WORKING IT OUT

The golden age of foreign labour.

The media-led national fixation on foreign workers — from lowpaid garment workers laboring in horrid conditions in places like Bangladesh to higher-paid temporary information technology workers at banks in Canada — risks turning back Canada’s ideological clock.

The world is, or at least should be, on the brink of a new golden era in the movement of people and enhanced free trade. Instead, thanks to near-hysterical and ethically dubious reporting by some media, Canadians are being whipped into a frenzy of skepticism about the merits of free trade and the possibility of a major new development. That new development, still taking shape, could be called the new global labour market.

Instead, pressed by media and union activists, Ottawa is moving to tighten rules that have allowed a significant increase in the use of foreign workers by Canadian industry. At the same time, the collapse of a factory in Bangladesh has apparently triggered a response among many Canadians that casts doubt on the merits of importing low-priced goods from less developed countries. There’s talk of boycotts and calls for a return of garment manufacturing to Canada.

No such thing will happen. But in recent weeks the seeds of protectionism and anti-immigration sentiment have been planted. Loblaws is trying its best to offset the image of Joe Fresh labels on garments found at the site of the collapsed factory. At the banks, RBC and others are scrambling to neutralize the CBC’s irresponsible sensationalism in reporting on the use of temporary workers.

Using a series of comments by unnamed alleged former IT workers brought in from India to work at some of Canada’s banks, the CBC — TV, radio and online — has reached new lows in journalism ethics. Whatever some worker had to say, on any subject, was given credence.

“We have got to stop this thing,” said one unemployed and unnamed worker, referring to the practices of banks and agencies that bring in foreign workers. “For ourselves and for our children. This country is going to be dependent on foreigners.”

Nothing new in that, unless the objective is to turn back the policy agenda and prevent workers from coming to Canada, as immigrants or as temporary workers.

Canada used to be a nation that thrived on foreign workers. For the most part, Canada was a land that fostered the free movement of people. Millions came in the wake of major appeals and marketing campaigns by Canadian governments and companies. The campaigns attracted workers and their families with promises of jobs and a better life. The objective was to allow as many people into Canada as possible.

In many respects, Canada was part of what was then a global labour market, where open doors greeted workers from all lands. That market was largely closed through parts of the 20th century, as immigration restrictions came to replace the idea that people more or less had the freedom to move.

Immigration barriers were erected and labour markets became national rather than international.

The closing of the global labour market took place within the con- text of an international framework that explicitly sought to restrict the freedom of people to move. The United Nations’ so-called Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 literally closed national borders to freedom of movement. “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within

the border of each State.”

People have the right to leave their own country and go back to their own country, but have no right to move to another country. So much for the UN’s human rights code.

In international trade, free movement of goods has been the dominant objective. While not always achieved, at least it stood as an objective. In the case of labour, the idea of allowing people to move to other countries to satisfy economic demand has been less aggressively pursued.

As demographics change and travel and transport become ever cheaper and possible, the pressure for greater labour mobility is growing. Canada now appears to have a demand for foreign workers for jobs that Canadians cannot or will not do, or for jobs that Canadians are not trained to do.

From restaurants to mines to oil fields and information technology, industries say they have a need for foreign workers. Karna Gupta, head of the Information Technology Association of Canada, says Canada cannot supply the information and computer technology skills from the current population. “The ICT sector needs processes that speed up recruitment of temporary and permanent foreign workers and make the processes of attracting them less cumbersome than they currently are.”

Pressed by media, union activists and leftist intellectuals, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has brought in rules and restrictions aimed at curbing the use of temporary foreign workers. Whether those reforms go too far is hard to tell at this point. It would appear, however, that the attitudes of Canadians has been turned against foreign workers, temporary or permanent.

So have attitudes against clothing imports from low-wage countries such as Bangladesh. Boycotting low-price imports would do no good, either for the workers in low-wage countries or for Canadian consumers. Improved working conditions in Bangladesh can only come from growth and development in Bangladesh.

Canadian economic history is filled with the success of free trade and the free movement of people. Today, more than ever, the world is a global market for goods. A global labour market is the next frontier. It will take a while, but it should become part of Canada’s national mission. The temporary foreign worker program was part of the mission.