为何加拿大人日益不宽容、对中国土豪反感
(汉加综合)捷克一男子占地七平方公里建国,他的立国宣言是“自己活也让别人活”。可加拿大人现在真得活得很难:生活指数日益高涨,就业形势不好,年轻一代不堪重负。同时有越来越多的加拿大人,工作前景不稳定,没有福利、没有带薪假期、没有公司退休金计划、得不到培训,对未来没有安全感。
可某些暴富起来的中国土豪,自我修养与财富积累没有同步,尽管就是不差钱,然而有些中国式的习惯让人感到另类。尤其那些在中国习惯了的大声喧哗,不顾公共环境,不懂礼貌待人,在加国被视为没有教养的一类。另外,中国富人狂砸巨资大手笔购房,拉涨了房价,扭曲了当地房地产数据,也让加国人反感。
据加拿大广播公司CBC 4月29日报道,加拿大现在不景气的就业市场上,全职、长期性的就业机会正变得越来越少,找工作的人能找到短期的合同工、或者是非全职的工作就已经算是不错了。
就业难 房价高
年轻人的父母一代,也就是第二次世界大战后婴儿潮一代人习惯的是一个工作干几十年,端着铁饭碗直到退休,然后领取不错的退休金颐养天年。但现在的年轻一代人,只有少数幸运者能够在医疗、教学、政府部门或者是极少数公司中找到不但收入不错、福利不错、而且长期稳定的工作;其他的人就只能靠打短工度日,不断找工作和不断换工作成为他们的生活常态。
加拿大广播公司记者 Susan Noakes采访了一位化名Natalie(娜塔莉)的40岁女性,由于找不到长期和固定的工作,她同时干着三份非全职的记账员工作,就这样一年的收入还是只有加拿大全国工业领域平均收入49,500加元的一半;结果是她不得带着10岁的女儿回到父母家里居住,因为她不但买不起房子、而且租不起房;汽车也买不起;娜塔莉担心,如果她的女儿需要做牙齿矫正,这上万加元的钱她上哪里去找。
能有个中等收入的稳定工作、能有包括牙医的私人医疗保险、能有公司退休金、能有一年几个星期的带薪假期,这些对于娜塔莉来说都只能是奢侈的梦想。
娜塔莉是加拿大全国不断增加的没有稳定工作的就业群体中的一员,这些人包括临时工、非全职工、合同工,自雇人士等等。这些人名义上不属于失业者,但他们的工作却是很不稳定;这使得他们长期经受着很大的身心压力,难以购买住房和汽车、甚至在组成家庭方面都有困难。
铁饭碗在消失
专家们认为,铁饭碗工作往好了说是在明显减少,往差了说是在消亡。
United Way和 McMaster 大学在2013年所做的研究显示,哈密尔顿和多伦多地区的就业人口中有18.3%的人没有稳定的工作,只有50.3%的人有全职工作。
根据加拿大统计局的数字,加拿大全国自雇人士的数量在1989年到2007年期间增加了45%。
麦克马斯特大学教授Wayne Lewchuk指出,没有稳定工作的并不局限于从事低工资工作的人,不少有高科技技能或专业技能的人(比如会计)也不得不干合同工,一个合同完了何时能够有下一个合同经常是个问号。而现在的许多合同工工作过去是全职性的工作岗位。不但是私营公司、而且越来越多的政府部门也在用合同工来取代长期性全职工作。
Wayne Lewchuk教授说,这些从事临时工和合同工工作的人工资较低、没有正式员工的福利,一辈子下来要比正式员工少挣46%的钱; 而且他们的工作时间非常不规律,今天不知道明天上什么班、不知道在哪个部门上班是常事,老等电话通知何时上班的日子对个人的心理健康和家庭生活的和睦是非常有害的。他们中的许多人干脆选择不要孩子、甚至是不要家庭。
加拿大年轻一代压力大
金融危机后,加拿大年轻人的失业率一直比全国平均比例高一倍,在15%上下周游,多伦多地区的年轻人失业率高达20%。
UBC的报告说, 45岁以下有全职工作的人,收入比1976- 1980年时期的同龄人少了很多,即使拥有更高的学历也没用。
房价的高涨当然对年轻人是很大的打击, 克肖在研究报告中说,一般来说,从学校里出来的年轻人,毕业后至少需要工作5年才能节省出购房的首付。尽管利率处于历史低位,现在的年轻人要缴纳房贷,比1976-1980年的同龄人平均每年至少多工作一个月才够。
延伸阅读----原文:No vacation, benefits or regular schedules make it difficult to form relationships or start a family
At 40, the self-employed worker we'll call Natalie is one of a growing number of Canadians shut out of the world of stable, full-time work.
She has three bookkeeping jobs, she's watching every penny and still she makes just half of Canada's average industrial wage of $49,500. She's had to move back home with her 10-year-old daughter because she can't find full-time work.
"The way I'm going, I'm never going to get my own place for my daughter and I won't be able to afford a car; I won't be able to afford a dentist appointment for my daughter, or something she may need, braces," she told CBC News.
Like an increasing number of Canadians, she's in precarious work, without security, benefits, vacation pay or the prospect of a pension.
People in temp positions, part-time workers and contract workers all fall into the insecure employment category. And the number is growing.
Secure jobs a vanishing breed
A study by the United Way and McMaster University in 2013 found 18.3 per cent of the workforce in the Hamilton-Toronto area had insecure employment. And only a little over half — 50.3 per cent — had standard, full-time jobs.
Across Canada, the category of self-employed workers increased almost 45 per cent between 1989 and 2007, according to the Statistics Canada labour survey.
Precarious workers aren't just minimum-wage employees with irregular hours, says Wayne Lewchuk, a professor at the school of labour studies at McMaster University. They're also high-tech workers hired for projects, accountants who must seek one job after another, social-service sector workers employed by temp agencies and university lecturers hired on contract.
A lot of these jobs used to be secure, Lewchuk points out, but not anymore.
"It became a way of keeping down wages and companies became addicted to it," says Lewchuk, who has been studying precarious employment for seven years.
There's no career path for temp or flex workers — they lurch from one job to the next, get neither training nor benefits nor paid leave and are expected to save for their own pension.
Sitting by the phone
"Often they don't know their schedule until the day before or their schedule changes at the last minute They don't know where they have to be until just before their shift," Lewchuk says.
Over a working life, the penalty for precarious work is financial — those in insecure employment earned about 46 per cent less than workers in the same field who had standard jobs.
But on a day-to-day basis, the toll is often personal.
"All of this makes sustaining a household and a family difficult," Lewchuk says.
If they think they're going to be sitting by the phone waiting for a call to work, they often can't enrol their children in extracurricular activities or make it to the parent-teacher conference, Lewchuk says. There's no option to coach Little League or volunteer at the local seniors' home.
"People that are in precarious work delay making significant life plans," says Micheline Laflèche, with the United Way, who is part of a group of researchers updating the 2013 report.
"They don't feel confident enough to establish an ongoing relationship or have children."
Socially isolated
Men in particular may feel socially isolated, she says.
"Men were the ones who were much more likely to be in standard employment relationships [permanent full-time work], and they built their social relationships through their work," she says.
"They're no longer in those kinds of jobs; men are more likely to have no one to talk to."
Laflèche says people in insecure employment tend to be less engaged with their community, a trend that could weaken the fabric of Canadian life.
"It hurts our democratic commonality and our democratic values because people don't feel like they belong. We don't have a healthy society," she says.
In the face of the rise of precarious work and the expansion of low-paid work, the Ontario government has said it will review employment standards and the labour code.
Laflèche and the United Way will be among the parties trying to suggest innovative ways to address precarious work.
She argues Canada's employment insurance system, which is a federal responsibility, is geared to a world where people had an industrial job for years, and if that was eliminated, they got another permanent job, a scenario that now rarely happens. She recommends a more realistic approach to employment insurance for part-time or contract workers.
Changing labour laws
She points to some of the ways other countries are addressing precarious work:
•A minimum wage "premium": an extra payment from employers for low-wage workers who don't have benefits or secure work.
•"Flexicurity": Denmark has a social contract between employers, the government and individuals that helps people who don't have secure work. Opportunities for training are provided when they can't find work and there is support, similar to employment insurance, but which kicks in even if people haven't worked for the required minimum time.
•Parity legislation: There are variations on this throughout the European Union with laws that ask employers to give temporary or contract workers the same pay, vacation and benefits as permanent employees doing the same jobs.
•Creating better training opportunities for those in marginal employment.
•Providing more flexible child-care solutions (instead of always full-time, five days a week, allowing part-time child care).
Businesses have also put forward voluntary solutions, among them temp agencies or groups of employers combining forces to provide full-time hours to part-time workers and better social inclusion in work events for temp and part-time workers.