2015-04-17
Salimah Valiani
y. Though the legal framework for temporary migration was introduced in the early 1970s, it is demonstrated that a material shift did not occur until the mid-1980s, when the number of workers entering Canada on temporary work permits of longer than one year began outpacing the number of workers entering as permanent residents. In turn, it is argued that a new policy shift occurred in the early 21st century, when primary decision making around access to permanent residency was transferred by the Canadian state to Canadian employers. Using data from the Live-in Caregiver Program, the longest-standing Canadian immigration program in which employers hold primary decision-making
power, it is demonstrated that an employer-driven immigration system does not bode well for the long term needs of building an inclusive society and stable labour supply in Canada (p1).
Non-standard employment forms also allow employers to reduce labour costs. In 1984, for instance, the average hourly wage of a parttime
worker was two thirds that of an average full-time worker performing the same work. (Burke 1986 as cited by Shields and Russell 1994, 335) Similarly, in the same year, temporary and casual workers – many of which were likely temporary migrant workers – earned 43 per cent less than full
time, permanent workers in equivalent positions (p4-5).
From 2001, following the pattern of the NIEAP and increased temporary labour migration through trade agreements, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) allowed employers the possibility of further access to temporary migrant workers through an array of different
mechanisms. (Fudge and MacPhail 2009, 11) This was in spite of projections of economists and some government policy analysts that net labour force growth, as well as net population growth, would occur solely through permanent migration by 2011 and 2031 respectively (p7).
General relevance - all sectors
Trabajadores (in) migrantes y Los empleadores y las agencias de empleo
Federal y National relevance
Inglés
