Full Immigration Status for All: Digital Rally on June 14
Call from the FCJ Anti-Human Trafficking Migrant Workers Mobile Program – Migrant Rights Network:
5 migrant farmworkers have been hospitalized with COVID-19. Hundreds of others are sick from Windsor, ON, to Kelowna, BC, to Brooks, AB. Migrant care workers remain trapped by employers who refuse to let them leave even to send remittances to families in need.
Today is the third rent day for many hundreds of thousands of families who haven’t had income since March. Across the country, we are fundraising to distribute cash and food, but it’s just not enough. Federal income support remains out of reach, particularly for undocumented people. Even in a pandemic, healthcare is not available in most provinces for uninsured migrants.
COVID-19 has worsened what has been a grave injustice for decades: the inequalities that migrants face are rooted in an immigration system that keeps us temporary and undocumented. This can not continue. On June 14th, we will launch our campaign for full immigration status for nearly 2 million people in the country without permanent resident status. We insist on landed immigration status for all low-waged migrants that arrive in the future.
Join a massive digital and social media gathering of migrants, poor and working class people, and allies. Together, migrants from across Canada will raise our voice for healthcare, decent work, family unity and equal rights for all.
We need you. We need you to join, we need you to mobilize, we need you to organize: RSVP for June 14th!
For the last month, in addition to immediate crisis response, we have been bringing together migrant and undocumented people and allies in almost every province. Thousands of migrants have participated in meetings to talk about the challenges we are facing, and the solutions we need. Today, we launch our plan.
On June 14th, join 46 migrant-led organizations and supporters as we launch our joint call for full immigration status for all. We are essential. We are exploited. We are excluded. We are enraged. We are engaged. We are mobilizing.
In this moment of crisis, we have seen at every turn that the fundamental injustice is lack of full immigration status. It is the absence of valid Social Insurance Numbers that has shut people out of income support. It is tied work permits that have made it impossible for many to leave unsafe work. It is exorbitant tuition fees tied to study permits that push migrant students into bad jobs and despair. It is the fear of detention and deportation that force migrant and undocumented people away from accessing basic needs.
Full immigration status for all is an absolute necessity. Join us now, join us on June 14, help us build the broadest possible movement in defence of all. Start by RSVPing here.
Migrants are often vulnerable to abuse by their employers and are afraid to speak up or form unions due to their precarious immigration status. Undocumented migrants, in particular, are reluctant to access essential services such as public health, education, and shelters due to fear of detention and deportation, exacerbating their vulnerability and isolation from the rest of society.
