How South & East Asia Exploit Their Own Kind in Canada.

I came here as an international student, and to support myself financially, I handed out a lot of resumes. There wasn’t a restaurant or bookstore I didn’t visit. It was hard to get a part-time job. Luckily, I got a call from a famous fast-food franchise. The general manager called me because we both are from the same state in India.

On my first day as a trainee, he told me that ‘the reason I hired you because these Canadians don’t do hard work.’ And the work was hell. It was a two-person job, which one person had to do. You had to stand 11 hours straight. It was no fun. Then I wondered, what jobs like these do Canadians not want to do? Or are Indians or South Asians better at this?

The answer boils down to exploitation. It is easy to exploit when you are desperate. The South & East Asian managers pick their own kind because they know you need a job. These managers cut down the workforce to minimal and make you accept responsibility for two people.

As a trainee, on my first day, I met Bharath in the fast-food restaurant. He is from Nepal. Nepali students don’t have to do GIC before coming to Canada. But show enough money for your expenditure. As soon as you land, you must get a job because there is no financial backing you can rely on. So, you work your ass off to stay afloat.

That is the case with Bharath. He took the job as a cook and works for long hours with no break. And managers love to hire them because they work like a machine, exhausting themselves to the last calorie. The cherry on top is that they don’t complain about toxic work culture.

If they have hired a Canadian, he/she will more likely raise their voice on unfairness and cruel work conditions. Why the hassle when you can hire your own people and exploit them to the core? South Asian managers, perhaps because of our history with colonization, cannot shake off our grandiose thinking and attitude. They feel they have control over you.

In some instances, the managers pay cash that is less than the minimum wage. Although it is against the law, the managers can save the money. It is the risk for the student if something happens on the site. He/she cannot complain if they miss the payment since cash jobs are illegal.

It is not only with Punjabis; Filipinos hire Filipinos, Nepalis hire Nepalis, Pakistanis hire Pakistanis, Chinese hire Chinese, and Indians hire Indians. It is the same across the board. To outsiders, Canadians who cannot get a part-time job, it looks like migrants taking jobs. But the truth is that extreme levels of exploitation are taking place. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the managers.

It doesn’t stop at work exploitation. In some cases, immigrants are sexually abused, too. I cannot go into the specifics of what really happened. But they don’t come to light because victims are afraid that they will be deported or their employment will be taken away. They endure as if nothing happened.

In some areas in Toronto, your profession won’t be respected either. I heard about how assistant physiotherapists are being used for household chores in employers’ houses. They need a job to survive; they do such work even when they know they are being taken advantage of.

All the glory and glamour you see is the tip of the iceberg. Underneath, several forms of exploitation and abuse are taking place. You might say, if it is that hard, why don’t you go back home? Why the struggle?

Two reasons: immigrants already spent a ton of money to come here. They cannot go home with a debt. Second, if the situation is better at home, why would you seek a place to stay in a neighbor’s home? But the question should be, how can we curtail the exploitation and make Canada a better workplace for all?

First, all the toxic employers need to be called out without shame. If you don’t speak, there is literally no way everyone can know what is happening behind the curtain. Blind loyalty because he/she hired you takes a toll not only on you but also on future employees, too. Be brave. Law backs you up. I hope things change in the coming years.