Befürworter befürchten, dass vorübergehende Einwanderungskürzungen keine systemischen Probleme lösen | Der „ausbeuterische Charakter“ des TFW-Programms bleibt bestehen, sagt Menschenrechtsaktivist

Some issues identified by the article:

>The cuts are being made to the temporary foreign worker program and the international student program. The 2026 target for temporary foreign worker (TFW) arrivals is now 60,000, down from the 82,000 the government announced last year, and the international student target is now 150,000, down from 305,900.
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>The move aligns with the tougher stance the Carney government has made on immigration compared to his predecessor, Justin Trudeau.
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>During a conversation at the Canadian Club in Toronto on Friday, Carney mentioned that in 2018 temporary residents were about three per cent of Canada’s population, and by the time he became prime minister they made up 7.5 per cent.
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>“That is an enormous shift in a very short period of time, and far exceeded our ability to welcome people and make sure that they had good housing and services,” said Carney.
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>The TFW program allows employers to hire foreign workers to fill positions that are unable to be filled by Canadians.
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>A report from Amnesty International called on the federal government to overhaul the TFW program and Tomoya Obokata, a special rapporteur for the UN Human Rights Office, called the program “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”
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>The top occupations for temporary foreign workers are in agriculture, often as general farm workers or harvesting labourers.
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>Berry Mendez said the root of the problem is that the TFW visa ties the worker to their employer. The program also prevents temporary foreign workers from pursuing permanent residency because they are seen as “low-skilled,” she said.
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>“If they’re in a situation of abuse then they’re pretty much trapped,” she said.
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>During the process of assembling the Amnesty International report, Berry Mendez said she heard stories of wage theft, unsafe living and working conditions, verbal abuse, sexual abuse and violence.
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>The cuts to international students could have a significant impact on the resources of post-secondary institutions, said Annabree Fairweather, the executive director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C.
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>In Canada, undergraduate international students were expected to pay an average of $41,746 in tuition this school year, compared with $7,734 for domestic students.
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>Universities and colleges across the country have increasingly relied upon international students for funding. Provincial funding to universities fell from 60.7 per cent in 2008-09 to 44.8 per cent in 2022-23. The average was weighed down by Ontario, whose public funding fell from 54.3 per cent in 2008-09 to 32.5 per cent in 2022-23.
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>Last year, after the federal government placed a cap on international students, institutions struggled to fill the financial gap. The Council of Ontario Universities projected a financial loss of $300 million for last school year, and worsening losses in the years following.
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>Post-secondary institutions have had to reduce costs by cutting programs and teaching positions. Conestoga College, based in Kitchener, Ont., cut several programs days before the start of the school year, and said it will axe around 80 programs before next fall.
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>Both Fairweather and Joomun said federal and provincial governments need to reassess how they fund education in order to make up for the shortfall the reduction of international student tuition causes.
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>“Targeting international students without addressing the real issue of funding in post-secondary is a short-sighted approach,” said Fairweather.

The two major issues here, namely temporary workers and international students, require more systemic changes if we want to make changes to the status quo without breaking our systems. For too long we have as a society kicked the can down the road with building domestic capacity for various work tasks, as well as with funding post-secondary education. Our solution for years was to bring in temporary workers and international students to fill gaps in the labour pool as well as post-secondary budgets.

The former has been deeply exploitative to workers as it ties them to a specific employer, and limits their ability to become permanent residents. The latter has been deeply damaging to bona fide educational institutions that rely on international students to fund the shortfalls they face in their budgets, and also have spawned a cottage industry of poorly regulated diploma mills that harms the students directly.

We should be thinking more holistically about how we fund our public educational institutions, and how to make them more resilient in world where a well educated public is an increasingly important competitive advantage. We should also be looking at what we need with workers domestically over the long term, and be preparing to meet those needs. Some of that is likely to require the hiring of those from outside the country, and if that’s the case then we need to make sure that they are treated fairly, and that this also does not negatively impact those who are already here by depressing wages and opportunities. If they are important enough to bring over, then they are important enough to treat them properly and give them ways to continue to contribute fully to Canadian society.