Honourable members of Parliament, thank you for inviting me to speak to you today on behalf of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
We are a membership-based organization of tens of thousands of migrant farm workers, care workers, study permit holders, postgraduate work permit holders, refugees and undocumented people. I coordinate Migrant Students United, the sector of our work that organizes and supports current and former international students and that has membership in every province and territory in the country.
As of December 2022, there were 807,260 study permit holders and 286,245 postgraduate work permit holders in the country. Of the 1.7 million migrant and undocumented people in Canada, current and former international students are the largest group of non-permanent residents. Like other migrants, they live and work in Canada, mostly for low wages, then are forced to leave or become undocumented. They are, in other words, migrant workers.
Immigration rules that deny permanent residence status to the majority of people arriving in Canada are fundamentally responsible for the exploitation and exclusion of migrant students. We reiterate our call for permanent resident status for all migrants, including working-class migrants arriving today on study permits. I can speak more to that in the question and answer section, but today I want to focus my remarks on recruitment specifically.
We have been organizing with the students tricked by education recruiters, including Lovepreet and Balbir, and we echo their recommendations to waive inadmissibility for all impacted students who are already deemed inadmissible or have admissibility hearings under way. I urge you to give immediate directions to the task force via Minister Sean Fraser to implement a fair process that seeks to support students by allowing all those who are impacted to self-identify and receive temporary resident permits, and also by reversing the onus and ensuring there is a right of appeal for those who are considered complicit.
Based on the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change's decades of experience creating regulations regarding recruiters of temporary foreign workers, we propose the creation of an international student recruiter regulatory regime in consultation with migrant-led organizations.
Such a regulatory regime must be based on the following initial principles.
First, the regulatory mechanism must be designed with the aim of protecting and supporting migrant students, instead of keeping out students whose agents are engaging in illegal and unscrupulous practices.
Second, all recruiters of international students must be registered with the federal government, and their names must be publicly available.
Third, colleges and universities must work only with registered recruiters. Those caught not doing so must face strict penalties.
Fourth, there must be joint and several liability between the educational institutions and recruiters. That is, if a student is exploited by a recruiter, even in India or another sending country, the college or university in Canada must be held financially responsible.
Fifth, a complaint system must be created that includes whistle-blower protection, including permanent resident status for international students who come forward with complaints about unfair recruitment practices. Many of the students who have been caught up by Brijesh Mishra, Atul Mahajan, Gurbaaz, Gill and other recruiters in this particular scheme would come forward if they knew they would not be penalized.
For the recruiter regulatory regime to work, Canada must also take two steps.
First, colleges and university education accreditation processes must be taken up by the federal government. Many fly-by-night private colleges make up the bulk of the institutions where students are facing recruiter abuse. The federal government is aware of the substandard nature of these institutions, because the graduates are not issued a postgraduate work permit. Such schools, many of which are basically predatory financial institutions, must be weeded out.
Second, you must reject proposals for self-regulation by colleges and universities. Guidelines and principles created by post-secondary institutions are non-enforceable and do not provide a mechanism of enforcement to migrants.
Many migrant students have become undocumented and are among the half a million people in the country without immigration status. I want to take this opportunity to remind you that 18 months ago, in December 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to create a regularization program for undocumented people and permanent resident status for migrant students and workers.
In two days, or possibly tonight, when Parliament rises, the third consecutive legislative session since that promise was made will end. We do not need further studies or investigations. I urge you to call on the Prime Minister to tell him to do the right thing and immediately create an uncapped regularization program that grants permanent residence status to all undocumented people, without exclusion.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.