A national alliance dedicated to providing an evidence base for newcomer settlement & integration and the promotion of welcoming communities in Canada
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.
Despite recent reforms to the refugee system, whether an asylum claim is approved or denied has remained the luck of the draw, according to a new report. Based on Immigration and Refugee Board data, Osgoode Hall law professor Sean Rehaag looked at all 7,818 asylum decisions made in 2015 by 92 board members under the new system. He found their decisions vary widely on claims from the same country.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hamilton for resettling dozens of refugees in the city has gone missing, and the diocese fears it may have been gambled away by one of its priests. Father Amer Saka, a priest at St. Joseph’s Chaldean Catholic Church in London, has been suspended by the diocese and is being investigated by London police in connection with the missing money. The allegation is that the priest gambled away $500,000 or more reserved for a private sponsorship refugee program that has already brought 11 refugees to the city.
Once the tearful photo-ops are over, newly arrived Syrian refugees face the task of making a life in Canada. It’s not a leisurely process: the vast majority need to learn English, integrate into a new culture and acquire the skills necessary to support themselves before their financial aid runs out. Complicating matters further is the fact that Canada’s refugee support system is two-tiered: some arrivals are sponsored by private groups with enthusiastic volunteers and ample funds, while others are sponsored by a resource-strapped federal bureaucracy.
http://torontolife.com/city/life/syrian-refugee-cost-of-living/
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are tiptoeing back into the minefield that is Canada’s temporary foreign workers program. They are doing so carefully. This month’s decision to relax the rules for seasonal industries wishing to hire cheap foreign labour was not publicly announced. Instead, the information — that such industries will be able to hire unlimited numbers of temporary foreign workers for up to 180 days a year — seeped out through the media. This particular goody was designed to appeal to fish-plant owners in Atlantic Canada who had been chafing under stricter rules put in place by the previous Conservative government. But it was also welcomed by hoteliers and restaurateurs who operate seasonally.
Foreign workers who labour in low-paying jobs most Canadians wouldn’t touch deserve better treatment, say settlement organizations across Canada. In a report Tuesday called Migrant Workers: Precarious and Unsupported, the federal government is being called upon to give migrant workers more access to services and a better chance at becoming permanent residents. “Those of us who work with migrant workers have a saying: ‘Good enough to work here, good enough to live here,’” said Thomas Novak of Winnipeg.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/migrantworkers-stiffedreport-373946091.html
Some Nova Scotia community groups working under a blended refugee sponsorship stream are still waiting to be matched with families — and the situation nationally is looking just as backlogged. The blended visa office-referred program is set up so a community group shares half the cost of supporting a refugee family, while the federal government pays the other half. The North Shore Refugee Settlement Group is trying to bring a refugee family to Tatamagouche through the program. Group member Remi Lemoine told CBC’s Mainstreet Halifax the group has raised over $30,000 and had its paperwork approved in early January. He says the group has heard little since then.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-refugee-groups-sponsors-waitlist-1.3512937