News
Temporary worker influx raises eyebrows
Temporary foreign workers are still flooding into Canada despite the recession, a situation that has caught the minister of citizenship and immigration by surprise and raised alarm bells elsewhere.
According to figures released by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), 192,519 temporary workers entered Canada in 2008, an increase of 16.7 per cent over 2007 and 71 per cent over a five-year period. This contrasts with the numbers of immigrants entering the country with a permanent residence visa. In total, Canada welcomed 247,243 new immigrants in 2008, an increase of only 4.4 per cent over 2007 and a decrease of 6 per cent over the 2005 high of 262,241.
However, what really raised eyebrows was the continued pace of temporary worker admissions in the first half of 2009. In the first six months of this year, CIC issued 95,060 work permits. Although this is a 9 per cent decrease over the January-June figures for 2008, given that unemployment has increased from 6.2 to 8.6 per cent over the past year the continuing strong demand for temporary work permits has surprised many.
"I expected to see a decline, but I was quite surprised to actually see demand for temporary foreign workers steady in the first quarter of this year, and down only slightly in the second quarter," commented Jason Kenney, Canada's immigration minister.
This shifting pattern of immigration, whereby the numbers of new permanent residents each year is stalling but the number of temporary workers is increasing, has raised concerns about the long-term consequences of such a shift. According to Naomi Alboim, author of new report 'Adjusting the Balance: Fixing Canada's Economic Immigration Policies', these shifts suggest that the Foreign Temporary Worker Programme (TWP), provincial nominee programmes and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) will soon overtake the Federal Skilled Worker Programme (FSWP), traditionally the cornerstone of immigration to Canada. The major concern is that, as a result, Canada's immigration system will become less competitive internationally for attracting potential immigrants, and could have negative long-term consequences on our labour markets and economy. "The changes made [to Canada's immigration system] were individual ad-hoc, short-term fixes without looking at their cumulative impact," explained Alboim.
In this respect, the recent statistics aren't so much a surprise, but more of an obvious shift in immigration strategy by many of those hoping to start a new life in Canada.
Firstly, the FSWP was effectively suspended between late February and early November last year, and the uncertainly this caused could have prompted many would-be immigrants to instead pursue a temporary work permit as a means of getting a foot in the door, as well as those who didn't want to wait for four-to-five years to obtain permanent residence. This strategy was effectively encouraged by the introduction of the CEC in September last year, a class that provides a clear pathway to permanent residence for those who clock-up two years of temporary work experience in many managerial, professional, technical and trade occupations; the CEC also covers those who graduate from a Canadian post-secondary institution and follow this with one year of full-time skilled work experience.
Moreover, the revamped FSWP slashed the number of applicants who qualified without a job offer, so many whose occupations didn't appear on the 'high-demand' list announced in November last year would have been forced to look for a plan B - with a work permit one of the options. This could certainly account for the continuing interest in temporary work permits into the first six months of this year, and with credit for long-term projects drying up it may have suited many companies to think short term by hiring temporary rather than permanent workers.
Alboim has argued that "Fixing Canada's economic immigration policies has to be done in a coordinated way to have a positive long-term impact," but Kenney stated that he didn't think the numbers of temporary workers will squeeze out permanent skilled workers.
Look in the August issue of Emigrate magazine for features stories on how to make the perfect application, an A-Z of Canadian surprises for newcomers, a tour of an emigrant's multi-million-dollar home in the Okanagan Valley and much, much more
15 September 2009