In Canada, thousands of migrant workers, mainly Black and racialized workers, harvest the food we eat, care for our children and our elders, and clean our homes and offices, all while separated from their children and families. They often work in isolation for low wages, under dangerous conditions. Many are working students who are also forced to pay high international tuition rates.
CUPE supports migrant workers and allies seeking justice and organizing to end precarious living and working conditions. CUPE calls on the Canadian government to provide permanent residence status and ensure a living wage and income security for all migrant workers. Canada should welcome more immigrants as future citizens, rather than temporary migrant workers as part of a strong and progressive immigration program.
Around the world, nearly 285 million people, including over 42 million refugees, have left their home countries and are migrants. These growing numbers reflect the many injustices at the root of the global migration crisis. These include growing inequality, poverty, unemployment, corruption and foreign intervention, the climate crisis, and war.
Migrants have relentlessly fought for their rights. On International Migrants Day, we renew our collective work to build a better world where workers are not forced to leave their homes in search of a job, where everyone has dignity and respect at work and in all aspects of their lives, and where migrant workers do not face exploitation because of their precarious immigration status.
Take action:
- Send a message to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Lena Diab demanding status, not scapegoating for migrant workers.
- Share our know your rights flyer for CUPE members working with temporary immigration status.
- Order our Temporary foreign workers in our union: A solidarity and action guide and consider how to support CUPE members with precarious immigration status.
- Learn more about the troubling changes made by the federal government and their significant impact on temporary foreign workers, international students and their families.
- Sign the Migrant Rights Network’s letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney calling for permanent status not precarity and deportation.
- Check out the Canadian Council for Refugees campaign to stop Bill C-2 and Bill C-12.
- Learn how migrant workers are organizing for their rights through the Migrant Rights Network, Justice for Migrant Workers, Migrante Canada and the Migrant Resource Centre Canada, or support organizations in your community, like the Immigrant Workers Center in Montreal.
