The COVID-19 pandemic has brought further suffering to migrant workers in Canada already experiencing the abuses of discriminatory immigration policies and poor working conditions.
Many have looked to Asia for lessons on successful pandemic management. However, recent COVID-19 outbreaks in Thailand and nearby countries also offer warnings about what not to do.
The federal government must make good on its throne speech language about making it easier for migrant workers to formally become Canadian by instituting a comprehensive regularization plan.
COVID-19 has proven that prioritizing the economy over the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable should never be an acceptable fix to economic woes.
Migrant workers are not inherently more vulnerable to COVID-19, nor more likely to be carrying it than Canadians. Yet our treatment of them this year stigmatizes them and puts them at risk.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s Narendra Modi government has been successful in scapegoating, discriminating against and marginalizing minorities, putting lives at greater risk.
Now that the pandemic has made migrant workers visible in Canada, as well as the true value of the work they do, it’s time to dramatically improve their working conditions.
Elise Hjalmarson, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)
COVID-19 may not discriminate, but Canadian policy does. Income support during the pandemic must be extended to everyone, including migrant and undocumented workers.
Singapore, once a success in containing coronavirus, now has the most cases in Southeast Asia. One of the main reasons: the government’s neglect of its 300,000 foreign migrant workers.
The demands of social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic will make it increasingly difficult for migrant agricultural workers to meet their basic needs.
The legislation before parliament discriminates against employers who take on temporary migrants, impoverishes Australian residents and will hold back the fight against coronavirus.
The US food supply depends on several million agricultural laborers, who are mostly undocumented, tend to work in close quarters and lack medical insurance.
More than one-in-16 people in New Zealand is a migrant without residence status. For everyone’s sake, to contain COVID-19 we need to ensure those 300,00 people can access health and social services.
Public criticism of the Chinese government’s handling of coronavirus shows that the Chinese people can overcome both strict censorship and a gaping class divide when they get angry enough.