No longer are employers obliged to place an advertisement in local newspapers for six weeks for local applicants before searching farther abroad; just one week in a federal job centre will now suffice. Instead of being allowed to stay for only one year, foreign workers are now often getting visas lasting two.
Other foreign workers are both less visible and more difficult to approach. Last spring two Chinese workers were killed when an oil tank they were building in the tar-sands region of northern Alberta collapsed. Housed in a remote camp virtually without any health and safety control, they were part of a crew of 300 workers brought in by a Chinese contractor. When a second tank collapsed soon after the first, the contract was cancelled and the Chinese workers were all sent home.
The reluctance of Canada's opposition parties to pursue the foreign-worker question in Parliament is probably due to a fear of appearing to oppose immigration in a country where one in five of the population are foreign-born. It is a concern that labour leaders share. They are at pains to stress that they do not take issue with foreign workers coming into Canada; they just do not like the temporary aspect of their stay. �If these people are good enough to build our factories and serve us coffee, they're good enough to be full citizens,� Mr McGowan says.
Ottawa is promising to make it easier for temporary workers to become permanent residents, but this is likely to be limited to the more highly skilled. And Canada needs the low-skilled too. |
http://economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10177080 |
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Tony_Balony
Joined: 12 Apr 2007
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| Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Canada gets nailed for not being nice to foreign workers. Why does the PI always get a pass? |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:00 am Post subject: |
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| Tony_Balony wrote: |
| Canada gets nailed for not being nice to foreign workers. Why does the PI always get a pass? |
What's the PI? |
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contrarian
Joined: 20 Jan 2007
Location: Nearly in NK
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:50 am Post subject: |
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| There are Philippinos working at the oil sand and doing very well. Even if the do work in bunkhouses and eat in mess halls. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:37 am Post subject: |
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| contrarian wrote: |
There are Philippinos working at the oil sand and doing very well.
Even if the do work in bunkhouses and eat in mess halls. |
Don't most camp-workers, military types etc. sleep in bunk houses, eat in mess halls?
Are they Canadian citizens? Nobody else will take their jobs?
What are they paid? What's the deal? Details please.
Has the Fifth Estate covered this? Any public discourse?
Where's Canada's unemployment at these days?
Last edited by igotthisguitar on Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:41 am; edited 1 time in total |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:40 am Post subject: |
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| I believe that non-immigrant foreigners are used to block organized labour from taking root. Maybe this is good, maybe it is bad. But I believe it to be true. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:45 am Post subject: |
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| thepeel wrote: |
I believe that non-immigrant foreigners are used to block organized labour from taking root.
Maybe this is good, maybe it is bad. But I believe it to be true. |
Quite obvious isn't it?
Powers that be freely allow it to happen, encourage it, seek to profit from it.
Many illegal immigrant "Indian" tree-planters have been smuggled out West.
*cheap cheap*
In order to better capitalize, certain things clearly must be attacked & destroyed 
Roll another big fattie Canada  |
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contrarian
Joined: 20 Jan 2007
Location: Nearly in NK
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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| There are no union or government impediments pu on them They are working a a place where few want to live under less than perfect conditions, but they are treated fairly an as rulle the finish the contract period and return or sign for a new one. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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| You're not familiar with the situation with organized labour in northern Alberta, eh? |
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keysbottles
Joined: 11 Jun 2007
Location: AnJung
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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| It seems Canada may need immigration advise from the States,,We have a lot of experience. |
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