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.
Canada.com – Philippines was Canada’s Greatest Source of Immigrants in 2012
Mercan is believed to be the largest of about 50 Filipino employment agencies who help locals prepare their documents for Immigration Canada and counsels them on life in Canada. Every morning at least 100 people show up at Yazon’s Manila office to ask about becoming temporary workers, caregivers or some other category of workers eligible to settle in Canada. Many more than that make contact every day via the Internet. […] While generally satisfied with the Live-In Caregiver Program, under which Filipinos provide about 90 per cent of the nannies and care-workers who come to Canada to care for children and the elderly, Alexander said his ministry was studying whether it was necessary to keep the “live-in requirement.” There would also be tweaks to the program to ensure that those claiming to be caregivers were qualified for such work, that there were additional protections against abusive employers and that a processing backlog of three years before they could become landed immigrants was sharply reduced.
RFI – La grande réforme du système d’immigration américain est sur la table
La crise fiscale et budgétaire a pris fin cette semaine à Washington. Le gouvernement fédéral américain est enfin de retour au travail. Barack Obama et le Parti démocrate veulent en profiter pour remettre un autre dossier sur la table : la grande réforme du système de l’immigration. Après la réforme de la santé, Barack Obama souhaite faire de l’immigration le deuxième grand chantier de sa présidence. Mais le sujet a été complètement éclipsé par le psychodrame budgétaire auquel se sont livrés ces dernières semaines les élus américains. Le président est soutenu dans sa démarche par le chef de file de la majorité démocrate au Sénat : « En ce qui concerne la réforme de l’immigration, c’est le moment d’y aller », a estimé Harry Reid.
Le Devoir – Table de concertation en immigration – Et 50 000 nouveaux arrivants s’ajoutent année après année
Les politiques et les visages de l’immigration se sont transformés dans les 30 dernières années. Mais les besoins en matière de logement, de travail ou d’intégration scolaire sont encore et toujours au coeur des activités des organismes de la province oeuvrant auprès des nouveaux arrivants. Fondée en 1979, la Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI) regroupe 140 organismes communautaires, répartis sur tout le territoire québécois. Ces organisations soutiennent ou défendent les droits des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes au Québec. Depuis la mise sur pied de la TCRI, les services en immigration ont énormément évolué dans la province.
Toronto Star – How Chinese Migrants Changed Their Fate
Denise Chong has made it her métier to write about the Asian experience in Canada. Her first book, The Concubine’s Children, was about her own family’s move to this country. Next she wrote The Girl in the Picture, about the Canadian-Vietnamese woman who, as a young girl, was documented in the famous war photograph running naked, her flesh burned by napalm. Chong’s third book, Egg on Mao, was about human rights in China. Her latest effort, Lives of the Family, concentrates on the Chinese who immigrated to Ottawa, Chong’s hometown. Our conversation with Chong has been edited for length.
Al Jazeera – UK Illegal Migrant Texts go Off-Message
The British government has told almost 40,000 people by text message that they may be illegal immigrants, but officials have admitted that some legal residents were targeted. […] A spokesman for the Home Office, which is responsible for immigration in the UK, said the texts had been sent to 39,100 people between September 2012 and June 2013. […] Similar messages were also sent out via email and by post to contact individuals who had no right to be in Britain, he said. But some were received by legal residents, including the anti-racism campaigner, Suresh Grover, who said he was “absolutely shocked and quite horrified”. […] Bobby Chan, an immigration adviser, said he had also received a text despite having lived in Britain since 1973. […] It recalled a similar Home Office campaign in July in which posters were displayed in London asking: “In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest.”
Ontario’s population is expected to increase by 3.9 million people by 2036 with most of those people locating in the Toronto area. While large urban centres grapple with how to address the population influx, smaller centres have the opposite problem. Already towns and small cities all over the province — and beyond — have witnessed the decline of main industries, leading to closures of schools and churches as people go elsewhere for work. […] With declining birth rates and an aging population, most growth in Ontario, and in Canada, is through immigration. Most small towns seeing growth are those that make a concerted effort to welcome immigrants, [geography and planning professor Larry Bourne, of University of Toronto] says. Small towns in Manitoba, he notes, have done well by putting supports in place to help immigrants find jobs and homes.
