It has been over a year and a half since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mandated his immigration minister to create ways for undocumented workers to get status in Canada. These people contribute to Canadian communities, the prime minister’s letter to Sean Fraser noted, so perhaps the Canadian government should recognize them as people.
Since that mandate letter came out, migrant rights groups have staged rallies. Academics have advised the government on the benefits of regularization. Ottawa’s standing committee on immigration announced that they were looking into it last March. But no regularization program has actually rolled out yet.
No one really knows how many undocumented people there are in Canada. The government does not systematically collect data on it. Estimates, based on research from Canadian universities and other organizations, range from 20,000 to half a million. Experts say the higher-end estimate is far more likely.
An “almost normal” policy, elsewhere
Pierre Trudeau’s 1973 program was the last time that Canada saw a bona fide regularization program for undocumented migrants. Later, during the pandemic, Canada rolled out a few piecemeal programs for migrants in specific essential occupations.
But David Moffette, a professor of sociology at the University of Ottawa specializing in immigration, says that comprehensive regularization programs are “an almost normal” policy in the EU and other countries.
Countries like Italy, France, Sweden, and Ireland have all recently rolled out one-time regularization programs for eligible undocumented migrants. These are ad hoc responses to humanitarian concerns, Moffette noted – migrants were eligible based on having family connections in the country.
In Spain, however, the regularization program is an ongoing mechanism. Whenever a person has been in the country for more than two years, and has proof of integrating into the community such as employment, they can apply for regular status.
Living without status
Most undocumented people in Canada originally come through legal routes, explains Professor Delphine Nakache, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. Migrants arrive under temporary work or study permits, and live in Canada for a time, integrating into their communities and sometimes starting families.
Then they run into problems renewing their permit or applying for permanent residency. Migrants are often not at fault here, Nakache emphasized.
In fact, migrant workers are very vulnerable to employer abuse – workers are often tied to a single employer in order to make an immigration claim, preventing them from finding different jobs if they face abuse or unfavourable working conditions.
LISTEN: The push to change unjust labour laws with Justice for Migrant Workers
When migrants lose their status, employers are technically prohibited by law from hiring them. But they do anyway, because Canadians with citizenship are not interested in doing the work. Employers can also get away with paying below minimum wage and violating other labour regulations, because undocumented workers have no means of raising complaints against them.
Migrants without status cannot access social services like health care. Some migrants even have trouble enrolling their Canadian-born children in public school, Nakache noted.
Canadians are dependent on these migrant workers. The pandemic has illustrated how much Canadian society relies upon their labour, as they work in crucial services like health care, food service, farming, domestic work, and caretaking.
Good for human rights, good for business
Indeed, regularization is not necessarily a show of being progressive, Moffette said. In Spain, more migrants have been regularized under its conservative government than the socialist government. Moffette suggested that the decision was motivated by legalizing a stronger workforce.
“It’s important for questions of social justice. I also think that it’s just a sound policy approach,” Moffette said.
A similar program would be very pragmatic for Canada, since its immigration policy favours temporary work and study permits over pathways to permanent residency.
“When you have immigration procedures that favour temporary migration, there are many ways that people can fall through the cracks, and it’s important to sort of fix this,” Moffette explained.
Canadians also do not have to worry that regularization will incentivize more clandestine immigration, Moffette noted. Typical eligibility requirements mean that applicants must have been in the country before the program was announced. There is no evidence that regularization programs in any country result in more new migrants without status.
What’s the hold-up?
A likely culprit is administrative problems. Actually implementing a regularization program means working with provincial governments and having enough manpower to process applications.
A lack of clear data means that the government does not know how many applicants to expect. One concern is that an overwhelming number of applications will slow down processing in other areas of immigration, potentially stirring political antagonism.
Another concern is that the government will water down the program, in light of fears such as overburdened social services.
But Moffette said these fears are unfounded. “There is no reason to imagine that people [who] have been living here without status for many years require any more sort of service or support than anyone else. Quite the contrary.”
Migrant rights groups and academics urge the program to have as few criteria as possible, to allow as many migrants to be eligible.
Still, regularization is a reactive policy to the problem of migrant workers. A long-term solution requires Canada to create more pathways to permanent residency, and move away from its dependence on the labour of migrants whose lives are held in precarity by design.
Support rabble today!
We’re so glad you stopped by! Thanks for consuming rabble content this year.
rabble.ca is 100% reader and donor funded, so as an avid reader of our content, we hope you will consider gifting rabble with a donation during our summer fundraiser today.
Whether it be a one-time donation or a small monthly contribution, your support is critical to keep rabble writers producing the work you’ve come to rely on as a part of a healthy media diet.
Become a rabble rouser — donate to rabble.ca today.
Nick Seebruch, editor
