MONTREAL — Over 180 unions and other organizations across Canada have issued an open letter to the federal government calling for an end to its moves to target immigrant workers and to grant permanent residency to all those living in the country. Those signing include the Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba Federations of Labour, the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN), the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Unifor and dozens of immigrant rights groups.
This comes in response to a major assault launched by the federal government in Ottawa targeting hundreds of thousands of immigrants. This includes slashing the number who can become permanent residents and eliminating at least 775,000 work and study permits.
New permanent residents will be reduced to 365,000 by 2027, from 471,700 last year. Permanent residency allows immigrants the right to live, work and study anywhere in Canada, receive health care coverage and contribute to the Canada pension plan.
The sharp shift in Ottawa’s immigration targets reflects the reality that because unemployment is increasing — now at 6.6% — employers don’t need as many immigrant workers. The goal of the Justin Trudeau government is not to stop immigration, but to adjust it to better meet the needs of the capitalist class it represents.
Many capitalist politicians and the media here are joining in scapegoating immigrants, blaming them for the shortage and high cost of housing working people face.
The open letter calls for immediate permanent residency for temporary foreign workers and for students already in Canada. It calls for a comprehensive and inclusive regularization program for all undocumented migrants and the abolition of the government’s closed work permit regime. This ties temporary immigrants to one employer. If they lose their job, they’re subject to deportation.
Ottawa is halving work permit lengths from two years to one. It’s refusing to renew postgraduate work permits for immigrants who have been working in Canada, and ending work permits for family members in high-wage, nonmanagerial jobs and for most international students.
The open letter says, “These measures will force thousands of migrants who have already been in Canada for several years — often with their families — to either leave the country or become undocumented.”
These moves by Canada’s capitalist rulers have increased the pool of workers with either no or only limited rights, who can be pressured into accepting low wages and difficult, dangerous working conditions. A recent U.N. report says these workers are subject to all kinds of abuses, like wage theft, sexual harassment, excessive work hours, no protective equipment, lack of health care and more.
As of the second quarter of 2024, there were 2.8 million temporary residents in Canada, out of a total population of 41 million. This includes thousands of seasonal agricultural workers, factory workers, asylum-seekers and university students. In 2023 about 1.2 million immigrants came to Canada, marking the highest percentage increase of Canada’s population since 1957.
Ottawa’s measures aim to cut the number of temporary residents in Canada by 900,000 over two years. Migrant rights groups estimate that there are some 500,000 workers without officially recognized status in Canada.
Deportations are increasing. According to the Migrant Rights Network, there were 7,032 deportations in the first half of 2023, about 39 a day, much higher than in the previous two years. With the threat of deportation hanging over their heads, the open letter points out, undocumented workers “are denied access to essential health care, exploited at work, and live in fear.”
Quebec government joins attack
Quebec Premier Francois Legault has threatened to ship half of all those in the province demanding asylum out to other provinces. He calls for creating detention centers to hold asylum-seekers while their claims are investigated. Legault has asked the provincial police to patrol Quebec’s border with the U.S. in anticipation of an influx of asylum-seekers when Donald Trump becomes president.
Some 600,000 temporary workers live and work in Quebec today, twice as many as in 2021. Legault says this number will be substantially cut.
French-language courses for immigrants are being slashed. At the same time, the Quebec government has frozen the number of temporary workers who can move to Montreal, claiming they threaten use of the French language.
Philippe Tessier, Communist League candidate in the Quebec provincial by-election in Terrebonne, told the Militant that the open letter is an important weapon in the fight for rights of immigrants and the whole working class. “It needs to be circulated widely and fought for. The fight for unconditional permanent residency for all immigrants in Canada and to stop all deportations is a life-and-death question for our unions. Working-class unity and solidarity is crucial for the success of class battles today and those to come,” he said.
“Workers need a union-based party of labor that can unite working people, whether Canadian or foreign-born, in a struggle to defend our common interests as a class against the owners of capital.”