One. Employers are given a lot of space to speak out, and they don’t hesitate to use a “rare pearl” to decry recruitment problems that are hurting their profit margins. The emphasis is on those who would be pitied for not being able to get rich on the backs of people whose rights are being trampled on, who are being used to create a facade of diversity and who, apparently, often deserve lower wages than a Quebecer for the same work.
We don’t give voice as often to workers, to the people we exploit to make our society work. (Either we buy goods made elsewhere at low prices, or we import labor at a discount; in both cases, we conclude that the work of others is worth less than ours.)
Immigrants and temporary workers often do not have a platform, their perspective could also be important to share.
Two. It is on the backs of these same people that our society has been getting rich since well before the housing, health and education crises. We have long relied more on population growth than on capital investment to keep our economy going.
The abuses these people suffer are easily ignored as long as GDP per capita grows. But when corrupt political and economic power leads to collective impoverishment, officials blame these foreigners whom we otherwise enjoy silently exploiting. These people are often pointed at whenever there are economic problems.
Three. These foreign workers are not here to colonize (they are not 16th century Europeans).e century, after all) nor to refuse to learn French. They do not cause a shortage of resources.
They come to improve their lot, an improvement that the countries of the “Western” owe them. Indeed, the rich countries are rich because they exploit the countries of the “Global South”. Colonial theft and pillage still exist in other forms – trade favorable to the rich countries, for example. These rich countries use their economic power (and the executioners at their service, such as the International Monetary Fund) to fuel their discounted growth at the expense of former colonies, keeping the South impoverished. Immigration is a direct consequence of the exploitation carried out by the industrialized countries. The hypocrisy of “at home” versus “elsewhere” is great.
Four. That’s not the problem. The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of elected officials, power brokers and the corporate class has led to a chronic lack of investment (in capital, intellectual property and technology, among other things), which in turn is deteriorating our quality of life. If anyone tells you otherwise, they may be a CEO or prime minister.
This is a problem that goes beyond the situation of foreign workers. It is present in the erosion of workers’ power. Just two weeks ago, instead of asking whether the CN-CKPC duopoly was too powerful, workers’ rights were trampled on in the name of private economic interests, all in less than 24 hours.
I agree, talking about foreign workers and railway workers at the same time is a bit strange. But the dynamics of influence and power and the efforts to divert attention away from the real architects of these crises are the same.