The long awaited report and recommendations from the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration that studied the situation of migrant workers has been released on Wednesday May 6, 2009 along with two dramatically different minority reports from the Conservatives and the New Democrats.

The Canadian Labour Congress and a national network of migrant rights allies welcome the release of this important report.   For too long, migrant workers and their families have been subjected to a flawed federal program, known as the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) which fails to comprehensively protect the rights of these vulnerable workers.

We urge migrant rights advocates, labour unions and civil society allies to raise community awareness about this report and its recommendations for change.

In particularly we call on advocates to organize and support community actions that demand substantial changes in the governments Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

We urge allies to rally behind these three important demands.

Migration must support nation building:

Canada’s migrant worker program must be fundamentally re-designed to support nation building.   A swift, fair, transparent and equitable pathway to permanent residency status must be a central component of any migrant worker program.

Social and political inclusion a must:

Canada’s migrant worker program must be fully resourced to enable the full and equal social and political inclusion of newcomers into Canadian communities.  This includes adequate support to settlement agencies, civil society and community organizations that are strategically poised to ensure newcomers successful integration as equals into the fabric of our communities and workplaces.

Employers & labour brokers must be held accountable:

Canada’s migrant worker program must be dramatically overhauled to include comprehensive compliance; monitoring and enforcement workplace mechanisms are in place in order to protect migrant workers and their families.

We urge those working in solidarity with migrant workers to organize community actions and media events that can speak to these three important demands for change.

We urge advocates to organize events that feature migrant workers stories that speak to the need for these demands. We urge advocates to garner support of prominent community voices including unions, faith groups and civil society allies to speak out in support of these demands. We urge advocates to be creative and saucy in garnering media attention for this important issue.
 

For more information or support please contact:

Karl Flecker,
National Director Anti-Racism and Human Rights Department
Canadian Labour Congress,
613.614.7065 (cell)
[email protected]
 

Sima Sahar Zerehi,
National Representative, Human Rights, Equity and Diversity,
UFCW Canada
416.893.4053 (cell)
[email protected]