Migrants and immigrants across Canada have been facing a wave of blame when it comes to the country’s ongoing housing and employment issues. Some politicians have consistently pinned problems such as unaffordable housing, low wages, and employment scarcity on the numbers of newcomers and those transitioning into permanent resident status.
This has been a distraction from other underlying causes, such as decades of housing policy decisions eroding access to affordable units and increases in corporate profits and wealth inequality.
The implementation of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) has been used as a huge propeller in directing blame towards migrants and immigrants. Aimed to allow Canadian employers to hire foreign workers to fill employment gaps temporarily, the program has cut its admittance to foreign workers nationwide. On Sept. 18, Ottawa announced restrictions on several temporary residence programs including a 10 percent reduction in international student permits.
An earlier, related announcement from Employment and Social Development Canada also states that “unfortunately, the TFW Program has been used to circumvent hiring talented workers in Canada.” And Justin Trudeau posted on social media after the Sept. 18 announcement saying there are “bad actors [who] abuse the system and take advantage of students.” While these assertions can be seen as a criticism of employers, they have also been used by some to blame migrants for taking jobs.
These labels contribute to the rise of xenophobia and racism in Canada, with people blaming migrants and immigrants for “playing the system” and using resources.
Migrant rights activists emphasize that there is a lack of understanding when it comes to the power imbalance this program creates.
“The ministers themselves said migrants are essential to the Canadian economy, but they don’t seem to care about the rights, working conditions and living conditions migrants have. We are talking about human beings, not machines,” says Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change in a statement.
Under the TFWP, employers have reigned over temporary migrants and their ability to access housing, healthcare and other services.
UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery Tomoya Obotaka stated recently that he “retains the view that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights.”
As a result of shifting the blame on migrants and immigrants for these issues, xenophobia and racism have been on the rise.
Increased racism towards South Asian migrants and immigrants, in particular, can be seen throughout social media, from Tik-Tok to X.com (formerly Twitter).
Mehakdeep, who is in the post-graduate work permit program, tells The Grind that the TFWP has played a huge role in international students’ inability to remain in Canada.
Mehakdeep worked at his university in the Greater Toronto Area and then as a baker in North Bay. Now, in Brampton, Mehakdeep is one of many immigrants on work permit programs demanding change from the government. Along with the Naujawan Support Network, he is calling for the implementation of five-year, post-graduation work permits for international students studying in all public colleges.
“We’re asking for the extension of the work permits that are expiring in 2024 and 2025,” he says, emphasizing that the TFWP shouldn’t exist the way it currently does. “If [students] don’t get an extension for their work permits, they will go to lengths to extend their status. Some will take studies again, but the ‘right way’ is to leave Canada, but many people will look towards alternatives.”
Mehakdeep says that the limitations of permit access put people in these situations at risk, and the policies make international students go in circles.
“There are many policy changes in the previous months that we were unsure of. It feels like we were playing a game and [the government] changed the rules at the end of the game to win the game,” he says. “When we were eligible to get the permanent residency, they changed the rules.”
“They want to blame immigrants as being the reason for the housing crisis, for the job crisis, but this is not the actual thing. We are not the reason,” Mehakdeep says.
“We’ve been here for a long time. Our government is diverting the blame on international students just because we are the weakest point right now in the country.”
In a piece written for The Breach last year, Syed Hussan noted that in 2022 “about 45 percent of new permanent residents were people who transitioned from temporary status. In other words, they were already living here. Their change in status would not affect overall housing demand.”
In regards to those entering Canada for the first time, Hussan observes that most are poor and do not affect housing in the ways that many seem to think they do.
“Many of these workers are not even competing for rental housing — let alone purchasing homes. Others, like international students, tend to rent but still often in precarious, exploitative conditions.”
Sarabjit Singh, who is on a post-graduate work permit, holds a similar sentiment and sees a deeply flawed system. Singh has been working as a computer numerical control machinist for the past three years, after coming to Canada as an international student in 2020.
However, he says, after one year of working, the government’s draws for permanent residency within his designated stream went from happening every two weeks to a complete halt lasting more than two and a half years.
He describes how the government changed the criteria so that they were only doing permanent residency draws for people who had accumulated fewer points than he had, points he had worked to get.
Singh’s file got dropped, and his work permit is expiring, which will lead him to lose his status. To restore it would take $30,000 to $40,000 to “buy status” through immigration lawyers, he says. “[Work permits from employers are] being sold in the open market,” he says, adding that many immigration lawyers are involved.
“Before COVID, it was a good system, there were regular draws, people knew what their points were and how many more points they needed,” he says. “After, it messed everything up.”
Singh and Mehakdeep have been part of a protest in Brampton with the Naujawan Support Network. Singh mentions that the animosity directed at protesters by some passersby has been blatant, with people flipping them off and yelling insults. “I’ve never seen such things before. … It’s getting worse and worse every day,” he says.
Singh adds that unfounded rumours recently spread online have led to increased targeting of Indian and specifically Sikh people in Ontario and across the country.
“These things are happening a lot. The man who was killed in Edmonton was also Indian, he was Punjabi. … Since we wear turbans we’re easier targets, we’re easier to find.”
Speaking about the protest demands, he says “we’re trying to dialogue with the government, but they are pushing for after the elections.” The Trudeau Liberals had previously promised to grant permanent residency to many migrants, but they haven’t followed through as anti-immigration rhetoric has grown.
“This year, around 70,000 international workers will lose their [temporary] status in Canada” Singh says, adding that by the end of 2025 that number “could cross 200,000.”
CORRECTION (Oct 3, 2024, 4 p.m.): The figures in the final paragraph have been updated to reflect the number of expiring postgraduate temporary work permits expiring in 2024 and by the end of 2025.
With files from David Gray-Donald.
This article appeared in the 2024 Oct/Nov issue.