Reforms, Reports, Reckoning

How Canada’s Immigration Policies Prioritize Economic Value Over Human Rights

Abstract

            In 2014, Canada introduced sweeping reforms to its Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) that significantly heightened the precarity of migrant workers. A decade later, new policy changes have emerged, this time, alongside a damning United Nations report accusing Canada of enabling modern slavery through its treatment of its temporary foreign workers. This paper argues that Canada’s long standing prioritization of economic growth consistently eclipses its proclaimed commitment to human rights, reducing migrant workers to disposable labour units rather than rights-bearing individuals. Tracing the trajectory of the TFWP over the last decade, this paper examines the 2014 reforms, the classification of low-wage migrants as ‘essential’ during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the 2024 rollback of those pandemic-era measures. At the heart of the analysis lies a central question: Do the 2024 policy changes represent a continuation of Canada’s prioritization of economic growth, or, in the face of international condemnation, do they signal a potential towards a more just, human-rights-oriented approach to labour migration?