Canada's Two-Tiered Labour Rights System: Proposed Reforms to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Implementation of Sanctuary City Policies

Abstract

Although domestic and international human migration is known to occur within and across Canadian borders, the legal rights of migrants (both legal and illegal) are poorly defined and unclear. The experiences of migrants with precarious status, as well as the Canadian communities in which they integrate into, remains largely unstudied despite growing concentrations of the undocumented population in various major Canadian cities, such as Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. Issues regarding acts of citizenship by politicized groups of non-status persons and the normative and political challenges they pose to Canadian national security, Canadian immigration laws and labour regulations. Cities all over the world are addressing issues associated with their “undocumented” populations by implementing “sanctuary” or “amnesty pathway” policies; if adopted by all Canadian municipalities and/or the federal government, these sanctuary policies will address migrant rights and their ability to access basic social services. Current Canadian regulations and administrative policies concerning the access to public health and social services by undocumented persons are in opposition with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as universal human rights guarantees set out by the United Nations organization. Policy recommendations to address ethical and medical issues concerning non-status persons can be made to all branches of the Canadian government. This report suggests prioritizing the study of the long-term costs and public health consequences associated with recent migratory populations in Canada, specifically their entry into Canada via the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Due to the economic and demographic importance of immigration to the future of Canadian prosperity, reform of the TFWP is necessary in order to address border security issues related to undocumented labourers/human trafficking, increasing need to appropriately streamline legal immigration for talent retention purposes, and update the Canadian worker’s visa system. It is important to address the fundamental inequity and insecurity within the TFWP that exists due to deficiencies within our current legal structure and immigration system. Failure to address the long-standing concerns about mistreatment of migrant workers with temporary status enables the acceptance of a second-tier worker program which normalizes human rights abuses—should these deficiencies within our legal and immigration systems fail to be addressed our society will further allow foreign nationals to be dehumanized, exploited and commoditized for expendable labour purposes. The common notion that certain communities are somehow exempt from the threat of labour abuses fails to take into account how complex the issue is and how widespread the attitudes that justify it are.