Who should we sponsor?

We started of our second meeting with a pot-luck dinner at Pegi and Phil’s house.
Rebecca, a registered nurse with extensive mental health experience, joined us to become our newest member. There are now 14 people in the sponsorship group – plus 15-year old Kieran, who has decided to accompany his uncle Raghu to the meetings. Will this large size make things unwieldy and complicated? Some group members suggested splitting the group in two, each with their own sponsorship agreement. After some discussions we agreed to stay together, as it would put less pressure on us inexperienced ‘first time sponsors’ and allow for more flexibility, as many of us have a busy schedule and are often traveling. We all agreed that given our large size, we need functioning sub-committees with clear expectations.

Several of us volunteered to be the lead for the various tasks required by the sponsorship agreement, such as housing, employment and health. 

One of the most important questions we asked ourselves was: Who should we sponsor? A woman at risk, someone from the LGBT community, a family? Some thought that sponsoring a bigger group of people might be too ambitious financially. We would need to raise at least $17,000 for a group of four – probably a lot more given how expensive Toronto is. Others felt strongly about sponsoring a mother,or parents, with children and felt that our group is big and connected enough to raise sufficient funds. Some members pointed out the potential difficulty of settling in teenagers into Canadian society. 

Given the strong medical expertise in our group, with two physicians and two registered nurses, and the availability of excellent medical and mental health resources in Toronto, we agreed that we should be open to sponsoring refugees with medical conditions. Several of us have been especially moved by the plight of Syrian refugees. We recognized that our choices are dependent on the profiles we will receive from Citizen and Immigration Canada, via the sponsorship agreement holder. Once we choose a profile we can put a place holder for three days to make further inquiries.

Our next important step will be to find a sponsor agreement holder (SAH). We discussed which one would be the most suitable for us. Andrew will first contact the United Church to see if a congregation is willing to support us. This lead to an interesting discussion of why SAHs seem to be mostly faith-based. None of us has any affiliation to a church or other religious group. Why are there not more secular groups involved in sponsoring refugees?
By Claudia Blume

Come as you are

In contemplating the ideal profile for those that our group will sponsor, I think many of us wonder whether we will be able to relate to the refugees that we bring to Canada.  In many cases the people will be coming from an environment and a culture that is very different from our own. What’s more, what if the refugees have a set of values or a world view that is antithetical to our own values and the values of the Canadian community where we will be helping them to settle.

Our group considers the question of whether we should have some kind of criteria for deciding which refugees we will go after.  Or if we should avoid certain groups because they may be too patriarchical or hold doctrinaire religious views. In thinking about this topic I remembered Ontario’s slogan from the 70’s

“a place to stand, a place to grow, Ontari, ari, ari, o”.

Granted, not the most inspiring motto. But for me it represented the view that what we had here was a cultural mosaic which didn’t demand that one change to fit in and belong here.   All are welcome.  What Ontario offered its residents was simply a place of opportunity and the freedom to be who you are.  And to come as you are. 

Paul M., who joined us at this meeting as someone who has led groups who have already settled several groups of refugees, mentioned that in undertaking this project we can expect that it will be a learning experience for us Canadians.  Possibly an emotional journey and an opportunity for growth for each of us. 

And it made me think that while we are interacting with these people, people who on the surface appear very different from ourselves, while we help them to sort out their children’s schooling or their family doctor etc., that we will probably discover the shared humanity that lies within us and which will help both sides to transcend all the outward differences that before separated us and seemed so big.   

Andrew FitzGerald

We are a group now

We had hoped to find at least 5 people needed to create a constituency group that can sponsor a refugee under the blended VOR program. The response was bigger than we had hoped: 13 people (and two guests) showed up at our first ‘formal’ meeting. Most came from two different groups – association members of Doctors Without Borders (where Claudia works) and members of a film group to which Andrew and Claudia belong.  It turns out that many of us live in Riverdale and that the group members have a wide range of expertise that will be valuable for settling in refugees, including backgrounds in medicine, education, human resources, finance and communications.

We shared our motivations for joining the group. Some of us simply wanted to give back while others have been particularly alarmed by the plight of Syrian refugees and wanted to do something instead of just feeling helpless in the face of the enormity of the problem  - and being frustrated by how few refugees from Syria and other countries Canada is taking in. Once a leader, Canada is now a shadow of its former self when it comes to taking in refugees. 

Canada aims to to resettle about 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years - less than 0.02 per cent of the number of Syrian refugees hosted by Jordan, and not even 0.009 per cent of the total taken in by Lebanon. Ottawa expects private groups to should the majority of the burden. Several of us are appalled that the Canadian government makes private citizens pay a big part of the costs for settling in refugees and hope to raise awareness about this issue.

We invited Paul M. to our first meeting, whose faith-based group had sponsored two sets of refugees, a family from Iraq and a couple from Burma. The group’s experience was mixed: one settlement was very positive and easy while the other one was very challenging, mainly due to different expectations of the group and the refugees, who had not been informed prior to their arrival that Canadian sponsors would be responsible for their settlement in the first year. They were angry that they could not live with family members in a different town but in the end valued their experience in Toronto as they were able to adapt much quicker to their host culture and learn English faster.

Paul gave us some valuable pieces of advice, such as that we should be careful with our expectations. Our role is to help settle refugees and not become friends for life. We need to be aware that we will be quite busy before the refugees arrive and in the first 2 months after their arrival, with activities such as finding housing, opening bank accounts, finding schools etc. He stressed the importance of group formation and developing conflict resolution mechanisms.

Claudia Blume

"Maybe mother's day isn't the best day for this"

It’s a Sunday morning in May and I’m a little nervous.  Claudia and I have invited quite a few people to a refugee awareness event at our house for this afternoon.  But it is Mother’s Day and a lot of people have already indicated that they can’t make it. 

I’m hoping we won’t be wasting the time of our 3 invited speakers, each of whom has lots of experience in this area and who will be donating their Sunday afternoon in order to meet with us.

As it turns out, we end up with a pretty full house with over 30 people showing up. It seems that the refugee issue is resonating with people.

The first speaker, Yosief Araya, works for the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program (RSTP). The program is funded by the federal government and is designed to support Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs). Yosief explained to us the different ways in which private citizens can sponsor refugees.  One option is to nominate people for the Canadian government to recognize as refugees (so-called “named” refugees). The process takes between 24 – 48 months and sponsors receive no financial support from the government. 

The other option, which seems a better fit for us, is to sponsor refugees through the “Blended Visa Office-Referred Program”. These are people who have already been identified by the UNHCR as refugees, have been accepted by Canada and are “ready to travel“.  This latter category requires very little paperwork on the part of the sponsoring group and the refugees can arrive into Canada within 1 to 4 months. Under this program, at least five people have to form a constituent group and have to pay for more than half of the sponsored refugee’s costs in the first year. Yosief told us that Canada plans to bring in 800 to 1000 refugees under the blended refugee settlement program in 2015. 

We learned that the main focus of Canada's blended VOR program in 2015 is on the following populations: Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Congolese, Burundians, Burmese, Bhuanese and Colombians.

Yosief is followed by Khwaka Kukuboo of the United Church of Canada. Faith communities have historically been a leader in forming groups to sponsor and settle refugees and the United Church has been one of the biggest players in Canada. Khwaka shared a document with profiles of refugees currently available for sponsorship with us. The vast majority are from Eritrea, followed by Burmese. Surprisingly, there are no Syrians on the list.

Our final speaker was Larry Peloso, representing the Metropolitan Community Church, which has been a leader in advocating for LGBT refugee issues and sponsoring and settling refugees who are being persecuted for their sexual orientation.

I think many people in the audience found it surprising that the Canadian policy for most refugees is that they must be sponsored and settled by private citizens in order for them to be allowed to come to Canada.  While European governments will pay for and arrange the settlement of refugees, it is private citizens who must undertake both the cost and the time to settle many of the refugees coming to Canada.

There was also a discussion about how big a problem the current refugee situation is. Globally, there are an estimated 60 million people who have been displaced due to war and persecution. 13 million have been forced to flee their countries.  

We talked about how easy it is to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis, to become paralyzed when confronted by the need.  But then someone pointed out that while our sponsorship of a single refugee family would only represent a drop in the bucket, really a drop in the ocean , that in fact for that one family, for each of the individuals within that family, it is a pretty transformative ‘drop’.  That in fact that family will be moving from a refugee camp where they are living in limbo, with no clear hope for the future, to Toronto where whole new avenues of possibility and opportunity will open up for each one of the family members. 

Ending our meeting with this discussion regarding sponsoring a refugee family, providing a hopeful future where it doesn’t exist right now, and thinking specifically about what it must be like for the parents themselves to see their children in need, it suddenly seemed appropriate that we were holding this event on Mother’s Day, in a safe place, on a sunny afternoon.  

Andrew FitzGerald

How it all started

I went to high-school in downtown Toronto in the late 1970s with an extremely diverse group of students.  A large number of the kids were ”‘new Canadians” who, along with their families, had in one way or another ended up here in Canada.

And I remember thinking at the time that if a person wanted to get a sense of the world’s troubled spots over the last 40 years, that you wouldn’t have to do any research. All you would need to do is go around my classroom and ask the students where their families were originally from.  Eastern Europe, Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Columbia, the Congo, Somalia etc. etc.  - they were all represented in my class. 

At that time, back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, Toronto still seemed like a very Anglo-Saxon kind of place.  But that’s completely changed now.  Over ½ of the population of Toronto was born in a different country.  There is no single ethnic group making up the majority of citizens – we are all minorities here.  And if you ask Torontonians what makes their city special, what they love most about the place, I am sure most people would talk about its ethnic and cultural diversity and its over-riding sense of tolerance.

Over the past few months my wife and I have been watching with alarm the reports regarding the massive refugee crises that has exploded in connection with the Syrian war and with the people fleeing in boats in the Mediterranean Sea.  Current global events, in Syria and other countries, have created what the UN has described as the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII.  

In past crises we would get involved by firing off a cheque to a relief agency, signing a petition or possibly highlighting our concern to our local MP.  But in this case, given the scale of the crisis, it doesn’t seem like enough. 

In 1979 / 80, in what many people consider one of Canada’s “finest hours”, private citizens from all walks of life responded to the Vietnamese “Boat People” crisis by privately sponsoring 34,000 refugees to resettle in this country over an 18 month period. 

Unlike most European countries, a central tenet of the Canada refugee policy is to rely on, and in many cases require, the involvement of private citizens in the sponsorship and settlement process.  For example, the Canadian government has offered to resettle an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next 3 years, however 6000 of these spots will only be filled if private citizens step forward in order to sponsor and help settle them.

With this in mind, my wife and I sent out invitations in May inviting people we know over to our house for a “Refugee Awareness” meeting.

Andrew FitzGerald