60 Years of Struggle
Sixty years ago today, Canada created the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and in doing so built the tied work permit: a legal leash binding migrant workers to a single employer.
In the decades that followed, Canada worked to expand and entrench this architecture of control across its temporary immigration system. But alongside every new restriction grew a new form of resistance. Migrant workers organized in the fields, in the courts, and on the streets. We are still organizing today. This is a living, incomplete record of our struggle, and our victories.
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1960s Invention of the tied work permit
Canada removes explicit racial selection criteria from immigration regulations
Canada removes openly race-based immigration rules.
Open
But exclusion does not disappear. Instead, the state increasingly sorts people by class, skill, and perceived economic usefulness.
Canada establishes the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) with Jamaica
SAWP becomes the model for employer-restricted migrant labour.
Open
Workers can enter the country, but only for a limited period and only to work for a single employer – a new form of racial exclusion built on temporariness and control.
Canada introduces the Immigration Points System
A new system for selecting mostly higher educated and higher waged migrants to become permanent residents is launched.
Open
The separation between permanent immigrants and temporary workers now becomes one of the defining features of Canada’s migration system.
Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago join SAWP
SAWP expands beyond Jamaica within a year.
Open
The quick expansion shows that tied seasonal farm labour was never a one-off experiment. Canada was already building a wider Caribbean labour pipeline.
Canada signs on to the Refugee Convention and Protocol
Canada grounds refugee protection in international law.
Open
At the same time, it continues expanding temporary labour migration, reinforcing a divide between protection, permanent status, and temporary labour recruitment.
1970s Expansion, anti-deportation organizing, and refugee coalition building
Canada regularizes almost 40,000 people
The government grants permanent resident status to undocumented people, international students, and temporary residents.
Open
The largest regularization program in Canadian history, though not the only one, had all-party support and minimal exclusions. Many American draft dodgers received landed immigrant status this way.
Canada creates the Non-Immigrant Employment Authorization Program (NIEAP)
Canada expands temporary work permits beyond agriculture.
Open
Tried work permits, first used in SAWP, extend into other sectors in what would eventually become the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Canada brings Mexico into SAWP
Canada expands SAWP into a larger Canada–Caribbean–Mexico labour system.
Open
While presented as a seasonal program, SAWP becomes a central and long-term feature of work in Canadian agriculture.
Additional Eastern Caribbean states join SAWP
Canada broadens SAWP across more of the Caribbean.
Open
By the mid-1970s, the program had expanded beyond Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago to include other Eastern Caribbean states, deepening Canada’s regional system of racialized temporary farm labour.
The Committee Against the Deportation of Immigrant Women (CADIW) forms in Toronto
Immigrant women build one of the earliest organized anti-deportation groups in Canada.
Open
CADIW openly challenges immigration policy as racist, sexist, and exploitative, and helps make deportation a visible political issue.
The Immigration Act of 1976 comes into force
Canada reorganizes its immigration system through a new legislative framework.
Open
By this period, international students already form part of the temporary labour system under student authorizations, the modern study permit structure would come later.
Organizers launch the “Save the Seven Jamaican Mothers” campaign
Anti-deportation organizers turn the case of seven Jamaican careworkers into a major public fight.
Open
CADIW, Black organizers, and anti-racist groups use the campaign to argue that women deemed good enough to work in Canada are good enough to stay.
Organizers form the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR)
Refugee-rights organizers build the main national refugee coalition in Canada.
Open
CCR coordinates legal advocacy, lobbying, and public education across the country and creates lasting national infrastructure for refugee service organizations.
Organizers form INTERCEDE in Toronto and CARDWO in Vancouver
Domestic workers and allies built the incredible INTERCEDE in Toronto and Committee For the Advancement of the Rights of Domestic Workers (CARDWO) in Vancouver.
Open
The organization challenges exploitation, fights deportations, pushes for labour protections, and demands status for migrant domestic workers.
Community pressure expands Canada’s refugee response to Southeast Asian displacement
Community organizing pushes Canada toward a larger refugee response.
Open
Private sponsorship and public pressure play a key role in broadening the federal response to displacement from Southeast Asia.
1980s Farmworker organizing, care work expansion, and refugee rights
Canada launches the Foreign Domestic Movement Program (FDMP)
A new program is launched specifically for migrant domestic workers.
Open
The program deepens the state’s reliance on migrant women’s labour in the home while keeping permanent status conditional and tightly controlled.
Filipino domestic workers and allies win a major reform through the FDMP
Domestic workers and their allies win a pathway to landed status.
Open
They secure that victory through petitions, rallies, and lobbying led by Filipino domestic workers working with INTERCEDE and anti-Marcos activists.
Refugee claimants and lawyers turn Singh v. Canada into a landmark refugee-rights victory
Refugee claimants and their lawyers win one of the most important refugee-rights victories in Canadian law.
Open
The Supreme Court rules that refugee claimants are entitled to an oral hearing on their case where credibility is at issue, strengthening the legal basis for later organizing.
Canada creates the Immigration and Refugee Board
Canada creates an independent tribunal for refugee and immigration decisions.
Open
The new institution formalizes refugee adjudication, even though Board members are chosen by political appointment.
1990s Care work restructuring, farmworker rights battles, and anti-detention organizing
Canada introduces the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP)
Canada restructures domestic worker program – the FDMP – into the Live-in Caregiver Program.
Open
Although the program offers a possible route to permanent residence, it still forces workers to live in employers’ homes and remain tied to them, deepening exploitation and family separation.
Committee for Domestic Workers’ and Caregivers’ Rights (CDWCR) is formed
Domestic workers in Vancouver form an organization for Landed Status Now.
Open
Similar sister organizations would emerge across the country over the following years.
Refugee and women’s organizations win gender-persecution guidelines
Organizers force recognition of gender-based persecution in refugee policy.
Open
Canada becomes the first country to issue official guidelines on women refugee claimants fearing gender-related persecution.
Toronto Coalition Against Racism responds to racist violence
TCAR links racist street attacks, policing, and immigration enforcement.
Open
Formed after a near‑fatal neo‑Nazi skinhead attack on Tamil refugee Sivarajah Vinasithamby, TCAR brings together racialized communities and allies to confront racist violence, police inaction, and border controls as connected systems.
Farmworkers win collective bargaining rights for the first time in Ontario
Farmworkers win collective bargaining rights for the first time in Ontario.
Open
The Agricultural Labour Relations Act comes out of years of organizing and pressure, led especially by the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW).
Highline mushroom workers unionize, then Ontario strips away their rights
Workers at Highline Mushrooms win union certification in Leamington.
Open
Then the Harris government repeals the law that made that possible, shutting down collective bargaining rights, and setting up the next major legal battle over farmworker organizing.
Opposition to Canada–U.S. Safe Third Country deal
Refugee-rights groups challenge a new agreement with the US denying refugees rights.
Open
The STCA continues to be fought against to this day.
Refugee advocates challenge detention and exclusion after the Fujian migrant boat arrivals
Detention and blocked refugee claims become a major organizing issue.
Open
The state response to the Fujian arrivals exposes how immigration detention can punish and exclude migrants instead of protecting rights.
2000s Securitization, student-work expansion, and visible non-status organizing
Refugees win repeal of the Right of Landing Fee
Refugees and their allies force Ottawa to repeal the landing fee for refugees.
Open
The repeal delivers a concrete campaign victory, even though the fee remains in place for many other migrants.
Immigrant Workers Centre opens in Montreal
Immigrant workers create a community‑based centre for workplace justice.
Open
Founded in 2000 by Filipino‑Canadian union organizers and allies, the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montréal provides popular education on labour rights, support for workplace struggles, and a space for organizing outside traditional unions, especially for immigrant and migrant workers.
Action Committee for Non-Status Algerians forms in Montreal
Non-status Algerians organize publicly against deportation and for regularization.
Open
Their organizing makes non-status struggles much more visible at a national level.
The Supreme Court restores constitutional protection for farmworker organizing in Dunmore v. Ontario
The Supreme Court rules that excluding farmworkers from labour law violates freedom of association.
Open
The case delivers a major legal win, even though it does not secure full union rights in practice.
Migrant farmworkers stage a wildcat strike in Leamington – Justice for Migrant Worker is formed
Migrant farmworkers take direct action over bad housing and working conditions.
Open
The strike becomes a key turning point in modern migrant farmworker organizing in Ontario resulting in the formation of Justice for Migrant Workers – a leading migrant justice organization.
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act comes into force
Canada rebuilds its immigration system through IRPA in the post-9/11 period.
Open
Taking advantage of the panic, a new immigration law is quickly passed formalizing the modern temporary migration system, including study permits, temporary resident categories, and embedding a “national security” logic in the immigration system.
Canada adds a low-skill / low-wage stream to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
Canada expands temporary labour recruitment into lower-wage jobs.
Open
The state widens employer access to migrant labour while keeping workers temporary, employer-dependent, and with limited rights.
Canada formalizes a new legal structure for untied permits and open work permits
Canada formalizes a clearer legal structure for LMIA-exempt and open work permits.
Open
These permits still maintain control over migrants, and give employers power to exploit and exclude and public services and permanent residency is still denied.
Organizers escalate the “Stop the Deportations” campaign for non-status Algerians
Anti-deportation organizing forces regularization demands into public debate.
Open
Demonstrations, sanctuary, and public pressure win temporary relief in some cases and keep deportation politics visible.
No One Is Illegal emerges as a visible migrant-rights formation in Canada
Organizers make non-status and anti-deportation politics more publicly visible in this period.
Open
No One Is Illegal groups in several several cities help frame migration as a justice issue rooted in borders, criminalization, and inequality.
Organizers launch Solidarity Across Borders in Montreal
A durable migrant justice network takes shape in Montreal.
Open
Solidarity Across Borders organizes against deportations, detention, double punishment, and exclusion while building a broader anti-border politics.
Safe Third Country Agreement comes into force
Canada restricts refugee access at the U.S. land border through the Safe Third Country Agreement.
Open
The move narrows protection pathways even as temporary labour channels continue to widen.
Canada seizes Mohamed Cherfi from church sanctuary, triggering protests across the country
The raid on church sanctuary becomes a national organizing flashpoint.
Open
It sharpens demands for due process, appeal rights, and respect for sanctuary as a response to unjust deportation.
Sanctuary fights in Toronto and Ottawa expose deportation and due process failures
Sanctuary cases bring the human cost of deportation policy into public view.
Open
Church-based cases highlight the consequences of failed appeals and removals.
Workers’ Action Centre founded in Toronto
Precarious and migrant workers build a base against wage theft and abuse.
Open
Launched in 2005, WAC is a workers centre that is a hub for low‑wage, racialized, and migrant workers facing unpaid wages, temp agency exploitation, and misclassification, leading fights for better wages and working conditions.
Canada launches a national Post-Graduation Work Permit Program
Canada gives international students a route to work after graduation.
Open
This deepens the link between student migration and labour-market needs, building on earlier pilot programs.
Refugee-rights groups launch the first major Safe Third Country court challenge
Organizers turn long-standing opposition to the Safe Third Country Agreement into a sustained legal campaign.
Open
CCR, Amnesty International, and the Canadian Council of Churches bring that opposition into the courts.
Canada launches a national Off-Campus Work Permit Program
Canada allows students to work off campus across the country.
Open
The policy treats student migration not only as education, but also as a labour supply pipeline.
Caregivers Action Centre forms as a grassroots care worker organization
Caregivers build a more visible, self-organized movement in Toronto.
Open
The organization fights exploitation, insecure status, and exclusion from labour protections.
Security-certificate campaigning wins a major court result in Charkaoui
Migrant justice and civil-liberties groups win major challenge to secret-evidence detention after years of organizing.
Open
The Supreme Court rules the process unfair, forces legislative change, and exposes the harms of security-based immigration law.
Canada expands the PGWP to up to three years without a job offer
Canada turns post-graduation work into a much more significant bridge into the labour market.
Open
For some students, it also becomes a more realistic pathway to permanent residence.
The Juana Tejada campaign turns one caregiver’s fight into national pressure
Organizers turn Juana Tejada’s case into a cross-country campaign against caregiver injustice.
Open
After Canada denied her permanent residence because of cancer discovered in a second medical exam, public pressure helps force changes to the Live-in Caregiver Program.
Migrant workers and allies resist Leamington raids and deportations
Migrant worker organizing confronts greenhouse raids and removals in Ontario.
Open
Justicia for Migrant Workers, UFCW, and the Agriculture Workers Alliance, mobilize against deportation and the criminalization of migrant workers.
People’s Commission Network launches CSIS Watch in Montréal
Communities organize against CSIS intimidation and surveillance.
Open
The People’s Commission Network challenges CSIS visits, secret interviews, and harassment, linking them to security‑certificate cases and deportations targeting Arab and Muslim communities.
Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is founded
Migrant worker groups and allies form a coalition to fight for the rights of migrants in Ontario. In 2020 this coalition becomes the Migrant Rights Network-Ontario, and MWAC becomes a membership-based organization of migrants.
Open
Today, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change organizes migrants in Ontario and New Brunswick for employment and immigration rights.
2010s Xenophobia, legal setbacks, partial reforms, and new migrant organizing
Tamil refugee boats arrive on the West Coast
Tamil refugee boat arrivals trigger mass detention, criminalization, and new organizing.
Open
The MV Ocean Lady (2009) and MV Sun Sea (2010) bring hundreds of Tamil refugees fleeing war in Sri Lanka to B.C. The federal response of mass detention and “smuggling” rhetoric sparks Tamil and refugee‑rights organizing against racist panics, security framing, and immigration detention.
Migrante Canada forms, a national Filipino migrant alliance
Filipino migrants build a cross‑country organization linking labour and immigration.
Open
Migrante Canada launches as a cross-country alliance of Filipino migrant organizations, rooted in caregivers, temporary foreign workers, and undocumented people. It connects migrant struggles to global labour export and becomes a key anchor in care work and migrant justice struggles.
Canada introduces the “four-in, four-out” rule
Canada limits many temporary foreign workers to four years of cumulative work followed by a four-year ban from the country.
Open
The rule reflects a deeply xenophobic political moment and reinforces disposability as a core feature of temporary labour migration.
Fraser decision, a major legal setback for farmworker organizing
The Supreme Court upholds Ontario’s separate labour regime for agricultural workers.
Open
The decision exposes the limits of litigation as a strategy, even after the earlier Dunmore win.
Canada brings major asylum system changes into effect
Canada speeds up refugee processing while tightening access to protection.
Open
The system increasingly treats refugees as people expected to work in low-wage jobs while awaiting decisions, blurring the line between refugee status and temporary labour.
Canada introduces the Bridging Open Work Permit
Canada gives some permanent residence applicants access to an open work permit while they wait for a decision.
Open
The measure offers limited relief from tied status for people already inside the immigration system.
Canada cuts refugee health coverage under the Interim Federal Health Program
Stephen Harper’s government cuts back health coverage for many refugees and refugee claimants.
Open
The cuts become a major flashpoint, sparking massive organizing and push back against denial of care.
Toronto becomes Canada’s first sanctuary city after years of organizing
No One Is Illegal and allies force Toronto to recognize access to services without fear as a municipal issue.
Open
The Access Without Fear motion grows out of years of organizing around policing, immigration and access to service. Similar campaigns are organized in other cities, including Montreal.
The Ned Peart inquest campaign keeps migrant worker deaths in public view
Organizers turn Ned Peart’s death into a public justice issue.
Open
His family, Justice for Migrant Workers, and allies keep pushing for an inquest and for equal treatment, refusing to let the case disappear.
Migrant detainees in Lindsay launch the largest known hunger strike in Canada
Immigration detainees use hunger strikes and food refusal to challenge indefinite detention.
Open
End Immigration Detention Network is formed to oppose the use of provincial prisons for immigration and long-term detention.
Canada allows international students to work off campus without a separate work permit
Canada folds off-campus work directly into the study permit.
Open
The change further integrates student migration into labour market policy and expands the role of student labour.
Doctors, lawyers, and refugees win refugee healthcare case
The Federal Court rules refugee healthcare cuts are unconstitutional.
Open
The court finds the 2012 IFHP changes discriminatory and cruel – a major victory against status-based exclusion from care.
Canada formally splits the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the International Mobility Program
Canada separates LMIA-based tied permits from LMIA-exempt, mostly untied permits.
Open
The split makes visible just how large and important LMIA-exempt work permit streams have become.
Canada replaces the Live-in Caregiver Program with new caregiver pathways
Canada ends the formal live-in requirement for new caregiver entrants.
Open
But temporariness, conditional status, and new exclusionary education and language barriers continue to shape access to permanent residence.
Aylan Kurdi’s death sparks “Refugees Welcome”
Aylan Kurdi’s death sparks a highly visible surge of solidarity with refugees.
Open
After the photo of three‑year‑old Syrian child Aylan (Alan) Kurdi circulates globally in 2015, people across Canada mobilize under “Refugees Welcome,” pressuring federal parties to increase Syrian resettlement and exposing how Canada’s refugee system remains selective and two‑tiered. This becomes a key factor in Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau becoming the prime minister.
Canada builds an employer inspection and penalty regime for temporary labour programs
Ottawa gives itself new powers to inspect employers and punish violations – but with no justice for workers.
Open
This is an important structural shift and an acknowledgement of employer abuse. As designed, however, the compliance regime is not able to direct fines to workers or grant workers protections if they complain.
Canada launches Express Entry
Canada transforms the points system but continues to value high-waged work experience over others.
Open
Candidates are ranked by factors like age, education, language, and work experience. In doing so, Canada solidifies the notion of “two-step pathway” to PR where Step 1 is temporariness, and Step 2 is PR – a promise but not a guarantee.
Detainee hunger strikes resume in Ontario jails
Immigration detainees again organize publicly against indefinite detention.
Open
They demand an end to incarceration in maximum security jails, generating renewed public attention to immigration imprisonment.
Organizers relaunch the Safe Third Country challenge and intensify the fight against tied permits
Refugee-rights and migrant-worker organizing escalates on two fronts at once.
Open
CCR and allies reopen litigation against the Safe Third Country Agreement, while migrant worker groups push for protections against abuse caused by employer-specific permits.
Canada launches the Atlantic Immigration Pilot
Atlantic Canada gets a new employer-designated pathway shaped by regional labour shortages.
Open
The pilot allows designated employers in Atlantic Canada to recruit skilled workers and international graduates through employer-linked streams. In doing so, it gives greater power to employers over the immigration system – a logic that is then expanded across the country.
Nell Toussaint wins landmark UN human rights decision
Nell, an undocumented Black Caribbean woman, wins against Canada over denial of life‑saving health care.
Open
The UN Human Rights Committee rules that Canada violated her right to life and equality by excluding her from essential health care because of her status and calling on Canada to change its laws and compensate her.
Canada formally repeals “four-in, four-out”
Organizing by Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights – Canada (CMWRC) results in the repeal of the cumulative duration rule.
Open
The repeal comes with an acknowledgment that the rule disproportionately harmed particular workers and sectors.
Launch of Migrant Rights Network
Almost all migrant‑led organizations and supporters come together to create a permanent, cross‑Canada network for migrant justice.
Open
MRN launches a shared platform that links status for all, racial justice, labour rights, and climate justice, coordinates national days of action, and quickly becomes the main vehicle pushing for a regularization program and status for all.
Canada opens new caregiver pilots and “Interim program”
Because of years of organizing, some care workers win PR through an interim program, and new pilots launched.
Open
Although the programs change, most of the same conditions and barriers remain in place.
New emergency protections for workers
Years of migrant organizing forces Ottawa to create limited new protections for workers facing abuse.
Open
The Open Work Permit for Vulnerable Workers and the family violence Temporary Resident Permit reflect a partial acknowledgment of harms long identified by migrant workers and advocates.
2020s Essential labour, regularization struggles, and xenophobia
Canada brings in a temporary public policy for out-of-status construction workers in the GTA
Canada introduces a limited regularization measure for undocumented construction workers in the GTA.
Open
The policy implicitly recognizes that migrants without status already form an essential part of the economy.
Canada carves out migrant workers as essential during pandemic border closures
When borders close, Canada still makes room for migrant workers it deems essential.
Open
The contradiction is stark: the state treats their labour as indispensable while keeping their status temporary and therefore their rights and protection limited.
Canada launches the Agri-Food Pilot
Canada creates a sector-specific permanent residence route for some agri-food workers.
Open
The pilot partly acknowledges the sector’s dependence on migrant labour, but it remains narrow and leaves many workers, including seasonal workers, out, while leaving power in the hands of employers.
Canada creates the “Guardian Angels” permanent residence pathway for some asylum claimants in health care
Canada offers a special route to PR for some refugee claimants and undocumented people doing frontline health work.
Open
Again, the government offers status selectively, leaving many workers out, after it has already extracted their labour.
“Status for All” becomes a national migrant-led campaign
Migrant justice becomes a visible cross-country demand during the pandemic.
Open
Migrant Rights Network and allies link immigration status to public health, labour rights and essential work, and racial justice.
Canada launches the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway
Canada opens capped streams to permanent residence for some workers and recent graduates already in the country.
Open
The program is a victory of organizing, and also an effect of pandemic-era opening to immigration reforms.
PGWP renewal and extension policies won
Organizing wins temporary permit extensions for PGWP holders facing expiry.
Open
Facing mass PGWP expiries and blocked PR pathways during and after COVID‑19, international graduates led by Migrant Students United push for change. They win special policies in 2021, 2022, and 2023 that allow hundreds of thousand of PGWP holders with permits expiring between late 2021 and the end of 2023 to apply for up to 18‑month open work permit extensions.
Canada launches the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel
Canada uses temporary status at scale as an emergency response for Ukrainians.
Open
The program shows how quickly the government can make temporary status flexible when it chooses to. The program stands in sharp contrast to the Emergency measure for Gazans which is much smaller, includes racist criteria, and fails to actually relocate anyone to Canada.
Migrant students win the temporary lifting of the 20-hour work cap
Student and migrant worker organizing particularly with Migrant Students United help push the work-cap change into public debate.
Open
While the change is a response to a movement demand, the government frames it as a response to labour shortage.
Canada expands the Safe Third Country Agreement across the full land border
Canada further restricts refugee access by applying the agreement to irregular border crossings.
Open
The expansion narrows protection even more for people seeking asylum from the United States.
Canada launches mandatory letter-of-acceptance verification for overseas post-secondary study permit applications
Canada tightens screening of international student applications.
Open
This marks a more restrictive phase, with stronger federal oversight and growing suspicion directed at student migration.
Refugee-rights groups lose on section 7 at the Supreme Court but keep the Safe Third Country fight alive
Organizers refuse to stop after losing the main section 7 argument.
Open
Because the equality question remains unresolved, they continue the legal and political challenge.
Injured migrant farmworkers win a major compensation ruling against the WSIB
Years of advocacy from IAVGO and Justice for Migrant Workers produces a major win for injured migrant farmworkers.
Open
The WSIAT rules that WSIB illegally reduced compensation, and WSIB later changes its approach.
Canada introduces a national cap on most study permit applications
Canada caps new study permit applications.
Open
Simultaneously responding to and fanning the flames of xenophobia, Canada casts student migration as a problem to restrict.
Canada cuts off PGWPs for public-private college programs and adds new PGWP restrictions
Canada sharply narrows post-graduation work access for many international students.
Open
The government first cuts off public-private partnership programs, then adds language and field-of-study requirements that tie access more closely to labour market priorities.
Canada tightens the low-wage Temporary Foreign Worker Program
Canada restricts the low-wage stream of the TFWP.
Open
Refusal-to-process rules, lower caps, and shorter durations are created to show that the government is responding to a population growth panic.
Canada resets the off-campus work cap at 24 hours per week
After a period of no work restrictions, Canada imposes a new off-campus cap.
Open
The change illustrates that student work remains tightly managed, conditional, and vulnerable to policy shifts.
The Agri-Food Pilot closes
Canada ends one of the few pathways to permanent residence available to some low-wage food workers.
Open
Migrants are still organizing for permanent resident status and equal rights.
For the first time, the Immigration Levels Plan includes temporary resident targets
Temporary migrants become an explicit group to be reduced and managed, and timed with the Federal budget, following waves of anti-migrant scapegoating.
Open
The 2025–2027 Levels Plan was the first to include targets for temporary residents, and the government said this was part of reducing temporary resident volumes to 5% of Canada’s population by the end of 2026.
Canada narrows open work permit eligibility for family members of foreign workers
Canada tightens family access to open work permits.
Open
New rules narrow spousal eligibility and deny dependent children access to open work permits, showing how temporary migration policy also structures family separation and dependence.
Canada launches the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots
Canada launches new home care pilots with a stronger promise of permanent residence on arrival.
Open
This is a direct victory of migrant care worker organizing of the last half century. However, the PR on arrival stream for new workers never materializes.
Canada pauses intake for the Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots
Only months after launch, Canada stops accepting new applications to the pilots, leaving tens of thousands of care workers already in Canada with no option for PR.
Open
The pause is further proof that Canada breaks its promises to migrants.
This is a living timeline not a complete archive
It was assembled by organizers and may contain mistakes or omissions – none of which are intentional. We need your support. Please send corrections or suggestions to info@migrantworkersalliance.org.