Migration crisis | So as not to become an air-conditioned fortress

On May 11, the House of Commons passed motion M-44 calling on the government to develop a plan to regularize the status of temporary foreign workers. At the same time, Justin Trudeau has mandated the Minister of Immigration to explore the granting of permanent residence to people without status. The federal government therefore has a historic opportunity to grant permanent residency to the 1.7 million people with precarious or irregular immigration status living in Canada, according to the Migrant Rights Network.

In a context of climate crisis, the regularization of people without status is a matter of basic equity. Notably, Canada’s historic and current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions make it largely responsible for the crisis – it was the 9^e GHG-emitting country between 1973 and 2012, ahead of demographic giants such as Brazil and Indonesia, while its population accounts for only about 0.5% of the world total¹. It is also fundamental to take into account the older process of industrialization, largely made possible thanks to coal, since the excess GHGs emitted a century ago remain in the atmosphere. Today, climate change is depleting already limited food and water resources and exacerbating socio-economic gaps, so much so that the Institute for Economics and Peace estimates that 1.2 billion people are at risk of being forced move due to climate-related natural disasters by 2050².

In addition to being at the root of climate chaos, the consumption trends of the Canadian population are based on the overexploitation of humans as well as natural resources.

Most consumer goods come from the exploitation of workers from the South, forced into intolerable conditions in state factories that we have come to call “country-workshops”. Not to mention that in 2012, Canada alone was home to approximately 75% of exploration and mining companies on the planet.³which have an international reputation for violating the human rights of local populations in defiance of their legal obligations, devastating ecosystems and fueling political instability and violent conflict, motivating and forcing many migrations⁴.

Migrants who arrive in Western countries, often exploited by smugglers and placement agencies, are vulnerable to an immigration system that allows itself to select those who have the right toto exist with dignity in the territory. The criminalization of people without status prevents them from having access to health care, public and social services and from protecting themselves against abuse. Destitute, they are very often exploited by employers who threaten to denounce them if they refuse to be mistreated. Their deliberate continued illegality enables, even encourages, conditions akin to modern slavery and forced labor as defined by the International Labor Organization⁵.

Canadian society benefits shamelessly from the exploitation of non-status people. For example, Mamadou Konaté, originally from the Ivory Coast, worked in a CHSLD during the pandemic. Despite his devotion, he is constantly threatened with expulsion.

“Essential workers”, the majority of whom are people with precarious status, fill the most thankless jobs and play a fundamental economic role, but the state persists in denying them permanent residence.

However, it is dangerous to grant them rights solely on the basis of some work-based conception of merit. Human dignity only makes sense if it is universal and intrinsic to every person, regardless of their productivity.

The climate crisis demands an unwavering determination to defend human rights, without which Western countries risk rationalizing their position as air-conditioned fortresses guarding against a dying humanity. Nor can the borders eternally serve as a bulwark protecting Canada from the violence and devastation that it sows itself through its vandalism.

The regularization of 1.7 million people already residing in Canada exceeds the limits for many, but it appears very moderate in the face of the cruel diehard that the choice of indifference would camouflage. It’s the least we can do for a country that believes even minimally in the principles of human rights.

3. Alain Deneault and William Sacher, Paradise undergroundMontreal, Ecosociety, 2012, 194 pages