scholarly journals In the Shadows" Exploring the Notion of "Community" for Temporary Foreign Workers in a Boomtown

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Foster ◽  
Alison Taylor
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Transnational Community ◽  
Temporary Foreign Workers ◽  
Northern Alberta

The rapid expansion of the oil sands in northern Alberta in the early 21st century led to the use of significant numbers of temporary foreign workers. These foreign workers became a part of the region’s so-called “shadow population.” This paper examines how the presence of foreign workers affects conceptions of community and social cohesion through the experiences of foreign workers employed in oil sands construction. The study finds foreign workers are excluded from the life of the community due to their differential exclusion, vulnerable and precarious connection to the labour market, experiences of discrimination, and conflicted transnational community identities. The paper discusses the shortcomings of community and social cohesion approaches in addressing temporary foreign workers and considers the policy limitations of a widespread temporary foreign worker program.

scholarly journals Are Temporary Foreign Workers Filling only Labor Shortages? The Case of Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique M. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Temporary Foreign Workers ◽  
The Government ◽  
Market Test ◽  
Term Labor ◽  
Clear Information

A temporary foreign worker (TFW) program is meant to fill short-term labor shortages and, constraints are imposed on employers for resident workers not to be affected in getting jobs. Often, employers consider that such a program imposes time-consuming administrative barriers and they pressure the government to obtain easier and faster access to TFWs. The Canadian policy was modified in two Western provinces from a required high time-consuming labor market test for all occupations to prove labor shortages to an immediate hiring of TFWs for occupations in a given list. Using DDD, it is tested whether priority to local workers was ensured under the new program. The analysis shows that much faster access to TFWs accelerated rises in unemployment in some high- and low-skill occupations and, impacts were quite different across the two provinces and industries. Thus, some domestic workers have been negatively affected. The main cause was a lack of clear information about local occupational labor shortages and political supports to employers for cheaper labor.

scholarly journals Low-skilled temporary foreign workers in Canada : how their subordinate status is discursively legitimated through public opinion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Lilian Boate
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Formal Training ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Temporary Foreign Workers ◽  
News Outlet

This paper attempts to show how public opinion discursively legitimates the subordinate status that low-skilled temporary foreign workers are assigned in Canada. The author first shows how this status has been created through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and, more specifically, the Pilot Project for Occupations Requiring Lower Levels of Formal Training. In order to analyze public opinion, comments made online in reference to news outlet articles concerning low-skilled temporary foreign workers were located. Using a dual labor market theoretical framework a critical discourse analysis is performed on these comments, attempting to uncover how power and dominance are reproduced within them. The results of this analysis demonstrate how the discourse contained within public opinion helps to maintain the current status faced by this population.

scholarly journals Oddities in the Canadian Labour Force in the 21st Century

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 84-96
Author(s):  
Christell Simeon
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Temporary Foreign Workers ◽  
Economic Climate ◽  
Skills Mismatch

A paradox is a term that can be used to describe an economic climate where there are many unemployed persons and yet still a large influx of temporary foreign workers? This is the labour dynamics currently existing in Canada; growing numbers of unemployed persons in provinces where simultaneously thousands of temporary foreign workers are entering the labour market to fill job vacancies. Some researchers have rationalized that this phenomenon is caused by a skills mismatch – the imbalance between the skills employees possess and those skills required to perform a particular task or role in a job (Lundberg, 2007).

scholarly journals Contentious mobilities and Cheap(er) Labour: Temporary Foreign Workers in a New Brunswick Seafood Processing Community

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Knott
Keyword(s):  
New Brunswick ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Temporary Foreign Workers ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Seafood Processing ◽  
Over Time

Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is highly contentious. Particularly contentious are those parts of the program that have allowed for exploitative labour practices and the replacement of Canadian workers. Mobility for employment has been increasing, and researchers have focused on different types of mobile workers ranging from international (including the TFWP) to intra-provincial migrants, often in isolation from each other. Less research has focused on multiple mobilities within one industry to understand how and why labour force composition and employee mobility patterns change over time. Also under researched is why demand exists for TFWs in areas with high unemployment. This paper uses a case study of the seafood processing industry (both wild and farmed) in a rural region of New Brunswick to explore this industry’s claims about labour shortages and serial reliance on differently mobile labour forces over time. It draws on findings from a review of relevant documents and ethnographic fieldwork including interviews. Using the historical changes in the (im)mobility patterns of processing workers in this region, this paper highlights how the increased use of the TFWP by seafood processing companies is tied to manufactured raced and gendered employer practices.

scholarly journals Low-skilled temporary foreign workers in Canada : how their subordinate status is discursively legitimated through public opinion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Lilian Boate
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Formal Training ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Temporary Foreign Workers ◽  
News Outlet

This paper attempts to show how public opinion discursively legitimates the subordinate status that low-skilled temporary foreign workers are assigned in Canada. The author first shows how this status has been created through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and, more specifically, the Pilot Project for Occupations Requiring Lower Levels of Formal Training. In order to analyze public opinion, comments made online in reference to news outlet articles concerning low-skilled temporary foreign workers were located. Using a dual labor market theoretical framework a critical discourse analysis is performed on these comments, attempting to uncover how power and dominance are reproduced within them. The results of this analysis demonstrate how the discourse contained within public opinion helps to maintain the current status faced by this population.

scholarly journals Making Temporary Permanent: The Silent Transformation of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Just Labour ◽  
1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Foster
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Temporary Foreign Workers ◽  
Term Labour

During the mid-2000s the number of temporary foreign workers (TFWs)present in Canada increased dramatically, more thantripling in eight years. Thebulk of the increase was due to an expansion of theTemporary Foreign WorkerProgram (TFWP) to include lower-skilled occupations. The stated reason for theexpansion was to address short-term labour shortages. Contrary to expectations,upon the onset of the economic downturn in 2008, the number of TFWs did notdecrease significantly, and appears to be increasing again in 2010 and 2011. Thispaper tracks the evolution of the TFWP from a stable program designed toaddress short-term labour needs in high-skilled occupations into a broaderlabour market tool. The paper examines the most recent available statistical datafor the TFWP and other documentary evidence to argue the role of the TFWP inCanada’s labour market has quietly shifted, becoming a permanent, large-scalelabour pool for many industries, reminiscent of European migrant workerprograms. The paper also examines the potential labour market implications ofan expanded, entrenched TFWP.

scholarly journals Remaining Competitive In The Global Economy Through Temporary Migrant Labour? One "Short-TGerm" Step Forward And Two "Long-Term" Steps Backward In Canadian Immigration

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick M. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Temporary Foreign Workers ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Canadian Immigration ◽  
Short And Long Term

In the last 10 years, the creation and expansion of the Low Skill Pilot Project (LSPP) has substantially increased the scope of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, ultimately eclipsing permanent immigration into Canada. The consequences, while positive for employers in the short-term, are perverse for Canada’s principles of social justice and equity in the long-term. It is also not clear whether the Project serves Canada’s immigration goals and national interests in the long term. This paper examines the LSPP’s creation and development, and analyzes short and long-term implications for Canadian society and the “Canada brand” of immigration, which refers to Canada’s image as a “destination of choice” for would-be immigrants the world over. This paper draws attention to the dichotomy of labour rights, wages and benefits of skilled and unskilled temporary foreign workers. A juxtaposition of two foreign worker categories within a dual labour segmentation framework illustrates this phenomenon.

scholarly journals Remaining Competitive In The Global Economy Through Temporary Migrant Labour? One "Short-TGerm" Step Forward And Two "Long-Term" Steps Backward In Canadian Immigration

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick M. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Temporary Foreign Workers ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Canadian Immigration ◽  
Short And Long Term

In the last 10 years, the creation and expansion of the Low Skill Pilot Project (LSPP) has substantially increased the scope of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, ultimately eclipsing permanent immigration into Canada. The consequences, while positive for employers in the short-term, are perverse for Canada’s principles of social justice and equity in the long-term. It is also not clear whether the Project serves Canada’s immigration goals and national interests in the long term. This paper examines the LSPP’s creation and development, and analyzes short and long-term implications for Canadian society and the “Canada brand” of immigration, which refers to Canada’s image as a “destination of choice” for would-be immigrants the world over. This paper draws attention to the dichotomy of labour rights, wages and benefits of skilled and unskilled temporary foreign workers. A juxtaposition of two foreign worker categories within a dual labour segmentation framework illustrates this phenomenon.

Implikasi Kemasukan Pekerja Asing Di Malaysia: Suatu Tinjauan Awal

Sains Insani ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-77
Author(s):  
Intan Suria Hamzah ◽  
Sity Daud
Keyword(s):  
Development Process ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
The World

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.

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