Since coming to power, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government has tried several times to reform the province's economic immigration system. The most recent of these attempts, announced on July 9, excludes so-called “low-skilled” workers (including truck drivers, material handlers, beneficiary attendants and agricultural and agri-food workers) from the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ). Those who already work in Quebec remain eligible, but must have a high level of proficiency in French before obtaining the Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ), which is necessary for permanent residence. According to several workers and immigration specialists, this reform will have serious human and economic consequences. When Donalee Martinez picked up his phone, he was in New Jersey.
He told me that we could talk to each other the next afternoon, when he was back home in Montreal. In the meantime, he has to travel nearly 700 km to deliver the load of bread in his freezer truck. Donalee is part of a group of approximately 60 truck drivers of Filipino origin — who are often recruited in the Middle East by agents working for Quebec or Canadian companies. He arrived in Montreal in 2018, thinking that after a few years, he could bring in his wife and three children, left in the Philippines.In his country, Donalee had run his own trucking company for a few years, before trying his luck as a long-distance trucker in Saudi Arabia, where he was approached by a recruitment officer from a Canadian company.
“I had the opportunity to come to the West and I took it,” he said. It is better to live in Canada than in Saudi Arabia or the Philippines. Here, for example, you know that your taxes fund services that help the community. I enjoy paying my taxes! ” With the reform of the PEQ that comes into force on July 22, Donalee Martinez, like all so-called “low-skilled” workers, will be required to present an intermediate or advanced degree of proficiency in French before being able to apply for his CSQ, which is an essential element in obtaining permanent residence. In the meantime, he will have to renew his work permit every year. He is therefore likely to continue receiving temporary work permits for years, without knowing if he will one day be able to leave his bags in Quebec, or if his next permit application will be refused.
Benito Supan is also a truck driver. Like Donalee, he is originally from the Philippines; he too was recruited in Saudi Arabia by a Canadian company.
“I met someone on the Internet who directed me to a job,” he says. The guy never told us about the permanent residence process, nor did he ever tell us that we had to learn French. He asked us for a lot of money, and he promised that he would work so that we could have our home, that's all.” To pay the officer who prepared his immigration file, Benito paid about $7,000, or the equivalent of more than 10 months' salary. “In Saudi Arabia, they only pay you $600 or $700 per month; you can't support a family with that. That's why I wanted to leave so much, adds this father of four teenagers. I wish so much that my children could come live with me and finish their studies here.”
Since arriving in Montreal, Benito has lived alone and worked long hours, traveling back and forth between Montreal and Bécancour behind the wheel of a tanker truck full of asphalt used to build roads. He must take French courses to be able to become a permanent resident, but his work schedule already leaves him barely enough time to do his laundry. “We work 10 to 12 hours a day, from Monday to Saturday. On Sundays, we go to the grocery store, we do our laundry and we rest a bit. That's why we don't have time to go to school. It would be really nice to learn French, but how do you learn it if you can't study? ”
“It breaks my heart that the government is sticking with its plan for temporary workers,” regrets Donalee, who spoke several times during demonstrations against the reform of the PEQ organized by the citizen movement Quebec is us too! He is in the same bind as Benito. “I would have to pass the French test, but we have been working 60 to 70 hours a week since the start of the pandemic. We don't have time for classes.”
For a few weeks, Donalee took advantage of her only weekly day off to study. “I took a few courses, which I paid for out of my own pocket, but they were cancelled due to the pandemic. At the same time, we were asked to work more on the weekends. So I couldn't continue.”
The cycle of precariousness
For future foreign workers, regardless of their level of proficiency in French, the situation is even more difficult. After July 22, so-called “low-skilled” temporary foreign workers who do not benefit from the acquired rights clause will no longer be able to apply for a CSQ under the PEQ. Me Ho Sung Kim, an immigration lawyer, explains that the previous Liberal government reformed the PEQ in 2018 to facilitate the processing of applications submitted by low-skilled workers.
The CAQUISTS, who campaigned on reducing immigration thresholds, have for their part tried to reform the economic immigration system four times in a year and a half — starting with a bill that would have completely erased 18,000 immigration files in February 2019, then by attempting two overhauls of the PEQ in November 2019 and May 2020, before arriving at a final version of the reform in July. “The government is sending a very confusing message with all these reforms. In the end, some people are not affected, but others, even if they have contributed to Quebec society for months, no longer feel welcome.”
Of all the people who obtained a CSQ in 2019, 86% went through the PEQ. “The government would like to close the PEQ, but it is afraid of abolishing such an attractive program, so it makes it more complicated,” summarizes the lawyer.Asked on this subject, Marie-Hélène Blouin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Immigration, Francization and Integration (MIFI), emphasizes that there are other possibilities of immigration to Quebec for so-called “low-skilled” workers. Without giving more details, she said that the MIFI intends to launch several pilot programs in order to recruit low-skilled foreign workers, including beneficiary attendants and agri-food workers. At the time of publishing these lines, nothing had been planned for truck drivers.
According to the CAQ, some foreign workers excluded from the PEQ will be able to apply for CSQ through the Arrima program, which selects candidates based on labor needs in the regions. This program leaves several actors in the field skeptical. For Selin Deravedisyan-Adam, president of the Quebec branch of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Counsellors, the Arrima platform “is nothing but smoke and mirrors.”
According to her, the vast majority of low-skilled foreign workers, even those working in essential sectors, will not be able to pass through Arrima. The program works with a point system that favors French-speaking, educated and younger workers. “If a worker does not have [the equivalent of] 5th secondary, if his French is limited, or if he is over 40 years old, regardless of his experience, it will not work,” explains the consultant. Of all the low-skilled workers who could have gone through the former PEQ to eventually obtain permanent resident status, she believes that only one in 10 could go through Arrima.
The consultant collaborates with Quebec employers who recruit workers abroad. Since the announcement of the PEQ reform, she has been working hard with these clients to reclassify certain workers so that they can be eligible for the new PEQ. These customers are mainly in rural areas, and she considers that the exclusion of low-skilled workers from the PEQ is nothing less than “economic suicide” for the regions: “There are villages that, without these families, cannot be revitalized.”
At the mercy of employers
By going through Arrima, applicants receive a closed work permit that binds them to a specific employer. “This places them in a very vulnerable situation if the employer does not pay them or if there are other forms of exploitation,” explains lawyer Perla Abou-Jaoudé, a colleague of Me Kim. Benito Supan has already experienced this type of exploitation. As soon as they arrived in Montreal, Benito and his classmates realized that their employer was swindling them. “He told us that he would pay us $22 per hour, but he only paid $12, sometimes $15. I told our boss that he had to pay us at the hourly rate written in the contract. He told us that this rate was only valid for long trips... but when we went to Ontario, he paid us at the same hourly rate as usual. There, we filed a complaint.”
With the support of the Center for Immigrant Workers (CTI), a community organization located in Côte-des-Neiges, Benito and his colleagues obtained open work permits (allowing them to work with any employer) and new contracts. Me Abou-Jaoudé fears that with the primacy of the Arrima program, obtaining open permits will become more difficult, which would force workers to choose between an abusive or corrupt employer, departure and hiding.
Mister Joey's fight
Several times during our conversation, Benito Supan stops to say to me: “You need to talk to Mister Joey.” “Mister Joey” is Joey Calugay, Filipino organizer of CTI. This summer, Joey and his colleagues are crisscrossing Montreal to make migrant workers aware of their rights. He tells himself briefly, while distributing leaflets at the De la Savane metro station, navigating between French, English and Tagalog, shuttling between our microphone and the workers who pass by, to the rhythm of revolving doors. He recalls that the Filipino temporary workers he works with are “very vulnerable”, not only because of their immigration status, but also because of their limited knowledge of French and the nature of their work.
“They often have the most dangerous and dirty jobs,” he says. However, these are jobs that are now considered essential. Our food security depends on it.” “The pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities of these workers... and the importance of their work,” he says. It is time to offer them stability and the opportunity to stay in the country.”
In search of solutions
Minister Girault has repeated several times that this reform of the PEQ will be the last. “Every woman, every man, and every child who arrives in Quebec must feel welcomed and welcome, and we must help their integration. For immigration to adequately meet Quebec's needs, we must continue to transform and modernize our system,” she said. The reform of the PEQ did not satisfy the members of the Quebec is us too! , who went to the minister's constituency office in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts last week to deliver letters from workers and students who feel they were being left behind by the reform.
Donalee Martinez couldn't write a letter; he was on the road. But he knows what he would have written to the minister: “Give us the option of residency, and we'll go to school afterwards.” Joey Calugay thinks that temporary workers should show their opposition to the reform. “When you think about things like the minimum wage or parental leave, you have to remember that governments didn't wake up one day with the idea of giving them to us — these gains are the product of our struggles”, recalls the trade unionist. Our aim is to equip workers to raise the profile of the situation and fight for their rights.”
Me Ho Sung Kim is asking the Legault government to consult more with the legal community. “We don't want to be fighting all the time,” says the lawyer, who is part of the board of directors of the Quebec Association of Lawyers and Lawyers in Immigration Law (AQAADI) and who signed, along with more than 60 other lawyers, an open letter against the reform. Talk to us. With this reform, there is room for improvement.” He advises workers affected by the reform to seek legal advice.
For her part, Ms. Deravedisyan-Adam advises employers who are trying to regularize the status of their foreign employees. “We work with employers who try to maintain employment relationships with these workers and keep them informed. And we're working with our candidates to see what's missing in their profiles. We're trying to adapt, but it's a reform that's up our throat.” Benito Supan and Donalee Martinez, for their part, are considering moving to New Brunswick or Western Canada — reluctantly. “I have a friend in Manitoba who told me that getting residency there is very easy,” explains Benito. But if I can stay in Quebec, I will stay. It is the most beautiful place in Canada; and if I can bring my family, we will be so happy! ”
Ms. Deravedisyan-Adam is worried to hear workers thinking about leaving. “Many want to leave. If they want to, they can go to other provinces, but I hope that there will be an awareness first.”