Immigrant Workers’ Encampment Comes to an End: “We Will Come Back Stronger”

The Naujawan Support Network's Post Graduate Work Permit Committee (PGWP), a committee made up of former international students who are facing deportation due to the Liberal government's abrupt decision to change the Temporary Foreign Workers' program, held an encampment protest in Brampton, Ontario for 143 days. The former international students, who are now considered "post-graduate" workers, lived in the encampment day and night through the cold winter months in order to put pressure on the federal government to change policies that discriminate against international students and temporary foreign workers. 

At a press conference on Sunday, January 19th, 2025, the PGWP Committee announced that they are bringing their encampment to an end as a strategic response to a shifting political climate in Canada where both liberals and conservatives are trying to scapegoat international students and workers for societal issues, such as the lack of jobs and housing. 

However, this is not the end of their fight, they emphasized. "Our commitment and advocacy to increase awareness about the issues of international students and workers remains unchanged. We are saving our resources and our energy and we will mobilize more community, more people, more work permit holders and we will come back stronger." 

The press conference was attended by local workers, labour unions, community members and multiple community organizations who gathered to support and express their solidarity with international students and workers. Attendees included the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), United Steel Workers (USW), Amazon workers, Parkdale Community Legal Services, the Migrant Support Network, Des Bhakt Seniors, People's Defence and the Proletarian Fighting Arts Collective (PFAC).

The government is "playing with our lives"

Although the PGWP Committee was not successful in having all its demands met, it managed to achieve significant accomplishments over the 143 days of the encampment.  

The Committee focused a lot of its efforts on combatting the anti-immigrant sentiment that is growing rapidly across the country due to scapegoating of international students and workers. Surprisingly, the Committee found that local immigrants who had been in Canada for many years and attained Canadian citizenship were criticizing international students and workers for protesting against unfair immigration policies. 

Over the 143 days of the encampment, the PGWP Committee challenged the anti-immigrant propaganda in their local community by advocating for themselves on radio shows and in other community forums. As a result, they were able to successfully change the minds of many community members and help them understand the struggles of international students and workers. As their slogan goes: "Good enough to work, good enough to stay." 

 "We have a logical reason [for protesting]," explained a representative of the PGWP committee at Sunday's press conference. "We have a reason to question the government as to why they are changing their policies abruptly. Why are you changing the goal post in the middle of the game?" 

Mekhdeep Singh of the PGWP Committee argues that the government is using immigrants as scapegoats to divide the working class. "They are dividing the community by blaming us for the housing crisis and the job crisis - just to get votes. They [the government] are still inviting 400,000 international students in 2025. If immigrants are the reason for the housing and job crisis, then why are they inviting more immigrants? This is the question to the government." 

The PGWP Committee believes that some recent policy changes with regard to immigration are connected to their protests and the pressure international students have placed on the government. One of their demands included an immediate end to "Labour Market Impact Assessment"- based exploitation. In October 2024, the federal government changed the thresholds for LMIA regimes, making it harder for employers to exploit temporary foreign workers through this program. The federal government has also decided to continue Canadian Experience Class draws. The PGWP is hopeful that these changes will lead to fairness for people who have already studied and worked in Canada. 

Over the 143 days of the encampment, the PGWP committee also provided crucial support and resources to former international students at risk of deportation. The committee explained that former international students and workers were "struggling in isolation." 

"There was no one. There is a mental strain when you are going through this level of uncertainty [about your future]. We offered support to each other." 

For students and workers with no families in Canada, creating a support system was a notable accomplishment. 

"I just need people to know that we are the genuine workers, we are the genuine applicants," shared Mekhdeep Singh. "We have done the studies, we have passed our exams, then we worked in the permanent residency programs. We qualified for those programs but when we qualified they choose to change the rules overnight. They [the government] are playing with us. They are playing with our lives. We have spent the crucial six years of our life and we are the part of the economy. We want to be a part of the economy. We want to live here. We call this country home. We can't go back. We have done dozens of things to come here."

Immigrant struggles are worker struggles: "They were standing with us from day one." 

For members of the PGWP Committee, one of the biggest achievements coming out of the 143-day encampment has been to foster true solidarity between international workers and workers in the general Canadian population. "Although we are talking about immigration issues, at the root of immigration issues is the struggle of working class people," said the PGWP. 

Community organizations, labour unions and workers present at the press conference have supported the Committee's struggle and supported them in material ways. Mekhdeep Singh of the PGWP Committee explained to the North Star that community members and local workers attended all of their programs, donated food, as well as money. 

"They were standing with us from day one."

North Star spoke to Dave, a postal worker and local member of CUPW 626. He attended the press conference to support the international students and workers. He explained that in his day-to-day experience, many of his co-workers are themselves immigrants. "I know they [international students and workers] struggle with a lot of the same burdens that we do. No one really escapes the price of housing in our city, whether they're immigrants or not. " 

"I think it behooves the labour movement to thereby take a pretty strong stance in support of fair immigration policies. If you're working here, it doesn't matter where you're from. That should be the end of the story. You should be allowed to stay here. You should be able to get housing here," Dave told the North Star. ​​​​​​​

Dave agrees with Mekhdeep that the government is using a divide and rule policy among the working class. When asked if he thinks immigrants are to blame for the housing crisis, he responded that "it's obvious that the housing crisis is not caused by immigration but rather by speculation in housing. You have a market that is dominated by real estate investment trusts (REITS) and basically monopolies. This gives them [institutional investors] disproportionate power to determine the pricing of housing in the country. So blaming it on immigrants is a convenient scapegoat that lets them off the hook."