By Tân Lâm Tú Vân
The Syrian crisis, which has been raging on for years, highlights the challenges and obstacles faced by refugees and asylum seekers.
Locally, organizations are mobilizing to help refugees.
Petite-Nation sans frontières is a community group comprised of citizens that started a private sponsorship process to welcome two families to Petite-Nation, Québec.
Refugees Welcome Ottawa, a public advocacy group, hopes to raise awareness about the precarious situation refugees face and advocates for long-term changes to Canadian immigration policies.
Carty House, a transition house for female refugee claimants and convention refugees, offers support to women once they arrive in Canada.
The private sponsorship process: painstaking…
When Petite-Nation sans frontières decided to sponsor a Syrian family, the group quickly realized that it would be complicated to even find somebody to sponsor. “A two to five person sponsorship [as encouraged by the Québec government] is much more accessible for people who want to sponsor family members, and not for a group like ours, which does not have pre-existing links with Syrian families,” Josée Madéia Cyr-Charlebois, spokesperson for the group, told the Leveller. In fact, the group does not have access to a list of potential refugees waiting to be paired with a Québec family.
This list is only available to organizations providing services to refugees that have an agreement with Immigration-Québec. Less than a dozen organizations, including Accueil Parrainage-Outaouais, have signed such an agreement. These organizations guide those who want to sponsor refugees, in addition to reducing the Ministry’s backlog by filtering potential sponsors and identifying which are likely to be successful.
“Having the support from Accueil Parrainage-Outaouais was invaluable,” Cyr-Charlebois stated. “[It] allows us to help refugees that have already been identified and pre-approved by the Québec government.” Prior to talking to Accueil Parrainage-Outaouais, the project’s success seemed fragile, she added.
…costly, but oh so hopeful.
Following the Liberal government’s promise to receive 25,000 Syrian refugees before the end of 2015, Petite-Nation sans frontières hopes to welcome the sponsored families without having to wait for the usual delay of up to five years. However, the group will not be able to avoid the cost of the process through which it becomes the guarantor of those families for the first three years following their arrival.
Initiating a sponsorship request with the government requires Petite-Nation sans frontières to pay $12,000 for a family of four and $10,000 for a couple. This does not include financial and other needs these families will have upon their arrival. Help from the public is necessary. “We would like to gather $35,000; however, ideally that amount would be closer to $50,000,” said Cyr-Charlebois. “These families will not only have to provide for their basic needs but will also have to rebuild their life.”
“They lost everything and we want them to feel at home, comfortable,” she added.
To this day, Petite-Nation sans frontières has gathered, in donations and loans, the necessary amount to begin the sponsorship process for a family of four. “It is unreal, fantastic! Especially […] since the likelihood that those families arrive before the end of the year are really good,” exclaimed Cyr-Charlebois. “We are all anxious to know they are safe and warm.”
Alternative Actions
Sponsoring a refugee constitutes an important financial commitment, one that is inaccessible to many. There are, however, other ways to support refugees.
“We want to do our part by bringing people together over the issue to explore solutions and consider how we can work together to welcome refugees to Ottawa,” Aditya Rao, a University of Ottawa law student and member of Refugees Welcome Ottawa, explained to the Leveller.
This public advocacy group is organizing a series of events at the end of November to explore various ways to support and integrate refugees into Ottawa communities.
For Refugees Welcome Ottawa, it is equally important to shed the light on the harsh reality and the logistical obstacles faced by those who must flee their country for a chance to live, not knowing whether they will even survive the journey. In addition, important hurdles remain once they have arrived in Canada.
Jacqueline Romero, from Carty House, told the Leveller that they will “need affordable housing, food, legal support, access to medical treatment, and language and work training”.
Both Refugees Welcome Ottawa and Carty House insist on acknowledging that the refugee crisis goes beyond that of the Syrian refugees: it is permanent, with glaring needs. Indeed, there are currently over 19.5 million refugees in the world and, Romero explained, “Canada is also currently receiving refugees from countries like Uganda, Nigeria, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, etc.”
Refugees Welcome Ottawa’s goal is to advocate for sound humanitarian refugee policy, government action on refugee resettlement, and support for civil society working to help integrate incoming refugees. According to Rao, “We want to keep the spotlight on refugee issues in Ottawa.”
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For more information on or to make a donation to Petite-Nation sans frontières, visit www.petitenationsansfrontieres.ca
This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 8 No. 3 (Nov/Dec 2015).
