Certainly.
For many migrants, and especially those you will be hearing about today, migration is not a choice but rather a necessity, a survival mechanism. They have been obliged to move by forces beyond their control, such as conflict and human rights abuses, environmental disasters, free trade policies that flood markets with cheap produce so that local farmers cannot make a living, a dam that has forced them from their land, etc.
Our government's attitude toward migrants appear contradictory. At the same time that national borders are being eliminated to allow for the free flow of goods, services, and capital, these same borders are being increasingly tightened to restrict the movement of people; that is, restricting their legal entrance into Canada as permanent residents. Instead, Canada, like so many other countries, is quietly expanding its guest worker programs.
Despite the significant role these workers play in our economy, their contribution goes largely unrecognized. Instead, migrants are vulnerable to a variety of forms of exploitation because of their lack of official status and dire economic need. This increasing exploitation is now being heard by church communities, advocates, labour organizations, and other members of civil society. With this growing attention, civil society groups are starting to unite to make their voices heard.
As a result of this growing concern, KAIROS played a lead role in pulling together the migrant justice steering committee, members of whom stand before you today, which planned and carried out the national migrant justice gathering at York University in June 2006. This gathering brought together over 100 migrants and migrant justice advocates from academia, faith groups, the labour movement, and the wider justice-seeking community to lay the foundations of a national migrant justice network in Canada.
In this two-day event, participants worked to build alliances across sectors and develop a united voice on shared concerns. Key to the conference was the participation of persons directly affected by these issues--that is, migrant and undocumented workers. We regret that we were not able to include their voices here today.
The two-day program enabled live-in caregivers, seasonal agricultural workers, and non-status immigrants to voice their concerns and enabled migrant organizations, faith groups, unions, community activists, and university researchers to share their advocacy experiences.
One of the immediate results of the gathering was a statement of unity expressing the collective concerns of participants in the gathering. The committee has been provided with both a copy of the statement and a report on the gathering. We invite the committee to review the statement in more detail later.
Before I continue, I would like to highlight a few key points from the statement of unity.
It is time that Canada take responsibility for the role it plays both as a receiving country and a perpetrator of underdevelopment around the world and the various forms of exploitation and rights abuses to which migrant workers and non-status people are extremely vulnerable. We demand that Canada ensure the full and effective protection of migrant worker rights in accordance with the international convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families.
We call on our governments to account for unjust policies that lead to displacement and contribute to the root causes of migration. We call for fair immigration policies that recognize the multiple causes of forced migration and reflect an understanding and appreciation of real societal and labour needs in Canada.
All migrants, regardless of their legal status, deserve just wages, fair treatment from their employers, and full and equitable entitlement and access to the health, social, educational, and legal services and supports that are available to all Canadians.
As well as the statement of unity located in the gathering's report, the committee has also been provided with other information, including but not limited to a KAIROS resource entitled “God's People: A People on the Move”, a resource kit that was designed especially for churches in solidarity with uprooted peoples, and a migrant justice steering committee submission to the human rights committee study on employability. We will forward the committee a translated version in the upcoming months.
Last but not least, I would like to draw the committee's attention to a copy of “Borderless”, a new video from KAIROS about migrants living and working without status in Canada. The video, which comes with a study guide, brings to life problems of labour exploitation and family separation caused by restrictive immigration policies. We hope the committee will find the provided information both informative and useful.
We are pleased to learn that temporary worker programs are high on the committee's priority list. It is imperative that Canada make its immigration process more humane.
While the individuals standing before you today will address issues and policy recommendations specific to their sectors of experience, we hope to show that abuse and exploitation of temporary and undocumented workers is not sector-specific. Rather, this is a larger systemic problem that must be addressed.
Thank you.