Migrant Student Workers Organize & Win Another Victory to Stop Mass Deportations!
We won. Today, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced changes to postgraduate work permit and immigration rules in direct response to migrant student workers like you who have been speaking up and taking action for equal rights and PR status for all!
But too many are unfairly excluded. Only those whose postgraduate work permits expire after January 31, 2022 are eligible. And though CEC draws will reopen in July, there are half as many spots and too many of us will not qualify. The 20 hour work limit for study permit holders has not changed.
We will continue to organize to ensure none of us are left behind. Wherever you are, take action!
TAKE ACTION WHEREVER YOU ARE
- JOIN the RALLY in Toronto Sat, 1pm, 74 Victoria Street – sign up now and come through! MigrantWorkersAlliance.org/MSUApr23
- MAKE A CALL to PM Justin Trudeau and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser – use our call tool on our website and add your voice! MigrantWorkersAlliance.org/MSUCallforFairness
- SIGN THE PETITION and share widely: MigrantWorkersAlliance.org/MSUFairness
What did we win today?
We have created a short video on what we won today and what still needs to be changed. Watch and share it with your friends right now!
INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWITTER
We are not stopping.
If you want to hear more about the changes we won, and what the next steps are, join the next monthly organizing meeting on May 4, 2022, 7pm Toronto time / 4pm Vancouver time.
Register now: MigrantWorkersAlliance.org/MSUGMM
United, we are stronger!
Release: Mass Deportation of 50,000 Migrant Student Workers Stopped But More Action Desperately Needed
Media Contact: Sarom Rho, 416-887-8315, sarom@migrantworkersalliance.org
Toronto Rally at Immigration HQ (74 Victoria Street) on Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 1pm EST to demand inclusion of all migrants!
Toronto, April 22, 2022 – While 50,000 former international students can breathe more easily today after an announcement by the Immigration Minister that will stop their mass deportations, fundamental problems remain, including an arbitrary timeline and exclusion of low-waged essential workers.
Post-graduate work permits (PGWP) were made renewable in 2021 but the short-term policy change ended in July 2021. That program was available to graduated students whose work permits were expiring until November 27, 2021. The program announced today, full details of which remain unclear, applies to graduated students whose work permits expire between January 31 and December, 2022, arbitrarily and unfairly leaving out those whose permits expired between November 27, 2021 and January 31, 2022.
Tara Emami is an Iranian migrant student worker who received her Masters in Management from University of Toronto. Her PGWP expired in December 2021, and she is not eligible for changes announced today. She says, “This is not fair. We are people as well, we were just unlucky that our work permits expired in December. Luck should not be a factor in the PGWP extensions. What is our fault? We have done nothing wrong and yet we are not eligible for the past PGWP extension, this one, and by the time the Express Entry draws resumes, it’s going to be too late for us. I can’t sleep well at night, and I cannot plan for my future. We need permanent resident status for all of us immediately.”
The changes today are a result of migrant student workers organizing. “Over the last year, migrant student workers have been speaking up, visiting Members of Parliament, signing petitions, marching on the streets and organizing online to demand changes, and it’s taken the federal government nine months to announce another temporary one-off program while thousands have fallen into debt, forced to leave or become undocumented,” says Sarom Rho, Migrant Students United coordinator. “This is a small step in the right direction, but too many remain without rights, we need permanent resident status for all, now, especially those in low-waged work; we need a permanently renewable post-graduate work permit, not a one-off program, and the current announcement needs to include those left out.”
The Minister also announced that the Express Entry program (Federal High Skilled Workers) will reopen in July 2022, which has been closed since September 2021. However, the federal government has slashed spots in the program from 110,500 to 55,900 spots for the years 2022 and 2023. Cutting the spots available in half means that the program has become more exclusionary. No changes have been made to increase access for those who will be excluded because of fewer spots.
“Just last month, the federal government made it easier for employers to hire low-wage migrant workers who are tied to employers, today’s announcement opens up a path for some high-wage workers to stay in Canada permanently but low-wage workers remain on temporary permits with few rights, in effect the government of Canada is willing to only extend fairness to high-wage workers which is simply discrimination,” says Syed Hussan, Executive Director, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. “Migrants are tired of one-off, temporary pathways, a fair society means equal rights and that means permanent resident status for all.”
The Express Entry pathway is restricted to migrants with high-waged work experience in Canada, even though the most essential jobs in Canada, many in sectors with a labour shortage, are for low-waged workers. These changes exclude the majority of low-wage graduated migrant workers in food service, gig work, delivery, security, warehousing, cleaning and other low-waged jobs.
Background
- Petition by Migrant Student Workers: https://migrantworkersalliance.org/msufairness/
- Letter by Migrant Students United to Minister Fraser outlining full changes required, March 2022: https://migrantworkersalliance.org/policy/msu2022letter/
- Press release at media conference by Migrant Students United, March 2022: https://migrantworkersalliance.org/press/mar10pressrelease/
Rally in Toronto: Celebrate and Demand More!
CURRENT & FORMER INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS in Toronto: Come through for an action for equal rights and fair immigration rules!
WHEN: Saturday April 23, 1pm
WHERE: In front of Immigration Headquarters (74 Victoria St)
Sign up now and spread the word!
Migrant Students United is an organization of current and former international students who are uniting and coming together for equal rights, dignity, and permanent resident status for all. This year, we are continuing our campaign to win:
- Permanently Renewable Post Graduate Work Permits for all
- End to the 20 Hour Work Rule on Study Permits
- Real Access to PR for All (including resuming CEC draws, valuing part-time, gig work and NOC C&D jobs, without unfair age, language and status requirements)
Add your voice to the petition: MigrantWorkersAlliance.org/MSUFairness
Six hidden immigration announcements in Canada’s 2022 Budget
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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”.
- 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”.
- 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)
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
