Migrants and supporters in Canada advocate for regularization, permanent status

When Samuel Kisitu, a father of three, fled his home in Uganda to come to Canada in 2019, he thought he came to the promised land, where his dreams could be fulfilled. 

Instead, he was met with the reality of living undocumented, unsure of when he could see his family again, and the inability to grow in his professional life.

"Without status you are nothing in Canada, we are regarded as essential yet we are treated as disposable," said Kisitu, who is the founder My Community My Concerns.

He later became a permanent resident, but before being granted this status, he had no hope that his family back home would join him.

Kisitu was among dozens of people gathered outside the office of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Sunday to call for the regularization of all undocumented workers and immigrants.

Migrant and supporter delegations said they would visit all 16 constituency offices of federal cabinet ministers in Ontario, seeking equal rights for all Canadians without delay.  

This comes exactly 10 months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised a regularization program for undocumented workers and to "expand pathways to permanent residence for international students and temporary foreign workers."

The cabinet is set to receive a proposal on regularization (permanent residency for undocumented immigrants) sometime this year.

'We deserve the power to protect ourselves'

Every migrant-led organization in Canada, as well as more than 480 civil society organizations, are jointly calling for the implementation of a comprehensive regularization program for all 500,000 undocumented people in Canada along with their families, and permanent resident status for all 1.2 million people on temporary work, study or refugee permits in Canada that are issued each year.

They will deliver a letter asking cabinet  to meet and listen to undocumented immigrants from across Canada as they travel to Ottawa in November. 

Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, says this is not about charity or ensuring that people have decency, it is about power.

"We deserve to have the power to protect ourselves, we deserve to have the ability to speak up when we're exploited without fearing deportation," he said.

"So we're not calling for sympathy, we're calling for action."

He, along with millions of others, want a fair society.

"A fair society is one with equal rights. The only way it is possible to have equal rights is if each and every person in the country has the same immigration status," he said.

"Each and every one of the basic human rights that make up the ability to live a dignified life has been extracted from undocumented people."

Migrant Rights Network Ontario said in a press release that one in 23 residents in Canada do not have equal rights and are excluded from health care and social services. 

Several previously run programs, including the Guardian Angels Program for refugees and undocumented health-care workers, and the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident program have since expired, leaving no permanent changes made to immigration policy.

'This is not the better life we came here for'

Ursula Ortiz, volunteer at Workers' Action Centre, came to Canada to work as a cleaner and says she knows how it feels to live in the country without immigration status. 

She feels fortunate to have a permit now, but is urging the government to listen and fulfil their previous promise.

"Many people.. leave their countries because of the violence, crimes and political systems in their country and come here to make a dream in Canada — to live with all the same conditions of the Canadian people," she said.

"This is not the better life we came here for," she said, describing the poorer conditions many people are faced with without immigration status, working several jobs to support their family, under poorer working conditions and lesser pay. 

What does she want? Status for all.

"We all deserve the same rights, no one [should be] left behind."