Canada's Montreal – When parliament reconvenes the following week, campaigners for migrant rights in Canada will step up their campaign to persuade Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's administration to offer permanent status to all foreign workers, students, and other unauthorized residents of the nation.
Danilo De Leon, an activist for undocumented workers' rights, told reporters on Wednesday during a virtual press briefing that he and other people without status "cannot wait" any longer."I continue to make sacrifices because of my girls, even if I'm far away from them and trying to maintain my standing. I'd like to see them again in Canada so they can have a brighter future. We must act now and give status to everyone; we cannot wait. Nobody ought to be left out, declared De Leon.
The news conference, which was organized by the Migrant Rights Network, comes days before protests demanding permanent status for everyone will be conducted across Canada. This demand has been gathering traction among civil rights activists for months.
Regularizing the immigration status of employees and other individuals without permanent status has long been a demand, but it became even more urgent after the COVID-19 outbreak revealed systematic issues in a number of businesses that employ these laborers.According to rights organizations, hundreds of thousands of people are living without documentation, and over a million migrant workers, students, refugees, and other people lack permanent legal status in Canada.Many are employed as domestic carers, in the country's incredibly lucrative agriculture and food processing industry, or in the hospital or custodial fields. And advocates claim that because of a system that ties many of these employees to their Canadian employers, they are at risk of being mistreated and have little options for standing up for their rights because the danger of removal looms over them.
These immigrants sometimes work in hazardous, low-paying jobs with little to no social protection. They "found themselves at the mercy of placement agencies, who all too frequently exploit them," according to a report (PDF) released on Wednesday by Amnesty International Canada. The fact that their status as employees is unstable prevents them from speaking up about how their rights are often not honored.In an open letter published last month, Jamaican farmworkers who had been admitted to Canada through a unique, temporary immigration procedure complained that their employers treated them "like mules" and verbally and physically assaulted them. They declared, "As it exists, [the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program] is institutionalized slavery."
Since then, Jamaica has declared its intention to examine the workers' accusations by sending a special fact-finding team to Canada.ways to become a resident
The Canadian government has stated that it is researching options for foreign employees and international students to get permanent residency.
In an email sent to Al Jazeera last month, the office of Canada's Minister of Employment Carla Qualtrough also stated that the government has set aside $38.1 million ($49.5 million Canadian) over three years in 2021 to increase support for migrant workers.
The TFW [temporary foreign worker] tip line has been expanded to offer services in several languages, and we are strengthening assistance for migrant worker organizations, among other steps, it added. "In the previous year, we have reinforced the workplace inspection process," it said.A regularization program for temporary employees who served as the "guardian angels" of Canada's coronavirus response, especially those who worked in aged care institutions that were particularly hard-hit during the pandemic, was also announced by Ottawa in 2020.
The greatest method to support all employees in defending their rights and gaining access to services, according to campaigners, is to provide them permanent status. However, they claim that measure did not go far enough.According to sociology professors Luin Goldring of York University and Patricia Landolt of the University of Toronto, temporary migrants can lose their status for a variety of reasons, including "if they leave a job for any reason such as unpaid wages, sexual harassment, or unsafe working conditions," they wrote in The Conversation last year.
For all temporary migrants with fragile legal status and their families, not only employees in certain sectors or occupations, they urged, "Status for all centers human rights, mobility rights, and decent work."
The request for status for all (PDF) has received the support of hundreds of civil society organizations, and the editorial board of the Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper, recently asked the government "should take a generous approach and avoid artificial limits on who could apply."
The board stated in a letter last week that "given the dangers they confront, these citizens are precisely the kind of people governments should be attempting to safeguard."Day of the event
Sunday will see demonstrations calling for universal permanent status staged in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, among other cities around the nation. These demonstrations will take place just days before Canada's parliament reconvenes in Ottawa.Organizers say they are hoping for public pressure to force the administration to take immediate action.
Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change advocacy group, stated during a news conference on Wednesday, "We're not asking for charity; we're seeking equality.
He cited Ireland as one recent good example that Canada might imitate. Ireland began a regularization program for unauthorized immigrants in early 2022 after they had resided in the nation for at least two years.
Hussan stated that "Prime Minister Trudeau has demonstrated that he is willing to do the right thing." We are all gathered here to demand that everyone who is undocumented be included, without exception.
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