United in Struggle

Unity is What We Need: Rooting Migrant Struggles in the Working Class

We frequently hear a narrative in the media and when talking to people in the neighbourhood: that the housing crisis is caused by migrants. We briefly touched on this during the false solutions to the housing crisis assembly in October, but we are going to expand on it in-depth today.

Living in Vancouver, we know there is a housing crisis, and it’s one migrants are experiencing too while navigating struggles associated with visas. Despite migrants playing the same role in the economy as Canadian citizens do, the ruling class and its corporate media arm scapegoat and demonize migrant students and workers as the main problems in our economy to attempt to obscure the active role they play in dispossessing working class people, sky-rocketing rents, and stagnating our wages. 

From our investigation, we have found that the migrant community in the Greater Vancouver Area are dominantly in two different permits/visas. One of them is the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, while the other is the Student visa for international students. 

Many people living in South Van are international students because of the proximity to Langara College. In fact, 37% of the student population at Langara are international students. A tricky thing about the student visa is that it limits these students to a 20hr work week. A 20hr work week is literally unlivable in Vancouver!  

This forces many international students into living with roommates in wholly inadequate housing. Just from our investigation, we’ve learnt about a situation where 4 people are living In a cramped two bedroom basement suite because there’s no other way to live. And even more situations have been recognized, especially during covid where working students had to face the blunt edge of the crisis and were stuck living in precarious housing to try and survive off of student loans and depleting savings.

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is another migrant program which the government has implemented. It allows Canadian capitalists to hire migrant labour to work for them. And functionally, it is a program which binds a migrant’s rights to the desires of the bosses. 

This program requires the migrant to stick with the employer for the duration of the 1+ year program. Legally since the worker is bound to this employer, the boss is supposed to assist the worker with things such as accommodations but what ends up happening in reality is that the employer neglects their responsibility to help the employee with adequate, suitable and affordable housing! So workers end up having to live in cramped horrible conditions instead. At the same time, these workers face horrible working conditions.

Just look at the UN report that came out just under a year ago, where it found the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to be a breeding ground for and a form of modern day slavery! 

Exposing the enemy 

Canada’s immigration minister Marc Miller, recently announced a new immigration Levels system, citing that the amount of immigrants being let in is creating “overpopulation” and that is the key factor of our housing crisis. He said a restriction on immigration will allow for a solution. And that there is no space to make more housing. Yet, when we walk through our neighbourhood, we continue to see development for unaffordable huge unpopulated towers:, is it immigration or is it financialized housing?

Curiously, Marc Miller, who had his famous slip of admitting that immigration programs were designed as cheap labour for bosses, is good friends with the corporate law firm Stikeman Elliot, a firm that proudly claims to be “pioneering the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) structure and a market leader in its evolution”. REITs are financialized landlords that buy and own real estate, and use our homes as commodities to sell and financialize on the stock market, actively displacing working class people from the neighbourhood.

When we start really seeing the connections between all the powerful people in charge, we recognize that it never is, and never will be immigrants causing the housing crisis, it’s just the ruling class in coordination with the government. And collaboration with each other to get more and more profit and maintain their power. 

Wages are lowered not because immigrants are sneaky and want to steal our jobs, but because the ruling class squeezes them to work for less! Businesses purposefully hire TFWs and keep people on contract, so they can afford to pay them less.

Why this is happening ? Why Do Migrants Come Here?

For many of us migrants in this room, the Canadian dream is far from a dream—it’s a struggle just to survive. Rising rent, stagnant wages, and job insecurity define our daily lives. So, if life here isn’t easy, why do so many people still come?

The Debt Trap & Global Exploitation

The truth is, migration isn’t just a personal choice—it’s the result of a global system of exploitation that keeps poor countries poor, while making rich countries even richer. 

1. Poor countries accept the loans from Rich countries so they can build their basic infrastructure

2. But these loans come with interest, which many poor countries can’t afford to repay.  

3. As a result, instead of paying off the debt, they are forced to sell off resources, labour & land and allow foreign corporations (like mining companies) to set up industries that extract wealth from their country.  

Because of this, local economies stay weak—wages remain low, infrastructure crumbles, and governments must take out even more loans just to keep functioning.  ​This leads to a lack of economic growth in the oppressed countries drives migration, as people seek to leave their home countries in search of economic opportunity. And who benefits from this? The same monopoly capitalists—corporate elites and financial institutions—who make billions off the backs of the workers worldwide.

Canada itself was built on the labor of migrants and has a history of exploiting migrant labour, and subjecting migrant workers to brutal conditions. More than 4000 Chinese migrants died building the railway in BC while being paid next to nothing. In 1914, when 300 Indians on the Komagata Maru came to Canada for a better life, they were turned away to starve and die at the sea right here in Vancouver!

In B.C., 38% of the workforce are immigrants, and by 2033, that number is projected to reach 46%.  So the same system continues today, with the ruling class continuing to profit from migrant labour while migrants suffer under oppressive conditions.

The “Canadian Dream” 

With no future at home, people are forced to look elsewhere. The promise of Canada—a strong economy, better wages, a fresh start—makes the sacrifice of leaving everything behind seem worth it. This includes the struggles that come with it (taking huge loans, using up family savings, leaving your friends and family etc). But when people arrive, what do they find? The same capitalist system that drove them out of their country is waiting for them here. Migrant workers face the same exploitation as local workers—low wages, rising rents, and job insecurity.  

Migrants aren’t coming to steal jobs — they’re being brought in by the system that exploits everyone. And where do workers — both local and migrant — spend most of their wages? On rent.

Developers & the Housing Monopoly

So who gains from this system? The developers, financialized landlords & monopoly capitalists who control our homes. Development couldn’t happen without the construction sector, an industry which relies heavily on cheap migrant labour for both the developers and the construction companies. Migrants are paid low wages while our enemies make record profits.

The second-largest contributor to B.C.’s economy is construction (after real estate!). Nearly 30% of construction jobs by 2032 will need to be filled by immigrants. We’ve actually found this out by investigating as well. One migrant from Afghanistan had worked under the table for 10 years since arriving in Canada. He explained that he helped build a fancy tower which he will never be able to afford to live in. 

At the same time, developers control the housing supply, making sure there are no affordable options left. Our enemy buys up entire neighborhoods— exactly like what’s happening here in Marpole—and replaces them with luxury condos that most migrants and locals can’t afford.  

The result? The same way monopoly capitalists displace people from their home countries for profit, they are displacing us from our own homes—forcing us out of our neighborhoods with skyrocketing rents while blaming migrants for the crisis.  

The problem isn’t migrants—it’s the system that uses our homes for their profits instead of something we need to survive!

Imperialism & the Housing Crisis

This is where imperialism comes in. Imperialism isn’t just about military conquest—it’s about how monopoly capitalists and financial elites control entire economies for profit, whether in the poor countries from where migrants migrate or right here in Vancouver.

Imperialism is when a handful of corporations and banks dominate entire industries — whether it’s mining, agriculture, or housing — and ultimately the whole economy. Under imperialism, housing isn’t treated as a human need—it’s treated as an investment to be speculated on.  That’s why so many homes in Vancouver sit empty while people struggle to afford rent—because real estate isn’t about providing shelter, it’s about profit for the ruling class.

If we want to fight the housing crisis, we need to unite as a class, the working class, and organize against the monopoly capitalists who profit from our suffering.

The problem isn’t too many people. The problem is that a handful of developers, landlords, and financial elites own our homes and profit from our work. And the only way we can fight back is through unity — migrants and local workers TOGETHER against the housing monopoly. Because at the end of the day, we’re all in the same struggle. 

The power of the working class unity to make change!

Migrants are part of the working-class! We have the same end goal!

As Miguel, a United Struggle member and East Vancouver Workers Assembly organizer from Brazil put it during a rally last year: “We must unite with Canadian workers because our interest is aligned with their interest. We are all one class, the working class, and our exploiters are the same small group of the super rich.”

Fights specific to migrants are fights that the entire working class must take up!

Naujawan Support Network has recovered $650K in wages for international students and migrant workers in Brampton, Ontario. Members have protested outside the homes of their wage-stealing bosses. Their Post Graduate Work Permit Committee held an occupation outside parliament for 143 days, to protest impending deportations resulting from Trudeau’s announcement about visa cut backs. Locals from the surrounding area showed up in droves to support the demonstration! This is exactly the working class unity we need! 

Our exploitation at work is linked to our oppression outside of it. We fight profit-driven enemies at our workplaces and in our homes. If we aren’t paid enough (or have wages stolen), we can’t pay rent or purchase essentials. Our need to pay rent and purchase essentials are what keep us going back to our shitty jobs. And the costs keep rising!

Financialized landlords wield the power they hold over us in another way: through the speculative housing market.

In 2021, 47% of the population of Toronto was made up of migrants. People’s Defense (PD) is an organization in Toronto much the same as we are, aiming to build up neighbourhood power. In the neighbourhood of Crescent Town and alongside the Crescent Town Tenants union, PD organized a community Iftar. The fast-breaking was shared with the entire working class. In our comrades’ words:

“We also share these conditions with our non-Muslim neighbours, who we’ve also invited to share a meal with us tonight. Whether White, Black or Tamil – Hindu or Christian, they are living in the same buildings and facing the same struggles as us.”

The Iftar was a way to build trust and community but not just any community. People’s Defense is a community ready to fight back. And fight they have, against horrific living conditions and evictions alike. For example, tenants from Crescent Town dropped off cockroaches at a corporate developers’ door to protest against pest infestations! 

Building working class democracy is one of our SVNA objectives! We’ve been taught a lie about democracy, that we can vote in representatives who have our interests in mind. Working class democracy means spaces where we can struggle and unite, and building trust is key for this to be able to happen. It’s what we are doing here today!

Onward!

The reality is that there is a lack of significant local examples of unity across the working class to advance the demands of migrants. An example of a recent win for migrants is Sanctuary Health’s 5 year fight to remove the MSP waiting period for immigrant mothers which is absolutely to be applauded! However, we must take this win knowing that BC rolled back the same win in 2020 after granting it for 3 months. The state will always prioritize profit over people. It might just slide us a crumb occasionally so we shut up.  It’s only by building real working class democracy and rooting the migrant struggle firmly in class struggle that we can actually take power back into our hands!