Walk through any chicken processing plant in Ontario and listen. You'll hear Tagalog, Mandarin, Tamil, Spanish, Arabic — sometimes all before lunch. That's not a quirk. That's the foundation.
Immigrants make up 35% of Canada's food and beverage manufacturing workforce. In meat processing specifically, the numbers are even higher. This isn't a recent trend or a policy experiment. It's how this industry has operated for decades, and it's the reason your grocery store has chicken on the shelf at all.
Here's how the immigration pipeline actually works for Ontario's poultry sector — the programs, the pathways, and what we've seen firsthand in Scarborough over 30 years.
The Demographic Reality of Ontario's Processing Floor
Canada's food and beverage manufacturing sector employed over 116,700 people in Ontario in 2023. That's 14.4% of all manufacturing jobs in the province. Of those workers nationally, about 35% are immigrants — nearly 10 percentage points higher than the overall Canadian labour force.
Temporary foreign workers add another layer. In 2021, 30,695 TFWs came to work in food and beverage manufacturing across Canada, up 8.1% from the year before. They represented roughly 10% of total employees in the sector. In meat processing alone, TFWs filled almost 25% of all temporary positions within food manufacturing.
Why food processing? A few reasons. The work doesn't require Canadian credentials or professional licensing. Language requirements are lower than office-based jobs. The demand is constant — people eat every day, and Ontario and Quebec together produce 61% of Canada's chicken. And the industry is facing a labour crisis: Canada's food and beverage manufacturers will need 142,000 new workers by 2030. Over 65,000 current workers will retire in that window. Ontario alone projected a shortage of up to 25,000 employees by 2025.
The math doesn't work without immigration. It hasn't for a long time.
TFWP and LMIA — How It Actually Works for Meat Processing
The Temporary Foreign Worker Program is the main pipeline. Here's the process, stripped of the bureaucratic language.
An employer applies for a Labour Market Impact Assessment — an LMIA. This is the government's way of confirming that no Canadian citizen or permanent resident is available for the job. The employer has to prove they advertised the position, documented their recruitment efforts, and still came up short. The Department of Employment and Social Development (ESDC) reviews the application and issues a positive or negative LMIA. If positive, the worker applies for a work permit.
Processing times have improved. In 2024, low-wage LMIAs took 2-3 months. By 2025, that dropped to an estimated 38-45 business days.
Meat processing gets a specific carve-out. Low-wage positions in meat product manufacturing (NAICS 3116) qualify for a 2-year work permit, double the standard 1 year for other low-wage roles. Eligible positions include butchers, meat cutters, and general labourers in food and beverage processing. The employer's main activity has to be meat product manufacturing.
There's a cap on low-wage TFWs — 10% of total workforce as of the 2024 changes, down from 20%. But food processing gets an exemption from regional unemployment restrictions because it's classified as a food security sector. The government recognizes that chicken doesn't process itself regardless of what the local unemployment rate looks like.
Wages matter too. A November 2024 update raised the high-wage threshold by 20%. If a candidate earns at least 20% above the median wage for their position and region, they're in the high-wage stream. Below that, it's low-wage. The stream determines permit duration, housing requirements, and transition pathways.
If you're new to the industry and wondering how the actual hiring works on the ground, here's how the hiring process works at most Ontario plants.
From Temporary to Permanent — The Pathways That Exist
A work permit is temporary. Everyone knows that. The real question is: can you stay?
The data says yes — for a significant number of people. StatsCan published findings in January 2024 showing that approximately one-third of all work permit holders transitioned to permanent residency within 5 years. For food manufacturing TFWs specifically, the numbers are better: 39% of workers in lower-skill occupations (2010-2014 cohort) made the transition. For higher-skill occupations in food manufacturing, it was 48%.
The main pathways:
OINP In-Demand Skills Stream. This is the big one for processing floor workers. It accepts job offers at TEER category 4 or 5 — the classification covering most line-level food processing roles. Meat cutters (NOC 65202) are explicitly eligible. You need work experience in Ontario in the same occupation, a Canadian high school diploma or equivalent, and language proficiency. As of March 25, 2026, the OINP issued 251 invitations to apply across its Employer Job Offer streams.
Agri-Food Immigration Pilot. This was a major pathway — past tense. It ran for 5 years from 2020 to 2025 and helped over 4,500 agri-food workers and their families become permanent residents. Eligible occupations included industrial butchers, meat cutters, poultry preparers, and general labourers in meat processing. The requirements were reasonable: 12 months of full-time work in Canada under TFWP, CLB 4 language proficiency (basic conversational English), and a high school diploma or equivalent. But the pilot closed on May 14, 2025. The 2025 cap of 1,010 spaces filled by February 13. It will not return in 2026.
What's left post-AFIP? Provincial nominee programs (like the OINP stream above), Express Entry through the Canadian Experience Class, the Atlantic Immigration Program, and various rural and Francophone community pilots. The landscape is narrower, but the paths exist.
Here's the honest part. Retention is a challenge. Among TFWs who got their PR through lower-skill food manufacturing occupations, 73% stayed in the sector in the year they landed. Five years later, that dropped to 36%. People move on to higher-paying work. That's the cycle — and it's why the industry needs a constant pipeline.
Scarborough as a Landing Zone
There's a reason so many food processing workers end up in Scarborough, and it goes beyond job proximity.
Scarborough's population is 629,941 (2021 Census). Of that, 76.6% identified as members of visible minority groups. Ward 41 — Scarborough-Rouge River — has the highest immigrant concentration in Toronto at 71.4%. The top groups: South Asian (25.4%), Chinese (19.0%), Black (10.8%), Filipino (8.4%).
This matters for practical reasons. When you arrive in a new country and your English is at CLB 4, you need a community that speaks your language, shops at stores you recognize, and has people who've been through what you're about to go through. Scarborough has that in layers.
The settlement infrastructure is real. ACCES Employment supports over 40,000 job seekers annually across seven GTA locations. COSTI Immigrant Services handles credential recognition and trade certification. WoodGreen Community Services runs a Newcomer Settlement Program right in Scarborough, with dedicated career coaches, free pre-apprentice programs, and one-on-one counselling — specifically serving the Golden Mile neighbourhood. CultureLink has been delivering services to diverse communities for over 35 years. And the Toronto East Quadrant Local Immigration Partnership coordinates settlement strategy specifically for Scarborough's newcomer population.
These organizations don't just help people find any job. They connect newcomers to industries that are actively hiring — and food processing is always at the top of that list.
And since January 1, 2023, all TFWs are eligible for OHIP immediately upon entering Ontario. That's a significant change. Workers don't have to wait months for health coverage anymore.
What Cheong Hing Has Seen Over 30 Years
We've been processing chicken in Scarborough for over three decades. In that time, we've watched entire families build their lives through this work.
The pattern repeats. Someone arrives on a work permit. They learn the floor, pick up the routines, earn their food handler certifications. A few years later, they've got their permanent residency. A few years after that, their spouse is working nearby, their kids are in Scarborough schools, and they're coaching the new arrivals who remind them of where they started.
The thing is, meat processing has a 41% turnover rate nationally. That's among the highest in food manufacturing. Some of that is the nature of the work — it's physical, it's cold, and there are faster-paying options once you've got your PR. But the workers who stay? They tend to stay for a long time. They become your shift leads, your quality assurance people, your trainers. They're the ones who make a plant actually run.
We've seen newcomers who started on the line and ended up training the next generation of workers. We've seen people use the OINP to get their PR and then bring family members who also found work in food manufacturing. Scarborough's food processing sector doesn't just employ immigrants — it's built by them.
The industry will need 142,000 new workers by 2030. The retirements are coming. The demand isn't slowing down. And the newcomers who choose this work aren't filling a gap — they're continuing what every generation before them started.
If you're a newcomer looking for stable work in a sector that's actively hiring, reach out to us. We've been at this a long time, and the door is open.