On Sunday March 19th, 2023, protestors in Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton and other provinces across Canada, came together to demand rights for all migrants. The protest was put on by the Migrant Rights Network, and in Edmonton (where I was in attendance, photos below) there was a large presence from Migrante Alberta.
We heard from a number of speakers, many of whom were courageous migrants themselves, who stepped forward to tell their stories of coming to Canada to fill employment gaps and to send money back home to support their families. Many of these migrants, who entered Canada through temporary worker programs, eventually loss their status when their visas were not re-approved at the end of their contracts. Many of them are essential workers, especially during and since the pandemic, however they and their families (even their children born in Canada) lack access to basic rights such as healthcare. They are treated as disposable, and many are threatened with deportation if they do try to advocate for themselves. A teenage girl bravely took the mic to talk about her family’s struggles since becoming undocumented. Those of us in attendance agreed, she should be in high school, not speaking about worrying every day about the possibility of being deported.
Other speakers were allies, who represented women’s alliances, the raging grannies, mothers, and socialist groups. Across all speeches, there were certain things that were unanimously agreed upon: There is no gender, climate or racial justice without migrant justice, and migrants deserve to have all of the same rights that any other person living in so-called Canada has.
We sang songs, cheered loudly, cried, clapped, hugged, and expressed our rage when appropriate. We joined in chanting in English, Tagalog and Spanish, and despite the difficult situations that we heard about, we were able to find moments of humour, like when a mother speaking about her children was interrupted by her little boy running up to the mic and repeating his mother’s words, smiling as we all cheered for him.
The protest was just a couple days before the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, acting as a reminder of the way that migrant inequality is racially motivated, both in the ways that racialized people are forced to outmigrate from their homeland, as well as in the way that they are exploited once they arrive as migrants in Canada, the US, and other nations that depend on foreign labour.
If you were unable to make it to the protests, but want to show your support for migrant justice in so-called Canada, here are some organizations you can follow:
Migrant Rights Network: https://migrantrights.ca/
Migrante Canada*: https://www.migrante.ca/
Migrant Students Alliance: https://migrantworkersalliance.org/migrantstudentsunited/
Canadian Council for Refugees: https://ccrweb.ca/en
Coalition for Migrant Workers Rights – Canada : https://www.migrantworkersrights.net/en/actors/coalition-for-migrant-workers-rights-canada-cmwrc
Climate Refugees: https://www.climate-refugees.org/
*Right now, Migrante Canada is mobilizing to garner support for Migrante Chairperson Danilo De Leon to stay in Canada, who is currently at risk for deportation like so many other hardworking people who came to Canada expecting to get financial security and a “better life”. While his petition just closed, you can stay up to date on his case by following Migrante’s social media, and email migrantecanada@gmail.com if you want to find out how you can help.
You can also contact PM Justin Trudeau (justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca), Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada Sean Fraser (sean.fraser@parl.gc.ca), and your local representatives, remind them of the promises they’ve made to provide status and security to migrants through a regularization program.
#Statusforall #migrantjusticenow
More sources:
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/undocumented-migrants-spend-a-night-in-front-of-federal-offices-in-montreal-1.6319712
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canadian-immigration-policy-1.6618624