Canada sees increase in temporary foreign workers

Canada, 19th June: There has been an increase in the temporary foreign workers in Canada arriving on temporary Canada work visas since the year 1996.

The official figures by Statistics Canada reveal that the foreigners working in Canada have gone up by 118 percent. 

The study named ‘Foreign Nationals Working Temporarily in Canada’ states that there were a total of 230,000 temporary foreigners in Canada aged 15 years and above in the year 2006. And out of these foreigners, nearly 112,000 were temporary foreign workers in Canada.

The percentage of those working full time in Canada was nearly 84 percent and these were around one percent of total full-time workforce in Canada. The fact is that Canada has been witnessing a significant rise in the number of full-time workers coming on temporary work visas in Canada. 

The official data made available by Canadian immigration department states in the year 2008, a total of 399,523 temporary foreign workers came to Canada. 

Meanwhile, the number of workers immigrating to Canada on permanent basis was 247,243. 

The figures by the Statistics Canada’s study suggest the fact that growth in the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada might be attributed to an economic boom in Canada till the year 2008. 

Among the temporary Canadian work visa holders coming to Canada hailed from east Asia, southeast Asia and Western Europe. Talking of the nations that provided largest numbers of permanent residents coming to Canada included India and China while the largest number of temporary residents coming to Canada hailed from Philippines. 

Foreigners working in Canada on temporary Canadian work visas are both in highly skilled and unskilled occupations. Out of these, women can be seen working as caregivers and domestic workers, with majority of them hailing from Philippines. 

And Male temporary foreign workers in Canada are largely working in the agriculture sector. Most of male temporary foreign workers engaged in agriculture works were from Caribbean, Central America and Mexico.  

The study also revealed that temporary foreign workers hailing from Europe and US were found to be working as research assistants, university professors, senior managers, computer programmers and post-secondary teaching assistants.