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In OECD countries, international mobility programs such as youth mobility schemes have gained popularity over the last years. In Canada, the International Mobility Program (IMP) has become the dominant mechanism for temporary migrant workers to enter into Canada, and yet, this stream has operated largely below the radar of public debate. Our article focuses on International Experience Canada (IEC), a category of the IMP allowing young people to work and travel in Canada. Based on documentary, survey and interview material with IEC participants, we investigate how the IEC regulatory framework influences the employment and immigration experiences of these young workers. We argue that, instead of being a form of privileged youth mobility, the IEC is composed of multiple regulations resulting in significant variations in conditions of admission and stay among migrant workers. This situation leads to differentiated employment conditions and uneven transitions to permanent residence.
This article reports on a study of occupational health and safety (OHS) challenges for Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) in Low- and High-Skilled occupations, based on twenty-two cases drawn from a broader study in three Canadian provinces. Interviewees in construction, meat processing, hospitality, and fast food reported concerns regarding working conditions and OHS issues. These include: precarious migration status affecting voice; contrasting access to social support; and mechanisms undermining regulatory effectiveness. Sources of vulnerability include: closed work permits, making workers dependent on a single employer for job security and family reunification; ineffective means to ensure contractual compliance and TFW invisibility attributable to their dispersal throughout the labour market. Violations include increased workload without an increase in pay and non-compliance with OHS and contractual rules without oversight. Positive and negative practices are discussed. Recommendations include improving migration security to preserve worker voice and facilitating communication between immigration and OHS authorities.
Although much research has examined the occupational health and safety (OHS) and workers’ compensation (WC) implications of precarious employment and temporary international labor migration, little is known about the implications of diverse types of employment-related geographic mobility for regulatory effectiveness of OHS and WC. This article examines different types of extended mobility to determine regulatory effectiveness of OHS and WC protections. Based on classic legal analysis in seven Canadian jurisdictions, and interviews with key informants, we found that the invisibility of the internally mobile workforce, as well as the alternating visibility and invisibility of temporary foreign workers, contribute to reduced effectiveness of the OHS and WC regulation. Results point to the need for better protections to address working conditions, but also the hazards and challenges associated with mobility itself including getting to and from work, living at work, and maintaining work–life balance while living at the worksite.
The spectrum of employment-related geographical mobility ranges from hours-long daily commutes to journeys that take workers away from home for an extended period of time. Although distance and travel conditions vary, there is a strong consensus within existing literature that mobility has physical, psychological, and social repercussions. However, is time spent traveling considered as working time? This question is crucial as it dictates whether or not workers can effectively access different sets of labor rights. The objective of this paper is twofold. First, contributing to a deeper understanding of travel time by offering a more sustained and complex representation of the various employment-related travel schemes. Second, assessing the circumstances under which travel time counts as work time with regard to the employment standards legislation in force in four Canadian provinces: Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and British Colombia.
This article reports on a study of occupational health and safety (OHS) challenges for temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in low- and high-skilled occupations, based on twenty-two cases drawn from a broader study in three Canadian provinces. Interviewees in construction, meat processing, hospitality, and fast food reported concerns regarding working conditions and OHS issues. They include precarious migration status affecting voice; contrasting access to social support; and mechanisms undermining regulatory effectiveness. Sources of vulnerability include closed work permits (making workers dependent on a single employer for job security and family reunification); ineffective means to ensure contractual compliance; and TFW invisibility attributable to their dispersal throughout the labor market. Violations include increased workload without an increase in pay and non-compliance with OHS and contractual rules without oversight. Positive and negative practices are discussed. Recommendations include improving migration security to preserve worker voice and facilitating communication between immigration and OHS authorities.
This report aims to explore and compare Employment-Related
Geographical Mobility (“ERGM”) issues with regards
to minimum employment standards (“ES”) of several Canadian
provinces. ERGM entails “extended travel and related
absences from places of permanent residence for the
purpose of, and as part of, employment”.1 The scope of
such travels is variable: they extend from a daily total of
3 hours to more extended absences. ERGM differs from
cases of immigration involving permanent relocation. This
report seeks to contribute to the policy component of the
“On the move” research project.
