Actor Details

OUR MOVEMENT
Founding Members

Cooper Institute in PEI
Migrant Workers Alliance for Change*
Migrante Canada
Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture in Okanagan Valley
Temporary Foreign Workers Association in Quebec
Temporary Foreign Workers Coalition in Alberta
Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregiver Rights in Vancouver
We are organizations of migrant workers from Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, PEI and Quebec joining forces to create the Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights – Canada (CMWRC).

Launched in October 2015, CMWRC is a unified voice of migrant workers in Canada. Our aim is simple: to re-build the immigration system to ensure basic dignity and fairness for everyone.

Our members represent hundreds of thousands of Canadian-born, and migrant workers. Together we know that we need an economy that works for everyone, not one that forces us to fight each other for scraps.

The Caregiver Program, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program originated in the 50s, 60s and 70s. All began with a fundamental flaw that remains with us today. They create a two-tier immigration system that gives security to some migrants but leaves others with deep insecurity. Some of us can come here as permanent residents, able to reunite with our families. The rest of us are subject to a wide range of rules that restrict us to very insecure temporary status – allowed to work but not allowed to stay in the Canadian communities that we help build.

In the half century since these programs began, migrant workers and their communities have worked together across Canada to improve living and working conditions. From farm workers in British Columbia to fish factory workers in PEI, to Caregivers from coast to coast to coast, we have fought against migration rules that create vulnerability for us in our workplaces, we have fought against lower wages for migrant workers and we have fought against changes to laws that restrict access to services.