Comment:

"Reality or Illusion?

The Employer’s and Foreign Worker’s Fear of Immigration Enforcement

As government has firmly closed the front door for employers wanting to hire legal skilled worker immigrants, it has opened up the roof and kicked in the back wall for illegal workers.

The illegals are streaming into Toronto. Government encouragement of illegal immigration in Toronto has reached historic levels.

I have given up trying to rationalize government’s unflagging support of mass illegal immigration. The lunatics are clearly running the asylum.  

In any event, I regularly receive phone calls from skilled worker employers and foreign workers expressing confusion over the apparent disconnect between immigration rules and immigration enforcement. On the one hand, the community has been told that foreign workers need work permits and SIN numbers. On the other hand, they see hundreds of thousands of their neighbors working gainfully without a work permit or SIN.  

Perhaps the most asked question in the Toronto trades is:

If “legal” immigration is so tough, then how do several hundred thousands of our undocumented neighbors in Toronto arrange their lives... specifically …

• How do they work without a valid Social insurance number?

• How do they do their banking without a valid Social insurance number?

• How do they get their kids into school?

• How do they join a union?

• How about their medical care?

• How do they avoid arrest?

• How did they get into the country in the first place?

The answer to the above question is both simple and complex.

The simplicity revolves around Ottawa realizing that a committed drive to arrest even ten percent of the illegal workers would grind the GTHA’s economy to a halt. Thus, Ottawa covers up its skilled worker policy fiasco by starving CBSA of the resources required to bring a modicum of integrity to the immigration process.

(One can well understand the frustration of the GTHA’s well trained CBSA immigration staff... they are not allowed to deport foreign born terrorists... they are not allowed to be proactive with illegal workers... they have no respect for their Ottawa bosses’ obsession with “customs” issues. Maybe its time to give Immigration back its control over enforcement )   

The complexity revolves around the law.

In principle:

• No one is allowed to “counsel , induce, aid or abet” any visitor in Canada to work illegally, go to school illegally or to over stay 

Meanwhile:

• The law specifically does NOT require  employers  to ask for SIN  cards or work permits when offering employment

• The law does NOT  oblige  banks , provincial licensing officers, private insurers , unions or anybody else  to ask for SIN numbers or work permits when providing benefit to an applicant

• Visitors to Canada are allowed to have “dual intent”. This means that they are allowed to be both visitors and potential immigrant applicants

• In some instances, the province and some municipalities (Toronto & Hamilton ) are  obliged to provide education and health services without regard to documentation

Going Forward

In order to ensure that my clients not cross the line into illegal behavior, I will take some time over the next few weeks and detail the many instances which should not be ignored when assessing if an employer or worker is open to immigration enforcement."

Richard Boraks, January 26, 2015