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.
CTV News – Nearly 250,000 Migrants, Refugees Crossed Mediterranean to Europe this Year: NGO
A giant passenger ferry reached the Greek holiday island of Kos Friday, to provide temporary accommodation for crowds of Syrian refugees sleeping rough after crossing clandestinely from Turkey in flimsy boats. Also Friday, the International Organization for Migration said the number of migrants and asylum-seekers who have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year will pass the quarter-million mark by the end of the month — more than half of them arriving in Greece. The Eleftherios Venizelos ferry, which can take up to 2,500 people, will function from Saturday as a screening centre where Syrians can stay as they wait for temporary travel documents to leave the island and continue their journeys to other parts of Europe. It will replace an old stadium criticized for its lack of basic amenities, where Greek authorities working intensively have screened and issued documents to about 7,000 Syrians since Monday.
Global News – Dozens of Lindsay Inmates Urge Inquest into Detainee’s Mysterious Death
Eighty-eight immigration detainees held as inmates at the maximum-security Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ont. have signed a petition urging a coroner’s inquest into the mysterious death of a prisoner in June. Starting on June 21, detainees at the Lindsay jail started to circulate a petition to Ontario’s chief coroner calling for an inquest into the death of Abdurahman Hassan, a Somali-Canadian detainee, ten days before. It seemed like the only tool to shed light on what happened to him, activists who work with them explain. They were careful not to let the guards notice. Activists who published the petition said that it was shared between four ranges that are “effectively cut off from each other” by inmates who do work in the jail, and was eventually smuggled out. […]Immigration detention activist Tings Chak dropped the petition off at Ontario correctional minister Yasir Naqvi’s office in Toronto Monday. “With the CBSA, an agency that has zero oversight, a coroner’s inquest is one of the only accountability measures that might be available,” she said.
CBC – Whistler Tourism Soars, but Crackdown on Foreign Labour Hurts Business
It’s been the best summer in years for tourism in Whistler, but the worst in terms of staffing as the resort town struggles with a crackdown on foreign workers. […]Help wanted signs are all over the resort town, which has a population of about 9,800 and hosts about 2 million visitors annually. Employers said worker shortages are due to restrictions to Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, which laid out plans to limit foreign workers last year. Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden said the chamber of commerce is trying to get some relief through the program. “It’s a problem of success,” Wilhelm-Morden said. “We’ve had our busiest summer on record.” The community offers a lot of support for staff through an affordable housing program and community services but they just need to attract more employees, she said. The shortage is compounded by the fact that a lot of students who work in the town will be leaving at the end of August.
CBC – Meet Me At the Bell Tower Welcomes Local Immigrant Community
An initiative that aims to end violence in Winnipeg’s North End welcomed newcomers to Canada into the fold Friday night, at a meeting that organizers hope will “break stereotypes.” Meet Me at the Bell Tower started in the fall of 2011. The gathering, led by Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO), brings people from the neighbourhood together for a weekly meeting in the area of Selkirk Avenue and Powers Street. This week, organizers extended an invitation to the city’s immigrant population to participate. […] Mandela Kuet, a member of Winnipeg’s South Sudanese community, said he was excited to take part because immigrants have a lot in common with Canada’s indigenous community. “We were very passionate about being youth leaders and being active in our community and advocating for our rights and the rights of young people,” said Kuet.
New Statesman – Europe Shouldn’t Worry About Migrants. It Should Worry About Creeping Fascism
Living standards have certainly gone down across the eurozone, but that has very little to do with immigration. The chosen minority must summon the fears of every social class at once. That’s why migrants, the bogeyman of choice, are presented as a paradox, just as the Jews were in the 1930s. Nobody can quite decide whether migrants are a problem because they work so hard that they’re taking all the jobs (the biggest fear of a working class pummelled by unemployment and falling wages) or because they’re too lazy to work so they’re taking all the benefit money (the biggest fear of a middle class suffering with rising rents and cuts to social services); It cannot be both at once, and in fact it isn’t – but it’s important that the paradox is maintained nonetheless. That’s why the Migration Advisory Council is imposing new, stricter controls on “skilled migrants” entering the country even as it cracks down on an already miserly state support system for asylum seekers. […] Human decency, however, has been factored out of the equation – on purpose. Britain and the rest of Europe have deliberately been whipped up into a state of panic over migration, and when people are panicking, they don’t really listen to reason.
Radio-Canada – Pas de permis de conduire pour les demandeurs d’asile en Alberta
Service Alberta refuse de donner aux demandeurs d’asile un permis de conduire en raison de leurs documents d’identification. Depuis février 2014, le gouvernement albertain n’accepte plus les papiers d’identification et le permis de travail fournis par le gouvernement fédéral aux demandeurs d’asile comme pièces d’identité pour l’obtention d’un permis de conduire ou une pièce d’identité provinciale. L’organisme d’aide CANAVUA d’Edmonton offre de nombreux services aux immigrants, dont des cours de conduite. Le directeur de l’organisme, Dicky Dikamba, accompagne souvent des demandeurs d’asile au bureau des registres pour qu’ils obtiennent leurs permis. Il voit depuis 2014 de nombreuses personnes se faire refuser leurs pièces d’identité. « On remarque qu’il y a des situations de précarité au jour le jour. Il y a des portes qui se ferment une à une. ». Puisqu’ils ne peuvent pas obtenir de permis de conduire et de pièces d’identité de la province, certains demandeurs d’asile n’arrivent pas à garder un emploi.
