While housing is a challenge for many people in New Brunswick, in need of immediate attention, certain groups of newcomers – temporary foreign workers, international students and the undocumented – in the province face unique housing challenges. Their struggles and needs are the focus of this report.

Based on desk research and conversations with temporary foreign workers, international students, the undocumented, and their advocates in 2023 and 2024, the report concludes that migrant housing in New Brunswick is inadequate, unsafe and unaffordable.

The report makes a series of recommendations aimed at ensuring the housing rights of migrant workers, international students and the undocumented are respected.

Advocates at the Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre are sounding the alarm about the exploitation of migrant workers in New Brunswick following a new report released today by researchers from Dalhousie University and St. Thomas University.

The report, which the Madhu Centre reviewed an earlier draft of, paints a dire portrait of the situation through the pandemic. Low wages, overcrowded housing, long work hours, few breaks, and generally exploitative working conditions.

Workers also described paying high fees to recruiters to be able to work in New Brunswick, with one worker having paid $11,000 for their contract. New Brunswick does not have protections against unscrupulous recruitment practices like Nova Scotia and PEI do.

“Employers are behaving in ways that are not just unconscionable, but also illegal – such as threatening workers with deportation if they stand up for their rights, and forcing evictions on workers through relocations,” said Aditya Rao, a board member of the Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre.

“These findings confirm what we have been hearing directly from workers,” he added. The Madhu Centre raised concerns earlier this month that migrant workers are being denied access to public healthcare, which is also a finding of the report.

The temporary foreign worker program is exploitative by design.

The Madhu Centre joins the authors of the report in their recommendations to the provincial and federal governments in calling for immediate reform. These include ending the use of closed work permits, guaranteeing permanent residence on arrival, granting Medicare on arrival for temporary foreign workers and enhancing worker protections.