On Nov. 8, Melissa Fleming, the Head of Communications and Chief Spokesperson at the United Nations Refugee Agency, came to Hamilton. In addition to visiting local organizations, Fleming also gave a lecture in Convocation Hall.
Fleming is responsible for leading media groups and highlighting the plight and resilience of refugees across the globe.
In her speech at McMaster, Fleming focused on the concept of home and emphasized that, by virtue of their situation, refugees are “confronted with new meanings of ‘home’.”
Fleming also visited the Immigrants Working Centre, an organization specializing in settlement services for newly landed immigrants, and Karam Kitchen, a Hamilton-based catering company operated by Syrian refugee women.
“When people become refugees they need a special kind of home, defined in this case as a place of sanctuary where they can heal, and where they can rebuild,” said Fleming.
Nevertheless, Fleming noted the difficulty of the rebuilding process and the fact that millions of refugees continue to question and redefine what home means to them.
Towards the end of her speech, Fleming discussed No Stranger Place, a new UNHCR project aimed at illuminating the stories of refugees and hosts from across Europe.
She also praised Canada’s private sponsorship of refugees program, which has brought over 275,000 refugees to the country since 1979.
"When people become refugees they need a special kind of home - defined in this case as a place of sanctuary where they can heal, and where they can rebuild."
Melissa Fleming
Head of Communications and Chief Spokesperson
United Nations Refugee Agency
Fleming concluded by offering her definition of home:
“Home is a place of compassionate community. It is a place where the act of compassion benefits the receiver, but also enriches the giver,” she said.
While earnest and well-intentioned, Fleming’s speech garnered mixed reactions from those in attendance.
Odette Anderyous, a refugee in attendance, wished that Fleming spoke more about how refugees go about finding a new home and how long they have to wait until their applications are processed.
“It was like the whole lecture was to convince some people that we as refugees have to be here and live with [hosts] and that we are just numbers that Canada needs every year for economic purposes,” said Anderyous.
In addition, Anderyous critiqued Fleming’s use of the word “asylum” and the fact that she, a spokesperson for refugee issues, does not know what it is like to be one.
For others, however, Fleming’s speech was a beacon of hope.
“She spoke directly on her experiences in the camps, and meeting refugees, which is an extremely important perspective to take into account,” said Abdullah Al Hamlawi, a fourth year health studies and peace studies student who helped organize Fleming’s visit.
“The meeting with Melissa went great and she got to see how refugees are creating their own jobs by being entrepreneurs when they lack Canadian experience,” said Al Hamlawi.
Although Fleming has left the city, Hamilton continues to support refugees with its different services aimed at resettling and empowering newcomers in Hamilton.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
https://www.facebook.com/TheMcMasterSilhouette/videos/10154678231110987/
Read the full story here: https://www.thesil.ca/
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
For another year running, the McMaster Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Student Union hosted the “Life of a Mesopotamian Refugee” charity event.
The event spanned all of last week from Nov. 14-18 to raise awareness and funds for the Assyrian refugees currently being marginalized in Iraq and Syria.
"There's a lot of people who don't wish to leave. We want to ensure for those who don't want to leave, a stable job, stable food, stable shelter and hope for the future as well"
Niven Dinkha
Sleeper for McMaster Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Student Union
The cornerstone of the event, standing in plain sight was the tent. Secured outside the McMaster Student Centre, the tent served to shelter volunteer “sleepers” over the week to symbolize and raise awareness for the Mesopotamian Refugees, specifically those who are Assyrian.
“The Assyrians are an ethnic and a Christian minority in [Mesopotamia], so they are affected much more disproportionately than the general population. So we started the event to raise awareness for what was happening and to also raise money to send overseas,” said Ashor Sworesho, a McMaster alumnus who helped start this event six years ago.
The plight of the internally displaced peoples in former Mesopotamia is directly related to the ongoing crisis caused by the Islamic State.
“ISIS went in, they put the letter Nūn on all the houses of the Christians. And that is a derogatory way of symbolizing Christians. You either have to leave, pay a heavy tax, convert, or they would kill you. [The refugees] were at the mercy of other people,” Sworesho explained.
For this year’s event, it seemed that the volunteers in the tent had to bear more than just the cold weather. The student group received a number of complaints from passing students. According to the volunteer sleepers, critical comments were primarily directed towards the unrealistic representation of refugee life.
“People will come by and they will say things like ‘I didn’t know that refugees had coffee’… We are trying our best to live like them, but this is pretend, this is convenient and this is so not what they are going through. For people to understand that, we are having a little bit of a harder time with that,” said Nivin Dinkha, one of the sleepers who volunteered for ACSSU.
While the “Life of a Mesopotamian Refugee” is not intended to be a replication the circumstances in the region, the student group certainly tried their best to convey their message.
“We didn’t eat, we didn’t drink. The only time we did was when it was donated to us,” said Dinkha. “This is to show that we were also at the mercy of others when it came to help. There’s only a limited number of things that we can do in our capacity that actually shows that we are living their life.”
ACSSU McMaster raises money through this event to help those currently overseas. This is done in partnership with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association.
“It’s been our land for thousands of years, and there’s a lot of people who don’t wish to leave. We want to ensure, for those who don’t want to leave, a stable job, stable food, stable shelter and hope for the future as well. [CNEWA] is project-based. They are creating initiatives, such as rebuilding, and creating community centres,” he added.
[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]
Since the federal government’s initial announcement of refugee resettlement in Canada, many Syrian refugees have made it to Hamilton; however, the process has been neither short nor easy. Faced with language and cultural barriers, settlement is a process that’s dependent on the help and efforts of the larger community. McMaster students volunteering with Wesley Urban Ministry and professors helping to sponsor families through the 20 for 20 organizations are no strangers to the new members of the Hamilton community. For the rest of us, it is high time we welcome our new neighbours.
20 for 20
The 20 for 20 project was modelled after the approach that Ryerson University took in partnering with Lifeline Syria to sponsor 75 refugee families. At Ryerson, most families are sponsored by groups of five, each including one professor who often singlehandedly contributes $5,000 for their sponsorship group. Since the conception of the equivalent of this initiative in Hamilton, 20 for 20, the organization has undergone major changes.
One month ago, the focus shifted from asking large companies to sponsor a family to approaching smaller business or individuals in the community. The organization also established new team of volunteers called the Resettlement Team. Volunteers under this title will work with the Wesley Urban Ministries to provide assistance to government-assisted refugees already making Hamilton their home.
Hayley Welham, the project manager of the initiative, recognizes this as a better use of volunteer effort.
“A lot of people at McMaster wanted to help immediately, kind of hit the ground running. So we thought the best way to encourage people to stay on for the long haul was to show them that they can make a difference right away.”
The Immigrants Working Center currently has 30 applications for private sponsors on file from Syrian families. Up until now, 22 of these families have been matched with sponsors. The 20 for 20 project is working towards finding sponsors for the remaining eight. Next on the list is a couple with a background in engineering and expecting a child.
When asked about the pressure of time, Welham attests that it has lessened. “There was more of a pressure when we started, because the government was welcoming refugees very quickly. Applications were being turned over every week at the beginning of January. Since we have hit the 25,000 mark, it has slowed down application processing … There is an urgency but not the same as it was before. It’s a long term project.”
“A lot of people at McMaster wanted to help immediately, kind of hit the ground running. So we thought the best way to encourage people to stay on for the long haul was to show them that they can make a difference right away.”
Keep on smiling
Ahmed, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee, arrived to Hamilton 40 days ago. One of many Syrian refugees supported by the government, he has travelled here with his sister and father. His life before stepping on Canadian soil has shaped who he is, and his perspective on his new life in Canada.
At his temporary residence in a Hamilton hotel, Ahmed talks to the 20 for 20 or Wesley Ministries volunteers. But at one point in his life, he was a volunteer himself. For two years, he volunteered in Jordan, providing psychosocial support for International Relief and Development and as a general volunteer for Oxfam. He believes organizations should coordinate volunteers here into groups first for health, second for sports, third for travel and fourth for psychosocial support. Ahmed wishes there was more support in the latter area.
“Me and all my family are happy,” Ahmed said of his arrival in Canada.
“I put a smiley face in Jordan all along the wall. If you came to my office, you would see a smiley face, smiley face … And my backpack, and my laptop, smiley face … Smiling is very important in life. What has happened, you should smile. Maybe you [will] feel better.”
New challenges
Starting anew in a strange country is not easy. Things that come naturally to those who have lived our whole lives in Canada are novel, exciting and also daunting to newcomers. Starting life in Canada is hard, because many things are polar opposites compared to refugees’ native countries, from language, to work, to transportation, to appointments. “Everything is different. I don’t speak my country bad or your country bad, no. Different. Like two brothers, they are not the same.”
Yet the reason refugees were drawn here is apparent. “I think Canada is better than any Arabic country. I am happy for us. Now I can start my life here. I have a plan in my mind that needs three years to be established … It’s so hard. I need support. Everyone needs support because we are strange in this country. For example, when paying for the bus, I don’t ask about transfer. Next time, someone tell me take transfer to come back free. We are strange here, we don’t know anything, but we learn.”
Ahmed attributes much of the ease in the process of acclimatization to McMaster students volunteering with 20 for 20 or Wesley Urban Ministry. By sharing their experience, volunteers can impart knowledge that is not always explicit. A bit of the unfamiliarity is attenuated by volunteers who can share their experiences, acting as liaisons between the refugees and the country they find themselves in. By breaking down the language barrier, volunteers who speak Arabic are further able to establish common ground, to which Ahmed can attest. “If [volunteers] know English and Arabic, I relax when I am in contact with him.”
Basic needs
Starting from the moment that the first refugees landed in Canada, organizations have prioritized housing and health care. For Ahmed, the opportunity for better health care hits close to home. Currently 62 years old, Ahmed’s father suffers from multiple sclerosis. In Jordan or Syria, there were no treatments available to him. Ahmed believes that they have found the treatment here.
While these basic needs are critical pillars in refugee settlement, emphasis has yet to be placed on mobilizing refugees. The possibility of reaccreditation programs for those who come from an educated background is being considered. The focus is starting to shift to education and providing resources beyond basic needs.
We can get used to life here. Maybe in one year, any family can get used to life here and we may not have any problem. The system here is very good. We missed a system.”
Even through daily dialogue in their interactions with refugees, volunteers are able to offer some support in language development. For refugees who are active and seek to learn more about the new environment they find themselves in, they inevitably learn new things every day. Yet many want to go beyond learning how to navigate their surroundings.
Ahmed wishes to return to his studies. “I would love to work in business and management, but I don’t have my certification. I think it’s difficult.”
Ahmed’s love of studying is apparent. “I came with Hayley to [the interview] because I love studying, I love university. If you don’t study, it’s a hard life … In our country, at the doors of the school it reads ‘school is second mom.’ Everyone has two moms: your own, and school.”
Psychosocial support
Welham admits that it can be difficult to predict what will be help people trying to settle in. “I think the hardest thing for the volunteers so far has been identifying where the needs are, because I don’t know if any of the volunteers come from traumatic backgrounds, but I know I don’t. So going into a situation with hundreds of people who probably all have very traumatic histories, not being able to necessarily relate on that level makes it really difficult to identify what the needs are. We can identify the obvious ones, like helping the kids stay active and learn English, but something like psychosocial support isn’t necessarily at the forefront of our minds in terms of services we can provide. You can’t relate to something you haven’t experienced, so it’s hard.”
While they are not always needed, Ahmed stresses the importance of such supports.
“I think it is very important to care about psychosocial [aspects]. Many things happened to families in Syria that were bad. Maybe [they] lost a father, mother or brother. Maybe go to prison. No one knows what has happened, maybe many families don’t speak about it, but many families it hurts inside. They need support psychosocially.”
Ahmed believes the future lies in nurturing the younger generations. “I think kids are all things in life. When kids grow up, they make everything. If we care about kids, in the future, we can relax. If we don’t care about kids, we will have a bad future. Canada is good about this point. Canada teaches kids everything, school, sports, swimming, basketball, everything.”
When asked about the main differences between his home and Canada, Ahmed laughed. “Too much. So much,” he said. “We can get used to life here. Maybe in one year, any family can get used to life here and we may not have any problem. The system here is very good. We missed a system.”
The Syrian Refugee Project will host a Paint Nite fundraiser in May. Funds raised will be in support of a Syrian refugee couple in Iraq with a baby on the way. They are both engineers.
You can learn more about 20 for 20 and how to get involved by visiting their website or Facebook.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
[adrotate banner="16"]
[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]
As the Canadian population continues to welcome Syrian refugees into the country, assistance from the Canadian community is needed to aid the Syrian immigrants adjust to their new homes and to live comfortably within their new borders. Having left their homes, families, and belongings behind, many refugees are in need of housing, furniture, food and clothing among other necessities.
Faizan Ashraf has established a new project in Hamilton to do just that. The 20 for 20 project provides many services to refugees, from English language training to information about the labour workforce and location-based orientation. Ashraf was inspired to create this initiative after noticing great efforts made in other parts of Canada to help in the resettlement of refugees. Ashraf began searching for the different ways that he could get involved in the mobilization of resources to make a difference for refugees and modeled 20 for 20 after similar initiatives at Ryerson and Lifeline Syria in Toronto.
The 20 for 20 project will work with sponsors from the community. These local sponsors include both individuals and small businesses, who will financially support refugee families throughout their first year in Canada, while 20 for 20 volunteers will take the lead on helping refugee families settle into their new daily lives.
The 20 for 20 project provides many services to refugees, from English language training to information about the labour workforce and loacation-based orientation.
Despite the title, Ashraf assured that the project is not limited to 20 families. “Twenty families was the initial goal that IWC had established just before we formed our partnership. We decided to continue with the same goal allowing for the flexibility of growth in the future based on our progress. From an operational perspective, working towards bringing 20 refugee families through the community sponsorship model is ideal. It challenges us without straining our resources or putting undue pressure on the volunteer pool,” he explained.
The project has already helped several families. According to Hayley Welham, the spokesperson for the initiative, all the families identified by the IWC are currently benefitting from the project. “The Immigrants Working Centre has secured a group of five sponsors for several refugee families. Once their resettlement applications have been completed, they will be submitted to Citizenship and Immigration Canada for approval,” she said.
Local businesses have been urged to get involved in the project by donating money to help support the families’ financial needs or by choosing to sponsor a family instead. The Hamilton public can also volunteer with the initiatives. Volunteers can help teach English as a second language at a registered agency to the refugees, join a group with five other sponsors and help support a family themselves, and donate clothing and household items to the Salvation Army to be given out to the families. More information about this project and how others can contribute is available on the 20 for 20 project’s website.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
[adrotate banner="16"]
[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]
As the refugee crisis continues, with thousands of people fleeing crisis in the Middle East. Canada has been proactive in taking steps to accept Syrian refugees despite citizens’ concerns over security after the horrific Paris attacks orchestrated by ISIS. While it is in Canadian spirit to be accepting and receive these refugees with open arms, there is also the appropriate way of doing so. Trudeau has faced criticism regarding his original plan to bring in 25,000 Syrians by the end of this year, with 51 percent of Canadians disapproving of his plan to settle Syrians across Canada. Since the backlash, Trudeau has backtracked but not necessarily in the most diligent manner. The new refugee settlement plan consists of accepting 25,000 Syrians by the end of February 2016, but the most controversial and illogical aspect of the new plan is the rejection of unaccompanied or single straight adult men.
In an interview with CBC, Trudeau claims that Canada will not be accepting single adult men right away because he claims that the most vulnerable should be given priority. While he says this decision is not final, his statement raises the question of whether vulnerability is really the reason for this decision? If it is, then are these young, single men not more vulnerable to recruitment by ISIS? If one of Canada’s goals is to put an end to ISIS’ terror, then openly discriminating against single Syrian men is not the best way of showing support. In fact, this decision could have serious implications in terms of who ISIS chooses to target during their enrolment process, because the men who feel excluded by a country that claims to be all-embracing may be more inclined to find a home with the terror group. This is not as far-fetched an idea as it may seem, considering the propaganda ISIS uses to draw men and women in. They are made to feel wanted and accepted. This new adjustment to Trudeau’s plan is short-sighted and illogical because it can be argued that single men are just as vulnerable as single women. Perhaps their vulnerabilities manifest differently, but they exist nonetheless.
Another explanation could be that Trudeau’s exclusion of single men is for security reasons. There is a great concern among many Canadians that a mass movement of Syrian refugees into the country could allow terrorists to slip under the radar. Yet, while it may be more common to see male ISIS members in online propaganda videos and on the ground initiating attacks, it is wrong to assume that single men are the most high-risk. Even though the Canadian government has not directly said that this is the reason for excluding single Syrian males, it surely sends a questionable message. Not only is it wrong to discriminate against single men, while men who have families are welcome, it is naïve to think that these men are the only ones capable of working for ISIS undercover and spreading terror in Canada. In fact, one of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks was 26-year-old female Hasna Aitboulahcen, who also opened fire on police when they approached her flat, with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Experts have said that the risk of a terrorist getting into Canada during refugee settlement is slim, but even if it is a concern it should not manifest itself as discrimination against one gender over the other. The reality is that yes, there are risks associated with accepting a large number of refugees in a short period of time. However, a better way of responding to Canadians’ criticisms is to extend the timeline of Syrian integration into Canada. They can still be protected abroad during the process, but there is value in ensuring the settlement of refugees is done in a safe, controlled manner without leaving one group in the dust with no firm promise of acceptance in the near future.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
Erik Fraunberger / The Silhouette
Recently, immigration minister Jason Kenney created a new amendment to the Canadian immigration system involving the designation of “safe” countries to increase the efficiency with which refugees may gain entrance into Canada.
The premise behind such an amendment is that the countries on this “safe” list are unlikely to produce legitimate asylum claimants which, according to Canadian law, include those who possess a “well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.”
Judging from the current list, which includes most European and Scandinavian countries, the majority of individuals who come to Canada’s doorstep from these nations will not be suffering from the level of persecution that the original 1951 Geneva Convention was designed to accommodate. In fact, equating the socio-economic and political situations of individuals from developed, liberal-democratic countries with those in autocratic, developing countries with no human, civil or democratic rights are blatantly offensive.
Of course, such a policy is not without its flaws, most notably its inability to address the concerns of persecuted minority groups such as the Roma in Hungary.
While this is a problem for the Roma people, it is well documented in a 2012 report by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that there is a high welfare fraud and petty crime rate amongst Hungarian refugee claimants.
Painting all refugee claimants with the same brush is not amicable or fair but it would be naïve to hold the belief that the Canadian government has the ability to approach each refugee claim on a detailed, individual level without severely straining the existing budget.
It is estimated by the Canadian government that each failed refugee claim costs taxpayers $50,000.
This estimate takes into account social services, healthcare and legal costs for each claimant. If we take this number to be an accurate estimate, then the cost of the failed or abandoned refugee applications from Hungary alone amounted to approximately $54,450,000 in 2010. Keep in mind that the taxes you, your family, and your friends pay contributed to that lump sum of wasted money.
A final and welcome improvement of the “safe” countries list is the reduced healthcare benefits that refugee claimants receive if they are from any of the designated nations. Unless the refugee’s medical issues pose a risk to public health then they do not receive healthcare benefits.
However, also keep in mind that many of our own Canadian citizens, after having worked here for their entire lives, do not have universal access to medical benefits including dental care, eye care and certain vaccinations for free. This group includes seniors who are on a fixed income, usually on their pension from the Canadian Pension Plan.
It would be wise to show some gratitude towards the previous generations that have built this country by providing them with some of these medical benefits instead of rolling out the red carpet for every refugee claimant. It is very unfortunate that Canada is unable to provide care to every refugee with medical issues but the already over-burdened healthcare system in combination with the weak economy does not make this possible.
It has also been argued that Canada has an obligation to provide refugees with the aforementioned benefits. From a humanitarian standpoint, this is a wonderful idea, albeit too idealistic to overcome the challenges that reality poses, as mentioned above.
I agree that a certain level of humanitarian obligation is required to those in need, but what I vehemently oppose is the superior treatment of refugee claimants compared to our own Canadian citizens.
