Migrant Workers Lured to Canada Are Being Scammed Out of Their Life Savings
Desperate for a chance at a new beginning, newcomers are paying tens of thousands of dollars for mainly low-level jobs
Canada’s temporary worker program was originally used to fill seasonal farming jobs.
Photographer: James MacDonald/BloombergHigh salaries, top-notch schools, beautiful scenery and low crime: the promise of a better life attracted over a million newcomers to Canada last year. But as idyllic as it may seem, a post-pandemic migration surge is revealing a dirty underbelly of the immigration system.
Fraud is running rampant in Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, another wrinkle in immigration debates playing out around the world as developed countries seek to bolster their labor forces without alienating the native-born population. In the US’s northern neighbor, critics have honed in on employers and consultants who illegally sell jobs to migrants desperate for an advantage in their quest for permanent residency. A patchwork of overwhelmed government agencies appears ill-equipped to crack down.