Community Organizing
Migrante Ottawa organizes within the Filipino diaspora and works with other groups and organizations that advocate for the rights and welfare of migrants, as well as those who seek to put an end to the roots of forced migration. It seeks to build solidarity linkages and networks with labour unions, church groups and other non-government organizations and individuals who share its vision and goals of global social justice. This is in recognition of the fact that the oppression that many peoples face are similar to those faced by the Filipino people.
Through campaigns and educational activities, Migrante Ottawa highlights the common issues faced by migrants in Canada and globally. It conducts research on current issues and policies that affect migrants, as well as global economic, political and social issues that link migrants’ struggles to struggles for social justice more broadly.
Campaigns
Fair and Just Regularization! No to Deportations and Detentions!
Along with other member organizations of Migrante Canada, Migrante Ottawa has been active in the campaign for a just and fair regularization program and the call to stop all deportations and deportations.
Video project: Migrant stories and forced migration
Since fall 2022, Migrante Ottawa has been holding migrant interviews and focus groups to gather migrant stories and unify the analysis on the precarious situation faced by migrants all along the continuum of forced migration, starting from the systemic conditions that led to the decision to migrate, to onerous state exactions and unscrupulous practices of recruitment agencies, to difficult conditions of being in precarious work as cheap and expendable labour, and ultimately to extreme vulnerability due to loss of immigration status.
As part of its education program, Migrante Ottawa also organizes discussion groups on Philippine history, in order to situate the conditions of forced migration within the broader context of Philippine society and the legacy of colonialism.
Oppose tyranny and human rights violations
Migrante Ottawa works with other organizations to oppose the trampling of economic, social and political rights of migrants and their families by holding education forums/dialogue and community mobilizations. Ongoing and pervasive militarization and repression in the Philippines, which was bolstered by the Anti-Terror Law in 2020 under Rodrigo Duterte and maintained by the current President Ferdinand (Bong bong) Marcos Jr., has severely constricted the rights of migrants and the Filipino people. There is an urgent need for action to oppose the full comeback of Martial Law that was declared by Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1972.