an alliance of university, community, and government partners dedicated to fostering welcoming communities and promoting the integration of immigrants and minorities across Canada
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.
The Guardian [Charlottetown] – Seafood Processors, Fishermen Unite in Opposing Temporary Foreign Workers Changes
The P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association and the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association have united in calling for a reversal of Ottawa’s sweeping reforms of the temporary foreign worker program — reforms they say will have a devastating impact on the Island’s seafood industry. Dennis King, executive director of the P.E.I. Seafood Processors Association, says a growing number of challenges have made it difficult to find enough workers in P.E.I. to work in fish plants. “The processing sector on P.E.I. operates during our peak employment period,” King said. “Finding local workers in communities where populations are declining, outmigration is prevalent and workers are aging is a serious, ongoing challenge.” One of the many changes to the TFW program announced last month is a cap that will be placed on the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers an employer can hire at any one worksite. This cap will only allow only 30 per cent of a worksite’s employees to be temporary foreign workers starting immediately, dropping to 20 per cent next year and 10 per cent by July 2016. But in some lobster processing plants in P.E.I., upwards of 50 per cent of their employees are migrant workers.
Brandon Sun – Province to Cap Number of Overseas Skilled Workers
In an attempt to reduce processing times, the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program says after Aug. 1, it won’t accept any new immigration applications from skilled workers overseas until next year. The province has received more than the 2014 nomination limit of 5,000 applications given by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, an email from Manitoba Labour and Immigration said Monday. It says it still will accept applications all year from the “skilled worker in Manitoba” stream that includes temporary foreign workers and applications that are part of a “strategic recruitment initiative.” The “skilled workers overseas” category has the largest, and fastest-growing volume of nominee applications, the province said. About 75 per cent of applications it receives are in the skilled worker overseas stream, it said. The Manitoba Nominee Program says its new application-management strategy will help reduce processing times to less than six months by 2015.
Citoyenneté et Immigration Canada – Communiqué – Préparer le lancement d’Entrée express
Le ministre de la Citoyenneté et de l’Immigration du Canada, Chris Alexander, a rencontré aujourd’hui des intervenants et des chefs d’entreprise au sujet du lancement d’Entrée express en janvier 2015, un système qui permettra au Canada d’accueillir plus rapidement et plus efficacement les immigrants économiques qualifiés. Le gouvernement du Canada, en partenariat avec les gouvernements provinciaux et territoriaux, a tenu, au cours des derniers mois, une série de séances d’information sur Entrée express avec des employeurs des quatre coins du pays. Entrée express, un système électronique de gestion des demandes, sera utilisé pour quatre programmes d’immigration économique existants : le Programme des travailleurs qualifiés (fédéral), le Programme des travailleurs de métiers spécialisés (fédéral), la catégorie de l’expérience canadienne, et une portion du Programme des candidats des provinces.
Canada.com – Immigration Officer’s Decision on Failed Asylum Seeker Jose Figueroa was Unreasonable, Judge Rules
Jose Figueroa, who came to Canada as a refugee in 1997, was once a member of Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN) that opposed El Salvador’s former military regime. He helped recruit for the FMLN and organized meetings but was not involved in the armed struggle. In a decision last year, Karine Roy-Tremblay, director of case determination for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, rejected Figueroa’s application to be allowed to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds after he had been deemed inadmissible to the country on security grounds. […] But in a ruling posted online Monday, Richard Mosley, a federal judge, said the immigration officer’s decision was unreasonable “as it failed to take into account the nature of the conflict and Mr. Figueroa’s personal role as a non-combatant political advocate” and ordered that a different immigration officer review the application. […] Activists say cases like Figueroa’s highlight how sections of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act are too broad and can too easily lead refugee claimants — particularly those who took part in liberation movements abroad — to be deemed inadmissible to Canada on security grounds.
A church in Charlottetown is reuniting four young Somali refugees with the rest of their family after more than four years trying. Nasro Awil Adhar and her three younger siblings came to P.E.I. in 2008 through a sponsorship from the Muslim Association of P.E.I. In 2010 Trinity United Church decided to sponsor the rest of the Awil Adhar family. Harry Kielly of Trinity United told CBC News while it’s wonderful three other members of the family will come to Charlottetown July 23 it took a long time to process their papers, and he thinks the Canadian government should be doing more to help refugees. […] Kielly said the average wait for family reunification is usually a year, but families processed through the Nairobi office, as in this case, take an average of 42 months. He said the Nairobi office is responsible for refugees from 12 African countries.
National Post – Ottawa Cracking Down on Foreign Diplomats who Force Domestic Workers into “Involuntary Servitude”
Foreign diplomats posted to Canada who want to hire domestic helpers from outside the country must first explain in writing what steps they took to hire someone locally, according to new guidelines issued by the federal government this month. Further, only senior diplomatic officials will now be eligible to hire household workers from abroad. The new rules come at a time when the government has been restricting several embassies and high commissions from hiring new domestic workers because of concerns about exploitation. Some critics say the government could be doing even more to tackle the problem. Lucia Spencer, executive director of Immigrant Women Services Ottawa, said her agency has helped two women who fled diplomatic households in the past year because of emotional and verbal abuse and long hours. She suspects there are many more out there in similar situations but who are too fearful to come forward. […] She thinks one way to address the problem would be to give domestic helpers the option to live outside of the diplomatic home.
