Understanding the system is the first step to changing it. MJ101 is a free workshop on how immigration works, why it works that way, and what we can do about it together.
MJ101 is a workshop MAC runs for community groups, workplaces, unions, schools, and settlement agencies: anyone who wants to understand immigration systems in Canada not just as they are, but as political choices that can be challenged and changed.
We teach this from the inside. As migrants who have lived these systems, organized against them, and fought to shift them, we bring a perspective you will not get from a government pamphlet. We name who benefits from the way things are and who pays the price. Every session opens with a land acknowledgement and a commitment to the connection between decolonization and migrant justice, because those struggles cannot be separated.
The workshop is participatory throughout. We use group activities, discussion, and reflection, not just slides. Every session ends the same way: participants identify one concrete action they commit to taking. That is not a formality. We help you follow through.
The workshop adapts to your group. A 90-minute session covers the essentials. Longer sessions go deeper. The questions an international student union has are different from those a union local has, and we meet people where they are.
Our core demand is simple: full and permanent immigration status for all migrants, regardless of current status or the lack thereof. Status for All. The workshop explains why nothing short of that is enough.
Sessions are tailored to each group. These are the areas we draw from:
What rights migrants are supposed to have (dignity, security, work, healthcare, education, due process, democratic participation) and the gap between what exists on paper and what is practically accessible depending on your status.
Migrants can lose healthcare for losing a job, reducing course loads as students, or for reasons entirely outside their control. Many cannot change employers at all. Medical inadmissibility literally puts a price tag on a migrant’s life. If the state decides your illness creates “excessive demand,” you can be deported for getting sick.
Canada has no legal time limit on immigration detention. Migrants are held in prisons and penitentiaries for administrative reasons, sometimes for years. We cover how detention works, who it targets, and what it reveals about how the state values migrant lives.
Canada has been moving its border enforcement toward expanded surveillance, reduced due process, attacks on refugee protections, and powers increasingly concentrated away from legislatures and toward ministers and agencies. We cover what this direction means in practice for migrants’ safety and rights.
Migrants did not cause the housing crisis while unregulated Airbnbs flourished and homes were commodified. Migrants did not cause the cost-of-living crisis while grocery chains price-gouged. Migrants did not cause labour precarity while employers exploited desperation. We trace who benefits from blaming migrants for systemic failures the state created, and what Malthusian “sustainability” rhetoric is actually doing.
What the Status for All demand means and why nothing short of it is enough. What migrant justice movements have won through collective action. How to get involved: every session ends here, with a concrete commitment, not just analysis.
MJ101 is built to be accessible to people with no prior knowledge of immigration law or social movement organizing. You do not need credentials. You do not need to already have the right politics. You need to be curious and willing to engage honestly.
We have brought this workshop to:
Especially those navigating status uncertainty, precarious work, or trying to understand what their rights actually are. We teach in plain language, not legal jargon, and from experience, not abstraction.
Frontline workers who support migrants every day and want to better understand the systems their clients are navigating, and advocate more effectively alongside them.
Understanding how precarious status suppresses workers’ ability to organize and enforce their rights is essential for labour solidarity. Migrant workers are workers.
International students face their own pressures and restrictions: often invisible to their Canadian peers. This workshop covers the specifics of student status alongside the broader picture.
Communities that want to welcome and support migrants more effectively, and understand the real constraints their neighbours are living with, not just the charitable framing.
If you want to understand what the immigration debate leaves out, what migrants in NL are actually experiencing, and what is actually driving it, you are welcome here.
Yes. MAC does not charge for MJ101 sessions. If your organization has resources and wants to support MAC’s broader organizing work, we welcome donations, but it is never a condition of hosting a session.
A standard session runs 90 minutes, including discussion and Q&A. We can adapt for shorter timeslots or go longer for groups that want more depth. Tell us what works when you request a session.
Both. In-person sessions work best in the St. John’s area. Virtual sessions are available for groups anywhere in Newfoundland and Labrador, and beyond, depending on the request.
We try to accommodate requests with as little as two weeks’ notice, though more lead time helps. Submit a request and we will confirm our availability.
Currently in English. We are working to expand this. If your group has specific language access needs, note it in your request and we will see what we can arrange.
Fill out the form and someone from MAC will be in touch to confirm details. We respond within a week, usually sooner.