HELLO JI!
A WORD (OR TWO HUNDRED) FROM THE EDITOR
Image credit: CALBERT WARNER on Pexels.
In From Women To The World by Elizabeth Filippouli, Basma Alawee describes what it felt like to be a refugee. “...It’s when you force yourself to smile as you walk down the street to prove you’re a nice person, not a stranger who people should be afraid of.”
Gut-wrenching words. But press releases from Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on initiatives to welcome Afghan and Ukrainian refugees fill me with hope. The accompanying images of members of various levels of governments receiving weary, anxious arrivals, of officers holding up signs in different languages, bending down to tie the shoelaces of a child, confirm my belief that I’m in a good place.
Recently, Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced three federal charter flights to Canada for Ukrainians and their family members approved through the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel (CUAET) program. Once in Canada, IRCC provided temporary accommodations for up to 14 nights to people on these flights who do not already have suitable accommodations in place.
But that caring attitude was MIA the day we returned from a brief visit to India recently. A female immigration officer at Toronto Pearson gave an elderly lady the hardest time. “Do you have ArriveCAN?” she asked repeatedly, loudly and exasperatedly, her body language doing nothing to induce confidence in the poor woman. Another immigration officer gave a young family an equally hard time.
Immigration officers have a duty to ensure all paperwork is in order to ensure the integrity of the system, but think about it, the lady was most likely here for the much-touted family reunification and the young family were visitors, if not newcomers, who had gone through all the tests, checks and balances. And yet they were treated harshly.
The family was still there when we left, but I spotted the lady being herded into another line by a burly officer issuing brusque instructions.
“No. You go there. There.” I told the officer that she probably didn’t follow English and asked if I could explain to her in Hindi where she should go. He nodded reluctantly.
On our flight were also several international students, two of whom we struck up a conversation with. Having heard so much in recent months about the hardships many of them face, I told them to contact the Indian consulate should they face any problems and also gave them our telephone numbers. As we exited the airport, I saw one of them emerge, her jaunty ponytail signalling a “Canada, here I come!” confidence.
So, a mixed bag, but not the Canada I’ve returned to in the past.
The 2022-2024 Immigration Levels Plan charts an ambitious path for immigration to help the Canadian economy recover. But what happens when immigrants get here? Are the right supports and services in place? According to Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, not so much (see cover feature).
Happy Canada Day!
Shagorika Easwar