Experience with the Development of Legislation and Regulations of Temporary Labour Migration Programs 2nd RCM Workshop on Temporary Migrant Workers Programs Santo Domingo, República Dominicana, April 28-29, 2011

Key Components in Legislation and Regulation  Labour market tests and requirements on employers  Employment authorizations  Worker protections  Enforcement and follow-up capacity

Labour Market Tests and Requirements on Employers Case-by-case: Comparable wages in the occupation Efforts to hire domestic workers Assesment of labour market information Fees and additional costs on employers (e.g., transportation and recruitment) Open permits: Positive labour market conditions or other reasons (e.g. International agreements, etc.) Low-risk occupations/situations Employer registries Follow-up capacity

Employment Authorizations  Is it necessary that an employer be approved to hire a migrant worker, or is it possible for the worker to initiate the process?  Employer-specific or occupation-specific employment authorizations  “Open” employment authorizations  Positive labour market conditions or other reasons (e.g. International agreements, etc.)  Low-risk occupations/situations  Authorizations for a defined period of time  Follow-up capacity

Protection mechanisms for migrant workers  Same labour protections that domestic workers  Legal requirement for employers to meet the initial conditions related to the hiring of migrant workers  Regulation of recruiters and third-party representatives of migrant workers  Access to protection mechanisms in practice  Important to note that migrant workers need to initiate a number of processes related to their own protection

Enforcement  Important that enforcement legislation consider possible breaches by employers, migrant workers, or third parties  Design of penalties  Fines  Prohibition from future hiring of migrant workers (employers/third parties) or loss of migratory status (migrant workers)  Imprisonment in critical cases (e.g. human trafficking)  IT systems and capacity to share information  Resources that will allow for the enforcement and follow-up in the event of breaches

 Managed jointly by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) under authority of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA)  Employer-driven. Employers can hire Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) from any country in any legal occupation provided that IRPA requirements are met. No caps  Labour Market Test (LMT) upfront to ensure efforts to hire Canadian workers, genuineness of offer, and similar wages/working conditions offered to TFWs as to Canadian workers. Exemptions exist from LMT  TFWs protected under same labour legislation as Canadians, noting that in Canada, labour standard legislation and protections fall largely under provincial/territorial (PT) jurisdiction  Ability to refuse access to employers who fail to provide wages/working conditions to TFWs as those outlined in original job offers (introduced April 2011) Annex: Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program

 Additional requirements for employers of TFWs in lower-skilled occupations (e.g. employer-employee contracts, two-way transportation, all recruitment costs, etc.)  New federal legislation on regulation of immigration consultants, and efforts to regulate labour recruiters by some PTs  Pathways for permanent residence for TFWs in all managerial, professional, and technical occupations, and some lower-skilled occupations (primarily under PT permanent residence programs)  Out of the 182,322 TFWs that entered Canada in 2010, 68,006 or 37% entered in professional, managerial, and technical/trade occupations (NOC O, A, and B); 50,663 or 28% entered in lower-skilled occupations (NOC C and D); and 63,653 or 35% entered Annex: Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (cont’d)