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 Globe and Mail – “Satisfaction Gap” Hinders The Immigrant Experience
When Canadians are asked, “How satisfied are you with your life in general?” more than 90 per cent respond “satisfied” or “very satisfied”. Yet one group has a significant satisfaction deficit: immigrant children, and their parents. A recent working paper by Peter Burton and Shelley Phipps of Dalhousie University studies the life satisfaction of youth who immigrated to Canada as children, plus immigrant parents. They used data on thousands of recent immigrants and Canadian-born families collected through the Canadian Community Health Survey from 2002 to 2008.
CTV News – NHL: Banana-Throwing Incident Was “Stupid and Ignorant”
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman says whoever threw a banana on the ice at a black player during a pre-season NHL game in London, Ont., was “stupid and ignorant.” During Thursday’s game, as Philadelphia Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds was skating toward Detroit goalie Jordan Pearce in a shootout, a banana came flying out of the stands. Simmonds is black. The speculation now is that the incident was racially motivated. The troubling moment was reminiscent of a number of similar incidents in the soccer world in which black players have been harassed with monkey chants and had banana peels thrown at them.
New York Times – Stance On Immigration May Hurt Perry Early On
With a single phrase implying his opponents are heartless, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas plumbed a profound divide between his views on illegal immigration and those of many grass-roots conservatives, who up to now have been the core of his support for the Republican nomination. Mr. Perry summoned the phrase in a debate on Thursday night to justify a Texas law that lets some children of illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition at public colleges. If you oppose it, he said, “I don’t think you have a heart.” His remarks were instantly seized upon by rivals, none more so than Mitt Romney, who vetoed a similar bill as Massachusetts governor. “I think if you’re opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a heart,” he said Friday to a group of conservative activists. “It means that you have a heart and a brain.”
Globe and Mail – Deported Family Of Refugee Claimants Allowed Back Into Canada
Two years ago, the family of failed asylum seekers were sent back to their native Albania. Canadian officials had rejected the parents’ refugee claim that their membership in a political party led assassins in their homeland to try to kill them. On Aug. 30, a Federal Court judge overturned the government’s deportation order on a point of procedure. Officials were ordered to allow the Tabajs back into Canada to try again for refugee status. […] Remarking how much the children had grown in the two years since he had last seen them, Boris Wrzesnewskyj, a former Liberal MP greeted the family warmly at Pearson airport on Thursday. As he shepherded their return, he pulled aside the reporters he had invited to the airport to tell them what he felt this case was really about – a judicial rebuke to the enforcement practices of Conservative Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
Sometimes you need fresh eyes to remind you how good you have it. Last week, CivicAction hosted an international delegation that is examining immigration and its connection with business and municipal government agendas in five global cities. They came to see how Toronto has managed to attract and, for the most part, successfully integrate large numbers of immigrants, when so many other city regions have failed. The delegation spent two days seeing how senior business, government, non-profit and academic leaders work together to help newcomers prosper and fully contribute in the Toronto region. The delegates said that people in Johannesburg and the other consultation cities “would cry” to see how well people collaborate here. Extensive cross-sector collaboration is only one of the things that set Toronto ahead of other city regions when it comes to immigration.
Your Ottawa Region – Ottawa Centre Debate Focuses On Immigration, Social Services
All four Ottawa Centre provincial candidates gathered at the Chinese Canadian Heritage Centre Wednesday, Sept. 21 for a debate focused primarily on immigration and social service issues. About 100 people came to the church-turned-cultural centre on Kent Street to hear Liberal incumbent Yasir Naqvi, PC candidate Rob Dekker, NDP candidate Anil Naidoo and Green candidate Kevin O’Donnell discuss everything from affordable housing to foreign credentials to health care reform.
