The Truth Behind the Conventional Wisdom that (Exploited) 'Foreigners' Are Taking Away Jobs

"[The new influx of guest workers in Canada] releases the pressure on firms to provide better jobs, jobs where you have control over your time, where the pay is decent. It lets the steam off. And that pushes us toward a society that doesn't respect workers so much."
"So they [cafe or franchise, or supermarket owners] go to their local Member of Parliament and say, 'I'm in trouble here. I can't get enough workers for my front counter'. The real response to them should be: 'Well, pay them more'. But it's not the answer they want to hear, because they want to make more profit." 
"When something is scarce [theoretically, workers to fill positions], the price for it goes up and people and companies adjust. That's the whole wonder of the capitalist system."
"Everyone knows these guest workers have no rights If they lose their jobs they're gone. They're not about to complain. Canadian firms are now not only getting just lower-wage workers these days, they're getting very compliant workers."
"These are people [ordinary low-wage Canadians] who feel there was a deal promised to them, where everyone would share in the benefits of deregulation and a more flexible labour market."
"But then government did things like bring in more temporary foreign workers and those people are feeling like, 'What the hell just happened?'"
"If you want people to feel like they have a share, don't bring in somebody to replace them every time their wages start looking like they're going to go up."
David Green, economist, University of British Columbia

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pushed up the number of guest workers in Canada much higher than former Conservative immigration minister Jason Kenney. (Photo: Trudeau in Burnaby South byelection earlier this year._ Darryl Dyck/CP

A paper was recently produced by two academics -- economist David Green of UBC and Carleton University's Christopher Worswick of the faculty of public affairs -- that concluded with the understanding that a huge leap in guest worker numbers entering Canada has harmed low-wage employees across the country. Rising numbers of non-permanent foreign workers that have arrived and continue to come into Canada each year has doubled in the last ten years, escalating in particular under the Federal Liberal government, since 2015.

The entry of low-paid guest workers in increasing numbers to perform often-menial jobs in low-paid industries were often the entry jobs for new immigrants to Canada, seeking to establish themselves and taking any workplace positions that would enable them to establish a toehold in the job market that would see them often working their way up to better paying jobs. Immigrants are no longer finding those jobs available; they are taken by temporary workers on work visas for limited periods of time, with an ever-replenished number of new temporary workers.

At the same time as the steady increase in the number of non-permanent foreign workers has been transforming the Canadian job market of entry-level employment, a greater number of study visas to foreign students has also been occurring. In 2014 about 200,000 foreign students arrived and that number increased in succeeding years. In 2018 annual foreign student numbers had swelled to over 400,000. And how this impacts the same job market is that foreign students are permitted to work 20 hours weekly, and full-time during summer breaks.

Workers are busy on the shop floor at Sunterra Meats in Trochu, Alta., in 2016. The company at the time employed many temporary foreign workers. The number of those workers in Canada has roughly doubled since the 2015 election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Ted Rhodes / Postmedia News files

This has resulted in new immigrants' situation in seeking employment facing a "worse and worse" employment environment, reflecting earned incomes, forcing them to seek longer periods of social welfare aid. Low-wage workers are suffering under the steadily growing and expanding numbers of temporary, non-permanent foreign workers arriving into Canada annually. Downward pressure is being placed on wages, exacerbating employment opportunities for the traditional low-paid worker-base.

"It's totally under the radar", commented Professor Green in observing that the majority of Canadians have no idea of the extent of the problem afflicting other Canadians and permanent residents of Canada. Temporary workers were originally seen as a temporary solution to businesses requiring short-term workers to compensate for skill shortages in particular sectors, where low-skill guest workers from overseas filled the gap but are now increasingly brought in to staff fast-food restaurants, stack supermarket shelves, and fill in for basic kitchen duties.

In 2013, there was a public backlash against increased volumes of foreign workers into Canada leading the then-Conservative immigration minister to dramatically cut numbers. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015, the numbers were immediately increased with much higher totals. While the aware public in Canada has focused on the issue of immigration levels, also expanded by 30 percent since 2015, the official temporary foreign worker program has not changed, but other guest-worker plans have.

There has been a fourfold expansion of the "international mobility" program, which few Canadians even know the existence of. In 2008, about 70,000 guest workers entered Canada under the "international mobility" category. By 2018, over 250,000 in this category were being accepted, typically representing people on two-year visas who mostly find employment in the service sector. Known informally as travellers on "holiday worker" visas, they are often young people working at ski resorts like Whistler or serving beer in Vancouver or Toronto pubs.

The largest group of over 250,000 "international mobility" workers to arrive last year were from India, followed by those from the United States, China, France and South Korea. About 70,000 international mobility workers arrived in Toronto in 2018, to Vancouver's 30,000, according to figures provided by a UBC-backed website Superdiversity, in its interactive graphics based on immigration department data.

The reliance on low-wage guest workers has been instrumental in creating an increasingly fearful workforce, unable to demand adherence to local labour standards. Professors Green and Worswick warn that the situation is such that it may lead to a populist revolt, the same kind of push-back that resulted in the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President. Whom the elite scorned as having been elected by "stupid people", many of whom felt the promise of globalization, transnational movement of capital and labour had been of no benefit to them.

The volume of guest workers arriving in Canada each year lept up after the federal Liberals were elected. “TFWP” stands for temporary foreign worker program. “IMP” stands for international mobility program. “Study” stands for foreign students, who are allowed to work. Source: Superdiversity.