scholarly journals Migrant workers and fissured workforces: CS Wind and the dilemmas of organizing intra-company transfers in Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Tucker

Canadian temporary foreign worker programs have been proliferating in recent years. While much attention has deservedly focused on programs that target so-called low-skilled workers, such as seasonal agricultural workers and live-in caregivers, other programs have been expanding, and have recently been reorganized into the International Mobility Program (IMP). Streams within the IMP are quite diverse and there are few legal limits on their growth. One of these, intra-company transfers (ICTs), is not new, but it now extends beyond professional and managerial workers to more permeable and expansive categories. As a result, unions increasingly face the prospect of organizing workplaces where ICTs and other migrant workers are employed alongside permanent employees, raising difficult legal issues and strategic dilemmas. This article presents a detailed case study of one union’s response to this situation.

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany Hastie

This article examines the barriers migrant workers face in accessing justice, including the ability to assert legal rights in the workplace, and to access mechanisms for legal redress or remedy. Drawing on empirical research, and using the capabilities approach as a conceptual framework through which to examine these issues, this article demonstrates that the regulatory structure of the Temporary Foreign Worker Programs operates to actively constrain the ability for migrant workers to assert their rights in the workplace, and seek effective legal remedies in the face of rights violations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia J Lowe

For the last 40 years, migrant farm workers from the Caribbean and Mexico have been recruited to work temporarily on Canadian farms under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). In 2002, the pilot Foreign Worker Program (FWP) for low skilled migrant workers was initiated in the province of Quebec and under this program began the recruitment of Guatemalan migrant farm workers. Since the program's start, the number of Guatemalan migrants has nearly tripled and there seems to be a decline in the number of workers hired under the SAWP in Quebec. This paper examines the FWP's development, set-up, consequences and operation alongside the SAWP and shows how the Canadian state is expanding the number of flexibility and temporary worker programs. This paper draws attention to the neo-liberal context of migrant farm labour in Canada, pointing to the ways in which Canada's federal policies governing seasonal agricultural migrants and athe agricultural labour market are exploitative and racist.


1970 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Straehle

Liberals are concerned with the equal moral status of all human beings. This article discusses what flows from this premise for moral cosmopolitans when analysing temporary foreign worker programs for low-skilled workers. Some have hailed these programs as a tool to achieve redistributive global goals. However, I argue that in the example of Live-In-Caregivers in Canada, the morally most problematic aspect is that it provokes vulnerability of individual workers. Once in a situation of vulnerability, important conditions of individual autonomy are jeopardized. Even if these programs provide for redistribution of opportunities on a global scale, the challenge such programs pose to the conditions of autonomy can not outweigh these gains. Instead, they need to be re-assessed and changed to fundamentally express equal moral status of all human beings.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-43
Author(s):  
Emma Callon

This article analyzes several characteristics of two of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Programs (TFWPs): The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). First, I consider the social and economic contexts in which these programs have emerged. Second, I discuss how these programs maintain racial and gendered hierarchies. Third, I problematize the relationship TFWPs have with citizenship status, as well as critique TFWPs as a long-term solution to Canadian labour shortages. Last, I discuss the potential benefits of these TFWPs and suggest alternatives and potential improvements to the programs. Using a Marxist framework, this analysis situates Canada’s TFWPs within the broader political economy and argues that global capitalism and the state interact to serve the people and economies of the Global North at the expense of migrant workers from the Global South. Cet article examine deux programmes des travailleurs étrangers temporaires (PTET) du Canada: le Programme des travailleurs agricoles saisonniers (PTAS) et le Programme concernant les aides familiaux résidants (PAFR). Cet essai examine plusieurs aspects des PTET. Premièrement, je tiens compte du contexte social et économique dans lequel ces programmes sont apparus. Deuxièmement, j’explique comment ces programmes maintiennent une hiérarchie basée sur la race et le sexe. Troisièmement, je pose le problème des relations entre les PTET et le statut de citoyen, et je formule également une critique du PTET comme solution à long terme à la pénurie de main-d’œuvre canadienne. Enfin, je discute des avantages potentiels de ces PTET et propose des solutions de rechange et des façons d’améliorer les programmes. À l’aide d’un cadre d’analyse marxiste, les PTET du Canada sont évalués globalement dans le contexte de l’économie politique et il est proposé que le capitalisme mondial et l’État interagissent au service des citoyens et des économies de l’hémisphère nord, au détriment des travailleurs migrants en provenance de l’hémisphère sud.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia J Lowe

For the last 40 years, migrant farm workers from the Caribbean and Mexico have been recruited to work temporarily on Canadian farms under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). In 2002, the pilot Foreign Worker Program (FWP) for low skilled migrant workers was initiated in the province of Quebec and under this program began the recruitment of Guatemalan migrant farm workers. Since the program's start, the number of Guatemalan migrants has nearly tripled and there seems to be a decline in the number of workers hired under the SAWP in Quebec. This paper examines the FWP's development, set-up, consequences and operation alongside the SAWP and shows how the Canadian state is expanding the number of flexibility and temporary worker programs. This paper draws attention to the neo-liberal context of migrant farm labour in Canada, pointing to the ways in which Canada's federal policies governing seasonal agricultural migrants and athe agricultural labour market are exploitative and racist.


Sains Insani ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Intan Suria Hamzah ◽  
Sity Daud

Malaysia experienced a number of the entry of foreigners in the world, mainly as low-skilled workers. Malaysia has been experiencing shortage of workers in main sectors such as construction, agriculture, industrial and service. Foreign workers are workers came from other countries who come to work in Malaysia for a certain period, they are also known as economic’s workers. The study found that foreign workers give benefits for country development process in variuos sectors but with their numbers growing and reaching millions of peoples were disturbing economy and local communities.Keywords: Foreign worker, demand, economy, PATI, crime, security Abstrak: Malaysia mengalami jumlah kemasukan warga asing yang besar di dunia, terutamanya sebagai buruh berkemahiran rendah. Malaysia telah mengalami masalah kekurangan buruh dalam sektor-sektor utama negara seperti pembinaan, perladangan, perindustrian dan perkhidmatan. Pekerja asing atau buruh asing merupakan pekerja yang berasal dari negara luar yang datang bekerja di Malaysia bagi sesuatu tempoh tertentu, ianya juga dikenali sebagai buruh ekonomi. Hasil kajian, mendapati pekerja asing telah membawa manfaat dalam proses pembangunan negara Malaysia dalam pelbagai sektor namun begitu dengan jumlah mereka yang semakin meningkat dan mencecah jutaan orang telah mengganggu-gugat ekonomi dan masyarakat tempatan.Kata kunci: Pekerja asing, permintaan, ekonomi, PATI, jenayah, keselamatan.


Author(s):  
Philip Martin

Low-skilled migrant workers often pay high fees to work abroad, which reduces the remittances they can send to their families and is regressive because low-skilled workers pay more than high-skilled workers. No one knows exactly how much workers pay, justifying more data on this in order to reduce worker-paid costs. Media exposés of workers who paid a year’s foreign earnings to get a two-year contract may leave the impression that all workers pay such high fees, although the data collected from workers in diverse corridors do not support such a conclusion. Since the number of low-skilled workers often exceeds the number of jobs, worker willingness to pay can be a way of allocating scarce jobs among workers, although government efforts to limit what workers pay can drive payments underground.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-320
Author(s):  
Ryszard Cholewinski

AbstractThis paper explores the role played by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the consultations and stocktaking during 2017 and the negotiations during 2018 leading up to the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). It examines selected parts of the text of the GCM, with particular reference to the ILO's mandate of securing social justice and decent work, as well as the protection of migrant workers and governance of labour migration. The final part of the paper looks ahead to the ILO's role in the implementation of the GCM, with specific reference to the Arab states region, where migration for employment is significant and the governance challenges, particularly in relation to the protection of low-wage and low-skilled workers, are especially acute.


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