Status for All

The state sorts migrants into tiers (citizen, resident, worker, student, claimant, "illegal") and hands out rights to match. That sorting is the harm. It is how the same person can build a life here for years and still be denied healthcare, fair work, safety, and the right to stay. No human being is illegal, and no one is illegal on stolen land. The line between who belongs and who is disposable gets drawn by the state to keep us precarious and profitable, and we refuse it.

The Migrant Action Centre demands full and permanent immigration status for all migrants in Canada, with no exclusions and no exceptions: temporary foreign workers, international students, refugees and claimants, and undocumented people alike. Status for all means equal access to:

• Work free from exploitation, with the freedom to change employers and to organize, regardless of status.
• Healthcare: the same care as anyone else, including mental health and dental, with no status check at the door.
• Education, including post secondary, with the same funding and support as everyone else.
• Housing that is safe, affordable, and free from discrimination.
• Access to social supports and collective care. Including childcare, legal support, and language classes, as a right and not a reward.
• A political voice: a real say in the decisions made about our lives. Nothing about us without us.
• Family: the right to be together instead of separated by paperwork.

Status for all will not be handed down by a generous minister. It gets won through organizing, by migrants and alongside migrants, until the tiers are gone and rights are unconditional. We aren't currency, we aren't cash cows, and we aren't bargaining chips. We are people, we are here, and we are organizing. Status for all, every single one of us.