After conducting recruitment campaigns around the world to meet its labour needs, Canada is backtracking. The government announced measures on Wednesday, September 18, to restrict the number of people hired on a temporary basis, as well as the number of students recruited abroad.
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With our correspondent in Quebec, Pascale Guericolas
” Want to come to Canada It may be a dream, but it is a privilege, not a right.. » This warning from Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller clearly illustrates the change of tone in Ottawa on the subject.
Concerned about the difficulties in accessing housing and public services, the government wants to reduce the number of low-wage foreigners hired by companies on a temporary basis. Welders and mechanics, employed to fill labour needs outside major cities, risk not being able to renew their work permits.
” Starting next week, these companies will have to make choices. If a company already has 60 % of low-wage foreign workers, it will not be able to renew all its workers. Several companies are currently in panic “, notes Krishna Gagné, a lawyer specializing in immigration.
Fear of losing your job overnight
Many people deplore the lack of transition measures. Some risk losing their jobs overnight, as Claire Launay of the Association le Québec, c’est nous aussi laments: ” These are just life plans that fall completely into the water for thousands of people, if they cannot renew their work permit when these rules did not exist when they arrived in Canada. “, fears Claire Launay.
According to her, temporary immigrants could therefore find themselves without papers.
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