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.
Journal Pioneer – Newcomers to P.E.I. Invited to Share their Stories
Each immigrant’s story is unique and every one is worth the telling. So the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 and the P.E.I. Association for Newcomers to Canada is inviting the public to do just that during an upcoming workshop series. From March 12 to 16, newcomers to P.E.I. are invited to share and record their personal immigration stories. The stories created will be added to the national museum’s Digital Storytelling Project and shared with the public as a learning resource that may become part of future museum exhibitions.
The Tyee – Cuts Threaten Kwantlen’s English Classes for Immigrants
Canada depends on immigrants to buoy its increasingly aging workforce. That’s why Geoff Dean, co-chair of academic and career preparation at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and a college-level math instructor at the institution, finds it baffling that his employer would cut its English “academic” literacy classes for immigrants. Currently 58 immigrant students take the classes, and unlike their international student peers who pay for English as a Second Language classes through their tuition, the provincial government covers the cost. Kwantlen is not allowed to collect tuition for the classes. […] Despite the relatively small number of students affected, Dean fears because the cuts are being made at Kwantlen’s Lower Mainland location — where the majority of immigrants live in B.C. — a larger number of potential students will now lose out on the opportunity of free academic English classes over the long term.
Western News – Bringing New Opportunity to the Community
In 2008, Esses founded a province-wide alliance based out of Western called the Welcoming Communities Initiative (WCI). […] After a few successful years, Esses and her team decided to expand the project in 2012 to the rest of Canada, and Pathways to Prosperity (P2P) was founded. The alliance, which operates on a $13.5 million budget, has about 200 researchers in more than 50 universities across Canada. It has partnerships with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, every provincial immigration ministry and about 25 universities and municipal governments in total. P2P also has partnerships with many community organizations, such as the Mennonite Central Committee in Saskatchewan and the Association for New Canadians in Newfoundland. […] “They are the bridge between the community and academia,” said Huda Hussein, the project coordinator at the London & Middlesex Local Immigration Partnership (LMLIP), a partner of P2P’s, whose objective is to help immigrants integrate with different aspects of society. When the LMLIP was founded in 2009, it was the research of P2P that helped the project write its first strategic plan.
Toronto Star – Cutting Refugee Health Care a False Saving
Sonal Marwah, who is completing a master’s degree in global health at McMaster University, explores [refugee health care cuts] in a study released this week by the Wellesley Institute. […] One of her most surprising findings is that Ottawa’s cutbacks have exposed Canadians to health risks the government did not anticipate and has not acknowledged. Infectious diseases, wiped out long ago in this country, could make a comeback if refugees are left untreated. […] Her second unsettling discovery is that the cost of cutting off access to health care could quickly overtake the savings. Bill C-31 prevents doctors from treating diseases in their early stages when they can be cured or managed. This heightens the risk a refugee will be hospitalized with a full-blown case of a serious disease, a life-threatening tumour or infected limb that cannot be saved. Most emergency wards don’t turn away uninsured patients. But the provinces have to pay their bills.
National Post – People Immigrate. Religions Don’t.
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), a national public policy think tank, claims its mission is to make “poor quality public policy unacceptable.” Their first debate of 2014 is tonight. Unlike recreational debating societies, MLI is supposed to be providing real policy alternatives. But the resolution being debated tonight is informed by fear: “Muslim immigration is no threat to Canada or the West.” […] Recall that 20% of the world’s population is Muslim. It is not possible to generalize about the threat they may or may not pose to Canada. We should not accept the very premise of this debate. […] What policy alternative is being suggested or implied? Are we prepared to close immigration to individuals of a particular faith? Would we limit the democratic rights of Muslims already in Canada? Can a secular state with constitutionally enshrined religious freedom be excluding people based on their faith?
RDÉE Île-du-Prince-Edouard – Les employeurs apprennent à devenir inter culturellement efficaces
Une quinzaine de personnes, principalement des employeurs et chefs d’entreprises, ont participé à un atelier sur l’efficacité interculturelle avec la facilitatrice Paula Gallant de la firme Training and Facilitation le mardi 25 février à Charlottetown. Les participants ont appris d’une quantité de différences culturelles et de styles de communications qui affectent parfois l’embauche de nouveaux arrivants ainsi que les perceptions qu’ont les patrons au sujet de leurs employés immigrants.
