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.
Digital Journal – Sweden Offers Asylum to All Syria Refugees
Sweden became the first European Union nation to offer blanket asylum to all Syrian refugees, who are believed to number more than two million. […] Sweden, population 9.5 million, has already welcomed more than 14,700 Syrian asylum seekers since 2012, compared to 33 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States, population 314 million, this year. […] All Syrian refugees entering Sweden under the new policy will be granted permanent residency status, a departure from the government’s previous policy of allowing refugees to remain in the country for three years, pending individual case evaluations.
The federal government has said it will help resettle 200 Syrian refugees, and allow another 1,100 privately sponsored refugees to be placed in Canada. But that’s a minute fraction of the number of refugees flooding from Syria to neighbouring Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. […] The resettlement announced so far is “shameful,” said David Petrasek, a former special adviser to the secretary general of Amnesty International. “In 1956, we took 50,000 Hungarian refugees. We’re a wealthier country today. I find that [1,300-refugee resettlement] a very inadequate response. It’s not a good response to what to do about Syria, but it is something our government could be doing,” Petrasek said.
Overall, the majority of Nova Scotians — 70 per cent — believe the province should keep accepting the same number of immigrants as it does now, or increase the number, according to the poll by Corporate Research Associates of Halifax. But the answers to several questions showed that some people have changed their minds since a poll in 2004. […] More respondents — 36 per cent, up from 29 per cent — agreed this time around with the statement that “immigrants take jobs in the province from existing residents and thus do not expand the economy,” the pollsters said.
Globe and Mail – Small Businesses Balk at Changes to Foreign Worker Program
“Small businesses will pay the price” of recent changes to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program, says the president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The updates, which went into effect on July 31, were intended to protect jobs and prevent the program from being used as an outsourcing tool by employers. […] While the head of the CFIB acknowledges there had been abuses of the program, he is convinced the government’s “blanket” response went too far. “The reason for the crackdown had little to do with the program itself.”
Globe and Mail – Temporary Foreign Worker Program Still Has Problems, Provinces Say
Canada’s Labour Minister is pledging to consider further changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, with her provincial counterparts saying the revised system still leaves them in the dark over many details. Labour Minister Kellie Leitch met with provincial ministers Thursday and Friday in Saskatoon, six weeks after changes to the TFW program came into effect. […] Provinces say the federal government isn’t sharing detailed information about the workers. It means that provincial workplace safety inspectors can’t proactively enforce labour laws, because they don’t know who the workers are or where they’re working.
Radio-Canada – L’Ontario courtise les immigrants francophones
L’Ontario espère attirer les immigrants qualifiés francophones avec un nouveau site internet. Dix-huit régions de la province sont présentées en ligne, notamment Sudbury, North Bay, Ottawa et le Niagara. Toronto et Windsor sont pour l’instant absents du nouveau portail. Le gouvernement ontarien souhaite augmenter la proportion d’immigrants francophones pour que ceux-ci représentent 5% de tous les nouveaux arrivants d’ici 2015. « Le portail web pour les francophones offre aux municipalités l’occasion d’attirer de nouveaux arrivants francophones dans leur collectivité en leur montrant comment ils peuvent vivre en français et se sentir chez eux en Ontario », affirme le ministre des Affaires civiques et de l’Immigration Michael Coteau.
