N.S. researchers not surprised by critical report on Canada’s migrant worker program

A Nova Scotia professor who studies workers’ rights says she isn’t surprised by a recent international report that called Canada’s foreign worker program a “breeding ground” for modern slavery.

Raluca Bejan, with Dalhousie University’s school of social work, says some of the biggest concerns for Nova Scotia’s migrant workers include living in overcrowded housing units.

She was reacting to a report by Tomoya Obokata, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, who visited Canada last year and concluded that a power imbalance prevents workers from exercising their rights.

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Bejan and two other researchers with the Temporary Foreign Workers Maritimes group released research in March that said 10 of 15 migrant workers participating in the study lived with between nine and 25 people.

Their research cited lack of privacy and difficulty accessing laundry machines, kitchen appliances and washrooms.

Bejan says her own research echoes Obokata’s report, which is critical of Canadian regulations that tie a worker’s migration status to a closed, employer-specific work permit that limits their employment mobility.

The professor says Nova Scotia employed approximately 5,400 temporary foreign workers in 2023, nearly half of whom came to the province through the seasonal agricultural worker program.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2024.