“They always call us ‘essential’, but I’ve been living here 11 months a year since 2006, and no one can tell me how to settle down with my family,” says Lorenzo, a man from Guatemala employed at a large greenhouse in the crown. north of Montreal. A few kilometers away, in another greenhouse, Edyn Cu Coy tried as best he could to meet the criteria to obtain permanent residence, still without success.
They are both temporary foreign workers, a program that has broken records in recent years. The number of these low-wage temporary workers in agriculture has tripled since 2015.
Not only are more and more of them coming to Quebec, but they are staying longer and longer. Many of them spend whole sections of their lives here, particularly in the greenhouse industry, far from their families and without any real possibility of settling down. To the point that several observers are wondering if the concept of the temporary is not “too stretched”, says in particular Julio Lara, union representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).
The duty exposed on Saturday the great shift in immigration towards the temporary. The number of immigrants for all temporary categories has exploded in recent years. In 2021 and 2022, the large group of temporary workers represented at least three times more than permanent residents.
A dive into one of these specific categories—the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for low-wage and agricultural occupations—reveals another aspect of this migration. Temporary workers do not have access to the main permanent immigration programs in Canada, and this access is even more restricted in Quebec.
Lorenzo, for example, has spent the vast majority of the past 16 years in Quebec with employment contracts of one to two years. He prefers not to mention his full name because he fears that his employer will not support him in his permanent immigration project. “I’ve already asked my supervisor how to do it and I had the impression that people looked at me askance,” he testifies. “I don’t really have any Quebec contacts who could explain to me how to do it, but I’m looking for some,” he concludes.
The issue of French
Mr. Cu Coy has been employed by Savoura for more than 10 years. He tried his luck at the French exams to apply for permanent residence, but he failed three times. “The level is not realistic for a worker like me,” he explains.
Victor Garcia Guzman, 34, has been employed by Serres Demers in Drummondville since 2014. He first alternated between a year in Quebec and a year in Guatemala, according to the terms and conditions provided by his employer. He is in the process of becoming a resident, a file he was able to file thanks to his Quebec wife, with whom he had a child.
Unless they get married, I know very few people who have managed to stay in Quebec.
Mr. Garcia Guzman has developed certain skills within the company in recent years to move up the ladder. “Now I’m also learning French, but when I was working in the greenhouse, I was far too tired after 10 hours of work, six days a week,” he says.
Temporary foreign workers are indeed entitled to francization, but “this eligibility is completely theoretical,” says Stéphanie Arsenault, professor of social work at Laval University, who conducted a study on the issue.
The impossibility of getting around, since “most are on bicycles”, as well as the many hours required at work make learning French “extremely difficult”, noted Ms.me Arsenault in his research.
Restricted programs
“Unless they get married, I know very few people who have managed to stay in Quebec,” says Julio Lara, in particular because of the excessively high criteria in French.
The long-time UFCW union rep agrees, “Yeah, some have an interest and are asking me. I have to tell them that there really isn’t a direct path. »
Even if they meet the criterion of proficiency in French, temporary foreign workers — in greenhouses or elsewhere — without special training can no longer rely on the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) to apply for permanent residence. The government of François Legault restricted this access during his first mandate. Quebec has also excluded itself from other pathways to tenure for temporary workers.
There are indeed some pilot programs in Quebec, such as the one in food processing, launched in 2021. To date, only 22 applications have been received, and 5 people have obtained their Quebec selection certificate, indicates to the To have to the provincial Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI).
In addition, unlike the rest of Canada, greenhouse workers are excluded from these pilot programs, confirms the MIFI.
However, temporary employees are “essential” in the recent growth of greenhouses in the beautiful province, attests André Mousseau, president of Les Producteurs en serre du Québec. “That’s about one in three workers in the greenhouse world on average. In the big ones, it’s much more, ”he reports.
Having such a program “would make it easier” for those who want to stay, “because if it’s a complicated path with a lot of paperwork, you can’t get on board,” explains Mr. Mousseau. Producers are often too busy to become “specialized immigration consultants,” he says.
Do they really want to stay?
It is difficult to know how many of these temporary workers would like to settle permanently, and with their families. Some politicians, including Jean Boulet when he was immigration minister in 2022, argue that only a minority would like to stay.
Stéphanie Arsenault does not hesitate to contradict him: “It is a myth that is not based on anything. No serious study has shown that migrant workers in agriculture do not want to stay. »
Statistics Canada found that between 1990 and 2009, only 2% of temporary workers in agriculture made the transition to permanent residence. It is true that at the time and until about the 2010s, seasonal work was the norm for a long time, based on contracts lasting between six weeks and eight months.
The contracts are now up to 24 months, and the terms have been relaxed. Seasonal workers have become a minority. In Quebec, in 2022, there were only about 6,000 seasonal workers (contracts of a maximum of eight months) out of a total of more than 34,000 temporary workers in agriculture and in low-wage positions.
A rare study – which dates from 2017 – asked the question to a pool of workers. Result: three-quarters of respondents said they wanted to immigrate with their family.
Julio Lara does not believe that the majority of temporary workers in agriculture or on low wages would want to stay. The exchange rate is advantageous for them when they return to their country of origin, and their attachment to their country or to an economic activity there is still strong.
He nevertheless believes that “in principle, they should be able to decide”, regardless of the duration of their contracts. “The default residence for many of them is Quebec. »
“It’s a captive workforce. I am very uncomfortable with the fact that Quebec and Canada allow themselves to treat individuals solely from the angle of their usefulness and not of their humanity,” emphasizes Professor Arsenault.
“There are few people who want to listen to us, but what we want is permanent residence,” says Leonel Nava. Originally from Mexico, he has been a temporary agricultural worker in several Canadian provinces since 2014. “We are good enough to work, but never to stay,” he adds, using the slogan of several groups that are lobbying for Ottawa is creating more pathways to permanent residency.
“We are not ghosts. We are claiming the right to decide whether we want to settle down or not”, insists Mr. Nava, who filed a petition signed by nearly 200 workers to this effect at the presidential palace in Mexico City last December.
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Journalist Sarah R. Champagne took part in the documentary Essentials, which will be broadcast on Télé-Québec on Wednesday, January 25 at 8 p.m.