Temporary foreign workers are reaching beyond targeted areas into a new range of lower-skilled, entry-level jobs.<137>March 4/07 - Seasonal workers for Vantreight Farms pick daffodils on a field in Saanichton, 15 kilometres east of Victoria early Sunday morning. Colder than normal temperatures have meant the flowers have yet to start blooming in the fields which is good news for the growers who want the flowers to arrive in stores before they bloom. Vantreight Farms is the 2nd largest producer of daffodils in North America and has an annual production of 21,000,000 stems. Don Denton photo<252><137>DON DENTON/The Globe and Mail
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Canada is hardly the only country with a controversial temporary foreign worker program. Just about everywhere they exist, such programs are a political hot potato. Employers love them, unions hate them and policymakers are left to split the difference.
It's a circle U.S. Senators are now trying to square.
A new Brookings Institution report shows that, relative to its size, Canada takes in far more temporary foreign workers than its southern neighbour – but far fewer high-skilled ones.
Under immigration reform legislation before the Senate, however, the U.S. would take in three times more high-skilled workers and a third more farm workers each year than it does now.
The Brookings study shows that, even though Canada accepts proportionally far more permanent immigrants than the U.S., it also takes in many more temporary foreign workers than the United States. In 2010, Canada took in six temporary foreign workers for every 10 permanent residents; in the U.S., the ratio was four-for-10.
The Canadian program has ballooned since then, so the Canada-U.S. gap is even larger now. What's more, employers in Canada are more likely seek out cooks, cleaners or fruit pickers and other low-skilled workers, while computer programmers and other high-skilled workers are the most sought after foreign workers in the U.S.
Indeed, U.S. employers applied to bring in 828,315 temporary high-skilled workers on so-called H-1B visas in 2012. But with an annual cap of 65,000, fewer than one in 10 visa requests were granted. Under the Senate bill, the cap would rise to 115,000 in the first year, rising to a maximum of 180,000 in later years. The bill would also allow foreign spouses of H-1B visa holders to work legally in the U.S.
The U.S. granted about 85,000 visas for foreign farm workers in 2012, though it's estimated far more foreign farm workers than that were in the country illegally last year. The Senate bill would increase the annual cap on foreign farm worker visas to 112,000 in the first year.
In addition to farm workers, the U.S. accepted about 75,000 more foreign temporary workers for low-skilled positions in 2012, such as general labourers, amusement park workers and housekeepers. The annual cap under that program would remain the same under the Senate bill. However, returning foreign workers would be exempt from the cap.
While the immigration bill stands a good chance of passing the Senate, its odds remain sketchy in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Business-friendly House Republicans are pushing for a bigger guest worker program. Organized labour and most Democrats in Congress are opposed to that idea.
It's a debate that should sound familiar to Canadians.