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.
Le Devoir – Combien de réfugiés exactement?
Chaque année, le Haut Commissariat aux réfugiés des Nations unies (HCR) détermine un nombre limité de réfugiés devant être parrainés de façon urgente par d’autres pays. Pour eux, il lance un appel à la communauté internationale afin de leur trouver un refuge. Dans le cas des réfugiés syriens, le HCR tente de trouver des places depuis 2013, mais n’a jamais alloué un nombre précis de personnes à aucun pays. Il a plutôt lancé un appel global pour que 130 000 d’entre eux trouvent une place d’ici la fin de 2016. Environ 30 pays ont répondu, mais pour un total de 107 000 places, le Canada s’engageant à en accueillir 11 300 d’ici la fin de 2018.
Radio-Canada – Des aînés mis à contribution pour l’intégration des nouveaux arrivants
Alors que la Ville de Québec se prépare à accueillir jusqu’à 800 réfugiés syriens, le défi de l’intégration des nouveaux arrivants se pose. L’organisme Ressource Espace Familles tente de faire sa part avec un programme de jumelage entre des immigrants ou des réfugiés et des aînés d’ici. Le projet « Familles du monde Aînés d’ici » permet d’aider des familles à mieux s’intégrer tout en mettant en valeur le savoir-faire des grands-parents. Les échanges, qui se font toujours en français, permettent aux nouveaux arrivants de se familiariser avec la culture québécoise.
The Guardian – US to Accept 30,000 Refugees Over Two Years, Says John Kerry
The US will accept an extra 30,000 refugees from around the world over the next two years, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday, as the Obama administration came under further pressure to take in more victims of the Syrian civil war. Speaking as his predecessor Hillary Clinton urged America to “lead the world” in responding to the Syrian emergency, Kerry said the total number of refugees taken by the US yearly would rise from 70,000 to 85,000 next year and to 100,000 in 2017, Reuters reported. […] “The need is enormous, but we are determined to answer the call,” Kerry said, during remarks in Berlin. Kerry reportedly did not say whether any of the additional refugees would be from Syria. Earlier on Sunday, Clinton said the US should take in more than six times the 10,000 Syrian refugees that has been proposed by President Barack Obama.
Radio-Canada – Les États-Unis accepteront 85 000 migrants en 2016
Pour contribuer à apaiser la crise des réfugiés syriens, les États-Unis augmenteront significativement le nombre de réfugiés qui seront admis au pays dans les deux prochaines années, mais plusieurs militants et anciens fonctionnaires de l’administration Obama estiment que ce n’est pas suffisant. Les Américains accueilleront ainsi 85 000 réfugiés de partout à travers le monde en 2016, comparativement à 70 000 en 2015. En 2017, ils en recevront 100 000 nouveaux, a annoncé dimanche le secrétaire d’État américain John Kerry, lors d’une conférence à Berlin avec le ministre allemand des Affaires étrangères, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The Record – Visas Denied: Kitchener Arts Festival Forced to Cancel Iraqi Play
A local arts festival has had to cancel performances of an Iraqi play after the troupe’s Iraqi members weren’t able to obtain visas from the Canadian government for fear at least some of them would illegally stay in Canada afterwards. Nine members of the National Theatre Company, based in Baghdad, were to perform “Camp,” a play about an Iraqi man and woman who meet at a United Nations office as they both apply for refugee status, on Sept. 26 and 27 at the Impact 15 arts festival in Kitchener. Impact is a biennial international theatre festival organized by Waterloo Region’s MT Space, a theatre company with a multicultural focus that has been operating in the region for 11 years. But lack of visas forced festival organizers to cancel the performances, said Majdi Bou-Matar, the artistic director of MT Space and of Impact.
At first glance it might seem bizarre that Sault Ste. Marie city council would consider formulating a plan to attract and retain immigrants on the same night it discussed a local unemployment rate pegged at 12.2% by Statistics Canada. Why try to bring in new people when so many already there can’t find jobs? […]The Sault clearly needs younger people to do the work that needs to be done, pay taxes, buy things, own or rent houses, play on sports teams, attend events, eat at restaurants, start businesses –everything that makes a city tick. Immigration could supply some, perhaps reversing the Sault’s slow decline. Of course, the fear is that immigrants will take jobs away from native-born workers. Understandably, that fear is most acute when unemployment is high. But that’s not the case, according to the American Immigration Council, a non-profit group dedicated to honouring that country’s immigrant past and shaping how the country views future immigrants. Jobless rates don’t rise in areas with large numbers of recent immigrants, even in hard economic times, it says. Immigrants tend to fill different jobs with different skills than native-born workers do, at all education levels. Native-born workers, with better English-language skills, generally get the higher-paying jobs
