Dutrisac: Régulariser les sans-papiers

2022/11/16 Leave a comment

Of note:

En décembre 2021, le premier ministre Justin Trudeau demandait au ministre de l’Immigration, des Réfugiés et de la Citoyenneté, Sean Fraser, de « poursuivre l’exploration de moyens » afin de régulariser le statut des travailleurs migrants sans papiers. Dix mois plus tard, le ministre n’a toujours pas annoncé quoi que ce soit.

Il y a un peu plus d’une semaine, une centaine de personnes ont manifesté à Montréal pour réclamer un programme massif de régularisation de ces travailleurs.

Selon le Comité permanent de la citoyenneté et de l’immigration de la Chambre des communes, le Canada compte entre 20 000 et 500 000 migrants non documentés. Quand on voit de tels chiffres, et un tel écart dans les évaluations, c’est qu’on ne sait pas vraiment combien on dénombre de ces personnes qui subsistent dans cette clandestinité pitoyable mais tolérée.

Parmi ces travailleurs qui ont préféré prendre la clé des champs au lieu de retourner dans leurs pays d’origine, on trouve plusieurs cas d’espèce. Il y a des détenteurs de visa de touristes qui sont restés illégalement au pays, des travailleurs dont le permis de travail n’a pas été renouvelé, parfois à cause d’employeurs négligents ou de la complexité administrative des programmes d’Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada (IRCC), des étudiants étrangers au terme de leurs études et des demandeurs d’asile qui se sont vu refuser le statut de réfugié et font l’objet d’un avis d’expulsion.

S’il est vrai que des centaines de milliers de travailleurs, voire un demi-million, comme certains l’estiment, travaillent au noir au Canada, on ne peut continuer à ignorer le problème. Ces travailleurs ne jouissent d’aucune protection sociale ; ils n’ont pas accès aux services de santé gratuits, ni à la protection contre les accidents du travail, à l’assurance-emploi évidemment et à l’aide de dernier recours. Leur quotidien est fait de petits boulots mal payés. Ils sont dépendants d’employeurs qui peuvent les exploiter. Parfois, ils ne parlent que leur langue natale et sont ainsi souvent confinés dans leur communauté ethnique, ce qui est cependant conforme au dogme multiculturaliste.

Dans la commande qu’il a passée à son ministre, Justin Trudeau lui demande de s’appuyer sur les programmes pilotes existants. Depuis deux ans à Toronto, il existe un tel projet pilote dans l’industrie de la construction. Il est très limité : le programme vise la régularisation de 500 travailleurs seulement, et il semble que ce modeste objectif n’ait même pas été atteint. L’an dernier, IRCC a aboli une des conditions qui faisait obstacle : avoir une connaissance des plus minimales d’une des langues officielles, en l’occurrence l’anglais évidemment. Ottawa octroie la résidence permanente à des immigrants qui ne parlent aucune des langues officielles. Ce n’est pas un empêchement.

Le phénomène des travailleurs sans papiers est une conséquence du régime d’immigration qui s’est imposé ces dernières années. La grande majorité des candidats à l’immigration ne font plus leur demande de l’étranger : ils sont déjà au pays à titre de travailleurs temporaires, d’étudiants et de demandeurs d’asile.

Ces étrangers sont confrontés au double langage des autorités fédérales : d’une part, on leur dit que la voie privilégiée pour être admis comme immigrant, c’est d’être déjà au Canada grâce à un statut temporaire, d’autre part, on exige d’eux qu’ils s’engagent à quitter le pays une fois leurs contrats ou leurs études terminés.

Dans le cas des demandeurs d’asile qui passent par le chemin Roxham, il peut s’écouler des années avant que leur sort ne soit tranché par les autorités. Entre-temps, nombre d’entre eux ont pu se trouver un emploi stable, apprendre la langue commune, voire fonder un foyer. Bref, ils se sont intégrés.

L’inconvénient de la régularisation, c’est qu’elle concède un avantage à des personnes qui enfreignent les règles au détriment de ceux qui s’y conforment. Mieux vaut mieux entrer par le chemin Roxham que d’emprunter la voie régulière et passer les postes-frontières.

L’autre enjeu, c’est l’état de dysfonctionnement d’IRCC qui n’arrive pas, à l’heure actuelle, à assumer correctement ses responsabilités. À titre d’exemple, les demandeurs d’asile qui arrivent au Québec attendent maintenant dix mois avant qu’Ottawa officialise leur requête pour leur statut de réfugié, une étape qui leur permet d’obtenir un permis de travail. Forcés à ne rien faire, ils en sont réduits à recevoir de l’aide de dernier recours.

Devant l’incurie fédérale, le gouvernement Legault a le devoir d’exercer tous les pouvoirs dont il dispose, notamment en matière de permis de travail et d’études, afin de remédier aux aberrations d’un système défaillant. Mais à terme, c’est l’ensemble de l’oeuvre qu’il lui faudra revoir.

Source: Régulariser les sans-papiers

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Activists push Trudeau to broaden permanent-residency plan for undocumented migrants

2022/09/16 Leave a comment

As activists do:

As MPs return to business after the summer break, advocates are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to offer a pathway to permanent residence for the estimated 500,000 undocumented migrants in the country.

“The next Parliament must not wait. It cannot wait. The time for comprehensive, immediate and inclusive regularization is right now,” Syed Hussan of the Migrant Rights Network told a news conference on Wednesday to launch the call for actions from Ottawa.

“Half a million people in this country are undocumented because of failures of immigration policy. Finally, Mr. Trudeau now has the historic opportunity to begin to correct these wrongs and be remembered for ensuring equal rights for these members of our society. There is cross-country support for such a move.”

Since the spring, the minority Liberal government, backed by the New Democrats, has been quietly working on a so-called regularization plan for non-status migrants, many of them precariously employed with often-exploitative jobs in construction, cleaning, caregiving, food processing and agriculture.

They face a range of vulnerabilities, including poor mental and physical health caused by social isolation and abusive working conditions.

The Star has learned that the new program builds on a previous smaller-scale initiative that helped undocumented construction workers obtain permanent status in Canada, and would likely focus on workers in particular sectors.

However, advocates are urging the government to take a broader-based approach.

“We are all here to insist that absolutely each and every undocumented person should be included. No one should be left behind. Equality is equality. And there can be no exceptions. All exceptions are discrimination,” said Hussan.

The Migrant Rights Network’s campaign is endorsed by 480 civil society organizations, including Canada’s largest human rights, climate, health, legal and labour groups.

Caroline Brouillette of the Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of 140 groups, said the climate crisis forces more and more people from their homes, and ensuring equal rights for migrants is fundamental to climate justice.

“Transforming our unequal, exploitative system into one that ensures dignity and safety for all is a key step toward addressing Canada’s climate debt,” she said. “We urge the federal government to seize this opportunity.”

Like the majority of undocumented residents who came to Canada legally, Danilo De Leon arrived in Edmonton in 2009 from the Philippines under the Temporary Foreign Worker program as a cleaner.

In 2018, he was issued an exclusion order by border enforcement agents after his work permit and temporary resident permit expired.

“We came here to work because you need workers. We are more than just workers that feed your economy. We are human beings who have the rights to live in Canada with dignity,” said the father of two, whose deportation was only recently stayed by the court. “We need a regularization program that does not discriminate.”

Advocates say more and more migrants are arriving in Canada as temporary residents, but many struggle to extend their stay to gain permanent residence.

“Most temporary permits, whether a work permit, study permits or refugee-claimant permits, are the only gateways to Canada for low-waged and racialized people. But these pathways are actually a path off a cliff,” said Hussan.

“At one point or the other, these permits expire and cannot be replaced. The only choice, which is no choice at all, is living in Canada without any status or returning to a country that you may not be able to live in, whether it’s to escape war or poverty, climate catastrophe or discrimination.”

The Migrant Rights Network recommends a moratorium on deportations and detentions, and a free and simple application process that can be easily completed without immigration advisers.

Rallies will be held this Sunday in 12 Canadian cities, including Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver to support the call for immigration justice.

Source: Activists push Trudeau to broaden permanent-residency plan for undocumented migrants

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Nyers and Moffette: Canada must grant permanent immigration status to undocumented residents

2022/08/04 Leave a comment

Not necessarily for the country as a whole, and for public confidence in government management of immigration.

Immigration always is based on both inclusion and exclusion, and thus discrimination between those who are deemed to meet criteria and those who are not.

The authors also are silent on the increased numbers of temporary residents that are transitioning to permanent status (mainly IMP, PGWP, students, less so Temporary Foreign Workers).

But calling to provide permanent status to “all” temporary residents is unrealistic. From an economic perspective, if some move from precarious employment, others will likely take their place, and of course, increased labour supply reduces the incentives for business to invest in technology and productivity.

And the authors are silent on overall levels of immigration, leaving the impression, fairly or not, that they favour none.

Temporary workers in key sectors (e.g. healthcare) have a stronger case from a Canadian interest point of view that those in less important sectors, or those who are seasonal workers:

In the December 2021 mandate letter to the newly appointed Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, the Liberal government tasked him with exploring “ways of regularizing status for undocumented workers who are contributing to Canadian communities.” 

Sean Fraser has since said he’s working on designing a regularization program that can help address this issue. 

In May, MPs passed motion M-44 urging the government to design a plan to provide permanent residency to temporary foreign workers. If planned and executed correctly, these programs could be a historic opportunity to improve the lives of up to 1.7 million people who live in Canada without a secure status. 

Demanded action

In July 2021, migrants and advocates in Montréal, Toronto, Edmonton and St. Catharines held rallies demanding that the programs be inclusive, comprehensive and permanent.

Now the question is whether the government will create a program that can provide status to all undocumented and temporary residents through permanent residency permits, or whether it will create a small symbolic program that will fail to properly tackle the issue. 

There’s a lot at stake.

Most industrialized countries host a substantial number of undocumented residents. It’s an institutionally produced phenomenon that occurs when migrants travelling in search of safety, work, love or community encounter immigration and refugee policies that provide only limited protection to asylum-seekers and precarious and temporary permits to immigrants. Canada is no exception.

Our immigration system is geared towards temporary and conditional permits, many of them lacking a clear pathway to permanent residency and citizenship. Every year, more migrants enter Canada with temporary permits than permanent ones. This leaves them undocumented when their permits expire.

Strategies that make it possible to circumvent our international obligations towards asylum-seekers, in particular the Safe Third Country Agreement as well as an outdated definition of “refugee,” also leave many people without protection and official status to remain in the country.

Without addressing these root causes, regularization programs are only a temporary fix to a problem that was institutionally produced. However, these programs have tremendous positive outcomes for both migrants and society. 

Common in the EU

Regularization is a common policy tool in the European Union. France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Poland and many other countries all routinely implement regularization programs. 

Spain, for example, implemented ad hoc programs under both conservative and progressive governments that regularized more than a million people between 2000 and 2006. It then launched a permanent ongoing mechanism to provide status to undocumented residents.

While less common in Canada, regularization programs have been implemented in the past. Under Pierre Trudeau’s government in 1973, some 39,000 people were regularized as part of the Adjustment of Status Program. 

But so far, the Canadian approach has been extremely restrictive, limiting access to relief programs to specific nationalities or people with specific family or work situations. A 2002 program that provided status to only 900 Algerians is a good example of the Canadian government’s lack of ambition. 

The mention of “undocumented workers” in Fraser’s mandate letter makes us fear this restrictive trend may continue.

Benefits, potential policy pitfalls

Regularization programs have many benefits. 

For migrants and those concerned about their well-being and rights, such programs can provide safety, stability and access to rights and family reunification. 

For the government, a well-designed program can “reset” the growing population of people without status or at risk of losing it, thereby remediating a problem produced by years of policies favouring temporary and conditional permits. 

Regularization can also provide a boon to the economy and the labour market by allowing workers to move from precarious jobs to more stable and better work in sectors where their skills are most needed.

For regularization programs to be effective policy tools, they need to be inclusive and comprehensive. Here are some potential pitfalls: 

1) Imposing a low arbitrary cap on the number of permits available, while useful for budgeting and staffing purposes, would make the program inaccessible to most. 

2) Limiting the program to undocumented workers in specific sectors would have the sole purpose of addressing labour market needs while failing to recognize undocumented residents’ contributions in all sectors of the economy and society. The “guardian angels” initiative — a program that provided a pathway to permanent residency to a few asylum-seekers who worked in very specific health-care jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic — has taught us that such an approach risks imposing restrictive professional criteria that would disqualify many workers. 

3) Providing only temporary and conditional permits would be counter-productive because those permits are largely responsible for the growing number of undocumented residents in Canada. 

This is a historic opportunity to tackle a long-standing problem and start rethinking our immigration and refugee model. 

In the next few months, we’ll see whether the government intends to use this policy tool to its full potential or settle for a small symbolic program that will fail to bring about long-term structural change.

Source: Canada must grant permanent immigration status to undocumented residents

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , ,