MIGRANT JUSTICE Take Action!

Urge Canada to protect all migrant workers with residency status

With COVID-19 exposing and enhancing the vulnerability of migrant workers, your help is needed now more than ever.   

Migrant workers  deserve  our deepest respect for the work they do. They have a right to be safe and secure both in their workplaces and at home. They should not have to face the risks and hardships  that currently confront them  daily.   

KAIROS joins the Migrant Rights Network in calling on the federal government to provide Status for All and Landed Status Now.  

  • This means, everyone in the country without permanent resident status must be regularized and given permanent resident status immediately. This includes migrant workers, study permit holders, refugee claimants,  and people who overstayed their visas or who entered Canada without a permit, among others. 
  • All people who come to Canada in the future must be provided with permanent resident status on arrival. Migrants in low-waged occupations currently coming into Canada through the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, Caregiver Program, Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, and other programs with work authorization permits, as well as refugees and individuals on study permits, should be able to come to Canada as permanent residents if they so choose, and be able to bring their families with them. 

Take Action! 

Learn more about the Status for All and Landed Status Now campaign. 

Share the demands via your social media handles.

Full Immigration Status for All – for a Just Recovery from COVID-19 https://migrantrights.ca/statusforall/ #StatusforAll #StatusNow 

Write to your Member of Parliament  and  urge  the  government to provide  Status for All and Landed Status Now.

Here is a sample letter. Simply copy and paste into your email.

Dear [MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT NAME],

Foreign migrant workers play a vital role in Canada’s food and care sectors, filling the jobs that too few Canadians want. 

COVID-19 exposes and enhances the vulnerability of these vital workers. The overcrowded and often unhygienic living quarters of field workers, limited access to benefits, workplace abuse, and the dangers posed by COVID-19 are only a few examples. 

The federal government recently addressed some of the problems exacerbated by the pandemic by lowering eligibility requirements for EI benefits and introducing new criteria for employers to help safeguard workers’ safety. While this response is encouraging, workers still face barriers accessing benefits, there is still no support for workers who lose their status due to program changes, and there is no guarantee of compliance to public health directives on farms, in meat processing facilities, and at other workplaces. 
 
In addition to monitoring workplaces to ensure employers are meeting public health directives, Canada must provide Status for All and Landed Status Now. 

This means that everyone in the country without permanent resident status must be regularized and given permanent resident status immediately, including migrant workers, study permit holders, and refugee claimants. 

In future, all people who come to work or study in Canada or are refugees must have permanent resident status on arrival. In 2019, the federal government took steps in this direction by strengthening the caregivers’ pathway to permanent residency conditional to having completed two years of work in Canada. It must extend this program to workers in all sectors.

Let’s ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of all people who come to Canada to work or escape danger. Please provide Status for All and Landed Status Now. 

Sincerely, 

[YOUR NAME AND MAILING ADDRESS]


Send an email to your Member of Parliament 

Identify your MP and get their contact details.

In your email, please copy the following: 

Justin Trudeau
justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca

Hon. Marco E. L. Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca 

Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Parliamentary Secretary, IRCC
Soraya.MartinezFerrada@parl.gc.ca 

Hon. Peter Kent, IRCC Critic (Conservative Party of Canada)
peter.kent@parl.gc.ca 

Jenny Kwan, IRCC Critic (NDP)
Jenny.Kwan@parl.gc.ca 

For tracking purposes, also copy Connie Sorio at csorio@kairoscanada.org  

For further information, please refer to KAIROS’ letter to federal ministers with direct oversight of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

THANK YOU FOR TAKING ACTION! 


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