Invisible Lives

Without immigration status, Canada's undocumented youth stay in the shadows

- By Nicole Dirks

"A" stands behind a single dahlia. To maintain a secret existence, undocumented youth often have to hide their immigration status even from their friends at school.

"YOU FEEL LIKE you're hiding in plain sight," Lisa said, on growing up undocumented in her case, without proof of residency or citizenship. She was five when she arrived in Canada from the Caribbean, but she didn't know she was undocumented until her teens. School became a game of avoidance. The government had already rejected her family's application for permanent residency and confiscated their papers. Since she'd been in the country so long, peers assumed she was a citizen. But, in secret, she was missing out. She'd skip sports tryouts: without Ontario health insurance, treatment for any injury would need to be paid for out of pocket. Since university wasn't an option, she avoided guidance counsellors. She chose friends carefully.

"G" stands behind her favourite pillow, which she taught herself to crochet. There are no specific immigration pathways for children like "G." These youth represent an invisible demographic, and their experiences rarely receive recognition in political and mainstream spaces.