A long and far-from-easy road for refugees

Should privately sponsored refugees who arrive in Canada be expected to stay in the community that brought them to safety? That’s what I was wondering a month ago.

In April, I learned that a refugee family that arrived in Sooke in December will be moving to Mississauga by July to be closer to a relative and friends. They have also been offered jobs.

I had been part of the local group that raised more than $50,000 to bring the Iraqi family of four from Lebanon, where the father, mother and two daughters had lived for two years after fleeing Mosul. When the Riyadh family arrived in Sooke, it was to a warm welcome, suitable accommodation and strong supports.

I expected the family would appreciate the freedom, caring residents and low unemployment rate. But then, Sooke is not a multicultural city. I understand how the Riyadh family yearns for meaningful contact with fellow Iraqis.

Expecting a year-long commitment is a delicate question related to freedom and what’s expected of refugees. Refugees, by definition, leave their home countries due to war, persecution or natural disaster. The Christian Riyadh family — who were victimized for their religious beliefs — will pay for their move to Mississauga, and any money remaining from the $50,000 raised for their support is expected to go to another refugee family.

Brian Butler, who made an early and substantial donation to bring the family to Sooke, supports the Riyadhs’ move. “I’m not upset. I get it,” Butler told me. “They want to be with their relatives.”

What troubles the businessman are refugees of another kind, asylum-seekers who are illegally crossing into Canada after first arriving in the U.S. “It’s totally inappropriate and a violation of what Canadians believe in, the rule of law,” Butler says.

One law in this case is the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement, which states that refugee claimants are required to request refugee protection in the first safe country they arrive in, which in the case of the 200 each day entering Quebec from New York State would be the United States. In fact, more asylum-seekers entered Canada at its U.S. border in 2017 than the number of Syrian refugees in 2016.

But as Butler pointed out, loopholes exist. The Safe Third Country Agreement states that if people don’t cross via a train, at an airport or at a designated land border crossing, it’s a free for all. In Quebec, asylum-seekers are walking across unmonitored, invisible lines in the dirt.

Once in Canada, they can claim Charter of Rights protection and if they pass security checks, are admitted. They can then travel within Canada and are eligible for health and social assistance until the Immigration and Refugee Board hears their case. The Riyadh family had to wait more than two years for approval to enter Canada legally.

Whether they enter by the book or by foot, the Canadian government has vowed to admit almost one million immigrants by the end of 2020 as a way to fill labour gaps and spur innovation, a plan that Canadians are not averse to. In a February Environics survey of 2,000 Canadians, six in 10 disagreed that immigration levels are too high.

But last year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada produced an internal report that discussed immigration worries and Canada’s ability to absorb tens of thousands of newcomers each year. The Evidence-Based Levels and Mix: Absorptive Capacity report revealed that two out of three immigrants settle in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, where there are problems with housing, employment, health care, education, religious beliefs, ethnic enclaves and transit. The report also stated that those in charge of immigration have no clear ideas about how large-scale immigration will affect Canada.

I wish the Riyadh family much good luck and further improvements to their life in Canada. I am a bit disappointed that they aren’t adding some diversity to Sooke, a community, like many other small to medium places across Canada, that proved it could welcome them without putting too much strain on other services.

Still, Canada remains a place — with safety nets at the ready — where one is free to walk a tightrope to other destinations.