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.
L’Acadie nouvelle – Immigration francophone: dans l’attente d’une solution de rechange
La fin d’un programme d’immigration spécialement conçu pour les francophones en milieu minoritaire fait encore mal aux communautés, neuf mois après son abolition. Dans la foulée de sa réforme du Programme des travailleurs étrangers temporaires, le gouvernement fédéral a mis fin l’automne dernier à l’initiative Avantage significatif francophone. Le programme avait pour but de faciliter le recrutement de travailleurs d’expression française dans les communautés francophones en milieu minoritaire. Neuf mois plus tard, les communautés francophones attendent toujours une solution de rechange pour stimuler l’immigration. La disparition du programme se fait sentir jusque dans le nord-ouest du Nouveau-Brunswick. Avantage significatif francophone permettait aux petites et moyennes entreprises de la région d’accéder rapidement à la main d’œuvre dont elles avaient besoin, explique le coordonnateur du Centre de ressources pour nouveaux arrivants au Nord-Ouest.
Global News – Refugee Health Cuts: Even Those Who Qualify Get Turned Away
The refugee health care system has become so confusing that doctors are turning patients away even if they’re covered, evidence shows. Studies in Ontario and Quebec have shown a huge drop in the number of clinics willing to give care, even to people who qualify under the modified Interim Federal Health Program, or under programs each province has put in place to make up for federal health cuts. In the three years since Ottawa first slashed care for refugee claimants in limbo, the web of health programs has become so complex many health care practitioners won’t provide care to any refugees, period. Some refugees are still covered by the federal health program, whose restrictions were slightly expanded following a court ruling the federal government is still appealing. And if they aren’t covered federally, they’re probably covered by either the Quebec program, administered by the provincial government, or the Ontario program, which is administered by the same third party that takes care of Ottawa’s health program. Confused yet? Plenty of health-care practitioners are. And Ottawa isn’t making it easier: The federal government has refused to transfer information on rejected claims to the company administering Ontario’s health program, even though they’re housed in the same office.
Globe and Mail – Soaring Vancouver Home Prices Spur Anger Toward Foreign Buyers
After years of watching Vancouver housing prices climb, driven in part by Chinese investment, Eveline Xia came to a painful realization: Despite having a Master’s degree and solid career prospects, she might never be able to afford a home in the city where she grew up. That didn’t seem right, and so the 29-year-old grabbed a marking pen, hand lettered a sign listing her credentials, snapped a selfie, and posted it to Twitter under the hashtag #DontHave1million. The tweet went viral, and hundreds of other young Vancouver residents soon began expressing their own frustrations in tweets about the red hot housing market – and the feverish foreign investment they believe has fueled it. […]That anger has contributed to a simmering xenophobia in Vancouver, a multicultural coastal city long known for its inclusiveness. With virtually no official data on foreign buyers available, many of those squeezed out of the market are left to believe the worst. That has residents like Xia pressing the government to track international buyers, scrutinize the source of their funds and tax property speculation, before the anti-Chinese sentiment gets out of hand.
National Post – Strongest Ties are to Their Country, Respondents Tell Survey on Belonging
Most Canadians feel a stronger sense of belonging to their country than their province or community — and for many immigrants, their country of origin, according to Statistics Canada’s new General Social Survey on Social Identity based on 2013 data from people aged 15 years and older. The National Post’s Sadaf Ahsan looks at some of the survey’s findings, and how multiculturalism and life experience are shaping Canadians. […]New Canadians are proud Canadians: Immigrants were more likely than non-immigrants to have a very strong sense of belonging to Canada (67 per cent, compared with 62 per cent). “The citizenship test lays the foundation of patriotism,” Kenedy said. “Immigrants don’t take the country and what it offers for granted.” […] Older immigrants put a greater value on their new country, having migrated from harsher times and places. Among seniors aged 65 to 74, 80 per cent of immigrants expressed a very strong sense of belonging to Canada, compared to 73 per cent of non-immigrants […] People who came here before 2000 were more likely to express a strong sense of belonging to Canada (71 per cent) than to their country of origin (29 per cent).
Globe and Mail – International Students to Receive Additional Funding From Ontario
The Ontario government has agreed to extend funding for graduate studies to international students after years of discussion and lobbying by universities. No new money is attached to the change. Instead, starting this fall, up to a quarter of new graduate spots will be funded by the province. Province-wide that means up to 130 spots can be reallocated for international graduate students under the new policy, but discussions will begin on how the program may expand in the future. At the University of Toronto, for example, the change will mean that the school will be able to accept more students from outside Canada, which will help recruit and retain top faculty. Professors have been frustrated that they cannot always work with international students in their field because the university is constrained in how many students from abroad it can fund, said Meric Gertler, the university’s president. “We’ve been worried that frustration would cause them to look elsewhere, so this is for us a faculty retention and attraction strategy as well as a PhD student strategy,” Dr. Gertler said.
Digital Journal – France, Germany to Take 21,000 Migrants
France and Germany agreed Thursday to accept some 21,000 asylum-seekers and refugees as part of EU efforts to deal with the flood of migrants seeking refuge from conflicts across North Africa and the Middle East. EU leaders agreed last month to take in 60,000 people over the next two years but on a voluntary basis after many member states objected strongly to proposed mandatory quotas. The figures comprise 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean asylum-seekers already in Europe who will be redistributed across the 28-nation bloc plus another 20,000 Syrians in camps overseas. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and his German counterpart Thomas De Maiziere announced that France would take 9,100 and Germany 12,100. The two countries had a duty “to offer a dignified welcome to those with refugee status,” Cazeneuve said.
