Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Integration Branch, held a series of workshops across Canada between March and June 2008 to investigate the role of social engagement in integrating newcomers into Canada. Several objectives were outlined for this initiative, including the desire to clarify and articulate foundational principles to guide policy and programming, to identify models of intervention and to strengthen collaboration among key partners.
Workshops were held in Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver and participants included government policy people, academics and researchers, immigrant-serving organizations. Workshops were organized in themes of key concepts, collaboration and measurement.
CIC has released a report summarizing the discussions. Social Engagement and Integration: Learning from Others to Inform Approaches to Integration is a 26 page paper, offering a summary of each of the six workshops.
Interesting to us is the absence of discussion on immigrant/refugee children and families in these discussions. “Children” never appear in the document; “Family/families” appear four times, never as a main subject or area of discussion.
The glaring omission of children and families in a purported attempt to develop strong collaborations to support social engagement, social cohesion and integration, is unfortunate. CCICY supporters in these six cities may consider using the reports summaries as a launch for federal election candidates.
Category: Federal
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The role of social engagement in integration
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Federal election set for October 14th
The Federal Election has been set for October 14, 2008.
immigrantchildren.ca will maintain a page on the upcoming election, entitled ELECTION ~ Fall ’08, and will include relevant and useful information for folks interested in immigration issues specifically as they may be related to immigrant children and families. Please send me an email or reply to this post with the questions/issues you would like to see raised in the debate or questions you’d like to see asked of federal candidates. We’ll circulate a list through the CCICY listserv in the next little while and post on the ELECTION ~ FALL ’08 page. -
Election watch ~ Fall '08?
Rumours are rife in the media about a fall election, most recently, the notion that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is prepared to abandon his fixed election date law (Globe and Mail, August 20th). Immigration policy will likely be a key point of debate/discussion in the upcoming election (as is often is). See, for example, the August 4/08 piece by Lawrence Martin in the Globe and Mail entitled “Playing the immigration card will come with some risk for the Liberals” where Martin captures what will likely be a key theme for the Conservatives: i.e., calling out the Liberals for their voting ‘yes’ on the recent budget bill, Bill C-50 (June 9/08). The bill included immigration policy reforms that the Liberals said (April 3/08) that they were/are not in support of:
“The Liberal Opposition feels strongly that the drastic immigration reforms introduced by the Conservative government should be removed from the budget bill debated in Parliament”.
Related links:
Members of Parliament.
Conservative Party of Canada.
Conservative Convention, scheduled for November 13-15, 2008 in Winnipeg. NB: Of eight “key policy issues” identified for the convention, immigration does not appear.
Liberal Party of Canada.
Forum Liberalis, where the Liberal Party of Canada is inviting Canadians to participate in policy dialogue. Lots of input/interest in immigration issues.
New Democratic Party of Canada.
Green Party of Canada.
Bloc Quebecois. -
Immigration-related data at Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada has assembled a useful page of links for researchers. The page – entitled Ethnic diversity and immigration – contains information on:
– ethnic groups
– visible minorities
-immigrants and non-permanent residents
– generation status in Canada (first generation, second generation, third generation or longer)
– citizenship
– education, training, and skills
– labour market and income
– health status and access to health care
– integration of newcomers
– knowledge and use of languages
– immigration history
– religion
– civic participation, attitudes, values, and social networks
– perceived discrimination and unfair treatment. -
Federal government launches consultation on immigration
Following the recent changes introduced to immigration policy, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, the Honourable Diane Finley is conducting a cross-Canada consultation to receive input from provincial and territorial officials, stakeholders and the public on how the changes should be implemented.
The changes will, according to the federal government, “reduce wait times so that families are reunited faster and skilled workers arrive sooner“. The consultation has 3 components:
1. The Department will meet with the provinces and territories on the following dates:- July 7 ~ St. John’s NF & Labrador
- July 9 ~ Halifax NS
- July 10 ~ Fredericton NB
- July 11 ~ Charlottetown PE
- July 16 ~ Edmonton AB
- July 17 & 18 ~ Winnipeg MB and SK
- July 21 & 22 ~ Toronto ON
- TBD ~ The Territories.
2. A national roundtable of stakeholders will be held on August 15 (by invitation only).
3. The public can participate by completing an online survey. The survey instructions include a request to confine comments in response to the questions posed. There are no questions about immigrant children or families or the family reunification aspect of Canada’s immigration policy. -
CIC funding announcement for Nova Scotia: Benefits children and families, says YMCA
The Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration today announced 10.3 milliion in funding to support 3,000 immigrants to Nova Scotia. “We need new Canadians and we need to help them settle comfortably in our communities” said Peter MacKay, MP for Central Nova and federal Minister of National Defense and Atlantic Canada Opportunities agency.
YMCA VP for Community Outreach and Family Services, Brenda Millar, was pleased with the funding – some of it going to the YMCA:“Our YMCA programs help create stronger communities. We achieve this by helping immigrants settle in their new communities, as well as by educating members of our Nova Scotia communities about the issues and barriers that newcomers face in adjusting and adapting to a new language, culture, climate and community, while maintaining their own. With our special emphasis on programs for immigrant children/youth and their families, Citizenship and Immigration Canada ensures that we can promote diversity as part of building more inclusive communities”.
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Canadian Multiculturalism Day
The federal government is bundling a series of days (June 21 – National Aboriginal Day; June 24 – Saint Jean Baptiste Day; June 27 – Canadian Multiculturalism Day; and July 1 – Canada Day) as the Celebrate Canada! initiative.
Let’s revisit the Proclamation that, in 2002, established Canadian Multiculturalism Day:“Whereas multiculturalism is a fundamental characteristic of the Canadian heritage; Whereas Canadians of all backgrounds have made and continue to make valuable contributions to Canadian society; Whereas it is considered appropriate that there be, in each year, a day to mark and celebrate those contributions and to recognize Canadian diversity; And whereas, by Order in Council P.C. 2002-1869 of October 31, 2002, the Governor in Council has directed that a proclamation do issue declaring June 27 of each year as Canadian Multiculturalism Day, a celebration of the contributions of Canada’s diverse people to Canadian society; Now know you that We, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council for Canada, do by this Our Proclamation declare June 27 of each year as Canadian Multiculturalism Day, a celebration of the contributions of Canada’s diverse people to Canadian society”.
How relevant is official multiculturalism in Canada today? What’s the impact for immigrant children and families?
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Talking to Liberals
FYI, the federal Liberal Party of Canada is launching an online forum to engage Canadians in its policy development process. Here’s an opportunity to raise issues related to immigrant children and families. An excerpt from the announcement (links added by me):
National Policy Chair Joan Bourassa and National Policy Vice-Chair Dominic LeBlanc are proud to announce the full public launch of the Liberal Party of Canada’s Forum Liberalis, a web platform that enables Canadians to collaborate, exchange ideas, and develop innovative new policies….
The online forum is at http://forum.liberal.ca. Registration is required.
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Bill C-50 gets voted on today
The CBC reports that Bill C-50 will be voted on today. If defeated, it may trigger a federal election, but news sources agree that it is likely only the NDP and the Bloc Québécois will vote against it. Search this blog for “proposed changes to immigration policy” for more info.
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IRB seeks members
The Immigration and Refugee Board is seeking full-time order-in-council members for its offices in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary. The positions are with the Refugee Protection Division and the Immigration Appeal Division. Let’s get some child advocates inside! Deadline to apply is June 30th.