The Federal Budget announced on April 7th includes major policy changes that will impact hundreds of thousands of mostly racialized, working class migrants who are students, workers, refugees, and undocumented people. This includes:

Migrant Workers

1. The creation of a “new foreign labour program for agriculture and fish processing”.
   • Exploitation, and vulnerability is well-documented in temporary foreign worker programs. Migrants must receive permanent resident status on landing to protect themselves in any new program. 
     
2. The creation of a “Trusted Employer” program that will make it easier for employers to hire migrants without ensuring protections for migrants. 
   • With the well-documented reality of reprisals against workers who speak up, and the 2021 Auditor General report that found Canada’s inspections of employers woefully inadequate, there is simply no way to know who is a “trusted employer”. 
     
3. Reaffirms the Immigration Levels Plan announced in February of this year, which does not ensure full and permanent inclusion of the 1.6 million and growing migrants in the country. 
   • In particular, thousands of migrant care workers, who have been waiting for years to reunite with their families while taking care of children, the sick and the elderly, and who were left out of the Immigration Levels Plan continue to be excluded. Migrant care workers must get permanent resident status without exclusions immediately.  

For Migrant Student Workers (Current and Former International Students)

1. Gives new unchecked powers to the Immigration Minister through the “authority to use Ministerial Instructions to help select those candidates who best meet Canada’s labour market needs .. through the Express Entry System”. 
   • There have been no invitations to apply for permanent residency in the Express Entry system since September 2021, and thousands, particularly graduated international students, have been waiting in limbo. They are on non-renewable post-graduate work permits, which have expired or are expiring, at which point they become undocumented or are forced to leave the country. Now the Minister can pick and choose, instead of processing all the applicants waiting. At minimum, post-graduate work permits must be made permanently renewable. 

Refugees

1. Amendments to the “Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to … require the electronic submission of asylum claims.” 
   • Many refugee claimants do not have access to computers, internet connection, and digital copies of evidence that is required to navigate electronic systems. No resources are being made available to support refugees to apply, which makes it even more difficult for low-waged, racialized people to get rights and protections. 
2. The creation of a “special permanent residence stream for immediate and extended Ukrainian family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents”
   • This is an important and crucial step to ensure families are united, and it must be expanded to families in conflict zones around the world, including Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, etc. Non-Ukrainian citizens fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, mostly racialized people, must also be provided with the same rights and protections. 

People across Canada will celebrate “Family Day” this month. But many migrants are either separated from our family for many years or are worried that we might be separated from them. Politicians keep making promises, but millions of migrants and families don’t have permanent resident status.

This February 21st, we will make sure that politicians cannot turn away. We at the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change will be sending every Member of Parliament (MP) a photo collage of hundreds of migrants with our families. We will be taking out ads in social media so that they have to look into your eyes and think about the laws they have made.

For this to work, you need to act. Already hundreds of migrants have sent us photos with their families, now its your turn! Send us a photo with you and your family to add to the photo letter.

By email: info@migrantworkersalliance.org
By WhatsApp: 647-858-2854

There’s no time to lose. We need your photo by February 14th so that we can get the photos to every MP by Family Day.

Here are some photos we have received already!

Here’s what the photo letter to MPs will look like

Minimum wages increased in Ontario on October 1, 2024. You should see $17.20/hour in your next two weeks of pay. See the wages in other provinces below. 

Check your pay stub to make sure you are getting paid the right amount for all the hours you work. If not, call us!

Migrant Care Workers:  416-897-4388
Migrant Student Workers:  647-858-2854
Migrant Fishery Workers: 506-251-7467
Migrant Farm Workers (ENG):  905-324-2840
Trabajador@s Agrícolas (ESP):  647-807-4722
Undocumented Workers: 647-782-6633

In 2019, Ontario Premier Ford cancelled a $15 minimum wage. The minimum wage only went up because workers like you demanded it!  

But minimum wage is not enough to live on. Some workers aren’t even allowed to get the minimum wage. You and your co-workers deserve more! Call us to join with others to improve wages for yourself and others.

Updated since Dec 13, 2024