Tens of thousands of migrant workers travel every year to Canada in the hope of providing a better life for their families. Canada represents a dream for many of them: they are promised labour opportunities and working conditions that very often they cannot enjoy in their countries of origin. Yet, many find a different reality upon arrival: they are made to work long hours without rest, assigned tasks not included in their contract, are underpaid, suffer verbal, physical, sexual and psychological abuse, and are often subjected to stereotypes and assumptions…

This report focuses on showing structural conditions within Canada’s migration policies that perpetuate racial subordination and labour exploitation and how systemic racism leads to human rights violations against racialized migrant workers. It investigates the human rights impact of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), a temporary migration scheme that allows employers to hire migrant workers, primarily in low-pay occupations in agriculture, food processing, the care system, domestic service, but also in many other sectors across the country. Amnesty International’s research finds that Canada’s migration policy has designed, regulated and implemented the TFWP in such a way as to inherently increase racialized workers’ risk of labour exploitation and other abuses, creating discriminatory outcomes in violation of its international human rights obligations.