Immigrant Rights Organizations Demand Government Reverse Immigration Cuts
Montreal, November 2, 2024
The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change held a press conference at the House of Commons in Ottawa on November 25. That same day Immigration Minister Marc Miller appeared before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to answer questions about his 2024 report to Parliament on immigration.
Responding to drastic changes announced on October 24, emcee Karen Cocq noted that more than 180 migrant rights, community and social justice organizations, representing 5.8 million people, sent an open letter to the Trudeau government calling for the government to halt its anti-immigrant measures.
Sarom Rho, spokesperson for the Migrant Rights Network, Canada's largest coalition of migrant-led rights groups defending the rights of farm workers, care workers, former international students and the undocumented, condemned the massive cuts to immigration over the last 18 months as "unjust, racist and unwarranted." She said that the result would be the expulsion of 2.3 million people from Canada over the next two years and that the changes would multiply the immense power imbalance that employers, landlords, and recruiters have over migrants and undocumented people. She pointed out that the Trudeau Liberals have promised many times over the last nine years to bring in a regularization program but they have not kept their promises. She underscored that migrants are "more than numbers on a table or figures to be used as election bluster or taps to be turned on or off at the Prime Minister's whim." She demanded that Trudeau and Miller reverse the anti-immigrant cuts, ensure regularization for all undocumented workers, and permanent status for all migrants, and fund housing, health care and social services for the benefit of all citizens and residents of Canada.
Rho denounced the "divide and distract" tactics of governments and media, which blame immigrants for social problems to hide the fact that "the super rich are making record-breaking profits while the majority of us go hungry, that corporate landlords are buying up housing stock to manufacture scarcity and that the public institutions we value so deeply like health care and education are being chopped up and sold by the pound to private profiteers." She said migrant workers contribute to growing the economy and quoted Minister Miller himself who said that regularizing undocumented workers would contribute more to the public purse than any oil pipe-line would.
Michèle Biss, project manager of the Right to Housing Network denounced the claim of the Trudeau government that drastic cuts to immigration are necessary to address the housing crisis. She noted that "Canada's housing crisis experts have told government time and time again that the housing crisis is driven by factors like under-investment in non-market housing such as social non-profit and cooperative housing and lack of regulation of investors who treat housing as a commodity rather than as a human right and a severe lack of protections for renters experiencing rent evictions.... Migrants, international students, refugees, temporary foreign workers and undocumented people are not responsible for Canada's housing, economic or infrastructure challenges."
Monieya Jess, an undocumented worker who came to Canada to work to support two sons in her homeland, described what happened to her after being mistreated and injured working at a strawberry farm in Nova Scotia. She left the farm and became undocumented, she was turned away from a hospital and denied medical treatment because she had no health card, while struggling to find a job. "Without papers we are blowing in the wind... Our families depend on us but nobody will hire us ...We deserve fairness and equality. We are demanding status for all and an end to deportations. ... I want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to act on his promise of regularization made nearly three years ago. He knows it is good for the economy and it is good for migrants."
Navjot Salaria, a member of the Post-Graduate Work Permit Holder Committee of the Naujawan Support Network spoke of the experience of tens of thousands of international students: "I came to Canada in 2021 as an international student. After studying at York University I got a post-graduate work permit and I started working in an IT company at a big bank. I am one of 200,000 postgraduate work permit holders in Canada whose work permits are expiring in 2024 and 2025.
"International students were sold the Canadian Dream by governments, colleges, universities and their recruiters with the slogan: 'Study, Explore, Work and Stay.'" On the basis of these promises, she said, families sold land and took on debt to pay high tuition fees and living costs. Now, as a result of changes to immigration policies, their security is gone and thousands are in limbo, with students whose work permits are expiring told to apply for visitor visas, buy bonded labour contracts, and even apply for refugee status.
International students, Salaria said, are human beings with dignity who will continue to fight for their rights. "At the heart of this issue is whether Canada chooses to treat international students and immigrant workers with respect for their labour and contribution to this country's economy or as a disposable item to be used, scapegoated and discarded. From the Komagata Maru to the Chinese Head Tax we have historical evidence of Canada's racist immigration policy and system. We hope that Canada will not have to apologize for its actions 100 years from now just as it did for the Komagata Maru," she said. Salaria called on the Trudeau government to extend post-graduate work permits and ensure a fair pathway to permanent residency for international students.
Diana Gallego, president of the Canadian Council for Refugees, denounced the government's massive reduction to its commitment to provide protection to those fleeing persecution and danger. She said this is further complicating family reunification for refugees in Canada, who will remain separated from their spouses and children for years to come. She said that cuts to the number of allowed humanitarian applications are deep. Only the Government Assisted refugee category has remained the same as announced last year, which is "a drop in the bucket of the growing number of displaced people around the world" and far below Canada's capacity to resettle refugees, she said.
Cutting 5,000 refugee applicants sponsored by private citizens is baffling, Gallego said, because those costs are borne entirely by the private sponsors. The number of refugees who are privately sponsored outnumbers those who are government-sponsored. Besides demanding that these cuts be reversed, the Canadian Council for Refugees is calling on the government to withdraw from the Safe Third Country agreement with the U.S., "so that people can seek asylum without losing their lives."
The last speaker, Viviana Medina from the Immigrant Workers' Centre in Montreal, reiterated the call that the government's racist anti-immigrant policy changes be reversed, that migrant workers and international students to be treated with dignity and respect, for an end to deportations and detention, and for regularization for all. She appealed to migrant rights organizations and their allies across Canada and Quebec to organize actions on December 18, International Migrants Day. She called on them to mobilize and inform through discussion in meetings and public forums, petitions and other actions in support of these demands and in recognition of the contributions of migrants to Canadian society.
(Photo: M. Henaway)
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 11 - November 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M5401113.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca