We refuse to accept these changes. We refuse to be blamed. We will continue to fight for permanent resident status for all migrants, including workers, students, and undocumented people.
We are witnessing one of the most significant rollbacks of migrant rights and access in Canadian history. The government is slashing the numbers of migrant workers, international students, and refugees. It is also promising to further reduce the number of permanent residents, after already capping them.
The federal government has announced that at least 2.3 million permits will expire in the next two years. Many more rules are also changing, such that migrants already in the country will be forced to become undocumented and pushed into vulnerable and precarious situations. These changes disproportionately impact working class migrants.
Migrants that remain will be:
- Forced into Bad Jobs: With less access to work permits and permanent residency, more people will be forced to rely on employer sponsorships just to stay in Canada. This means more power for bosses and more exploitation .
- Separated from their families: Fewer work permits for family members mean more families will be torn apart.
- Pay more for less: Higher financial requirements, fewer hours of work for study permit holders, new language tests, and requiring workers to renew permits each year means more stress and more costs for workers
- Face racist violence: In just the past month, an Indian student was stabbed to death in Edmonton, a Syrian-run restaurant was set on fire in St. Catharines, a mosque was attacked in Antigonish and a Black Colombian refugee was killed by police in Vancouver. This increasing racist violence is a direct result of the growing anti-immigrant sentiment fuelled by political and media rhetoric. These cuts effectively affirm that migrants are responsible for the affordability crisis, which will further xenophobia.
This is an unacceptable betrayal of Liberal promises by way of Conservative-style immigration policy.
At the beginning of this mandate, in December 2021, Prime Minister Trudeau promised to ensure permanent resident status for migrant workers, students, and undocumented people. As recently as May 2024, the Minister of Immigration said the way to shrink the number of temporary residents is to offer them the opportunity to remain permanently.
Instead of keeping their promise, the federal Liberals are enacting Conservative-like immigration policies in the hopes that it will help them in the polls. Elites in government and media have been spreading right-wing rhetoric and anti-immigrant sentiment. Instead of combating it, the federal Liberals are accepting it. Provincial governments responsible for jobs, housing, healthcare, and education are turning to further scapegoating to distract from their own failures – this underinvestment will continue no matter what immigration levels are. This strategy of slashing immigration will fail electorally for the Liberals, and abuse and violence against migrants will increase.
Migrants are not responsible for the housing and affordability crisis. Slashing migrant numbers leaves those truly responsible off the hook.
Migrants often live in employer-controlled housing or crowded, substandard units without basic tenant rights. They are not competing for single-family homes. While the population has gone up by 3.9%, housing prices have gone up more than 20%, while hundreds of thousands of rental units sit empty because landlords are rent gouging. Blaming migrants is a distraction.
Food prices have gone up higher than the price of inflation because grocery monopolies have unchecked power. Migrant workers who grow, process, pack, and deliver food face unsafe working conditions and low wages.
These cuts will also hurt all working people.
Blaming migrants is a tool of the ruling elites to distract and divide workers. These cuts will not address the corporate and policy decisions that have led to low wages, high unemployment, and unaffordable housing.
Canada’s population is aging, people are having fewer children, and the manufacturing sector has not grown. Instead of investing in people and ensuring permanent resident status for immigrants so they can sustain the aging population and the economy for the long run, Liberals and Conservatives have used temporary migration to bring in hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and students to pour money into the economy with no rights in return. In addition to their labour and their resources via high fees, migrants pay into social services like CPP and EI, as well as via federal and provincial taxes, but are denied most of the services. This means that migrants are subsidizing the social safety net. In fact, according to the International Monetary Fund, Canada has avoided two recessions on the backs of migrants in recent years.
These cuts come without any real investment in housing, manufacturing, or healthcare and will result in an economic contraction that will mean lower wages and higher prices for everyone.
Details of the changes announced over the last year
Permanent residency
- Permanent residency has been slashed for 2025 – 2027 limiting opportunities for migrants who are already living and working in Canada to transition to permanent status and increasing their likelihood of becoming undocumented. Particularly low-wage migrants are impacted. Even accepted refugees will be excluded. Questions remain about promised programs such as permanent residency on landing for care workers.
- Provincial Programs Abruptly Closed: Programs in Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta, and Saskatchewan have been abruptly closed, while New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and PEI have changed rules without warning and spaces in these programs have been cut, leaving hundreds of thousands of migrants in limbo. Many of these programs were the only way through which low-waged workers could apply for permanent residency and this door has been effectively closed for 2025-2027.
- Regularization of undocumented people delayed: In December 2021, Prime Minister Trudeau promised comprehensive regularization, a promise reiterated by multiple Immigration Ministers until June 2024, when the Immigration Minister abruptly about-turned despite proclaiming massive economic and humanitarian benefits of regularization. Minister Miller has since promised a smaller, undefined program that has not been announced.
International students and graduated students
- No Renewals for Expiring PGWPs: Over 200,000 PGWPs are set to expire by end of 2025, leaving many stranded in Canada, some of whom have already applied for permanent residency, with no other options to stay. Many are being forced to choose between being uprooted and becoming undocumented.
- Ban on Family Reunification: Spouses of undergraduate and college students can no longer receive work permits, and spouses and children of graduate students in programs shorter than 16 months are also barred from being in Canada as of Fall 2024.
- Study Permit Caps: The government capped study permits for undergraduate and college programs in 2024, with caps on graduate students coming in 2025. Even international students already in Canada will be barred from renewing their permits if the cap is reached.
- Higher Proof of Funds: Since January 2024, international students must show more financial resources—$20,635 per person plus tuition, up from $10,000. These increased requirements effectively shut out lower-income students.
- Work Hour Restrictions: As of November 2024, international students are limited to 24 off-campus work hours. These limits force those needing more income into undocumented work, increasing their risk of exploitation and wage theft.
- Restrictions on PGWP Eligibility: Graduates of private colleges and college students in fields not aligned with specific industries are no longer eligible for PGWPs, which are crucial for those wishing to work and settle permanently in Canada. This restriction does not apply to bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree holders.
Temporary foreign workers
- Cuts to Family Work Permits: Only spouses of workers in managerial jobs will be eligible for work permits. Even high-wage workers, such as chefs and truck drivers, will face family separation. A promised expansion of work permits for family members of low-wage workers has been cancelled, disproportionately affecting women.
- Shorter Work Permits: Low-wage work permits (except for primary agriculture) will be limited to one year. Migrants will be forced to pay high fees to renew their work permits annually.
- No LMIAs in High Unemployment Areas: Starting September 26, 2024, Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) will not be issued in areas with over 6% unemployment, except for certain jobs in caregiving, agriculture, construction, food manufacturing, and education. Those already in Canada will be unable to renew their permits.
- Cap on Low-Wage LMIA Positions: Starting September 26, 2024, employers cannot hire more than 10% of their workforce through low-wage LMIAs, except in some industries like farming – one of the sectors with the most rampant labour violations – and caregiving. Those already in Canada will also be unable to renew their permits.
- End to Work Permits for Visitors: As of August 28, 2024, visitors can no longer transition to temporary work permits without leaving Canada, an option that many relied on to maintain status and income during long government delays in processing applications.
Refugees
- Increased Visa Rejections and Border Refusals: Reports indicate a surge in rejected visitor visa applications, with a higher ratio of refusals compared to approvals this year. Border officers are also turning away an average of 3,727 foreign travelers each month, many of whom may be potential refugees for whom the government has eliminated other options.
- 14,000 places slashed from the humanitarian component of immigration levels: These cuts impact real people fleeing persecution and seeking safety in Canada or struggling in conflict zones around the world facing violence, starvation, and death. The cuts in the humanitarian component particularly fails those already here whom we have committed to protect and their family members abroad, all but ensuring families will remain separated for many years to come.