Canada Needs a Just and Modern Immigration Policy that Upholds
Rights by Virtue
of Being Human
Status for All action,
Toronto, September 15, 2024
The Trudeau government's announcement on October 24 of its new transitional Immigration Levels Plan for 2025-2027 includes an overall reduction of permanent immigrants to Canada by 21 per cent in 2025 and other arbitrary changes. These changes will create chaos and turmoil in the lives of international students, temporary foreign workers and refugees already in Canada and thousands of others who were planning to come to Canada. This is an attack on the Canadian people aimed once again at blaming immigrants, international students, temporary workers and asylum seekers for the consequences of the anti-social offensive of the oligarchs who have taken over government and are driving policies that deprive people of basic rights. The impact of these cuts will have severe consequences for hundreds of thousands of people.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller stated on October 24, "In response to the global pandemic and labour shortages, we brought in temporary measures to attract some of the world's best and brightest to study and work in Canada, which supported the urgent needs of businesses." The plan worked, he said, to facilitate the recovery of the Canadian economy in the pandemic. But now, "pressures on housing and social services require a more sustainable approach to welcoming newcomers."
In other words, the estimated 3 million non-permanent residents in Canada, representing close to seven per cent of Canada's population of 41 million, are causing the "pressures on housing and social services," not the total abdication by the Canadian state of its responsibility to provide the right to housing, employment, health care and other rights with a guarantee. This number is to be reduced to five per cent of the population over the next three years.
Since 2008, both Conservative and Liberal governments have brought more temporary residents than permanent immigrants into Canada. This deliberate policy is to deprive migrants of rights and make them more vulnerable to exploitation.
The government's cuts to immigration include reducing the number of permanent residents immediately from a target of 500,000 in 2024 to 395,000 in 2025, from 500,000 to 380,000 in 2026, and setting a target of 365,000 in 2027. This will be done through cuts to the economic immigration category and the family reunification category. It was announced that next year 40 per cent of temporary residents who are young, educated and skilled will be processed for permanent residency. Miller noted that this group of immigrants is already in Canada and have begun their integration, and therefore "will not place the burdens on our housing, health care and social services of someone who comes in from another country."
In terms of cutting non-permanent migrants to Canada, the main cuts will come in the number of international students who are eligible for work permits which could lead to permanent resident status. It was announced that since the government reduced the number of study permits issued to international students by 43 per cent since last year, housing costs in Vancouver and Toronto have gone down -- which the immigration minister says proves that the Liberal plan is working. Miller added that thanks to these reductions "we will not have to build an additional 670,000 housing units by [2027]." The government expects that the number of temporary residents in Canada will decline by about 445,000 in 2025 and by another 445,000 in 2026, and will then increase by about 17,000 in 2027.
The government reports that, as
of February 2024, with regard to the number of undocumented
immigrants in Canada "estimates from academic sources range
between 20,000 and 500,000." Speaking of a regularization
program for undocumented immigrants that the Trudeau government
pledged in December 2021, Miller repeated that there was "no
consensus" in Canada to offer "mass regularization" as his
"mandate letter" has instructed him to pursue. However, he
stated that Canada will pursue a small regularization program
for those working in services such as health care and
construction.
Canada has obligations under international law to support refugees and asylum seekers and has made promises to international students and migrant workers who worked in health care and other sectors during the pandemic, all of which are tossed aside with these announcements. The government and cartel parties and media who blame immigrants for the housing crisis and pressures on social programs, treat all workers in Canada, including immigrant workers, as things to be used when needed, exploited, and then discarded when not, not as human beings with rights that society must guarantee.
It is the anti-social offensive of the rich and their governments at all levels that has caused the crisis in housing, health care and other services for which the cartel parties are blaming immigrants. During the economic crisis of the mid-1970s, in order to split the working class and people, the Pierre Trudeau Liberal government introduced the Green Paper on Immigration which sought to restrict immigrants from South Asia and the Caribbean on the racist basis that Canada had "limited absorptive capacity" for immigrants with "novel and distinctive features." Canadians rose up across the country to denounce the Green Paper and defend the rights of all. They are doing so today as well to oppose the mistreatment of international students, migrant workers and refugees.
The arbitrary and inhumane changes called a "plan" that Canada announced on October 24 are aimed at diverting attention from the crisis in which Canada's liberal democracy and its institutions are mired. It is noteworthy that for decades the rights of international students, temporary foreign workers and refugees have been violated with impunity. With this announcement, it is clear that the Canadian state is going to continue these violations in the name of defending Canada's interests and upholding the "integrity" of Canada's immigration system. These new immigration announcements are inhumane and self-serving, dividing the people and diverting attention from the wrecking that is going on through the privatization of housing, health care, education and other social programs to benefit the rich while denying the state's responsibility for the well-being of all the people.
Canadians want the
state-organized attacks against immigrants, refugees,
international students and those without status to end. The
situation calls for continued united opposition to these
arbitrary and self-serving policies which are aimed at
exploiting and abusing workers on the basis of their status, and
maintaining conditions of modern day slavery to attack the
living and working conditions of all working people in Canada.
None of the cartel parties uphold humane and just immigration policies that recognize that people have rights by virtue of being human and that government must uphold those rights. Only the working class, of which migrant workers are an integral part, through its consciousness and organization, can bring into being the new arrangements needed to ensure that the rights of international students, temporary foreign workers and refugees are guaranteed.
(With files from IRCC, Migrants Rights Network, CPAC)
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 11 - November 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M5401112.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca