New immigrants and foreign workers with approved
visas always end up being short-changed, by the government, their employers and
recruiting agencies. It’s the heavy price they pay for the opportunity to come
to North America, whether in the United States or in Canada.
In Prince George’s County and Baltimore in the
state of Maryland, about 1,000 Filipino teachers face deportation or run the
risk of being undocumented immigrants. These teachers were recruited by Prince
George’s County Public School (PGCPS) to fill vacancies and help meet
federally-mandated “No Child Left Behind” standards imposed by former U.S. President
George W. Bush. Only a handful of them will survive the threat of deportation,
mostly from the first batch of mentors who came in 2003-2004 and have already obtained
their “green cards.”
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| Filipino teachers in Prince George's County in Maryland say their visas will not be renewed after the U.S. Department of Labour found that their school violated H-1B visa rules. Photo courtesy of All Voices. Click link to view "Pinoy Teachers in PGCPS," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vh1o7ky4AI |
These teachers were recruited from the Philippines
under the U.S. H-1B program which requires that workers hired under the program
must be paid at least the same wage rates and benefits as those paid to U.S.
workers doing the same job in the same area. The rationale for the law is to
ensure that the wages of similarly employed U.S. workers are not adversely
affected.
But Prince George’s County charged visa, travel and
other various fees from the teachers’ wages, prompting the U.S. Department of
Labour to find PGCPS in wilful violation of H-1B visa rules. Instead of
imposing sanctions against the school, however, the labour department barred
the teachers from participation in the H-1B or the green card visa program for
two years and threatened them with $100,00o fine. Currently, some 957 Filipino teachers are
scheduled to lose their jobs as their visas are about to expire. They are being
forced to leave the U.S. or stand to become undocumented immigrants.
Interestingly, the labour department’s order did
not cover about 600 Filipino teachers in Baltimore who were also subjected to
the same hiring practices that were found in violation of the H-1B program. The
Baltimore Public School System quietly paid back the fees that were illegally
collected from their Filipino teachers, thus avoiding the fate that befell the
Prince George’s County teachers.
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| Fillipino teachers stage rally in Prince George's County in Maryland. Photo by Gabriela Garcia. Click link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSxUTV1jzY&feature=related to view "The U.S. Dept of Labor rules that the Prince George's County Public School violated H-1B Program." |
Here in the province of Ontario, Canada, new
immigrants are now being labelled as “foreigners” in the eyes of the
Progressive Conservative Party (PC) that is attempting to replace the incumbent
Liberal government which has been in power for the last eight years. PC leader
Tim Hudak denounced the Liberal plan to offer $12 million in tax credits for
businesses to defray training costs for skilled newcomers so they can get job
experience as an “affirmative program for foreigners.”
Only a few months ago, the PC’s federal cousins led
by Jason Kenney, the Minister for Citizenship and Immigration, have praised the
valuable contributions of new immigrants to Canada’s economy, whose skills,
Kenney tells everyone, the country needs. Now, all of a sudden, the provincial
PCs are calling them “foreigners.”
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| Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (PC) ad attacking Liberal Party tax credit plan. Click link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz0phhykru4 to view "Ontarians Need Not Apply" |
Aren’t we all foreigners in this land at one time
or another, including Mr. Hudak?
In the first place, Canada is responsible for
placing new immigrants in jobs they were slotted or targeted to do when their
impeccable qualifications and credentials were being reviewed by immigration
officers. Unaware that their credentials would not be recognized upon coming to
Canada, these new immigrants would further be humiliated during their job
hunting when prospective employers require them to show Canadian work
experience. So, they end up doing survival jobs like taxi driving, working as hospital
orderlies or maintenance workers, jobs far beneath their qualifications.
Any provincial program that would facilitate the
integration of newcomers in this country’s labour market by giving them the
required job experience is nothing different from any government training
programs designed to prepare or retrain workers who lost their jobs in the
recession. In fact, such program would help in dismantling the barriers that
seem to be the primary stumbling block to the employment of newcomers. If
relevant Canadian work experience is indeed necessary for the job a new
immigrant is applying for, then this type of program bridges that chasm.
Calling new immigrants “foreigners” is
irresponsible, divisive and full of racial undercurrents. It is dividing the
people of Ontario into “us” and “them,” and that is not good for our society as
a whole.
The impending deportation of Filipino teachers in
Prince George’s County is both an unfair labour practice and also an act of
racial discrimination. Where is fairness in a decision to allow the visas of
these teachers to expire and remove them out of the country when it is not even
their fault that their hiring violated the H-1B program? It is reasonable and
lawful that the PGCPS be fined or barred from hiring foreign workers under the
H-1B program but the ban should apply to prospective hirings, not to those
already in the system and have nothing to do with the school’s fault. For one
thing, these teachers should be commended for improving the school’s
performance and meeting state measurements.
This reminds us whether Ontario provincial
legislation, the Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act (Live-in
Caregivers and Others) or EPFNA, which came into effect last March 2010 is
being complied with by both employers and recruitment agencies. Two salient
provisions of this Act prohibit recruiters from charging any fees to foreign
live-in caregivers and prevent employers from recovering placement costs from
the live-in caregiver. How do we know these provisions are being followed?
Not until a live-in caregiver files a complaint can
an investigation proceed. We have not heard of complaints by caregivers except
for the claim filed against a former federal member of Parliament, a case that
was obviously driven by political motivation. Don’t expect a foreign live-in
caregiver to initiate a complaint knowing full well that her dream of permanent
resident status hangs on the balance, so she would rather bear the hardship and
abuses while she waits to be entitled to apply for permanent residence.
Under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, a
live-in caregiver is also entitled to be paid the minimum wage and for overtime
work. But there’s a loophole which an employer can exploit. An employer is
allowed to deduct from the caregiver’s wages amounts corresponding to room and
board. With respect to overtime, how do we know if an employer pays overtime
pay when a caregiver exceeds 44 hours of work each week? When a caregiver wakes
up in the middle of the night because the child she is taking care of is crying
or the senior person under her care needs to go the bathroom, does she get
compensation for overtime?
Granting for the sake argument that a caregiver
files a complaint against her employer and the latter is found in violation of
the EPFNA or the Employment Standards Act. The employer would be probably be
fined, and that is all right. But what would happen to the caregiver?
Presumably, she would be released and be looking for another employer, or
perhaps, she goes undocumented and will keep on hoping to stay until Canada
Immigration catches on her and removes her out of the country.
In both the United States and Canada, the foreign
worker is under the mercy of the government and the employer. Lured by a dream
of a better life abroad, foreign workers have been subjected to different forms
of exploitation, manipulation and abuse. Placement agencies take advantage of
the complexities of the recruitment process, sometimes with the collaboration
of employers. In most cases, foreign workers leave their country deep in debt
in raising money needed to cover for exorbitant placement fees, visa and travel
expenses.
But one lesson we learn from the exploitation of
foreign workers is that their government is also complicit in this. The
Philippine government, which relies on export of cheap labour and their dollar
remittances, is equally at fault. Instead of developing local industries,
generating jobs at home, and restructuring the economy to serve national
interests rather than foreign investors, the Philippine government keeps on
relying on overseas workers to sustain the economy. But dollar remittances from
overseas workers only raise consumption spending and do not go to investment in
industries that will create jobs and really strengthen the economy in the long
run.
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