Canadian migrants push for full immigration status

By Mohsin Abbas, Local Journalism Initiative

The Migrants Rights Network slammed the federal government’s initiatives to support the flow of more refugees into the country.

Migrants, including refugees, care workers,  and international students organized rallies and celebrations across Canada and online June 20, to call for full immigration status all and family reunification.  June 20 serves as both World Refugee Day as well as Fathers’ Day.

Dalip Singh, an international student from India,  participated in an online rally from the Milton area.  He’s echoing the Migrant Rights’ Network’s demands for change, and calls on Prime Minister to keep his promise and ensure full and permanent immigration status. “We’ve had suffered enough due to Covid-19 and to governments’ broken promises. We demand full and permanent immigration status for all international students so that they can protect themselves,” added Singh.

“Despite talk of being a ‘welcoming’ country and wanting to improve rights for migrant workers, Canada only accepted 25,000 refugees in all streams in 2020, a 50% reduction from the previous year. Existing ‘pathways’ and new temporary programs recently announced by the government continue to deny permanent status to the majority of migrants, particularly undocumented residents,” said Sarom Rho, the organizer at the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

COVID-19 has caused a human rights catastrophe for migrants, which has been exacerbated by government inaction. About 13 farmworkers have died this year, migrant care workers continue to face abuse, job loss, and family separation.

Undocumented people remain excluded from all rights and essential supports, including vaccines, in many places. Over 1.6 million people in Canada are without permanent resident status. Therefore, they don’t have equal rights or the power to exercise those rights they do have.