March 5, 2009
By Carlito Pablo
The Georgia Straight is a Vancouver alt-weekly paper, and this was published in their paper and on their website.
Temporary "foreign" workers are always vulnerable: their labor is often desperately needed to support a country's economy, since it falls within the "3 Ds" category (dirty, dangerous, and/or demeaning - such as the construction industry or, in a slightly different way, Canada's live-in caregiver program) and citizens are unwilling to do it. Their tenuous legal status, however, creates an opportunity for exploitation - migrants are often more likely to put up with poor working conditions, pay, and workplace abuse to avoid being deported - and as an economy slumps, temporary "foreign" workers can be legally let go & deported (or illegally, if their contracts are not up) as to reduce job competition for citizens. This article does a good job of alluding to these deeper issues within any temporary "foreign" worker program as the economy brings them to the forefront.
According to [Erika Del Carmen Fuchs], many temporary workers don’t know that they have the same rights as Canadians and permanent residents in the workplace. But what bothers her more is the way these workers are regarded in general. “You need them when times are good but you don’t need them when times are bad,” she said.
Because really...
these people have become an “invisible work force” because no one has the job of identifying and serving them.
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