Angela Contreras-Chavez is a bit run down when we meet on a Monday morning at an East Van coffee shop. Shes fighting off a cold for one, but she didnt have much of a weekend either. Her Sunday was spent out in Abbotsford providing free legal information to migrant farm workers about their rights on the job.
Its a trip she makes most weeks as part of Red Legal, a volunteer-run non-profit she started about a year ago to help fill the gaps in legal services for temporary foreign workers (TFWs) the technical term for the hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals arriving in Canada each year under a federal program granting short-term work permits.
While youre likely aware, however vaguely, that temporary labour is responsible for getting B.C.s bountiful harvests on the table each year, you might be surprised to learn the reach of TFWs in day-to-day life closer to home. In 2009 nearly 40,000 documented TFWs were living in Greater Vancouver, and that number has likely grown. If youve taken the Canada Line, bought a new condo, bet on the horses at the Hastings Racecourse, stayed in a hotel or bought a sandwich at that bastion of Canadiana Tim Hortons, youve likely benefited from migrant labour. (In fact, Tim Hortons is one of the largest contractors of TFWs from the Philippines in the country.) By one estimate, one in 10 people you encounter on a daily basis in this city is a migrant worker documented or otherwise.
But while the federal government heralds the TFW program as a win-win for Canadian employers and foreign workers, Contreras-Chavez is just one name on a growing list of advocates heralding serious problems with the way the program is administered in B.C. The number one issue is that there are no public services for migrant workers, she says, listing off legal clinics, ESL classes, language interpreters and health and housing information as services lacking for TFWs. Those same programs are offered to permanent residents in B.C. but when it comes to migrant labour, TFWs dont qualify. Its up to churches, non-profits and people like Contreras-Chavez to pick up the slack. Its a big job thats getting bigger by the day.
Recent shifts in immigration policy have seen Canada drastically reduce the number of permanent residents and refugees entering the country while expanding the ranks of TFWs. Between 2002 and 2008 the number of TFWs in Canada more than doubled, according to Statistics Canada, with 2009 marking the first year temporary workers outnumbered new permanent residents. Yet without a federal or provincial body ensuring employees know their rights and employers comply with Canadian labour standards, the economic model in this province practically invites nefarious-minded employers to exploit low-skilled migrant workers.
Contreras-Chavez says she deals daily with TFWs in crisis. Many are in poor health because they dont know where to access regular medical services. Some are dealing with work-related injuries. Others need legal aid to deal with their work permits and immigration documents, while still more are struggling to pay debts to foreign job brokers These recruiters, Contreras-Chavez says, prey upon workers from developing countries, setting up jobs in Canada for a fee and promising them a foothold to immigration. In fact, under the TFW program low-skilled workers who are disproportionately represented in B.C.s construction, agriculture and hospitality sectors have virtually no hope of achieving permanent resident status.
For low-skilled workers, its zero. Theres no chance they will be eligible and many of them come here thinking they will become Canadian at some point, Contreras-Chavez says. In my opinion and Im being conservative Id say 90 per cent of the workers come to Canada or B.C. with the expectation of making a new life.
In the end, she says the system is a bait and switch. A way for Canada to cheaply fill permanent job openings with temporary labour while laying the foundations for rampant exploitation, human rights abuses and an underground economy thats growing year after year. In B.C. there is no provincial framework to monitor employers and any oversight is complaint-driven, relying on often non-English speaking, disenfranchised workers to come forward.
Something is wrong with the economic model we have in B.C., says Contreras-Chavez. We dont have the provisions to protect the vulnerable.
The shift in emphasis from permanent residents to temporary workers is a deliberate economic decision made at the federal level, but the social costs are felt and borne at a local level, says Zool Suleman, an immigration lawyer and past chair of the City of Vancouvers committee on immigration.
While Vancouver has always been a popular destination for newcomers, numbers of TFWs spiked during the pre-Olympic boom. Thats when Suleman and his committee members first began hearing rumblings of exploited workers and underground labourers. Then the economy tanked and many TFWs, whose work permits tie them to one employer, were laid off.
Thats when the crisis became even more pronounced, he says, noting social ills like broken families, domestic disputes, drug-use and increased reliance on food banks, emergency and police services as just some of the satellite effects of the federal policy. And there continue to be high-profile cases of human rights abuses and labour code infractions. In January, 50 Dennys Restaurant employees in B.C. launched a class-action lawsuit against their employer alleging they hadnt been paid for overtime and other breaches of contract. And not one, but two criminal investigations into charges of domestic slavery have come to light in the past month.
Like Contreras-Chavez, Suleman is concerned that the overall shift in Canadas immigration policy is building an economic model propped up on the disposable labour of disenfranchised people. And its a deliberate choice. Temporary foreign workers, from a national policy perspective, are easier to manage, says Suleman. Canada provides them with few entitlements, Canada provides them with few rights and theyre viewed as a group of people who are globally mobile to whom Canada has little allegiance and from whom Canada seeks little allegiance other than their labour. It raises all sorts of big questions about the labour of people being disposable, which then can lead to the connection that the people are disposable, which leads to a dehumanizing effect, which leads to abuse.
Individual communities can fight the trend however, Suleman says. He was heartened to see roughly 300 people turn up to a public forum on TFWs hosted by the city last month. The event coincided with the launch of the municipal Foreign Workers, Local Neighbours campaign geared at raising awareness of the issue. I think that the city can play a role in better publicizing whats going on, he says. Once Vancouverites are more aware of the role TWFs play in the city, and the challenges they face, well be able to have a better conversation about fair labour practices.
The Mayors Committee on Immigration is preparing a report which makes several recommendations in response to TFWs. Suleman says the committee would like to see the city implement a one-stop crisis line and information office and call on the province to do the same. Hed also like to see the city ensure the goods and services providers it deals with are treating temporary workers fairly, perhaps going so far as asking to sign a declaration in support of fair labour. He hopes the report will go before council prior to the August break.
It may sound like small potatoes, but hes confident Vancouver could start a national trend, particularly in light of Mayor Gregor Robertsons recent appointment as chair of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities big city mayors caucus. As far as the federal government is concerned, I think they watch and see how the municipalities are reacting, particularly the large cities in Canada, says Suleman. So [if] Vancouver takes these initiatives, cities tend to pay attention to each other in terms of best practices.
But there are certain things outside the citys control, such as the way jobs are advertised overseas and the throngs of workers arriving here each year. For Contreras-Chavez and other advocates on the frontlines, senior government must step in to stem the tide of vulnerable workers who are given the green light to enter the country each year, or at the very least fund advocates to help them settle.
There are more coming this year, new ones coming every year, she says.
