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.
Toronto Star – Four Ways Canadians Can Help Refugees
“You don’t have to feel helpless,” says Ratna Omidvar, the chair of Lifeline Syria, an organization aiming to bring at least 1000 Syrian refugees to Canada. Thousands of kilometres from the Turkish beach where the lifeless bodies of young migrant children washed up last week, Canadians can make an impact on the global refugee crisis. Here are several things ordinary Canadians can do: […]Canadians can volunteer to support an individual or a family for one year. You can collaborate with friends, neighbours, colleagues, professional organizations and social clubs to provide the time and money commitment necessary. […]Government estimates place the cost of settling an individual refugee today at around $12,000. A family of four will need about $25,000. […] Humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) are often at the front line of the crisis. The United Nations Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, is one of the most effective agencies, although far from the only one. The Canadian Red Cross, Oxfam Canada, CARE Canada, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station, Migration Aid, Doctors Without Borders and World Vision, and Mennonite Central Committee and UNICEF are all meritorious and in need of financial help.
Vancouver Sun – Canada Favours Temporary Residents to Permanent: Report
Canada has become a country that favours temporary over permanent residents, exploits would-be immigrants for cheap labour and draws international criticism for its treatment of refugees under the current federal government, charged a report released Tuesday. “Immigration … which is the idea of immigrants coming to Canada, having permanent residency, eventually becoming citizens, does not exist in Canada,” said Harsha Walia, a co-author of the report entitled Never Home: Legislating Discrimination in Canadian Immigration. “There are more people who come on temporary permits than those who immigrate permanently. Even those who do immigrate permanently have what’s increasingly becoming conditional permanent residency,” she said, citing changes which allow a sponsored spouse to lose permanent residence if the relationship ends within two years as one example affecting vulnerable immigrant women in particular. In 2008, the number of temporary residents entering Canada exceeded the number of permanent residents for the first time, the report notes. […] Citizenship and Immigration Canada figures show that 279,565 temporary workers came to Canada in 2013. This figure does not include foreign students or visitors. The same year, Canada welcomed 258,953 permanent residents.
Radio-Canada – Migrants ou réfugiés? L’importance de choisir les bons mots
C’est un débat sémantique qui fait rage en Europe. Comment définir ces gens qui, fuyant la guerre, arrivent par milliers sur le continent. Des migrants? Des réfugiés? Selon William Spindler, porte-parole du Haut-Commissariat de l’ONU pour les réfugiés, le choix des mots est très important puisqu’il comporte des conséquences. Contrairement au terme de migrant, la définition du statut de réfugié a une portée légale. Un réfugié est une personne qui est contrainte de quitter son pays en raison d’une persécution ou de la guerre. Selon la convention de Genève de 1951, ratifiée par 145 États membres des Nations unies, un pays a l’obligation de protéger ses réfugiés. Une obligation qui n’existe pas dans le cas des migrants. Un migrant est une personne qui choisit de migrer de façon volontaire pour des raisons économiques ou politiques. Cette personne doit donc remplir les conditions des lois migratoires propres au droit national. Si on décide d’utiliser le terme migrant, il y a des conséquences très importantes puisqu’il perd sa protection, explique William Spindler.
On souligne le 40e anniversaire de l’arrivée au Canada des boat people, ces réfugiés vietnamiens, laotiens et cambodgiens ayant fui le régime communiste, alors que la crise des migrants se poursuit en Europe. Et contrairement à plusieurs experts, la ministre québécoise de l’Immigration, Kathleen Weil, refuse de critiquer le travail des conservateurs en matière d’accueil des réfugiés. « Il faut avoir la capacité d’accueil, être capable de subvenir à leurs besoins et que les collectivités soient prêtes à accueillir et intégrer plus de personnes », explique-t-elle, ce pour quoi elle « n’ose » pas critiquer le fédéral. Le Québec prévoit accueillir 2000 réfugiés pour l’année 2015, y compris ceux qui sont parrainés par le privé, indique Mme Weil. Le Canada s’est quant à lui engagé à accueillir 10 000 réfugiés syriens au cours des trois prochaines années, 3 000 réfugiés iraquiens en 2015 et 10 000 autre réfugiés de ces deux pays d’ici quatre ans. Moins de 1000 réfugiés syriens et irakiens ont toutefois été reçus dans les quatre premiers mois de 2015.
Kristina Torres hopes her 620,000-strong Filipino Canadian community won’t forget their roots — and the compatriots they left behind — when they cast their votes in the October federal election. The Toronto woman from the Philippines is joining a chorus of past and present foreign caregivers, who are overwhelmingly Filipino, to warn the community about Ottawa’s waning caregivers program, which has been the key immigration avenue to Canada for Filipinos over the past 15 years. “The government has promised to reduce the backlog, but the changes they made are making things worse,” said Torres, 27, who was let go by her employer in October and has since been struggling. “They made the promise to improve the program and must keep their word.” Until November, foreign caregivers were bound by the requirements of the old Live-in Caregivers Program, which allowed them to apply for permanent residency after two years of service. In December, the Conservative government replaced the old program by removing the live-in condition, capping the yearly number of applicants and raising applicants’ English and education requirements. However, months into the new program, caregivers said the processing time required for their permanent residency has lengthened, and many are now having trouble getting a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment.
Toronto Star – Canadian Living Takes Toll on Immigrant Hearts: Study
A groundbreaking new study has found that recent immigrants have a 30 per cent lower rate of major heart problems, such as heart attacks and strokes, than long-term residents, but that gap shrinks the longer they spend in Canada. While newcomers are known to have better health than the general population because they must pass rigid health screening, Dr. Jack Tu, lead author of the study, says “part of it can be explained by most immigrant groups having lower rates of smoking and obesity than Canadian-born individuals.” But after 10 years in Canada, and some of the negative impacts of Western culture, like fast-food and cigarettes, that “healthy immigrant effect” diminishes, the study shows. While recent East Asian immigrants, predominantly Chinese, had the lowest incidence of major heart problems overall (2.4 in men and 1.1 in women per 1,000 person-years), South Asian immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Guyana had the highest rates, at 8.9 in men and 3.6 in women. However, after 10 years in Canada, the rates among East Asians increased by 40 per cent for men and 60 per cent for women, said the study released by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in the American Heart Association journal Circulation on Monday.
