Migrant workers, refugees, undocumented, foreign students demand landed status

Migrant workers, refugees, undocumented, foreign students demand landed status

Protestors at the August 23 rally

‘We are the backbone of this country’

By Irish Mae Silvestre
The Philippine Reporter

Protestors gathered in downtown Toronto on Sunday, August 24, to demand permanent status for migrant workers, undocumented people, foreign students and refugees. The event took place outside the Passport Office at 74 Victoria Street and was part of a nationwide protest in several Canadian cities.

“We are here outside these immigration offices where they make decisions about our lives to say [that] we are the ones who will make decisions about our lives,” said Syed Hussan of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. Right now Justin Trudeau has shut down Parliament but migrants are still in crisis. For six months, our communities have lost lives and livelihood. Our communities have faced starvation, lack of healthcare… it’s an everyday struggle just to simply survive, while the entire COVID-19 support system has left us standing by.”

A poster at the protest

Left Behind

One group that has also borne the brunt of the pandemic are care workers.

Martha Ocampo from Caregiver Connections Education and Support Organization (CCESO) stated in a phone interview that mental health is a big issue among care workers right now who feel isolated and are too afraid to speak up about such as unpaid overtime.

She stated that care workers’ fight for landed status has been going on for decades. While there have been improvements in the system, new requirements further create barriers.

One such requirement is a language test that’s not just challenging but also time consuming and expensive. “They’re allowed to take the exam four to five times, but they have to pay. How many of them can afford this?” she asked. “If they already worked for twenty-four months for their employers and they like them, and they did very well then what’s the problem?”

Alina Przybyl from Migrant Students United

She added that as long as the government doesn’t provide enough childcare, care workers will continue to be essential. When asked about Canadians who oppose their demand for landed status, Ocampo said, “Those who don’t support the move are racist and, unfortunately, other migrants who’ve been in Canada a long time also get carried away.”

Marisol Bobadilla of Migrante Canada is a former temporary foreign worker. She said that while others can afford to stay at home to protect themselves during the pandemic, workers without access to government support have no choice but to work and risk their lives.

“We pick food for your tables, care for your loved ones – we are the backbone of this country,” said Bobadilla during the protest. “To the concerned Canadian, you are so lucky to be with your family. We want to be with our family also. We seek your support.”

Protestors outside the Immigration and Passport offices in Toronto.

Similarly, foreign students have fallen through the cracks amidst the closures and job loss. In addition to increasing tuition, students in need of jobs are just as vulnerable.

“As migrant students, everything we have is temporary. We invest everything we have to build our future here,” said Alina Przybyl, a foreign student and a member of Migrant Students United. “We work in essential services and have to live from paycheck to paycheck, counting every dollar to make sure we can pay astronomous fees and also support families back home. We have no guarantee that our work will pay off and that we’ll be allowed to stay.”

Tragedy on the Farm

The death of several temporary farm workers highlighted the maltreatment on farms. Workers are often exploited, forced to live in inappropriate housing conditions and work in unsafe conditions.

Syed Hussan of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change

Gabriel Flores of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is a migrant farmworker who shared a house with Juan Lopez Chaparro, one of the workers who died of COVID-19.
After speaking up about the unsafe conditions, he was terminated and threatened with deportation. Rather than keeping quiet and returning to Mexico, he decided to stay back and fight for change.

“I was brave enough to sue this farm for unjustly firing me, so people know what’s happening, that we’re tired of this,” he said. “The news of [Chaparro’s] death impacted us a lot. It could have happened to any of us.”

Standing in a circle to form a human clock, protestors held photos of farm workers who have passed away from COVID-19.

“We are five minutes to midnight on this human clock,” said Hussan. “We are five minutes [away] but the real fact is we are right at midnight. The suffering has gone on for too long.”

(Photos: Ian Willms/Migrant Workers Alliance for Change)