Perspective Canada: Professional Occupations

Occupation Group Dept: In 2004, Canada admitted 112,543 TFWs. By 2008, this had grown to 192,281 a growth of 57 per cent before declining somewhat in 2009. To put this in perspective, Canada now admits almost triple the number of TFWs as it does immigrants under the conventional "Economic Class." The expansion in the TFW program is unprecedented and represents a sea change in immigration policy. Yet there has been only limited debate on this issue it received a short mention by Jack Layton in the leaders debate , according to Vancouver Sun. Underlying this rationale is a view of the economy as an engine. If one piece in the engine is missing -no matter how small -the whole engine will stop. On the face of it, this appears reasonable. If a specialized technician is needed and can't be found in Canada, bringing in a person on a temporary basis to set up a new piece of technology seems like a good idea. That is how the TFW program was justified in the past. But with the number of TFWs entering in a year far exceeding the number of regular economic immigrants, this can't be the only argument behind the current program. In fact, the number of TFWs in professional occupations where one might reasonably make a skill-gap argument did not change between 2005 and 2009, while the number of TFWs in the "Elemental and Labourers" occupation group which, by definition, does not include workers with advanced skills increased by 400 per cent and an election should be a time to discuss key policy directions. One of the biggest policy transformations in the Harper era has been the enormous growth in Temporary Foreign Workers TFWs - "guest" workers who come to Canada for short periods, generally tied to specific employers, without future prospects for immigration or citizenship, and without a genuine ability to defend and protect their workplace rights if they believe their employment rights or workplace safety has been violated, and they complain, they may be rewarded with a ticket home . What is the rationale for this expansion? In its Annual Report to Parliament, Citizenship and Immigration Canada argues that TFWs are needed to "address labour market shortages and to provide other economic opportunities for Canadians." As reported in the news.
@t skill gap, vancouver sun