--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Over 200,000 international student graduates across Canada are at risk of deportation and loss of status as their work permits expire in 2024 and 2025. On August 30, a committee of affected former students, currently on Post-Graduate Work Permits (PGWPs), began an encampment next to Brampton’s busiest highway in protest of the federal government’s abrupt change in immigration policies. Now on their 90th day, they have been calling for extensions of expiring work permits, an end to LMIA-based exploitation, and a fair pathway to permanent residency.
Nearly 50 trade unions, labour organizations and community groups have signed onto a statement expressing solidarity with these former international students who worked unsafe and essential jobs to bail out the Canadian economy at the height of COVID, but are now being pushed out of Canada in a wave of anti-migrant rhetoric and policies. Among the signatories are Unifor, CUPE Ontario, and OPSEU-SEFPO, together representing over 790,000 public and private sector workers. The Ontario Federation of Labour president, Laura Walton, echoes the student-workers’ calls and says: “When you come after one worker, you come after all workers.”
WHAT: Press conference featuring affected former international students and labour leaders
WHEN: Wednesday November 27, 2024 at 11:00 am
WHERE: 295 Queen St. E, Brampton (off the 410, next to Zimidar Bar & Grill)
WHO:
- Laura Walton (President, Ontario Federation of Labour)
- Carolyn Egan (President, United Steelworkers Toronto Area Council)
- Jessica Cooper (President, Peel local of Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario)
- Simrat Kaur (International student graduate, PGWP Committee member)
- Mehakdeep Singh (International student graduate, PGWP Committee & Naujawan Support Network member)
Naujawan Support Network is an organization of immigrant workers and international students working to stop the exploitation they face from employers, colleges, immigration consultants and the government. The PGWP committee consists of former international students who have been affected by and are pushing to change federal policies on immigration over the last year.
