The author is an assistant professor at the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa. She directed the collective work Feminist approaches in international relations (PUM, 2022). She is also the author of the book lose the south (Ecosociety, 2020).
A person who does not have legal status in a territory cannot go to the hospital, lodge a complaint against his employer, visit his family abroad, send his children to daycare or testify if he is the victim of a crime. And this, even if she has lived in this territory for years.
This is why the regularization of undocumented migrants has become commonplace over the past 25 years, almost everywhere in the world. Spain, France, Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Poland regularly adopt such programs (also called amnesty, normalization or legalization programs). Between 1996 and 2008, 24 of the 27 states of the European Union adopted them, and Portugal was even obliged to do so to enter the union in 1986.
Research from the Migration Policy Institute shows that regularization improves the living conditions of people already living (and working) in a territory, preventing their exploitation and abuse by their employers and increasing the amount of taxes and state taxes. By regularizing their status, the Migrant Rights Network estimates that employment contributions would increase by $1.1 billion in Canada. The regularization of undocumented migrants does not increase their number, but allows these people to exist legally.
Regularization in Canada
The federal government estimates that there are between 20,000 and 500,000 people living without papers in the country. They are not illegal immigrants, as most of these people have first obtained a temporary residence permit to study, work or do tourism, or have had their applications for refugee status refused. By remaining on the territory, they have fallen into limbo in the category of undocumented migrants.
Last January, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave the mandate to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser, to set up a regularization program for undocumented immigrants. His office is also preparing the program, according to a source quoted by the Toronto Star.
Organizations such as Solidarity Across Borders, the League for Rights and Freedoms and the Center for Immigrant Workers welcome this historic step forward. They call to meet on September 18, at 2 p.m., in place of Canada, to ask the Minister to establish the most inclusive selection criteria possible and to develop a simple application procedure.
Canada has developed a few other regularization programs since the 1960s. The father of the current Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, for example, adopted a similar program in 1973 in order to grant status to 39,000 people. But Canada has historically been more cautious than its European allies when it comes to regularizing people without status, including adding clauses related to country of origin, type of job or family status. Or by establishing bureaucratic rules that make the process more cumbersome.
This was the case with the Quebec regularization program in December 2020, which granted a fast track to permanent residence for those who were called the “guardian angels” of the health sector. An article published in The duty reports that only 28% of the 2,275 files had been processed in Quebec in January 2022, compared to 40% for the Ontario program. The program was also restrictive, since it concerned nurses and beneficiary attendants, but not the people responsible for cleaning in CHSLDs, for example.
The letter mandating Minister Fraser mentions the potential regularization of “undocumented workers” who “contribute to Canadian communities”. Already, this involves two ambiguities.
First, if these people have to provide a letter from their employer, it’s a safe bet that those who employ people “under the table” will refuse to provide them with proof of employment. In Italy, during the implementation of the 1996 regularization program, some employers even dismissed their employees who applied for the program, for fear that their work force would gain power against them.
Second, how is the “contribution” to Canadian communities assessed? Does a woman who has had children on Canadian soil contribute enough to the host society?
This is why the solidarity organizations ask for as much inclusion as possible in the selection criteria.
Basic problem, basic answer
In an article published on the website of The Conversation, researchers Peter Nyers and David Moffette say regularization is in Canada’s interest. However, this is a one-time solution to a much deeper problem. Especially since the current system favors temporary and conditional work permits, which are a gateway to becoming undocumented.
Several aspects of the potential program therefore raise questions. In particular, will it be a one-time or regular program? Since 1980, the United States has adopted 22 one-time programs, or almost one program every two years. After regularizing over a million people through one-off policies between 2000 and 2006, Spain has finally institutionalized a permanent regularization policy, eliminating some of the bureaucratic red tape.
In addition, another type of program is the one called de facto, which makes it possible to regularize the status of people who have been living in the territory for a certain period of time. In the United Kingdom, for example, permanent residence is available if someone can show that they have lived in the territory continuously for at least 14 years.
The Canadian government is opening an important door today, but its regularization program should be administratively simple, sufficiently publicized and inclusive.