2024 has been a year of an escalating war on migrants.
We began the year continuing our fight for regularization of undocumented people. A comprehensive proposal was taken to Cabinet in May. But instead of choosing dignity and rights, Ministers chose racism, rejecting the proposal.
Throughout the year, the federal government adopted one Conservative-style immigration policy after another, stripping rights from millions. By Fall, migrant scapegoating for the housing crisis—sparked in 2023—reached a crescendo. Over the next two years, 2.3 million permits are set to expire, forcing our friends, neighbours, and family members to either leave or become undocumented.
The shift towards right-wing, anti-immigrant ideology is undeniable. Seven years ago, when Trump was first elected, Prime Minister Trudeau declared that “refugees are welcome.” Now, as Trump returns to power, the Canadian government has allocated $1.3 billion to increase border policing and create a “border strike force.”
In the face of stunning policy shifts, migrant scapegoating and rising xenophobia, we fought back. Together, the Migrant Rights Network and the migrant justice movement took action to defend our communities. We secured permanent resident status on arrival for care workers (though still not implemented), and some attacks on international students were reversed. We stopped many deportations.
These victories were only possible because of collective action: over 500 organizations joined us, and tens of thousands of people including you signed petitions, made phone calls, and took to the streets.
Looking Ahead: A Defiant 2025
We will continue to organize and mobilize in 2025. We will resist all political parties trafficking in xenophobia. We will do mass public education and organize to counter anti-immigrant rhetoric that seeks to distract working class people from holding the wealthy and powerful accountable.
As we reflect on the end of 2024, we invite you to be defiant in 2025.
- Courageously oppose racism and division wherever it emerges.
- Reject the unprincipled politics of the Liberals and the racism of the Conservatives, before, during, and after the federal elections.
- Refuse to accept predetermined electoral outcomes—organize like our future depends on it, because it does.
- Commit to ending wars, genocides, climate collapse, and capitalist extraction that force people to migrate.
- Defend, protect, and love our people, our communities, and our planet.
Together, we fight. When we fight, we win. Justice will prevail.
2024 Highlights: Mobilizing for Justice
- March 16 – 17, 2024: Thousands of us marched in 8 cities across the country to launch Migrant Spring, uniting against racism and demanding permanent resident status for all. Watch on Global News.
- Fathers Day: Undocumented fathers and children gathered at MP Chrystia Freeland’s office to share their experiences of family separation and why we need regularization and permanent resident status for all undocumented people. Watch on CTV.
- September 12-15, 2024: thousands of people took to the streets in Charlottetown, Edmonton, Moncton, Niagara, Ottawa, Peterborough, Sudbury, Toronto and Vancouver to tell the incoming Parliament to ensure justice and permanent resident status for migrants.
- November-December: In November, we organized a week against racism with actions in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto and in December we joined the International Migrant Alliance – Canada, mobilizing in eight cities across the country.
Uniting for Regularization
- April 2024: We delivered petitions from nearly 40,000 people to almost every Cabinet Minister, calling for regularization.
- May 2024: Undocumented people bravely unmasked themselves across the country, demanding status. Prime Minister Trudeau publicly expressed support for regularization.
- On the morning of the Cabinet discussion, we organized a massive press conference on Parliament Hill to show broad, unified support for regularization.
- Summer 2024 on: Immigration Ministers began pushing a narrower program, excluding many migrants. We continue to fight for status for ALL.
Winning Permanent Resident Status & Rights for Migrants
- Care Workers: Migrant care workers organized, gathered petition signatures, and held press conferences, winning an end to unfair language and education requirements and securing permanent resident status on arrival in June after a decade of struggle. However, implementation still has not happened.
- Farm & Fishery Workers: In October 2024, migrant farm and fishery workers from across the country spoke up about the abuse they faced.
- Queer Migrants: We marked the International Day Against Homophobia with queer undocumented refugees calling on the PM to keep his promise.
- Health Justice: Migrant workers took action for healthcare speaking out from Edmonton to Toronto.
- Building power: Thousands of people sent emails; and nearly 200 organizations wrote an open letter to the federal government insisting on rights not cuts, culminating in a press conference on Parliament Hill, the day the new immigration levels were discussed in committee.
- 500+ organizations and millions of people who value fairness and equality support a regularization program guaranteeing permanent resident #StatusForAlll.
Opposing Lies, Telling Truths
Throughout the year, we exposed misinformation and spread the truth:
- Highlighted how landlords, speculators, and weakened rent controls—not migrants—are responsible for the housing crisis. Watch how to fight back against Canada’s anti-immigrant backlash, read an op-ed in the Toronto Star, and share graphics from our social media channels.
- Amplified the United Nations condemnation of Canada’s migrant programs as breeding grounds for slavery. Watch and read news coverage of migrants speaking out here, here, here, here, read statements from migrant workers here, and an op-ed in the Toronto Star here.
- Fact-checked Prime Minister Trudeau’s video about immigration with our friends in the Breach.
- Spoke out against Trumpism and border scapegoating. See our social media fact check here, our corrections in the media here and here.
- Pushed back against racism being used to divide working class people, joined with climate justice, women’s rights and worker rights movements and more.