ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: Policy and Legislation

  • Policy research report: Immigrant women's proficiency in English

    Policy Matters, an initiative of the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research in Immigration Studies (CERIS) has published a summary of recent research on immigrant women learning English.
    Reclaiming Voice: Challenges and Opportunities for Immigrant Women Learning English identified barriers and supports to immigrant women learning English. Principal investigator was Kenise Murphy Kilbride. The findings and recommendations resulting from the research have been made available on http://www.immigrantwomen.ca.

  • 2009 immigration levels for Canada

    The office of the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism has released news on the immigration levels planned for 2009.
    Backgrounders to the news release include information on the ministerial instructions for visa officers to assist them in identifying applications that may be given priority consideration. 
    ‘Live-in caregivers’ continue to be listed as economic-class priorities. 
    From the backgrounder, this information on family-class applications:

    “Family class applications will be processed in the same manner and with the same priorities as usual. Specifically, applications for sponsored spouses, partners and dependent children shall continue to be placed into processing immediately upon receipt”.

    Read the full ministerial instructions, as they appear in the Canada Gazette.

  • Speech from the Throne ~ Canada's 40th Parliament begins

    Yesterday, the Governonr Genenral delivered the Speech from the Throne, opening Canada’s 40th Parliament. In the SFT, a commitment to work to “increase the uptake of immigrant settlement programs” in the provinces. With regard to children, the SFT included an intention to increase the child care allowance and improve maternity and parental leave policies and benefits.
    Full test of the Speech from the Throne in html and PDF.

  • New federal cabinet

    The Governor General has sworn in the next cabinet for the 40th Parliament. Of interest to immigrantchildren.ca readers, these posts:

    For Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism: The Honourable Jason Kenney, former Minister of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity)
    For Human Resources and Social Development: The Honourable Diane Finley, former Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

    immigrantchildren.ca will update the blog, revising any relevant pages over the next little while.

  • Welcoming immigrants to Canada

    Kudos to The Montreal Gazette for publishing an editorial today that asks not what immigrants can do for Canada, but what Canada can do for immigrants. An excerpt:

    “…too much public-policy discussion centres on what immigrants can do for Canada. We should also be looking at what we are doing for them. Do they succeed here? Find work in their occupational fields, have children, live comfortably?

    “Many a Canadian family has its story of the old folks who came from the old country and sacrificed so much so the kids could stay in school. These are Canadian success stories. What governments and society need to do today is to make sure that Canada attracts and welcomes and helps immigrants, from all parts of the world, who will continue this healthy and inspiring realization of the Canadian dream”.

  • Oct 13-19 is Citizenship Week










    Citizenship Week is held the 3rd week of October every year. Several activities and resources on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website here. Some interesting facts:

    ·      Canada became the first Commonwealth country to gain its own citizenship act in 1947

    ·      Before 1947, Canadians were considered British Subjects

    ·      Prime Minister at the time, William Lyon Mackenzie King became the first Canadian citizen

    ·      Each year approximately 160,000 people become Canadian citizens

    ·      The 2001 census says about 84% of eligible immigrants are Canadian citizens.

     Let’s take the ocassion to review the Oath of Citizenship: 

    I swear/affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.

    immigrantchildren.ca invites you to revisit the FInal Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights, Children: The Silenced Citizens. Effective Implementation of Canada’s International Obligations with respect to the Rights of Children.


  • The Liberal Party immigration plan

    <An update for my blog visitors, Jan 24, 2010: From the stats, I see there are many visitors to the blog looking for the “Liberal party immigration plan”. I’ve been searching for some time now and even sent an email to the federal Liberal party last fall to inquire. I have had no response. Once I find it/get a response, I’ll be sure to update the blog here and on the main site (as well as through my twitter account)>.

    ~

    “Immigration: Welcoming New Canadians for a successful Canada”, the Liberals plan for immigration, was released today and is also referred to in our ELECTION ~ Fall ’08 page.
    The Liberals appear to be taking the same tact as the Conservatives. Maybe that’s why they didn’t vote against Bill C-50?  Seems to be agreement that Canada needs certain types of immigrants to meet Canada’s labour needs. Sound familiar?
    Also, no mention of the family reunification aspect of our immigration policy. Here’s what is said:

    “We need to reduce the current backlog, modernize our immigration system, and help new Canadians succeed once they are here. The result will be a stronger economy and a fairer country”.

    This indeed sounds familiar. Here’s what the Conservative government said about the changes to immigration policy embedded in Bill C-50 (which the Liberals did not vote against):

    “The changes aim to modernize Canada’s immigration system and shorten the time it takes to immigrate to Canada….The legislative amendments, combined with the 2008 budget funding, are necessary to better manage applications, to be more responsive to the labour market…”.

  • CCR questions for federal candidates

    The Canadian Council on Refugees has posted a fact sheet and series of questions for political parties and candidates on immigration and refugee issues for the upcoming 2008 federal election. Questions specifically related to children and families include the following: See the ELECTION ~ Fall ’08 page (to the right) for more questions for candidates and parties.

    TRAFFICKING: Will you support the Canadian Council for Refugees’ proposal for legislative amendment to protect trafficked persons in Canada?

    Background: Currently, immigration legislation provides no specific measures to protect trafficked persons.  This means that trafficked persons, after being abused and exploited by their traffickers, may be simply detained and deported by the Canadian authorities.  For example, this summer an 11-year-old girl, who was a suspected victim of trafficking, was detained for over a month by Canadian immigration authorities.
    The Canadian Council for Refugees has developed a proposal to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act  in order to provide temporary and permanent protection to trafficked persons.

    REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT: Will you support an increase in the numbers of refugees resettled to Canada (including Iraqi refugees)?

    Background: The UN Refugee Agency has recently estimated the number of refugees in need of resettlement at 560,000, a huge increase over previous years.  The Iraqi crisis has led to two million refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries.  Canada has not responded in any significant way to this crisis, unlike similar situations in the past where Canada has responded with special resettlement efforts.
    Meanwhile Canada is resettling significantly fewer refugees today than we were in the 1990s (average annual in 90’s: 14,600; average annual 2000-2007: 10,600).
    For more information, see Iraqi refugee crisis: Call for increased Canadian response, Dec 2007.

    FAMILY REUNIFICATION: How will you make family reunification a priority and ensure that children are quickly reunited with their parents?

    Background: In recent years, the immigration program has been increasingly oriented towards economic immigration, at the expense of family reunification.  Refugee families in particular face extremely long processing times: in some visa posts, families routinely wait more than a year and a half for reunification – this includes children that are separated from both their parents.  There are also barriers: for example, separated children in Canada have no right in law to reunite with their parents.
    The CCR has developed a Manifesto on Family Reunification, calling for an immigration and refugee system that respects basic rights by favouring the speedy reunification of families. It calls in particular for the processing of family members of refugees, especially separated children, to be done in Canada.

  • The role of social engagement in integration

    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.

  • Call for papers: Canadian women and multiculturalism

    Canadian Women’s Studies/les cahiers de la femme (cws/cf). CWS/cf’s Fall/Winter 2008 issue is committed to an exploration of women and Canadian multiculturalism. Twenty years after the Canadian Multicultural Act was passed in 1988, this journal aims to provide a space to reflect critically on the issues related to Canadian multiculturalism for the last two decades in specifically feminist terms. …
    While multiculturalism is often touted as a reason to celebrate Canadian identity, our approach is premised on the understanding that multiculturalism is in fact a contentious concept. As a policy, multiculturalism is embedded within gendered-racialized discourses of national identity, that variously urge tolerance or assimilation in response to deep anxieties about the loss of national identity.
    Possible topics of interest to immigrantchildren.ca visitors:

    • immigration policy and patriarchalization of immigrant communities/families
    • 1st generation, 2nd generation, 1.5 generation experiences
    • Québec v. federal policies (interculturalism v. multiculturalism)
    • new policies and laws, Bill C-50
    • multiculturalism and education.

    For more information, contact CWS/cf by telephone: 416-736-5356 or email: cwscf@yorku.ca

    Deadline: September 30, 2008.