2022
TORONTO STAR
There had been hopes the federal government was poised to unveil significant immigration reforms that would put many temporary residents on a path to permanent residency.
Unfortunately, those hopes appear to have been misplaced. What was unveiled last week was an underwhelming collection of warmed-over measures that the federal immigration department already had underway.
The plan, titled “Strategy to Expand Transitions to Permanent Residency,” rightly acknowledges the importance of providing permanent residence to temporary workers and foreign students to help address labour shortages in sectors such as health, hospitality, trades, IT and transportation.
To that end, it states that the government will make “improvements” to programs that provide permanent residency for those deemed to be essential workers in high-demand occupations. It pledges support to communities to attract newcomers.
It will be “expanding or adjusting” existing pathways for those currently working in Canada and seek to stay, including international students.
It adds up to tweaks, not reforms.
There was certainly nothing offered for undocumented residents. This, even though the mandate letter given to Sean Fraser after he took on the portfolio of immigration, refugees and citizenship set out the expectation that he would “explore ways of regularizing status for undocumented workers.”
It seems then someone didn’t get the memo. That imperative was not addressed in this strategy. Apparently it remains a work in progress.
The government acknowledges that a two-step immigration system is going to be the future, a process that sees temporary foreign workers find work and then some qualify to become permanent residents.
Yet, in a two-step system, it’s always a gamble for those temporary visitors whether they’re students or workers since there are only so many permanent resident spots each year. What about those who don’t make it yet want to stay? Without a proper permanent residence pathway for low-skilled, low-wage migrants, whose labour Canada also very much needs, the federal government is missing further opportunity to ease the labour shortage but failing to address the continued marginalization and abuse of these workers.
The strategy itself notes that temporary foreign workers can be exploited, forced to work long hours in unsafe conditions for low wages. Undocumented workers are especially vulnerable for workplace exploitation. After all, they are not likely to report abuses because of their status.
Most of these workers legally entered Canada on temporary permits but can no longer meet eligibility criteria, usually after overstaying their authorized stay.
Advocacy groups had been pressing the federal government to provide some pathway to permanent residency for this group. We had encouraged Ottawa to act on this front and to take a generous approach, avoiding arbitrary limits on who could apply.
We’re not alone in our disappointment that no action was taken.
Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, called it a “rehash” of existing announcements. “While the government yet again accepted that temporary migrants are exploited, there is no real strategy here to end the abuse,” he told the Star’s Nicholas Keung.
Ottawa says it will “review evidence and explore improvements” to support temporary foreign workers and recent graduates to become permanent residents. This is more like a plan to plan than a real strategy. And undocumented workers will have to wait longer yet for the promised action.
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