Sarah James deliberate to leap from her sister’s sixth-floor balcony within the late winter of 2020. She modified her thoughts when she thought of the issues her suicide may trigger her sister. Higher to be hit by a subway practice, James reasoned. Within the years that adopted, she would stand on station platforms and anticipate a practice to leap in entrance of. Every time, one thing stopped her. “Someone is pushing me again,” she stated. “Possibly that’s God.”
The stress of her life as a short lived international employee, and the ache of being away from her household in India, had damaged James (her title has been modified). She’d endured almost two nightmarish years as a caregiver for an aged couple in Etobicoke. The spouse she cared for refused to permit James to dwell within the apartment. James wakened at 5 every morning to catch the bus from her sister’s house in Scarborough to Etobicoke—a three-hour journey. The spouse insisted James clear the apartment with bleach, filling the home with chlorine fumes. She wouldn’t present her with meals or let James cook dinner for herself. As an alternative of consuming, James informed me, she typically drank Canada Dry. The carbonation made her stomach really feel full.
When the husband died in the summertime of 2021, James needed to discover a new employer. The next spring, she was employed as a live-in caregiver in Mississauga for a girl with dementia. However this job was no higher than the primary. The ailing lady’s daughter and son-in-law, James’s employers, barely offered sufficient meals for his or her mom, and James must stretch out provisions. She was additionally given a paltry $100 a month for her personal groceries. James obtained one ragged bedsheet and needed to pay to make use of the apartment’s shared washing machines and for her personal detergent.
In response to James’s contract, she could be paid for six hours a day, 5 days per week. However no one was employed to alleviate her, and her shopper’s dementia meant she couldn’t be left alone. James’s duties by no means actually ended. The lady would both climb out or fall from her mattress almost each night time, and James, exhausted, would coax her again to sleep. She figures she tended to the girl for greater than twelve hours every single day however was by no means paid for greater than six.
James’s employers designated Tuesdays and Thursdays as her days off. These have been hardly holidays. The lady’s daughter would come to the apartment at round eleven within the morning to alleviate James, and James needed to return by six within the night. So her days off lasted solely about seven hours. James would generally go to her sister’s place, however this required 4 bus transfers. Often, although, she’d keep close by. James would wander in regards to the mall alone till six or pray on the native church.
She had few good choices. Like the vast majority of non permanent international staff in Canada, employed to fill short-term labour and ability shortages, she had been issued an employer-specific work allow—one which tied her to a selected firm. If she give up or was fired, she’d lose her authorized standing and threat deportation.
A case employee with a group group urged James to use for an open work allow for susceptible staff—staff who expertise or are prone to experiencing abuse. Such a allow would permit her to sever ties together with her employer and discover one other boss with out jeopardizing her immigration standing. Collectively they ready a letter outlining the small print of her employment and what she endured. James included a replica of her unique contract, her pay stubs, and a ledger of the hours she really labored.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the federal government physique chargeable for these requests, denied James’s declare. The work allow software James had despatched in nearly a 12 months earlier had but to be processed. With out it, she was ineligible for the open allow. She tried once more, this time with a assist letter from her sister’s member of Parliament. She was rejected once more, for a similar motive. The case employee arrange a convention name with an immigration officer, who requested to talk to James straight. She was requested if the employers had bodily assaulted her. They hadn’t, however her unpaid wages and extreme work hours certified as monetary abuse. “She feels pity on me,” James stated of the officer.
James obtained the open allow in December 2022 and celebrated the New Yr by giving her bosses discover.
By the time I met James, I’d spent two years researching a guide about migrant staff in Canada and chatting with them about their harrowing experiences with employer-specific work permits—additionally referred to as closed permits. Two ladies from Guatemala informed me in regards to the verbal abuse and harsh work circumstances they confronted on a BC blueberry farm. I met with a farm employee who was terminated for complaining about unsafe dwelling circumstances after considered one of his co-workers died of COVID-19. An Ontario employer employed a crew of Filipino staff to work in a bakery however pressured them to prune timber on his farm. After they complained about this and the harassment they confronted from their non-migrant co-workers, he fired them.
Migrant employee advocates have lengthy criticized the best way closed permits entice staff with exploitative bosses. In a 2016 report on the Short-term International Employee Program, a Home of Commons standing committee suggested eliminating the employer-specific system altogether. As an alternative, in June 2019, IRCC carried out open work permits for susceptible staff. They predicted round 500 annual purposes. By the top of 2019, in response to knowledge obtained by the Migrant Employees Centre in Vancouver, the ministry had already obtained 567. Nearly twice as many staff utilized in 2020. In 2023, greater than 1,300 staff got permits. As of final November, round 4,000 open work permits have been granted because the program’s inception—a quantity that reveals the vulnerability of Canada’s migrant labour power.
The open allow program has attracted scrutiny and skeptics. Researchers from the Affiliation for the Rights of Family and Farm Employees and the College of Ottawa College of Legislation printed a research in 2022 analyzing this system’s impression on staff. Their article, titled “Band-Help on a Bullet Wound,” included interviews with ten members from British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario. The members included representatives from authorized clinics, staff’ rights organizations, and a union that gives assist to migrant staff. Between them, that they had assisted or intervened in almost 200 purposes for open work permits.
Bélanger believes the federal government launched the susceptible employee program realizing it will do little to assist.
The article revealed a number of issues. For instance, staff who apply concern reprisals if their employers discover out. Many candidates require authorized assist and translation companies to organize their purposes, however such companies are usually not all the time accessible. Immigration officers may not acknowledge staff’ experiences as abuse in any respect, even with clear violations of provincial employment and well being and security legal guidelines. Employees may lack laptop entry, or transportation from their remoted farms, to finish the purposes. To qualify, candidates should define the character of the abuse they’re experiencing, or threat experiencing, and collect sufficient proof to fulfill immigration officers. This may be tough—staff could not know they should accumulate proof, witnesses to abuse could also be scarce, and psychological harassment doesn’t often depart a paper path.
Recounting their expertise to program officers causes many staff profound misery. These officers have been hardly geared up for the job. In response to Danièle Bélanger, the Canada analysis chair in international migration processes at Université Laval, these tasked with assessing purposes seemed to be largely former visa officers, “so initially they weren’t skilled to interview individuals who had skilled trauma or abuse.” The officers appeared targeted on figuring out fraud, not exploitation. That they had extra of a border management mentality. Ultimately, the federal government accepted solely about half of the employees who utilized.
Maybe the most important flaw with the open allow program pertains to its slender focus. By defining vulnerability solely when it comes to the non-public experiences of a person employee at a particular office, the coverage ignores the vulnerability imposed on staff by the TFW system itself. The coverage doesn’t deal with the truth that the entire machine is damaged.
Mac Danly Trinidad’s supervisor accused him of “taking part in video games” after a metallic bar in a Leamington, Ontario, greenhouse struck him on the brow and left him too dizzy to work for days. (He had no security helmet, solely a hairnet.) His supervisor abruptly fired him.
Trinidad and his lawyer utilized for an open allow, gathering all of the proof he had, together with textual content messages from his supervisor and supervisor, data of his visits to a clinic, and a sworn affidavit of the incident. Trinidad considered his household again within the Philippines, particularly his teenaged daughter, who have been counting on his assist from Canada. “I skilled despair. You strive your greatest in your firm. You’re employed laborious. Then one thing occurs they usually resolve like that. I felt so very unhappy that point. However I don’t wish to return house.”
The existence of open permits is a tacit admission by the federal government that exploitation plagues our non permanent international employee program.
Trinidad was accepted per week later and shortly discovered work at a New Brunswick–based mostly meals processor with a plant in Wheatley, Ontario. However Trinidad fears that his new employers may need balked in the event that they realized he’d obtained his work allow as a susceptible employee. The designation can change into a crimson flag, an indication the employee could also be tough to handle, and thus a dangerous rent, even when the alternative is true. So whereas the open allow permits the holder to use nearly anyplace, it will probably additionally label them as a troublemaker.
The open allow program additionally fails to assist profitable candidates within the months that comply with. Some staff join with employee networks or group organizations that assist them. “However some individuals get type of misplaced,” says Bélanger. These misplaced staff find yourself as simple marks. Bélanger is aware of of a employee in Quebec who obtained an open work allow and was instantly set upon by somebody who provided the employee a job. “The employee trusted this particular person,” explains Bélanger, “and didn’t notice he was really employed underneath the desk. Then, progressively, issues bought worse.” With out follow-up help, susceptible staff can emerge from this system no much less traumatized than earlier than.
Like with most holders of open work permits, Trinidad’s allow expired after a 12 months. And the permits can hardly ever be renewed. Which means staff could spend the primary few months of the allow looking for a job, leaving them valuable little time for precise paid work. Fortunately, Trinidad’s new employers appreciated him and utilized for a Labour Market Affect Evaluation, which, if granted, would permit them to rehire Trinidad on a closed work allow. Nevertheless, their software was unsuccessful, and Trinidad needed to depart the job when his open work allow expired a 12 months later.
And this factors to one more flaw of this system. As soon as these open permits expire, staff return to the very employer-specific system they’d loved a reprieve from. One of many members within the “Band-Help” research recalled a shopper who had been sexually assaulted by her employer. The thought of going again on a closed work allow horrified her. She’d skilled, first hand, the stranglehold exploitative employers have over staff. Bélanger believes the federal government launched the susceptible employee program realizing it will do little to handle these uneven energy dynamics. Certainly, she means that’s one motive IRCC anticipated so few purposes.
Individuals “who come right here as non permanent staff wish to be everlasting,” Trinidad stated. “However there is no such thing as a option to be everlasting.” Few pathways to everlasting residency, or PR, exist for non permanent international staff in what Canada deems “low-skilled” jobs like Trinidad’s. In June 2019, the federal government launched two pilot applications permitting a restricted variety of caregivers to use for PR. One other pilot program, which started in Could 2020—and was prolonged final 12 months to Could 2025—will permit as much as 2,750 staff within the agri-food sector per 12 months to do the identical. However seasonal workers are usually not eligible, and for causes which are unclear, hours earned underneath an open allow gained’t depend as work expertise. Provinces even have their very own provincial nominee applications for granting PR. Most migrant staff in “low-skilled” roles, although, languish within the limbo of being completely non permanent. The susceptible employee program does nothing to handle this both.
The subsequent neatest thing to being a everlasting resident may be to work alongside them. “There are lots of residents working there,” Trinidad stated of the meals processing plant. “And everlasting residents. They work for a few years.” He reasoned that if the job “will not be good, they gained’t keep there.” Trinidad’s remark uncovered one thing troubling. In sure conditions, one of many simpler protections towards exploitation and abuse isn’t a susceptible employee program and a short-lived open allow; it’s sharing a office with non-migrants whom their employer can not exploit and abuse as simply. The rights of their Canadian co-workers act as a power subject for staff who’ve few rights of their very own.
Meanwhile, the unhealthy bosses keep it up. Whereas the susceptible employee program may present migrants an escape from abuse, this system metes out scant punishment to the abusers themselves. In response to an tutorial video on the open work allow, IRCC intends to research the previous employers of all accepted candidates. “Maybe these investigations are taking place,” stated Amanda Aziz, workers lawyer on the Migrant Employees Centre, “however we actually haven’t seen lots of penalties.”
So what would deter employers from exploiting their staff? Migrant allies have lengthy campaigned the federal government to make sure everlasting residency standing to all migrant staff upon arrival. This could give migrants the identical office protections and freedoms Canadian staff take with no consideration. Everlasting residency additionally permits staff to deliver their households to Canada, enabling the kind of reunion together with her daughters James yearns for. As an interim measure, nevertheless, advocates demand the federal government supply open permits to all migrant staff, susceptible or not. This could stop staff from being sure to horrible bosses—and, ideally, compel bosses to be much less horrible.
One latest signal suggests the federal government may be inching in that route. In November 2023, Marc Miller, the minister of immigration, refugees, and citizenship, informed a Commons standing committee the federal government is contemplating extra versatile permits that permit staff to modify jobs throughout the identical sector or geographical space. Nevertheless, Miller additionally stated he didn’t really feel the federal government ought to section out closed work permits completely. “Whether or not a extra open or regional type of allow is fascinating is one thing I’m glad to have a look at,” he stated. “However I don’t assume this alerts the top of closed work permits.”
This may please employers who concern workers will flee for higher working circumstances. “If we’re solely going to have the ability to entice staff to industries and sectors by tying them to their employers,” Aziz stated, “doesn’t that imply there’s something improper with that employer?” As an alternative of striving to create an surroundings the place their staff would really wish to work, some employers need circumstances that hold their staff in bondage.
It’s laborious to keep away from seeing the susceptible employee program as an affront to the precept of free labour: {that a} employee ought to be capable of change jobs with out requiring approval from a 3rd occasion. Leaving a job shouldn’t be contingent on convincing an official sitting behind a authorities desk someplace that you just’ve been sufficiently abused. Canada’s non permanent migrant employee system, although, relies on imposing circumstances on foreigners that we’d by no means settle for ourselves.
The existence of open permits is a tacit admission by the Canadian authorities that exploitation plagues our non permanent international employee program. However this system does little to stop these abuses, compensate those that undergo them, or punish those that inflict them. Nor does this system inoculate a employee from the system’s informal cruelties. I met Cassandra Cordero at her house in Leamington. After graduating with an agriculture diploma within the Philippines, she utilized for a greenhouse job in Canada. She was handled poorly. Along with conflicts together with her employer over hours, Cordero stated, she confronted sexual harassment from her co-workers. When the abuse turned insupportable, she efficiently utilized for an open work allow as a susceptible international employee.
Armed together with her new allow, Cordero joined a manufacturing line at a meals processing plant in Leamington. She loved the circumstances and felt inspired to come back out as a transgender lady. She even wore a costume to the corporate Christmas occasion. “It’s like I used to be Cinderella,” she stated. “I feel it was one of many happiest moments of my life.”
Her happiness was short-lived. In January 2022, docs within the Philippines identified Cordero’s mom, Zenaida, with terminal lung most cancers. Cordero needed to be at her bedside when she handed away. Cordero’s open work allow had expired, nevertheless. If she left Canada, she wouldn’t be capable of come again. Cordero wrote a letter to the prime minister, which was then forwarded to an immigration officer, pleading for permission to journey to the Philippines and return. She was refused.
Cordero, heartbroken, determined to desert her “Canadian dream” and fly abroad to be with Zenaida. “I needed to offer this up so I can see her and care for her for the final day,” she stated. However her siblings satisfied her to remain in Canada for the sake of the household’s future. They stated their mom would perceive and forgive her absence. Cordero stayed behind. Her mom died with out her.
Mary Kirkpatrick is a Montreal-based illustrator. Her illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Occasions, and Vox.
