Migrant Rights Network calls for full and permanent immigration status for all
Canada, July 16, 2021 — Just ten weeks after opening, the Essential Worker stream of the new Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence Immigration program under which select workers could apply for permanent residence, closed late last night, leaving hundreds of thousands of migrants without permanent resident status and equal rights.
Thousands have spent the last two months trying to get their applications together, spending thousands of dollars on documents, immigration consultants or lawyers, English language tests, and medical exams, including for families overseas, only to lose everything.
The new permanent residency program was set to close after 6 months or when the caps in each stream were reached. That it closed after just two months demonstrates how these first-come, first-serve programs are unfair. Racialized migrants in the most precarious conditions, and facing the most restrictions and exploitation are the ones who were not able to meet the arbitrary deadline.
Hundreds of thousands more could simply not apply for PR through this program because of exclusionary requirements that migrants have been denouncing since the program’s announcement (including in our report released on May 4, 2021 on survey results of those trying to apply for the program: https://migrantrights.ca/disappointmentchaosreportpr/).
We call on Justin Trudeau’s government to re-open this program and remove all caps and requirements, and ensure Permanent Residency immediately for all migrants, including students, refugees, workers and undocumented people now.
We call on migrants to continue to organize and raise your voices – let us turn disappointment and anger into a unified call for equality and justice. Migrant Rights Network will be in Ottawa on July 25th at PM Trudeau’s office to demand he do the right thing.
Media Contacts:
- Cross-Canada – Syed Hussan, Migrant Rights Network – Secretariat, 416-453-3632, hussan@migrantworkersalliance.org
- Elise Hjalmarson, RAMA Okanagan, 250-681-1456, ramaokanagan@gmail.com
- Marcus Padilha, FCJ Refugee Centre, (416) 469-9754, marcus.padilha@fcjrefugeecentre.org
- Jael Duarte, No One Is Illegal-Frederiction, jduarte@la-henry.ca
- Julie Diesta, Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights (CDWCR), (778) 881-8345, cdwcr.org@gmail.com
- Stacey Gomez, No one is illegal – Halifax/Kjipuktuk, outreach@migrantjusticens.ca
- Marco Luciano, Migrante Alberta, 780-966-5908