Rise of Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric to Blame for Liberals’ Delay on Giving Undocumented Workers’ Status, Advocates Say

Trudeau’s Liberals have backtracked on rolling out a “broad and comprehensive” program to grant undocumented workers status, drawing criticism from migrant rights advocates who say the government is legitimizing far-right, anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller cited changes in Canada’s “political atmosphere” and a “lack of consensus” among Canadians as a reason to abandon his planned regularization program for undocumented workers. 

“Regularization, as I confess to you quite openly, has been a challenge we recognize, particularly in this political atmosphere, in the sense of where Canadians are,” Miller told the Toronto Star on Wednesday.

Most undocumented workers are migrant workers who came to Canada through legal means to work in hospitals, long-term care centres, farms, temp agencies, and other places of employment. These workers often face systemic barriers in renewing work permits through no fault of their own, resulting in them becoming undocumented.

Many undocumented workers performed essential services in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Liberal government promised to “further explore ways of regularizing status for undocumented workers who are contributing to Canadian communities” in 2021. 

A “regularization” program would allow thousands of undocumented workers in Canada to access health care and protection under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Trudeau’s Regularization Program is “Designed” and “Basically Done”

Now, Miller said the program “is not something that is going to get rolled out soon,” abandoning years of work by not only his government, but stakeholder organizations like the Migrant Rights Network.

There’s been enough work done on the program that Trudeau could announce regularization “tomorrow,” Migrant Workers Alliance for Change Executive Director Hussan Syed told PressProgress.  MWAC is one of the member organizations of the Migrant Rights Network.

“This is basically done. All the work has happened. It’s been designed. Trudeau could literally decide tomorrow, and launch it in a couple of months from there,” Syed explained.

The fight for migrant and undocumented workers’ rights has been one of the biggest movements in the country over the last decade, Syed added, as marches across the country brought out thousands.

“Every labour union in Canada signed up for regularization, every health organization, every climate group. This is probably the largest cross-sectoral coalition.”

Over the last year, right-wing politicians and mainstream media figures have pushed the narrative that immigrants are responsible for the housing crisis, making many claims that are simply not true, Syed explains. 

These anti-immigrant narratives let Canada’s ultra-rich off the hook for “pandemic profiteering,” driving up the price of everything from housing to groceries over the last few years, Syed adds.

These false narratives contribute to the already hostile atmosphere many immigrants face in Canada. One-third of recent immigrants have reported a “worse than expected” time living in the country due to discrimination in areas like employment and housing.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, vying to become Canada’s next prime minister, was an early promoter of anti-immigrant sentiment while he served as Employment Minister under former prime minister Stephen Harper. When thousands of migrant work permits expired in 2015, Poilievre defended mass deportations, saying: “That’s why they’re called temporary foreign workers.”

Regularization Key to Resisting Far-Right Trends in Canada and Around the World

“It’s crucial for every progressive person in this country to understand that if we win regularization, we will push back against this global trend of xenophobia and racism,” Syed explains.

Earlier this month, The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights raised an “alarm bell” about the popularity of anti-immigrant narratives after significant far-right electoral wins in Europe.

If Minister Miller wants to push back against rising racism in Canada, he needs to follow through on regularization, not abandon it, Syed argues.

“It’s all about the political climate and the reading. When you read the minister [Miller] and he says ‘There’s no consensus among Canadians,’ what is he saying? He’s saying ‘People are turning racist. I don’t know if I should do this, because if I do, it will increase racism. People will get more racist if we do this good thing.’”

“I think we’ve got to do the opposite,” Syed explains. “You’ve got to do the good thing, and then you’ve got to defend it so as to stop the expansion of racism.”

“That’s why it’s a litmus test,” Syed adds. “Which way does this government go? Which way does the Conservative Party go? Which way does Canada go? Not just now, but for the next 15 months and then into the next election.”

“Regularization is the litmus test of Trudeau’s commitments. It’s a litmus test of his feminist commitments, his commitments to queer people, his commitments to immigrants, his commitment to welcoming refugees, because this is the group of people who have been forced to become undocumented because of decades of an unfair system under multiple governments and mandates.”

Anti-Racism Key to Working Class Unity in Canada

Samuel Tetelepta, a new immigrant and migrant rights organizer, is a member of the Spring Socialist Network, a grassroots workers’ organization with chapters across the country.  Spring has created an anti-racist poster campaign that aims to educate people in Canada about who is really responsible for the current economic crisis: billionaires.

“The far right, they cannot blame the real culprit of the crisis, which is the capitalist class, right? So they’re pointing fingers at migrants,” Tetelepta told PressProgress.

“The Liberal government, instead of pushing back against this racist, baseless rhetoric about migrant workers being blamed, they are actually legitimizing the rhetoric.” 

The posters feature phrases like “Can’t Afford Food?” “Rent Too High?” “Blame Billionaires, Not Immigrants,” and “Don’t let them distract you with racism.” The posters are available to download for free online so workers can post them in their own cities across Canada. 

The Migrant Rights Network is also hosting days of action across the country on September 14 and 15, which aims to unite workers across the country in support of migrant rights.

Migrant Rights Network

“We want to put anti-racism front and center in our organizing work,” Tetelepta says. “So first of all, we have to eliminate all distinctions between Canadian workers and migrant workers so that we can unite and be strong enough to push back against rising fascism.”

“There’s only one working class, and all of us who have to sell our labour to stay alive are part of it.”