The Media Roundup provides links to recent and archived articles, in both English and French, on immigration and diversity appearing in the national and local news. Some international content is also included. Articles are updated weekly.
Metro News – Halifax Housing Market in the Green Thanks to Immigrants and Refugees: CMHC
Halifax’s housing market is sitting pretty in the green thanks to a boom in immigrants and refugees. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. elevated the national risk rating to the highest level this week and placed several cities in the red and yellow risk zones. Halifax, however, is green across all categories including overheating, price acceleration, overvaluation, and overbuilding. Guillaume Neault, CMHC market analyst, said for the first half of year the city received 4,500 new Canadians. A whopping increase compared to 1,300 in the same period last year.
Open Canada – What Social Media Posts Tell Us about the Politics of the Refugee Crisis
Given that refugees pose significant economic and security challenges in the Arab World, we found it somewhat surprising that we do not observe more threat-driven salience or anti-refugee sentiment in the Arab Twittersphere. The vast majority of tweets about Syrian refugees in the Arab World portray them as victims in need of support. Indeed, qualitative coding of the most retweeted tweets in our dataset using the Crowdflower data enrichment platform suggests that 59 percent of the most popular tweets characterized refugees as victims or deserving of sympathy, while only 3 percent of these tweets portrayed refugees as threatening or undesirable.
The Western Star – Strategy will Look at Attracting More Immigrants
It’s one thing to attract immigrants to the province, but it’s another thing to retain them, Advanced Education, Skills and Labour Minister Gerry Byrne says. Retaining immigrants, convincing them to make “a permanent life choice” in choosing to live and work in Newfoundland and Labrador, will be part of a new provincial immigration strategy being developed by the department. […] Under the strategy, immigrants will be welcomed into the province only when it’s proven they are not taking a job away from a Newfoundlander or Labradorian.
The New Brunswick Refugee Clinic, which offers free legal advice to people who have been forced to leave their country, has already received several calls from newcomers from South America, North Africa and the Middle East, since opening less than two weeks ago. The new clinic on St. George Street in Moncton operates as a not-for-profit organization. A handful of immigration lawyers will be helping people who seek to obtain refugee status from the Canadian government.
iPolitics – Chris Alexander Attacks Blaney’s Niqab Ban Pitch
Former immigration minister Chris Alexander kicked off his official campaign for the Conservative party leadership today with a jab at rival Steven Blaney’s attempt to exploit the niqab as a wedge issue. […] Alexander told iPolitics he does not support Blaney’s proposal to ban the niqab in the public service […] “I simply favour requiring candidates for citizenship to uncover their faces when taking the oath — because pronouncing the oath aloud, in public, remains a requirement for those wishing to become citizens.
Toronto Star – Mayor of Alberta Town Fights Relocation of Immigration Processing Centre
The mayor of an Alberta town says he will fight the relocation of the federal immigration and refugee processing centre that has been the community’s major employer since it opened in 1994. Vegreville Mayor Myron Hayduk says workers at the Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Case Processing Centre were told Thursday it will be relocated to Edmonton in 2018 when its lease expires. […] The centre has been a major employer in Vegreville, processing temporary and permanent residency applications, work permits, visitor records and study permits, while also backing up other centres across the country.
