Please forward this to ONE Canadian immigrant today and tell them to subscribe here.
Five plus years ago, I landed in Canada as an economic immigrant. You know; skilled worker, the right type of degree, picked for what the country figured I’d add to the economy. All I had needed to do was fill out the forms, wait for my COPR to arrive, and then leave for Canada on my own terms.
That’s the kind of newcomer Canada seems to prefer and supposedly builds its immigration system around. Most years, skilled workers like me and their families are more than half of everyone we let into the country. And even when you go around asking people which newcomers to prioritise, they tell you to go look for people like me.
With refugees, it’s a different arrangement. They are people we take in because it’s the right thing to do. No one sits down to run the numbers on what they’ll add to the country before their visas are stamped.
Two black males outside Victoria Drive.
Which makes it easy to lump them in with everything people are frustrated about Canadian immigration right now. Yes, some of that frustration is fair because not everyone who claims asylum has a genuine case. And all that doesn’t help the processing backlog the IRCC has to deal with.
What I can’t wrap my head around is why, when something breaks in the immigration system, the collective stands trial for what a handful did or for what the rules failed to catch. But I digress.
It’d be fair to say that underneath all the frustration aimed at refugees is an assumption that they take more than they give to Canada. Well, UNHCR Canada did the numbers and published a report called “Refugees are Good for Canada.”
UNHCR senior team’s visit to ISSofBC.
Since 1980, the country has taken in about 1.5 million refugees. These amazing and resilient humans work at close to the same rate as people born here. A larger share end up in health care and the skilled trades, and they're twice as likely as Canadian-born workers to be in manufacturing and utilities, what the report calls the backbone jobs. They stay, too, as more than eight in ten go on to become citizens.
However, while statistics can tell you why a person is worth having in Canada, it can’t introduce you to them. It can’t show you what they had to give up to move to Canada, or what runs through their head when they are headed home after work. So, that’s what we are going to do.
For the next four weeks, the Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISSofBC) and The Newcomers are going to be sharing the stories of people who didn't choose to leave their home country, but who have spent every day since choosing everything else; the apartment they could finally afford, the language they practised until it stopped embarrassing them, the kids they coach on a Saturday morning, the city they keep choosing even on the days it's hard to love.
Ebrahim Al-Yousefi with a ukulele he made.
You'll meet them one at a time, because that's one of the best ways to make new friends.
Happy World Refugee Day, everyone.
