Flood of foreign workers hurting low income Canadians

[Argus]

I swear Todd is the only mainstream reporter in Canada who reports on immigration, other than feel-good stories. And while the Vancouver Sun is part of the Postmedia chain his columns almost never wind up being exported to other papers. Guess it just doesn't fit the narrative.

A big jump in the number of guest workers is hurting low-wage employees and others across Canada, according to economists.

The number of non-permanent foreign workers arriving in Canada each year has doubled in the past decade, escalating particularly after the federal Liberal government was elected in 2015.

Partly as a result of the increasing flow of guest workers, UBC economist David Green and Carleton University’s Christopher Worswick say in a paper that new immigrants are doing “worse and worse” in regards to earned incomes. And it’s Canada’s low-wage workers who are suffering the most.

Even though businesses frequently lobby politicians to allow more guest employees, Green says the latest hikes are putting downward pressure on wages and threatening respect for workers. They’re exacerbating the kind of scenario, he said, that lead to the rise of Donald Trump and Britain’s Brexit movement.

Saying it’s “truly dumb” for the federal government to continue boosting low-skilled guest workers in the country, Green emphasized the vast majority of Canadians don’t appear to be aware of the labour-market shift. “It’s totally under the radar.”

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-dramatic-jump-in-guest-workers-hurts-canadians-low-wage-earners

[Shady]

If we’d stop importing more cheap low skilled workers, businesses would have to compete for workers already here, by increasing wages and benefits.  What a concept!  We wouldn’t need the mandatory minimum wage increases decreed by governments because the market would take care of it.  But for some reason, the federal government keeps flooding the supply of labour, negating businesses having to compete much at all for new workers.  It’s almost as though our prime minister has no real background in economics.  Oh wait.  Never mind.

[QuebecOverCanada]

Very interesting thread Argus, once again on point with the issue regarding immigration. The issue with immigrant labour is that they literally drive the salaries down. It's good for the elite, but the working class is hurting, and the youth too, since immigrants go to low qualification jobs mainly.

[Michael Hardner]

4 hours ago, QuebecOverCanada said:

The issue with immigrant labour is that they literally drive the salaries down. It's good for the elite, but the working class is hurting, ...

Also called 'increasing productivity', which is one of the goals of trade policy.  And once again the elusive 'elite' is blamed.  The same damn people behind climate policy ! 

Look, I don't have strong opinions either way on this one.  I do agree that business lobbies for ridiculous accommodation, like bringing over fast food workers from the Phillipines to work at less than minimum wage.  

I do, however, want to point out that attention to low wage workers issues is NDP territory, and it's very odd to me when conservatives engage in double-think on these issues.  The so-called elite also work for privatization of health-care and CPP cuts.  

[eyeball]

2 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

Also called 'increasing productivity', which is one of the goals of trade policy.  And once again the elusive 'elite' is blamed.  The same damn people behind climate policy ! 

Look, I don't have strong opinions either way on this one.  I do agree that business lobbies for ridiculous accommodation, like bringing over fast food workers from the Phillipines to work at less than minimum wage.  

I do, however, want to point out that attention to low wage workers issues is NDP territory, and it's very odd to me when conservatives engage in double-think on these issues.  The so-called elite also work for privatization of health-care and CPP cuts.  

Recall when conservatives lol'ed and made references to commies and lazy slackers when the left used to voice its concerns about falling wages and accommodating productivity.

Interestingly enough I work for a company that hires many foreign workers every year and we all just got a raise in pay.   Lots of talk about companies paying living wages which are pegged at $21.50 hereabouts too.

Edited July 29, 2019 by eyeball

[egghead]

12 hours ago, Shady said:

If we’d stop importing more cheap low skilled workers, businesses would have to compete for workers already here, by increasing wages and benefits.  What a concept!  We wouldn’t need the mandatory minimum wage increases decreed by governments because the market would take care of it.  But for some reason, the federal government keeps flooding the supply of labour, negating businesses having to compete much at all for new workers.  It’s almost as though our prime minister has no real background in economics.  Oh wait.  Never mind.

haha, fox news commentators used the same hypothesis when they tried to explain the visible minority unemployment rate and the wages increase 

[Argus]

5 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

Also called 'increasing productivity', which is one of the goals of trade policy.  And once again the elusive 'elite' is blamed.  The same damn people behind climate policy ! 

You somehow presume that bringing in a lot of unskilled people increases productivity, but without any supporting evidence. For your general fund of knowledge productivity improvements in Canada have severely lagged the US despite our immense flood of immigrants and temporary foreign workers. Productivity rose just 0.3% this year compared to 3% in the US.

5 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

I do, however, want to point out that attention to low wage workers issues is NDP territory, and it's very odd to me when conservatives engage in double-think on these issues.  The so-called elite also work for privatization of health-care and CPP cuts.  

The NDP abandons normal interest in workers rights and protection whenever identity politics enters their thinking. As far as they're concerned since most immigrants are brown then the more the better, and anyone who dares question that is a racist.

As someone who has worked a lot of low wage jobs in his life, and has been on strike for better wages, my sympathies are with the workers, not with the big bosses, and certainly not with foreigners, regardless of their skin colour.

[eyeball]

2 hours ago, Argus said:

As someone who has worked a lot of low wage jobs in his life, and has been on strike for better wages, my sympathies are with the workers....

Argus is a communist. I'm gobsmacked. Who knew?

I thought Argus paid more in taxes  than anyone around here even earns.

Edited July 29, 2019 by eyeball

[PIK]

Last yr 70000o, this yr I hear 250000

[eyeball]

5 hours ago, PIK said:

Last yr 70000o, this yr I hear 250000

Argus' tax bill?

 

[Machjo]

On 7/28/2019 at 8:14 PM, Argus said:

I swear Todd is the only mainstream reporter in Canada who reports on immigration, other than feel-good stories. And while the Vancouver Sun is part of the Postmedia chain his columns almost never wind up being exported to other papers. Guess it just doesn't fit the narrative.

A big jump in the number of guest workers is hurting low-wage employees and others across Canada, according to economists.

The number of non-permanent foreign workers arriving in Canada each year has doubled in the past decade, escalating particularly after the federal Liberal government was elected in 2015.

Partly as a result of the increasing flow of guest workers, UBC economist David Green and Carleton University’s Christopher Worswick say in a paper that new immigrants are doing “worse and worse” in regards to earned incomes. And it’s Canada’s low-wage workers who are suffering the most.

Even though businesses frequently lobby politicians to allow more guest employees, Green says the latest hikes are putting downward pressure on wages and threatening respect for workers. They’re exacerbating the kind of scenario, he said, that lead to the rise of Donald Trump and Britain’s Brexit movement.

Saying it’s “truly dumb” for the federal government to continue boosting low-skilled guest workers in the country, Green emphasized the vast majority of Canadians don’t appear to be aware of the labour-market shift. “It’s totally under the radar.”

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-dramatic-jump-in-guest-workers-hurts-canadians-low-wage-earners

Have you ever read about freight ships? If businesses can't higher workers here, they'll just move to where they can. Or do you propose protectionism too? Free trade and immigration are more closely linked than some care to admit.

[Argus]

21 hours ago, Machjo said:

Have you ever read about freight ships? If businesses can't higher workers here, they'll just move to where they can. Or do you propose protectionism too? Free trade and immigration are more closely linked than some care to admit.

Bullshit. They gonna move the Tim Horton's to the Philippines to get workers? Go for it. Free trade and immigration are linked almost as closely as rowboats and elephants.

 

[Machjo]

24 minutes ago, Argus said:

Bullshit. They gonna move the Tim Horton's to the Philippines to get workers? Go for it. Free trade and immigration are linked almost as closely as rowboats and elephants.

 

How much are you willing to pay for your timbit?

[Argus]

2 minutes ago, Machjo said:

How much are you willing to pay for your timbit?

Do you understand how Capitalism works? If they can't find staff, they raise wages until they can. That will affect demand to some degree. Some restaurants will close until the demand and supply are equalized at the new price. That's healthy. The ones who fail will be the weak ones, and the workers will find jobs elsewhere.

[Machjo]

3 minutes ago, Argus said:

Do you understand how Capitalism works? If they can't find staff, they raise wages until they can. That will affect demand to some degree. Some restaurants will close until the demand and supply are equalized at the new price. That's healthy. The ones who fail will be the weak ones, and the workers will find jobs elsewhere.

Higher wages at Tim Hortons will make Canada less attractive to skilled labour and the professional class too so they'll leave Canada too, so businesses will need to offer them higher wages too. The wage increase throughout the Canadian economy will undoubtedly affect exports.

[Argus]

2 hours ago, Machjo said:

Higher wages at Tim Hortons will make Canada less attractive to skilled labour and the professional class too so they'll leave Canada too, so businesses will need to offer them higher wages too. The wage increase throughout the Canadian economy will undoubtedly affect exports.

And I'm okay with that. Any exports which depend on cheap labour are impossible anyway. The the average wage for workers in manufacturing in Mexico is about $2.70. We have zero chance of competing on wages so I'm not really interested in trying. If the 'professional class' leaves because of high timbit costs, so be it. We already have two thirds of the software engineer graduating classes at Canadian universities leaving because of low wages. I'd rather see wages rise and try to keep more of them here.