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“Whereas this can be a constructive step, it leaves too many migrant staff and undocumented staff behind who’ve additionally been on the entrance strains within the pandemic,” Drolet mentioned.
Migrants and undocumented staff play key roles as health-care staff, grocery retailer clerks, cleaners, care staff, truckers and agricultural staff, Arma mentioned.
Greater than 1,300 migrant staff in Ontario alone have been contaminated with COVID-19 she mentioned. Three have died, together with one undocumented employee, she mentioned.
Arma got here to Canada in 2005 to work as a caregiver. Her momentary standing in Canada gave her stress and anxiousness, she mentioned.
“I had papers, I had paperwork, and but I had that concern of being eliminated, a concern of talking up as a result of I may be deported,” she mentioned.
“I can think about how undocumented staff are experiencing even worse due to the dearth of paperwork they’ve.”
Maria Cano arrived to work as a caregiver in 2017 by way of the momentary international employee program. She mentioned the expertise confirmed how disempowering the expertise could possibly be, even earlier than the pandemic struck.
Cano labored for 4 completely different households and moved to a few completely different cities in her first few years. They anticipated to work lengthy hours with out compensation, she mentioned.
“After I spoke up, I misplaced my job,” she mentioned. “That complete course of was very tense and financially draining.”
She lastly discovered a “good Canadian household” who handled her with respect and sponsored her however mentioned others shouldn’t hope for a similar luck, they need to be protected with acknowledged rights as a substitute.