Connecting fleeing Ukrainians with community support
OTTAWA — The plan to settle thousands of Ukrainians in Canada so far appears to offer no effective means to keep track of new arrivals and connect them directly with community supports, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress says.
The federal government is expected to release more details soon about the plan to settle an unlimited number of Ukrainian nationals and their families in Canada.
Many of the Ukrainians who arrive in Canada over the next weeks and months will be mothers and their children who left their homes weeks ago. Many won’t speak English or French, will have no contacts in Canada and very few resources, said Ihor Michalchyshyn, national executive director of the congress.
The government will have support services available at the airport, beginning Friday, to offer important arrival information to Ukrainians in their language, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced Monday.
As far as Michalchyshyn knows, that program will be voluntary and people could miss it, making it difficult for those arriving to access support from the government and community.
Without a registry of some kind, he wonders how community and settlement agencies will connect with the people who arrive. Only federal immigration officials will know specifically who is coming to Canada, he said.
As it is, volunteers with the congress are standing around at airports trying to stop people as they arrive to offer them help.
“We don’t even know when these people are coming,” he said in an interview. “Our institutions and community groups will pick up the pieces, but that is a very haphazard way to plan something for so many people.”
The government opened applications on March 17 to allow those fleeing the attack by Russia to come to Canada for three years on a visitor visa while they decide whether to return home or apply for permanent residency.
Nearly 60,000 Ukrainians and their families have applied to the program so far. About 60 arrived in Edmonton on Monday on a flight chartered by the Canadian Polish Historical Society, in partnership with former Alberta premier Ed Stelmach and former Alberta immigration minister Thomas Lukaszuk.
Fraser says 12,000 Ukrainians who applied through other immigration channels have also arrived in Canada since January.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that 3.9 million people have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries since Feb. 24.
It’s a first-of-its-kind program in Canada, designed to help people fleeing war come to Canada quickly without making them formal refugees, and allowing them to work and study while they plan their next steps.
Formal refugee programs, however, come with built-in supports, including help to find housing and orientation to life in Canada.
Fraser told the House of Commons on Tuesday the government would extend settlement supports, including help finding a job, language training and other measures usually available to refugees, to Ukrainians who come to Canada.
“It’s not enough that they arrive, they have to be set up for success once they get to Canada,” he said in a question period exchange.
Michalchyshyn worries those services might be difficult for people to access without help, especially if no one is keeping track of the newcomers after they land.
“If you want to sponsor a family, or frankly, if you need help, it is very unclear how that is supposed to work from either end,” he said.
The government has created a central jobs board to connect companies looking to hire Ukrainians with people as they arrive.
Many Canadians have offered other kinds of help, in the form of funds, donated goods and offers to sponsor families, but there’s currently no mechanism to connect them with people in need, Michalchyshyn said.
On Twitter Monday, Fraser said the department is working with provinces, the Ukrainian Canadian community, businesses and settlement organizations to develop more ways to support Ukrainians who come to Canada.