Three years since the Liberal Party's promise for a regularisation program little has been done by the Canadian state to address the issues faced by migrants without status. With rising xenophobia and racism, there is an urgent need to highlight the challenges faced by undocumented migrants in Quebec. Non-status workers are regularly subjected to workplace exploitation and harassment and are vulnerable to predatory immigration agents, lawyers and recruiters. According to a report published by the Migrant Rights Network in 2022, there are nearly 500,000 non-status immigrants in Canada. The Liberal government's backtracking on their promises comes at a time when a raft of anti-immigrant policies are being instituted including a cap on international students, increasing rejections of visa applications and scaling back of the temporary foreign workers programs.

In light of these developments, the Raah Lab is organising a roundtable discussion on September 24th to emphasise the decades long campaign for regularisation of immigrant workers in Canada, the challenges faced by the movement, and the intersections between racial inequality, gendered exploitation and Canadian immigration regime.

Participants: 

 

Mostafa Henaway (moderator)
Mostafa Henaway is a community organizer, writer and researcher. He is the author of Essential Work, Disposable Workers.

Amel Zaazaa

Amel Zaazaa is an author, community organizer and director of L'observatoire pour la justice migrante. She has worked in several community organizations in Quebec such as League of Rights and Freedoms (LDL), the Federation of Women of Quebec (FFQ), the Hoodstock collective, the Paroles de Femmes Foundation, the Quebec Network of Autonomous Community Action (RQ-ACA), the Group for Aid and the Fight against Sexual Assault (RQ-CALACS), Relais-Femmes and the Human and Youth Rights Commission (CDPJ).

Gaurav Sharma and Nina Gonzalez

Gaurav Sharma and Nina Gonzalez are community organizers for the Immigrant Worker's Centre. Gaurav is also a theatre practitioner, while Nina serves as a member of the IWC Women's Committee.

Photographs