Coping Unprecedentedly With Refugee Entitlements

"Anecdotally, reports from visa officers abroad indicate that work experience is largely low-skilled and almost entirely limited to males."
"Overall, the needs of this population are higher than originally expected."
Brief, Immigration Department

More than 600 government assisted Syrian refugees have arrived in Ottawa since Dec. 31 and settlement agencies in the city expect another 500 by the end of February. (CBC)

Canada obviously didn't indulge in performing the kind of homework required to undertake a massive intake of refugees with any degree of anticipated success in the venture. What is assuming problematic proportions for Canada, however, represents a wholesale disruption on a massive scale hitherto unseen anywhere in the world for Europe, however. Still, Canada's emerging experience betraying a rash commitment by an unprepared government is instructive in and of itself. There will be some measure of success that will ultimately bear upon the venture, the rescue of quite a few futures of people deserving of a new lease on a life trajectory going awry that they had no hand in carrying out, as a simple humanitarian measure on the part of a relatively wealthy country. But this is a commitment carried out as a result of a perceived emergency that emerged out of election promises. A total of 25,000 government-assisted refugees is expected to arrive by the conclusion of 2016. Those that have already arrived have been collected in a two-month exercise that normally takes years. This influx of government-assisted refugees has greater numbers of child dependents, has lower language skills and lower education levels compared, for example with peer refugees being resettled by private groups. of government assisted approved cases 53 percent list five to eight people on each application in comparison to 7 percent of privately sponsored families, making it more difficult to find appropriate accommodation within budget. of approved applications, 55 percent are 14 years of age or younger compared with 27 percent of privately sponsored cases, requiring services to be enhanced for children who know only Arabic. of approved applicants 67 percent speak neither English nor French at a time when wait lists for language training are over a year long. of those accepted the average level of schooling for adult Syrian government-assisted refugees is six to nine years; 90 to 95 percent coming out of Jordanian refugee camps have not completed high school; many children are now a year or two behind. of those accepted, on the plus side general health is good; 23 percent of medical assessments had at least one health condition identified, most commonly hypertension, diabetes, vision or hearing impairment. Under government sponsorship refugees have all their living expenses paid for a full year. Their health benefits, rent, food, language training, schooling is all paid for by taxes extracted from Canadians. Where it might be expected that people escaping conflict, uncertainty, poverty, health problems unaddressed, for the prospect of a better future for themselves and their children might be in the throes of gratitude, in many instances it seems this is not the case.
To begin with, Canadian civil servants with immigration services were dispatched to the Middle East to make good the electioneering promises of the Liberals who were elected to government. There they visited refugee camps mostly in Lebanon and Jordan to interview Syrian refugees who might be interested in removing to Canada to forge a new life for themselves. To the surprise of most Canadians, most Syrians invited to make application were loathe to do so.    And it began to appear as though immigration officials would have a difficult time assembling enough numbers to give the new Liberal government crowing rights to.
Now that the new arrivals have come to Canada another kind of little surprise has erupted. A lack of affordable housing, the cause of much debate and scrambling. In some instances refugees temporarily lodged in hotels are grumbling that their expectation wasn't being met that a house be immediately provided for their needs. It cannot, of course, be expected that these refugees would have any knowledge that there are Canadians waiting to be housed in social housing as well. And then there is the additional consideration to be made; requests that they be situated close to other refugees. Above all, close to mosques. All of which goes some way to complicating the search for permanent and acceptable homes for many of the refugees. Carl Nicholson, executive director of the Catholic Centre for Immigrants, aiding in the search for suitable housing, points out that only half of the over 600 government-sponsored refugees arriving in Ottawa since December 31, for example, have found homes. An unexpected complication appears to be that in some instances families appear quite particular; turning down the housing that is being offered. Even though they are often given two choices of new housing arrangements. They are motivated, however, by their own expectations about where exactly it is they intend to live.

"One of the big things they want is, 'Please, please, please, I want to live next door to this family we've been travelling with for a month. Can you arrange that?' That's a big consideration for them," explained Mr. Nicholson. "They're in a strange place, it's new, they'd like to stick together." If they've heard about areas with gang activity that's an obvious negative.

"I think the biggest argument we make with them is, look ... someone else in Amman, Jordan, is stuck there because you're holding up the show."