Canadian PM says no to long-staying temporary workers

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper vows not to have a “permanent underclass’ of temporary workers. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

SAN FRANCISCO — Canada will not have an immigration system where temporary foreign workers are in the country over the long term without having the same rights as Canadians, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said May 8.

During a joint press conference on Parliament Hill with visiting President Benigno Aquino, a Filipino journalist asked Harper about recent changes to the temporary foreign worker program, which have hurt Filipino nannies and other caregivers. Thousands have had to leave jobs with Canadian families and return home after their visas expired, according to a CBC News report.

The new rules impose a four-year limit on temporary foreign workers and there is a backlog of permanent residency applications that makes it difficult for caregivers to stay longer.

Harper said his government wants to make sure that immigrants were not filling jobs that Canadians could do.

“Just as importantly, we’re making sure that when people come to this country to work and to work long-term, they have the ability to move towards being permanent citizens of this country,” he said.

“This country is not going to have a policy, as long as I’m prime minister, where we will have a permanent underclass of people who are so-called temporary, but here forever, with no rights of citizenship and no rights of mobility,” CBC News quoted Harper.

“That is not the Canadian way we do immigration. So we’re going to make sure that program does not drift in that direction,” he said.

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