In 2025, thousands of us took to the streets and spoke up against unjust immigration laws like Bill C-12. We came together with allies through Draw the Line and spoke up against xenophobia and racism. Migrants fought battles for justice on farms, in factories, and at immigration offices across the country.
Here are some of our untold stories of our wins in 2025.
When the System Says No, We Fight Back
The immigration system is designed to wear people down. It wants us to disappear quietly. But we refuse.
When Lily’s permanent residence application on humanitarian grounds was denied, she didn’t accept that answer. She appealed, and we won. When Teresa’s caregiver PR application was rejected, we organized, and we won. These aren’t just administrative victories. They are families who get to stay together. They are workers who get to build the lives they deserve.
These actions and others forced the opening of the care worker immigration program. We supported many to try to apply but because the program was capped, most were denied. In response, dozens of careworkers occupied an immigration building in downtown Toronto on June 16.
This year, we secured 24 open work permits for vulnerable workers. These permits are one of the few tools available for migrant workers on tied permits to leave abusive jobs. But these permits are only for a year and are non-renewable. Workers are often forced to leave the country when they expire or go back into the exploitative tied permit system.
When we were approached by families facing deportation, we took action. This year we helped make sure the Aboizneid family, the Lindo family, Tarun, and one of our farm worker members didn’t face immigration violence alone. We went public. We mobilized community pressure. And each of these deportations were stopped. But despite our best efforts pastor Rosalind Wanyeki and her two children, 6 and 9 years old, were ripped from the community and removed.
Getting workers what they need and what they are owed
Migrants don’t just face unjust immigration laws. We face employers who steal our wages, take advantage of us, and put our health at risk. So this year migrants showed up for each other with immediate material aid and power to fight for justice.
When fishery workers in New Brunswick weren’t being paid and couldn’t afford food, we distributed 227 emergency food boxes. We handed out hundreds of welcome bags to fishery workers across the province when they first arrived, to make sure they knew they weren’t alone.
When Hurricane Melissa ripped through Jamaica, farm workers in Canada had their homes and lives turned upside down. We raised and distributed $4,355 directly into their hands to help them rebuild.
But we don’t just do relief. We fought for what was owed:
- $44,633.72 in stolen wages recovered for eight migrant, refugee, and undocumented workers
- $16,124.64 won for widows and children of migrant farm workers who had been denied access to their partners’ pensions
- $10,050 secured for three workers who had been denied workplace safety and insurance, including one of our farm worker leaders, and musician, Gabriel
- $733 per month in social assistance won for injured worker leader Alvin after he was denied.
These aren’t handouts. These are wages stolen by bosses. Benefits denied by bureaucrats. Support withheld by a system that believes that migrants are disposable. But when we are united, we win.
Exposing Injustice, Winning Concrete Change
This year, our staff and members appeared in the mainstream news on 70 separate occasions and across all platforms in mainstream and community media. We opposed migrant scapegoating, exposed exploitation in the TFW program, challenged weak enforcement of workers’ rights, and spoke out against racist immigration bills, and consistently advanced a clear alternative: permanent resident status for all migrants and equal labour rights.
Farm worker housing is inhumane, substandard, and unregulated. We have been speaking up, calling for national housing standards and heat stress protection laws. This year, the Migrant Rights Network surveyed and spoke with 514 migrant workers about proposed changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to put forward workers’ visions for the change they need.
We are also organizing workers to pressure their employers to improve housing. This year, we won air conditioning on four farms where workers had been struggling in unbearable temperatures for years.
After years of organizing against Bolero Fisheries, the federal government imposed a $1 million fine against the employer—the highest ever. We spoke up and demanded that workers be compensated.
In Toronto, we supported nearly 100 migrant and undocumented people to access the subsidized transit program. As workers earning some of the lowest wages, this will put much needed money back into migrants’ pockets.
What This Year Taught Us
This has been a difficult year. Permits are being cut. Permanent residence is being denied. Migrants are being scapegoated.
But when migrants come together, refuse to be isolated, and fight collectively, we can make lives better in the present and lay the foundations for a different future, one built on equality and solidarity.
We join our allies to mobilize in the thousands because we believe we need to transform the entire system. We want to build a world where no one is forced to migrate, everyone can return home, and everyone who lives here does so with dignity and justice. And we fight for every dollar, every work permit, every stopped deportation because our people need to survive and win today, not someday.
Our slogan is and will remain: United We Are Stronger. Onwards.
If you are a migrant who wants to become a member, fill out this form, and we will be in touch in the new year: https://migrantworkersalliance.org/membership2024/
If you are able to contribute to support our work, donate here: https://migrantworkersalliance.org/donate/