Migrant Workers Alliance Action

A message from the Migrant Workers Alliance:

In Toronto, we will be joining community allies on March 29th, at Citizenship and Immigration Canada headquarters (55 St. Clair Avenue East, near St Clair Station) at 2pm to plant justice and resist uprooting. We will be planting small seedlings that you and others will be able to take home. Join us.
Migrant workers pay tens of thousands of dollars to come to Canada and work at minimum wage jobs to provide an opportunity for their family; so that their children can go to school; and to have a better life. The 4 & 4 rule strips away migrant workers’ dignity, forces workers already in precarity into further uncertainty, and imposes discriminatory and arbitrary barriers on how long workers can stay here.

That these migrants have worked in Canada for four years proves that their jobs are permanent, not temporary. These friends and community members deserve permanent residence, not deportation. This 4 and 4 rule entrenches a revolving door immigration policy, employers can simply replace current with new workers.

Over the last two years, we have also seen migrant workers pitted against unemployed citizens and residents. Yet, none of the Conservative ‘reforms’ create a path to a better life for the over 1.3 million people unemployed in the country. Employers are simply able to bring in new sets of migrant workers on precarious status, while provincial laws exclude them from protections.

The only real path forward for all workers – irrespective of immigration status – is to call for right to permanent residency on landing, full labour rights, social protections and decent pay for all. Migrant workers and their allies are calling for actions across Canada in the lead up to April 1st and right up to the Federal Elections in this spirit and to oppose divide and rule tactics. Join us. Let’s turn this tide.