Tag: labour market

The Temporary Foreign Workers Program has been increasingly in the spotlight the last few weeks. Many allegations have surfaced about the appalling living and working conditions faced by migrant workers. While much of the media coverage has ignored what is most important, my two guests on this week’s podcast are ready to offer some correctives.

First, Jason Foster speaks about the history of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program and its role in structural changes to Canada’s labour market – changes that have seen working conditions and security decline across the board. Jason teaches at Athabasca University; his research has focused on migrant labour.

Second, Adriana Paz-Ramirez provides more of the perspective of migrant workers themselves and links their struggle for justice to labour solidarity as well as immigration reform. Adriana is a long-time organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers.

Tags exploitation, immigration reform, labour market, low-wage, migrant worker, permanent residency, temporary foreign worker, TFW, TFWP

Canada Precarity Workers

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program and labour solidarity

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date April 17, 2014
3 Comments on The Temporary Foreign Worker Program and labour solidarity

Yesterday, I took a look at the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and how it helps enforce labour discipline on all workers, and low-wage workers in particular. Today, I want to explore the migration side of the migrant worker equation. The context of migration not only makes it easier for employers to exploit TFWs, it also serves to obscure the common core of labour solidarity that should be at the basis of responses to the greater labour discipline that the TFWP enables.

Tags CFIB, immigration, labour market, low-wage, migrant labour, migrant worker, organizing, permanent resident, precarious, Precarity, status, temporary foreign workers, TFW, TFWP

Canada Precarity Workers

The Temporary Foreign Workers Program and labour market discipline

Post author By Michal Rozworski
Post date April 16, 2014
8 Comments on The Temporary Foreign Workers Program and labour market discipline

While it is a truism that migrant labour built Canada, this same migrant labour has long been used to discipline domestic workers. Both facts are imprinted into the history of Canada. Today is no different and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is at the centre of debates about migrant labour. Often missing from the debate are the deep links between labour policy, (im)migration policy and the ways these interact to undermine the power and solidarity of workers.

Tags Alberta, immigration, labour discipline, labour market, Labour Market Opinion, low-wage, precarious, Precarity, temporary foreign workers, TFW, TFWP