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.
Global News – International Students Bring Big Bucks
This year Okanagan classes will be filled with more International students than ever before.
International enrollment is up across the province. At UBCO there are nearly 1100 students studying from other countries. “We’re up about 130 students over last year so that makes this our largest crop to date of international students,” says Ian Cull, Associate VP of Students at UBC Okanagan. Foreign Undergrads pay nearly 27 thousand per year to study at UBCO. The extra revenue has an obvious economic benefit for the school. In addition to that, Cull says having a well established international student program helps to raise the profile of the Okanagan in countries all over the world. It’s not just at the post secondary level, students in the public school division will see more new faces too. The increase in foreign students equates to about 3 and a half million dollars for the school board.
It was a joyful scene at Saskatoon’s airport late last night. A family of seven refugees from Syria arrived, fleeing violence in their home country. “I’m very happy,” said 18-year-old Minus Kasarjian. “I like Canada, because Canada is very beautiful, and it’s very good. I love Canada.” The family was sponsored by Syrian-Canadian Carlo Arslanian. Arslanian left Syria when he was six months old, and has only met his cousin once, when he was 13 years old. […] Arslanian said he decided to sponsor his cousin, her husband, and their five children to get them out of a dangerous situation. As he was Skyping with them one day, he thought he heard thunder in the background. He later found out it was bombing. After that, he made up his mind to rescue the family. While he said the process wasn’t easy, he would gladly do it again.
CTV News – Understanding What Cuts Ottawa Made to Refugee Health Care
Harper sparked some controversy Thursday night when he said changes being made to [refugee health care] coverage was something both new and “old stock” Canadians agree with and he defined that term further Friday by saying he meant descendants of immigrants for one or more generations. […] The interim federal health program was set up after the Second World War to help refugees, because at the time, Canada’s health-care system was private and those arriving here had no access to any kind of care. Over time, it morphed to cover both basic and extended health-care costs like vision and dental care until refugees or refugee claimants could apply for provincial coverage or social assistance. But in 2012, the Conservative government overhauled the program, citing a need to save money, their belief the benefits were one of the reasons people made fake refugee claims and that what taxpayers were covering was more generous for would-be Canadian residents than actual residents.
Ottawa Citizen – Chaotic International Response is Failing Refugees
When it came to migration, the world was once divided into “sending” and “receiving”countries, with migrants mostly seeking attractive, developed countries. Globalization has since revolutionized the scale of human mobility. Today, migrants and refugees leave, enter, and transit through, every single country; big and small, rich and poor. Displaced people now number some 60 million. Migration has become an undeniably powerful and messy global phenomenon, one that demands a coherent global solution. Yet, despite the work of governments and NGOs, we are falling far short. The scenes of millions of desperate Syrian refugees fleeing civil war reflects this mournful state of affairs. As well, their frightening travels pull at our heartstrings, with the lifeless image of three-year-old Aylan having triggered an explosive outpouring of emotions in Canada and around the globe, propelling the issue forcefully into the federal election. […]While the UN High Commission for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration are first among equals, our existing migration tools are too highly fragmented. An incredible 18 different UN agencies each share a piece of the mandate. That’s a recipe for systemic disaster and failure for both refugees and asylum countries.
Faced with thousands of migrants streaming in, Croatia declared Friday it was overwhelmed and would tell those on an arduous trek to reach the safety of Western Europe to keep moving on toward Hungary or Slovenia. With more than 14,000 migrants arriving in just two days, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic declared that his nation of 4.2 million could no longer cope, and asylum seekers could not stay. […] The policy is sure increase tensions along Croatia’s borders with Hungary and Slovenia, which are also turning people away as they seek to stem the tide of migrants. […] Huge numbers have surged into Croatia after Hungary erected a barbed wire-fence on its border with Serbia and took other tough measures to stop migrants from coming in, including spraying crowds at the border with tear gas and water cannons. Croatia represents a longer and more difficult route to the wealthier nations of the European Union, but those fleeing violence in their homelands, such as Syrians and Iraqis, had little choice.
Globe and Mail – Ottawa Asks for Stay on Niqab Ruling Pending Supreme Court Appeal
The Conservative Party is seeking to suspend a court ruling allowing a Pakistani immigrant to wear her niqab while taking the oath of citizenship, while it asks the Supreme Court to hear an appeal. The move thrusts the wearing of Muslim face veils in citizenship ceremonies squarely into the federal election. “As the Prime Minister has said, most Canadians find it offensive that someone would hide their identity at the very moment where they are committing to join the Canadian family,” Denis Lebel, who is Stephen Harper’s Quebec lieutenant and a candidate in Lac-Saint-Jean, said in announcing the government’s intent to seek a stay of the Federal Court of Appeal ruling in the niqab case. […] He repeated the government’s promise to bring in a new law in the first 100 days of a new Conservative government requiring that faces be uncovered during the taking of the citizenship oath. […] On Tuesday, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled 3-0 that the government’s policy banning the wearing of face veils at citizenship ceremonies is illegal.
