Temporary foreign worker program (TFWP)

To enable Canadian firms to hire workers from other nations, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) was established. The program’s goal is to fill the shortages of competent Canadian workers in various industries. However, the program has been linked to reports of abuse of foreign workers as a result of Canadian government laws, some of which appear to limit the independence of migrant workers (Strauss & McGrath, 2017, p.199).

The program mandates that Canadian companies and immigrants from Mexico adhere by international labor regulations (Valticos, 2013, p. 31). This gives Mexican immigrants protection over their employment when working abroad. One of the program policy, or law, is on health care for immigrant workers in Canada (Hennebry, McLaughlin & Preibisch, 2016, p.521), and social protection from any sought of discrimination, racism and gender (Hennebry, 2014, p.369).

There are also some restrictions that the Temporary Foreign Workers Program have put in place (Elgersma, 2007, p.4). One of them is that, the migrants hired for short term labor are not entitled to permanent residence unless they are shortlisted through the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) to obtain citizenship in Canada. Most of the people in this category are high skilled migrant workers (Campbell, 2014, p.165). It keeps the migrants insecure of their job as there is no security of tenure. Mexican Temporary Agricultural Workers, for example, are mostly temporary workers who are restricted to full citizenship (Vosko, 2016, p.1371).

Canadian employers are also required to collaborate with Human Resources and Skill Development Canada (HRSDC), which gives the Labor market opinion of the prospective migrant worker from within and outside Canada (Gross, 2014, p.9).

The program is very good as it has worked for the sustainability of Canadian firms. It has helped in linking the Mexican job seekers and immigrants to secure jobs in Canada and therefore raising the economy of both nationalities (Wells, McLaughlin, Lyn, & Mendiburo, 2014, p.106). The program has also helped in upholding the international labor laws for the sake of Mexican migrants in Canada (Gabriel & Macdonald, 2014, p.243).

References

Campbell, R. M., Klei, A. G., Hodges, B. D., Fisman, D., & Kitto, S. (2014). A comparison of health access between permanent residents, undocumented immigrants and refugee claimants in Toronto, Canada. Journal of immigrant and minority health, 16(1), 165-176.

Elgersma, S. (2007). Temporary foreign workers (p. 4). Ottawa: Parliamentary Information and Research Service.

Gabriel, C., & Macdonald, L. (2014). ‘Domestic transnationalism’: legal advocacy for Mexican migrant workers’ rights in Canada. Citizenship Studies, 18(3-4), 243-258.

Gross, D. M. (2014). Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada: Are They Really Filling Labour Shortages?.

Hennebry, J. (2014). Falling through the cracks? Migrant workers and the Global Social Protection Floor. Global Social Policy, 14(3), 369-388.

Hennebry, J., McLaughlin, J., & Preibisch, K. (2016). Out of the Loop:(In) access to Health Care for Migrant Workers in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 17(2), 521-538.

Strauss, K., & McGrath, S. (2017). Temporary migration, precarious employment and unfree labour relations: Exploring the ‘continuum of exploitation’in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Geoforum, 78, 199-208.

Valticos, N. (2013). International labour law. Springer Science & Business Media.

Vosko, L. F. (2016). Blacklisting as a modality of deportability: Mexico’s response to circular migrant agricultural workers’ pursuit of collective bargaining rights in British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(8), 1371-1387.

Wells, D., McLaughlin, J., Lyn, A., & Mendiburo, A. D. (2014). Sustaining Precarious Transnational Families: The Significance of Remittances From Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. Just Labour.