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March 20, 2008 There are people in our country doing work that Americans will not do, and those people ought to be given a chance to have a tamper-proof card that enables them to work in our country legally for a period of time. ~ U.S. President George W. Bush speaking to the media during the second SPP leaders summit in Cancun, Mexico. The Government also introduced [in Budget 2007] the new Canadian Experience Class to expedite the process for skilled temporary foreign workers and foreign students with Canadian credentials and work experience to remain in Canada as permanent residents, under certain conditions. ~ From the 2008 Conservative federal budget. “Under certain conditions” and “for a period of time” are becoming trademark footnotes on an increasing number of migration applications to North America under the (public-private) Security and Prosperity Partnership. Now the Conservatives appear to be expanding their powers to accept more new immigrants with fewer rights through a budget implementation bill that is almost sure to pass. “The federal Conservatives are moving to give the Immigration Minister more power to control the number and type of people allowed into the country – and the speed with which they are welcomed here,” wrote the Globe and Mail on March 15. On Friday, the Conservatives introduced an amended budget implementation bill that would give Citizenship Immigration Minister Diane Finlay “sweeping powers to pick and choose types of immigrants, to cap the number of applicants ‘by category or otherwise,’ and to reject any applicant already approved for admission by immigration officers,” wrote a Toronto Star editorial on Monday. But the move, “raises questions about whether the government plans to use the new powers as a way to favour certain groups, such as ‘economic class’ immigrants, at the expense of others, or to discriminate on the basis of country of origin,” the Star continued. Canada, the United States and Mexico have been working on revising temporary foreign worker programs through the Security and Prosperity Partnership. In Canada, the emphasis is apparently on getting as much foreign labour to the tar sands as possible, but as in the United States, large agricultural companies in Canada also rely on guest worker programs that are currently not monitored for abuse, and that put a person’s chances of remaining in Canada into their employer’s hands. As the Canadian Labour Congress reported this past December: …tying access to permanent residency to employer support risks yet further abuse of temporary migrant workers by employers. This is because despite the calls of advocates of migrant workers, the [Canadian government’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program] (including the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, the Live-in Caregiver Program, the Low Skilled Pilot Project, Regional Occupations under Pressure, and Expedited Labour Market Opinion Pilot) continues to expand without the incorporation of a comprehensive monitoring and enforcement framework. If temporary migrant workers are given the carrot of potential permanent Canadian residency pending the approval of their employers, these workers will be made yet more vulnerable to the stick of Canadian employers not being held accountable to Canadian labour and human rights laws by Canadian officials. According to the Star editorial on Monday, 2007 saw a 12 per cent jump in the number of temporary foreign workers admitted to Canada (112,000 in 2006). Meanwhile, according to the CLC report, the number of permanent resident applicants (skilled worker and self-employed category) actually dropped by 8,000 between 2005 and 2006), and represents less than half of the number of temporary employees admitted. Responding to the Conservative attempt to concentrate more power into the hands of the Immigration Minister, the NDP Immigration Critic Olivia Chow said that, “The Conservatives’ answer [to a backlog in immigration applications] is to import massive numbers of temporary foreign workers who are vulnerable to mistreatment and abuse. “Why is this government interested only in providing cheap labour to big corporations and not letting ordinary family members bring their loved ones into Canada?” she asked. The answer, or what the Conservatives think passes for an answer, can be found in Harper’s 2008 budget: Canada must maintain the ability to compete globally for the best and the brightest by creating the optimal conditions to attract immigrants who can contribute fully to Canada’s prosperity. A well-managed and efficient immigration system is critical to achieving this objective… The proposed legislative changes will provide flexibility for concrete measures, as required, to more effectively manage the future growth in the inventory, such as addressing the number of applications accepted and processed in a year… These changes will allow Canada to take the first steps towards establishing a “just-in-time” competitive immigration system which will quickly process skilled immigrants who can make an immediate contribution to the economy. New immigrants are now “inventory” that are to be managed through a “just-in-time” process that moves labour to where the market (read large corporations) needs it, and where permanent residency (let alone full citizenship with full rights) depends on a new worker’s job performance, based on untested employee recommendations. The new Conservative policy represents a wholesale adoption of corporate notions of competitiveness into immigration processes, and it is a good example of whose prosperity is being addressed through the SPP.
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