1. International Students are Organizing and Winning!
Our rights | Our struggle | Our unity, Event by Migrant Students United at SFU in collaboration with TSSU, GSS, SFSS, MWAC and MSU.
On March 30th, 2021, migrant students and allies came together to talk about the historic victory of FixPGWP Campaign and what this change means for migrant workers. Our huge win made Post Graduate Work Permit renewable for the first time! We stopped the Mass Deportation of former International Students!
Through presentations, discussions, and surveys, we discussed our priorities, how migrant students and workers can better connect and join forces together, and how to shape our next fights. The fight for our rights never ends! We need to come together and speak up about our demands.
You can find the presentation of this event here
Through presentations, discussions, and surveys, we discussed our priorities, how migrant students and workers can better connect and join forces together, and how to shape our next fights. The fight for our rights never ends! We need to come together and speak up about our demands.
You can find the presentation of this event here
2. National Days of Action- Meet your MP to Demand Status for ALL
In December 2021, we joined our comrades and allies all around Canada to highlight the precarious situation of migrants and demand Status for ALL. We sent emails to our Member of Parliaments, met with them, called them, and demonstrated in front of their offices to speak up about our rights and demands. Migrants have been directly impacted by immigration policy during COVID-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Migrant Students United surveyed over 3,300 current and former migrant students, held more than a dozen online information sessions with thousands registered, and conducted focus groups and polling to determine migrant student needs and priorities. We have spoken with current and former students in each province, as well as the Northwest Territories, and determined the following top three priorities:
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Ensure Status For All:
Permanent Resident status for all migrant student workers immediately in any NOC code, in any job or without work, and in school, including those without immigration status, without unfair age, language, and education requirements.
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Fix Study and Work Permit Rules: Remove the 20-hour work limit and industry restrictions for study permit holders; Ensure post-graduate work permits (PGWPs) for private college students; Make the PGWP renewable.
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Ensure Lower Tuition, Good Jobs & All Services: Lower tuition fees; Ensure access to employment and decent work; Ensure full access to all services including healthcare, housing, jobs, scholarships, and in-school support; Ensure family unity.
3. Full Immigration Status for ALL
Migrant Students United joined Migrant Rights Network and allies on March 20th, 2022 @12 pm at 3906 E Hastings St, MP Terry Beech's office, to mark the International Day Against Racism and to call on the Prime Minister to do the right thing. We want to live in a fair society with equal rights for all, and the only way that can happen is if everyone in the country has full and permanent immigration status. Without permanent resident status, migrants can’t protect ourselves against rising racism.
There are over 1.6 million migrants without permanent residency already in the country. Most of them are doing essential jobs and continued to work even in the pandemic. Migrants sustain all of us. Ensuring permanent resident status for everyone will ensure more prosperity and support for everyone.
Migrants need permanent resident status to assert any other rights that they have. We call on PM Trudeau and all political parties to work together to ensure Status for All!
In these action days, along with our allies, once again, we distributed the Status for ALL letter endorsed by almost every migrant-led organization in Canada to recommend several concretes and immediate policy changes that must be instituted to protect the health, well-being, and safety of migrant and undocumented people, and to prevent the reversal of some important measures put in place during COVID-19.
It’s time to undo years of damage and commit to real change. We need an immigration system that values people, supports families, and rejects divisiveness. The time for change is now.