Montreal, September 18 – On Sunday afternoon, migrants and allies rallied in downtown Montreal as part of a pan-Canadian day of action to demand that the regularization of undocumented migrants be comprehensive, immediate, and fully inclusive, with no exclusions or discriminations. The march took place in response to news that the Canadian government is finally moving forward on a regularization program for undocumented migrants.
“I do not want to be left behind, again! We are sick of being excluded – from society, from labour standards, from healthcare and other services, from immigration processes! This is why we demand a program that includes absolutely everybody,” said Samira Jasmin, an undocumented organizer with Solidarity Across Borders (SAB). “Equality is equality. All exclusion is discrimination. All exclusions are just means for continuing exploitation – leaving us prey to bosses, landlords, unscrupulous lawyers, and sexist violence.” Demonstrators marched past the downtown site of Immigration Canada at 1010 rue Saint-Antoine, banging pots and pans to express their anger, and leaving behind hundreds of hand-written signs saying, “I don’t want to be left behind.”
The case of Mamadou Konaté, spokesperson for the Immigrant Workers’ Centre (IWC) is a perfect example of why the new program must be fully inclusive. Despite working as a janitor in long-term care during the pandemic, He was excluded from the one-time “ange gardien” regularization program, because he was not working directly with elders. Konaté now faces deportation on September 30th, deemed inadmissible for permanent residency due to his political activity in Côte d’Ivoire. “My life, my friends, my support network are all in Montreal,” said Konaté. “Like everybody living with precarious or no status, I deserve equal treatment and permanent residency under the new program.”
There are at least 500 000 undocumented migrants in Canada and there are another 1.2 million migrants living with precarious status. Undocumented migrants are migrants who entered Canada as refugee claimants or as temporary workers or students and then lost their legal status because Canada’s immigration system failed them. Most people with temporary status in low-waged work do not have access to permanent residency, so eventually they are forced to either leave Canada or to stay in the country undocumented.
“Migrant workers here on temporary visas are deeply exploited,” said Gaurav Sharma, another organizer with the IWC and a refugee claimant. “Be it on farms, in restaurants, or in long-term care facilities, we are subject to underpay and harsh conditions, even death. Speaking up can mean losing your job or your housing, being deported or losing your status. And it’s made even more complicated by provincial immigration policies. For example, Quebec excludes “low-skilled” jobs from the Programme de l’expérience québécoise, one of the very few pathways to permanent residency here. That’s why we need an effective regularization program that includes everybody!”
“When we make the difficult decision to stay in Canada without papers,” added Aboubacar, another non-status organizer with Solidarity Across Borders (SAB), “we face the constant threat of arrest, detention and deportation, and separation from our loved ones. It’s incredibly stressful. This is discrimination at the deepest level, which can only be solved by Status for All.”
Over 480 organizations across Canada support the call for a simple and accessible regularization program without barriers like excessive paperwork or exclusions and inadmissibilities, including in Quebec the Ligue des droits et libertés, Fédération des femmes du Québec, Doctors of the World, and the FRAPRU.
In the midst of a provincial election where debates about immigration have given free reign to xenophobia and racism, migrants and their allies are calling on all Quebec political parties to support their struggle for regularization. Demonstrators ended the march with a joyfully defiant moment of dancing in front of the offices of Quebec Premier François Legault.
“We are building a mass movement against structural racism in Quebec,” said Aboubacar, “And the demand of our movement is clear: Status for All, with no exceptions, now!”
