First, as you said, this country has been built by many types of people. For my part, I always think that we need a lot more refugees than we have now, and we need a lot more refugees because refugees will be thankful to have been saved from their plights in their own countries or from lingering in camps and would be happy to be given the opportunity to start new lives for themselves and their kids. I think that's a good starting point. Historically, even though they weren't called refugees and didn't come as refugees but as settlers, the Doukhobors were happy to be able to live in a land where they were free to practise their religion. To me, that's a key element.
I think we need to answer diversified needs. Entering as a temporary worker is not in itself a bad way to enter the country if conditions are in place so that it doesn't become servitude, as you were saying. That may mean a few elements are needed to give them, first, a legal status with legal guarantees so that they can protect themselves in the vulnerable conditions into which temporary work puts them, and second, a way out of that status that offers them some hope.
So there are two points. One is that we need legal guarantees; we need to make sure they are not at the mercy of the whims of the employer. We have seen that.
I think in our decision-making process we should listen a lot more to what sociologists have to say--and I'm a lawyer. I think sociologists tell us the level of vulnerability of these people. They tell us that many live-in caregivers, for example, simply don't complain; they just grind their teeth and wait until it's over so that they can get permanent residence, and then they move on.
We know that at the bar. We've had an issue at the bar of Quebec in recent years. The issue is that immigrants don't complain when their lawyers do something wrong. They simply don't. They'll find another $2,000; they'll find another lawyer, and they'll give $2,000 to another lawyer. They don't complain. The mechanism for complaints against lawyers doesn't work with immigrants, because they're vulnerable and they don't think they're going to win and they don't want to take the risk of sticking their heads out. That's a big issue, and we have to understand that level of vulnerability and provide the guarantees that go with it. That includes recourses. That includes the possibility of going on appeal. That includes making sure NGOs have the tools to defend individual people. That's the first point.
That may include, for example, live-in caregivers, if we take that example of vulnerable people. Many NGOs are rejecting the program altogether, although it serves a purpose and many families are happy to have a live-in caregiver. What we need is a lot more control. It's true that it means spending more money, but we need a lot more control and we need to have applicable laws. I'm shocked every time I have to say that the laws on job safety in Quebec don't apply to live-in caregivers, and I think that's a shame. We need a lot more guarantees to protect them while they are here.
The second point is that we need to give them a way out--and upwards, not downwards. It's not simply saying they can go back home with the little money they've made. We could think of the live-in caregiver program as a model here. For example, for temporary workers we should somehow put in a rule similar to the one we use for citizenship: if you've lived in Canada for, let's say, a total of three years--that makes 1,093 days, or something like that--in the past five or six years as a temporary worker, you have access to permanent residence. You'd need security checks and health checks and everything, but you'd have access. You've given this country the edge in terms of competitiveness and you've participated in making this country more wealthy and more prosperous--well, we are going to recognize this. You haven't broken any laws and you've been a good citizen, so we're going to give you a way upward in this society, because you've shown that you will be a good citizen. That would probably empower these migrants, who would say, “I can become a citizen in this country. I'm going to make sure, if we have proper controls, that my status is respected.”