Organizing for Immigrant Rights: Policy Barriers and Community Campaigns

摘要

Immigration to Canada has changed in basic ways the composition of the labor force. Over the past 40 years, a large wave of immigrants has arrived from the countries of the “Global South”. Many have arrived with high levels of education and qualifications; however, the jobs they receive are at the bottom of the labor market. The Immigrant Workers Center (IWC) in Montreal is an organization that provides individual services, education on rights, and organizes immigrant workers for workplace justice. This article describes three campaigns led by the center. They reflect the exclusion of immigrant workers from coverage in policy areas related to heath care, compensation for workplace injury, and benefits for collective lay-offs in the textile sector. The article concludes with some of the lessons learned in these campaigns.