April 1st is Temporary Foreign Worker's Doomsday not Fools Day

Article submitted by: Michelle Gasmin Villasana

April 1 is considered doomsday for TFWs that will be sent home after working for so many years. I read this article about TFWs and I’m so disappointed with all the bashers and hurtful comments they made about TFWs so I made a reply to all discriminatory remarks…

It just saddens me how many hurtful comments I see on this page. Probably because you don’t really understand what foreign workers are going through. We are mainly here to fill in the jobs that your government posted, that a few of you would actually take like housekeeping, farming, dishwashing, food counter attendant, cleaning, taking care of the kids while you work for a living, wiping poos of old people’s bums or caregiving. It was a painful choice that we have to make. Leaving our families behind just so we can send our kids to school and secure their future. Don’t get me wrong but we take pride of what we do. We appreciate what Canada did for us. Canada opened the door of opportunity so we can earn more money for our families to give them better lives.

Your government implemented the provincial nomination program that started last 2007. It encourages us to help adhere to the jobs that has not always been filled and get our families closer to us. But this has been a challenge. With the way your government are changing rules every now and then, we spend our life savings just to pay for a lawyer, immigration consultants and pay application fees for each family member and then if we lack one of their requirements like number of hours worked ( that’s why employers cut your hours so they will not pay for penalties of breaking the contracts of TFWs) or setting a high score at an English test. If we don’t meet all these requirements and our application gets declined, we have to pay a huge amount of money again. Since the rules are constantly changing due to weak management, we have to wait for their amendments and suffer the consequences all over again. We make the best out of the 4 years that was given to us to be a permanent resident or a good Canadian citizen. On the other hand, you should also understand what we are going through. Because one way or another, your grandparents were immigrants too. They either came from England, France, Germany, Russia, Poland or Ukraine. They worked really hard for your family in order to stay here in Canada. And you as grandsons or granddaughters are reaping the rewards of being a Canadian citizen. And do you ever wonder where the government gets some of Canada’s revenues besides trades, tourists and oil? They’re from foreign workers too. We pay the same tax as you do. Like EI and CPP and do you even know that most of us will not benefit from it after we have worked here for so long? What is the use of deducting this from our paycheques when we can only work temporary? Your government creates the rules and laws. Not us.

We all go with the flow, and yes, we go where we can earn more money for our families. It’s worth the sacrifice. Tell me, since when caring for someone a crime? We experience tons of discrimination while being away from our families. We made Canada a home away from home because we have been here for more than 4 years serving the community and without a doubt our Canadian colleagues treated us with respect that is why we made them as our extended families. We work honestly and we work hard because we know what it’s like to have no food on the table nor we can’t afford to be weak in front of our families or children. We came from a third world country. We don’t have the same benefits as you do like employee insurance, job banks, government support, subsidized housing for single parents, free education and allowance for the children that sometimes sad to say, most Canadians are taking this for granted. So we have to work twice as much as you do. It’s a hard pill to swallow where we are always put to blame most of the time. Should you point the finger at us? Or point your fingers at the government that you have elected that made a loophole in this mess? I guess you should stop pointing fingers and placing blame on others. Your life can only change to the degree that you accept responsibility for it. Let me end this message with the quote of Charlie Chaplin, “We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery.”

To Canada, True North Strong and Free!

Article submitted by: Michelle Gasmin Villasana