A United Nations official who denounced Canada’s temporary foreign worker program as “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery” nearly a year ago doubled down on his criticism in a final report, stressing that granting migrant workers permanent resident status is necessary to end ongoing exploitation.
Tomoya Obokata, the UN’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, said in September that he was “deeply disturbed by the accounts of exploitation and abuse shared” with him by migrant workers during a two-week fact-finding mission to Canada in August 2023.
A year later, in a final report, Obokata said the “structural precarity for temporary foreign workers would be mitigated by systematically providing workers with a pathway to permanent residence.”
“This would also reflect the fact that, despite their nominally temporary nature, the demand for labour met by the migration programs is permanent, as evinced by the growing numbers of people entering Canada through these programs.”
Demand for temporary foreign workers in Canada has surged in recent years. Employers were given the green light to hire almost 240,000 temporary foreign workers in 2023, according to data from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) — more than double the number in 2018.
The TFW program is intended as a “last resort for employers to fill jobs for which qualified Canadians are not available,” according to ESDC. But critics say jobs across all sectors — including agriculture, health care, food-service and construction — are increasingly being occupied by a precarious and vulnerable workforce simply to keep wages low.
As the program expands, so have the number allegations of abuse and fraud — to the point where earlier last week, Canadian Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault declared that the “abuse and misuse of the TFW program must end,” and promised more stringent oversight to keep “bad actors” in check.
But Obokata’s report criticized the government’s “recent policy shift to reduce the number of temporary residents,” adding that the change “will not address the challenges faced by those who continue to enter through the same programs.”
Temporary foreign workers aren’t able to quit and immediately find another job like Canadian residents can, and that’s what makes them so vulnerable to exploitation, critics say.
These workers have precarious immigration status and their permits are tied to one employer, which means that complaining about an employer or poor working conditions could cost them their job — and their legal status in Canada.
Obokata pointed out that the government’s recent efforts to improve protections for migrant workers, including sector-specific and open work permits, fall short of what’s needed.
Shifting from employer-specific to “sector-specific work permits is, on its own, unlikely to significantly improve conditions for workers,” as employers within sectors often know one another and attempts “to change jobs may not be successful due to stigmatization,” the report said.
And while vulnerable workers who are victims of abuse can apply for an open work permit — typically issued for one year and renewable under limited circumstances — the report maintains that “this does not provide an effective solution,” as workers must remain in precarious situations while awaiting a decision for their application.
“Clear status for all migrant workers would provide them with a secure footing on which to enjoy the full spectrum of their human rights, while continuing to contribute to Canadian society,” the UN report said.
Karen Cocq, an advocate with Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, agrees that without permanent status, the threat of deportation and exploitation remains.
“We’ve seen a number of partial measures, like open work permits, that simply have failed to deal with the root cause of the problem,” Cocq said.
“Workers have been saying this for decades now … there needs to be a structural and systemic solution.”
