Portugal and Canada try to resolve the situation of undocumented workers
“We had to debate a pilot project that exists in Toronto, in a partnership with the Canadian Labor Congress aimed at undocumented construction workers in which there are 500 vacancies to legalize the situation of undocumented“, told the Lusa Berta Nunes agency.
The Secretary of State for the Portuguese Communities is on an official visit to Canada, from Tuesday until today (Friday), where she has scheduled several meetings with Portuguese leaders, Portuguese-Canadian politicians, passing through several Portuguese consular posts and passing through Winnipeg , Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto.
“We decided to exchange information and work more together so that this pilot can be a success and that it can then be extended to other provinces, hoping that this will solve the situation of undocumented workers, which is no longer the problem it was, but continues a being“, stated Berta Nunes.
A new pilot program aimed at undocumented construction workers went into effect on July 30, 2021, ending January 2, 2023, once 500 applications for permanent residency are received at the immigration ministry.
“That program was somewhat affected by the pandemic, but so far, only 129 vacancies are filled. It is a program that is not only aimed at the Portuguese community, but at other communities“he added.
This immigration program replaced another one that came into force in early January 2020, which required, among several criteria, that construction workers had entered Canada legally, with temporary residence, or that they had resided in the country at least. five years in a row at the time of order.
According to Berta Nunes, the Canadian government “justifies that some mandatory criteria for the legalization of workers, namely with the requirements in relation to the language, non-evidence of the requirements and in relation to the way they entered the country“
In this sense, Ottawa adjusted to the pilot program with the aim of becoming successful and with more workers “definitively resolving their undocumented situation”.
“This is a pilot program aimed at civil construction. It is important for the Portuguese, and civil construction is one of the areas that the Portuguese worked the most when they started their immigration”, he stressed.
Data from the Canadian census of 2016 reveal that there were 483,610 Portuguese and Portuguese descendants in Canada, that is, 1.4% of the population in the country.
The majority were in Ontario (69%), Quebec (14%) and British Columbia (8%).