Migrant Workers and the Trans-Pacific Partnership

[Oscar]

Migrant Workers and the Trans-Pacific Partnership

[ https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publi ... artnership ]

A regulatory impact analysis of the TPP's temporary entry provisions

Author(s): Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood April 21, 2016 735.14 KB32 pages

This study investigates the TPP's chapter on "temporary entry for business persons" to understand its potential consequences for Canadian immigration policy and the Canadian labour market. It examines the general provisions that apply to all TPP countries as well as Canada's specific commitments for different categories of workers under the TPP.

The study finds that the TPP will give more leeway to employers to hire migrant workers and transfer employees across borders—even in industries and regions where unemployment is high and domestic workers are available—without offering mobility rights to workers themselves. Although the short-term impact on the Canadian labour market will likely be small, the potential long-term impact of the TPP's temporary entry provisions is significant. Like other aspects of the TPP, these provisions override Canada's existing immigration policy and cannot be changed by a future government.

News release: Trans-Pacific Partnership expands migrant worker regime: study - April 21, 2016
[ https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites ... he_TPP.pdf ]

OTTAWA—As parliamentary consultations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) begin, a new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) raises questions about the deal’s consequences for Canadian immigration policy and the Canadian labour market.

“The TPP gives employers a new pathway to hire and transfer workers across borders, even where local unemployment is high and domestic workers are available,” says Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, a researcher at the CCPA and author of Migrant Workers and the Trans-Pacific Partnership: A regulatory impact analysis of the TPP’s temporary entry provisions.

According to the study, the TPP will prevent Canada from imposing limits on the number of foreign workers who can be brought into the country, provided they meet the criteria outlined in the deal.

“To make matters worse, workers themselves receive no mobility rights under the TPP,” says Mertins-Kirkwood. “These rules are designed to give employers more labour market flexibility, not to benefit workers in Canada or other TPP countries.”

Key findings from the study include:

The range of occupations covered by the TPP’s temporary entry chapter goes well beyond existing treaties, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Once the TPP is ratified, Canada cannot go back on its commitments, even if the deal eventually causes significant problems in the Canadian labour market.
Unlike Canada, the United States made no commitments for temporary entry in the TPP, because Congress prohibited U.S. trade negotiators from making any changes to U.S. immigration law.

“If there are gaps in the Canadian labour market, they should be filled through permanent immigration or through greater education and skills training,” says Mertins-Kirkwood. “Opening the floodgates to more migrant labour fails to address the long-term needs of the domestic labour market and does so with negative knock-on effects for Canadian workers and migrant workers alike.”

The study is the latest in the CCPA’s ongoing research series on the TPP, What’s the Big Deal: Understanding the Trans-Pacific Partnership
[ https://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsr ... artnership ]

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Migrant Workers and the Trans-Pacific Partnership: A regulatory impact analysis of the TPP’s temporary entry provisions is available on the CCPA website: http://policyalternatives.ca

For more information contact

Kerri-Anne Finn,
CCPA Director of Communications,
613-563-1341 x306.

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