At a parallel event to the United Nations Convention on the Status of Women 69 (UNCSW69), on 13 March, representatives of labour unions and immigrants' rights groups spoke on a panel hosted at the All Souls Congregation in New York City to discuss the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPfA). This anniversary comes at a time when the world faces democratic crises, the rise of authoritarianism, and the highest levels of displacement of people since the Second World War.

30 years since the BDPfA, migrant women workers continue to face issues relating to visa status insecurity, job and social precarity, racism, dehumanization, trafficking, and indentured servitude.

Kimalee Phillip, Director of Human Rights at the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), shared moving examples of how progress is deeply needed in Canada and across the world to secure human rights for migrants and women. Kimalee stated that "The impact of capitalism is uprooting people and forcing them to leave their homes to search for work." Kimalee emphasized the scale of this crisis: "There are almost 300 million workers globally who have left their homes and families in the search for decent work. About half of them are women."

With the rise of fascism across the West, Kimalee observes that "We have noticed in the run-up to the election that migrants are being scapegoated. When in reality, this comes from the incompetencies of the government." In an effort to gain dignity in Canada, Kimalee said, "Some migrants have tried to organize, tried to form unions, but they have been forcibly repatriated or denied visas in the future."

Kimalee went on to discuss the global effort to demand rights for migrants and workers: "PSI is a member of the Women in International Migration Network (WIMN) and recommendations have come out – it is important that we end the criminalization of migrants, we need to ensure fundamental labour rights and working conditions are provided to all migrants, we need to provide access to quality public services. We also need to change the awful narratives that dehumanize and criminalize migrants."

PSI and its affiliated unions are working closely to integrate migrant workers' rights as human rights.