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Contents
- National
Migrant Gathering Report: Building Solidarity, Taking Action
(10 June 2006)
- Joint
Submission to the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Social
Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities: Improving
the employability of undocumented and temporary workers (6
September 2006)
- Statement of Unity from the National Migrant Justice Gathering: Building Solidarity, Taking Action (June 2006)
- Borderless DVD/ video and study guide on the lives of undocumented
people in Canada. Click
here for more information.
- Resource on migrants and migrant rights: God’s People: A People on the Move. Click here to access PDF samples and ordering info.
Who are migrants? Why do they need our support? Simply defined, a migrant is anyone who moves to another country without being granted the right to stay there permanently. Worldwide, 175 million migrants live outside their home country.
Many migrants move from the global South to the industrialized countries of the North in search of employment. Economic globalization has fueled migration by increasing the global gap between rich and poor. In countries like Mexico, free trade has destroyed the livelihood of small farmers and pushed many to look for alternate employment in the North. In countries like the Philippines, government policies openly encourage labour migration. Migration then becomes a substitute for development, with the money sent back home becoming a cornerstone of family income and a primary source of GNP.
Migrants often flee poverty at home, only to find themselves in precarious living and working conditions in Canada. Tens of thousands of migrant workers are employed in low wage jobs in agriculture, child and elder care, construction and office cleaning, as well as the garment industry and other “invisible” sectors of our economy. Without permanent residence status, migrants have limited access to social services and few guarantees of their labour rights. Common rights violations include sub-standard wages, long hours without adequate rest or overtime pay, and verbal or physical abuse. In the most extreme cases, documents are withheld to make sure workers do as they are told.
KAIROS focuses its education and advocacy work on three particularly vulnerable groups of migrants:
- migrant farm workers
- live-in caregivers
- non-status people
These three groups face common problems of exploitation at work,
poor accommodation and inadequate access to services. They also
share a common dream and determination to carve out a future for
themselves and their families. Their work and their courage makes
for a rich but undervalued contribution to the Canadian community.
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