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.
CBC – Regina Launches Website Directed at Welcoming Immigrants
The City of Regina has received $30,000 from the federal and provincial governments to launch welcometoregina.ca, which aims to help new immigrants settle in the city. “It’s very important,” Jeremy Harrison, Saskatchewan’s Minister responsible for immigration, said. “Newcomers often have some very, very real challenges being brand new in Canada, brand new in Saskatchewan, and brand new in Regina.” Harrison added the site contains information that many people who have always lived here may take for granted, such as where to shop for groceries. He said the site was created with help from newcomer groups like the Regina Open Door Society, who provided further insight on what new immigrants to Regina often want and need to know. […] The money for the website is administered through Citizenship and Immigration Canada, through an agreement between the federal and provincial governments. It allows for grants toward cities and municipalities that want to provide online information for immigrants. Harrison said Saskatoon, Yorkton, and Moose Jaw have also received help for websites similar to the one created for people arriving in Regina.
CBC – French-Language Rules Make Luring Foreign Professors Difficult, Universities Say
Quebec universities say they’re having trouble recruiting foreign professors due to a French-language requirement they say hinders their ability to attract high-skilled, international talent. Several professors and recruiters at the province’s two major English-language universities said that Quebec’s complex, points-based immigration system puts them at a disadvantage compared to other Canadian and U.S. institutions. In 2013, the Parti Québécois government of the day increased the French requirement needed for immigrants applying for permanent residency, which officials at Concordia and McGill said created recruiting headaches. Quebec’s Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil said in an interview that the government made the immigration system more flexible in December, but universities say it is still too complicated. […] The Liberal government quietly instituted changes in December, giving more “points” to immigrants with PhDs, allowing some applicants to bypass the French requirement and get residency. Permanent residency is important for professors and at some institutions like Concordia, they cannot receive full tenure without it.
Metro News – Immigrants’ First Days in Canada Captured in Travelling Pier 21 Exhibit
A series of “firsts” has marked every newcomer’s arrival in Canada, regardless of era or country of origin. Perhaps the first plane trip, the first winter, the first sight of Canada arriving at a port in Halifax, the first encounter with a countryman from the same homeland, the first English class, the first time of realizing, “I belong.” There are also the stories of the first job landed, the first home, the first taste of freedom, the first day of official citizenship and even the first confrontation with racism and discrimination. These experiences and impressions, told through the recollections of immigrants, are vividly captured in a travelling exhibit, Canada: Day 1, presented by The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, on display at the Markham Museum until June. […]With a $500,000 gift from the RBC Foundation, the national immigration museum has collected personal stories from more than 1,000 immigrants across Canada through its oral history program. It also commissioned original artworks and collected immigration-related archival images for the exhibition, which covers the period from Confederation to today.
Toronto Star – Migrant Construction Workers Sue Ottawa for Discrimination
More than 150 migrant construction workers are suing Ottawa, claiming they have been discriminated against under a program that invites them to work in Canada but welcomes only English-speaking candidates when it comes to letting them stay on permanently. The workers from Italy, Portugal and Poland have been employed in Canada on work permits for at least two years. But under the Federal Skilled Trades (FST) program, they must pass a language proficiency test to be considered for permanent resident status. “They did not require English to have us work here on work permits. When we wanted to stay, they said we needed to pass the English test to qualify,” said Juvenal Cabral, 48, a Portuguese-speaking custom carpenter from the Azores and one of the plaintiffs in the case. “Why are we good enough to work here but not good enough to stay?’ […] In their lawsuit, the Italian, Portuguese and Polish workers said Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and his predecessor, Jason Kenney, have publicly expressed and implemented a program that favours Irish, English and Australian applicants for their “shared values” with Canadians.
Winnipeg Free Press – Marie Rose Place Offers Affordable Housing for Struggling Single Mothers New to Canada
The $11-million project is a public-private partnership with the federal government and City of Winnipeg providing $2.8 million, the province pitching in $2 million and the developer, Hargrave Holdings Ltd., contributing $6.2 million. The rent-geared-to-income block was a labour of love for Hargrave Holdings president Bob Dick after he read that more than 100 immigrant and refugee single moms and their kids come to Winnipeg on their own every year. They should have a nice, safe home to start over, said Dick. “They’re paying rent. They deserve decent accommodations,” he said. The downtown building is next to busy St. Mary Avenue downtown, but there’s no traffic noise in the well-insulated suites with floor-to-ceiling windows. […] The units are small, but don’t seem cramped because of the high ceilings and huge windows that let in so much light, said architect Hijab Mitra. She grew up in India and studied and worked in Britain, where she gained experience designing social housing in densely populated areas.
Globe and Mail – Canadian Universities Urge Ottawa to Relax Foreign Worker Program Rules
Canadian universities have used the temporary foreign worker program to recruit for approximately a quarter of their new permanent jobs over the last five years, federal government statistics provided to The Globe show – and schools are urging the government to relax new rules they say are hurting their ability to recruit internationally. An agreement is close, postsecondary sources said. […]Universities turned to the TFW program because it has provided a faster, more accessible avenue to hiring foreign academics than the federal skilled workers program, which imposed caps by occupation, including in jobs as university professors. […] Under changes introduced in June, employers offering high-wage positions must have a transition plan for how to shift jobs to Canadian residents. They can also choose to show that they will help a TFW employee become a permanent resident. Yet some universities have had applications for labour market impact assessments (formerly labour market opinions) rejected when they indicated that temporary faculty would become permanent.
