Voies vers la prospérité: Canada

Many newcomers to Canada are interested in volunteering. In addition to contributing to their new community, they may see it as a way to improve their language skills or gain work experience. Or they may wish to socialize and meet new people. To engage new Canadians, organizations must be welcoming and supportive. They should intentionally reach out to newcomers. […] Immigrants volunteer at a rate of 39 per cent and volunteer an average of 162 hours per year. While this rate is lower than people born in Canada (47 per cent of Canadians over 15 years old), immigrants tend to contribute more hours.

http://www.delta-optimist.com/news/newcomers-gain-experience-by-helping-out-community-1.942482

Since August 2013, Khurshid Begum Awan has been living in sanctuary in a Montreal church. She had courageously opted to defy a deportation order which would have disrupted her access to care, divided her family and put her safety at risk. Widely observed as Refugee Rights Day, April 4 marks the anniversary of the Singh Decision. On a day where we remember migrant and refugee struggles for freedom, dignity and security and recommit to fighting ongoing injustice, we highlight the struggle of the Awan family. The Awan family’s story is shaped by the systemic exclusion of migrants and by the by the violence of the Canadian immigration system.

http://rabble.ca/news/2014/04/refuge-on-refugee-rights-day-awan-family-story?utm_content=buffer56727&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

It’s another chapter in the continuing saga over a former cabinet minister’s role in a tussle between the province and the federal government over changes to the immigration program, a battle Manitoba eventually lost. Manitoba’s opposition Progressive Conservatives are accusing the governing NDP of hiding information from requests made under Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy legislation.  The Tories said in 2012, they requested information about then-cabinet minister Christine Melnick and whether she played a role in inviting immigrants and groups involved with immigrant issues to a debate at the Manitoba Legislature about changes the federal government was making that might affect them. […] At the time, the Tory request came to nothing.  But the party repeated it this year, and were stunned with what it received: an email from a government staffer referring to a draft of the invitation and an outline of how it would be dispersed to encourage people to “attend and support” the provincial government’s efforts to protest Ottawa’s changes.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/tories-accuse-ndp-of-hiding-info-as-immigration-email-surfaces-1.2598626

New Brunswick’s commissioner of official languages says more must be done to ensure that one-third of all immigrants to the province are francophones. Katherine d’Entremont says only 12 per cent of immigrants to the province have registered as francophones in recent years. She says that is too far out of step with the historical reality of francophones making up 33 per cent of the province’s population. “The demographic weight of the community is lessening,” said d’Entremont. “If the francophone community sits at 33 per cent of the overall population and year over year over year, immigration rates are attracting only 12 per cent francophones, then the 33 per cent is going to decline gradually over time,” she said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/languages-commissioner-wants-more-french-speaking-immigrants-1.2598280

L’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada a arrêté cette semaine deux consultants montréalais qui auraient aidé 367 familles libanaises à obtenir frauduleusement le statut de citoyen ou de résident permanent canadien afin de profiter des services sociaux sans y avoir réellement droit. Une grande proportion des centaines de clients du duo auraient fait mine de résider au Canada pour jouir des services sociaux alors qu’ils habitaient en réalité au Moyen-Orient, selon ce qu’ont découvert les enquêteurs de l’Agence. Rafic Mansour, 66 ans, de Dollard-des-Ormeaux, et Meryem El Hassani, 51 ans, de Laval, ont comparu au palais de justice de Montréal, hier, pour répondre de près d’une quarantaine de chefs d’accusations criminelles, notamment d’avoir encouragé leurs clients à faire des déclarations trompeuses aux autorités en matière d’immigration, citoyenneté, passeports et impôts.

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-affaires-criminelles/affaires-criminelles/201404/04/01-4754533-immigration-un-homme-et-une-femme-arretes-pour-fraude-massive.php

Immigration et intégration, deux thèmes peu ou pas abordés après quatre semaines de campagne électorale au Québec. Pourtant ces deux thèmes sont cruciaux dans une province qui, contexte démographique oblige, accueille bon an mal an, plus de 50 000 immigrants permanents.  […] Alors que le débat sur la cohésion sociale, engendré par le dépôt du projet de loi sur une Charte des valeurs québécoises, par le Parti québécois, ne cesse de créer des remous, le sociologue de formation, Doudou Sow, a analysé, sous deux angles, la problématique de l’intégration des immigrants dans leur société d’accueil et vient de publier deux essais : « Intégration professionnelle des personnes immigrantes et identité québécoise : une réflexion sociologique » et « Intégration : une responsabilité partagée entre la société d’accueil et la personne immigrante. »

http://www.rcinet.ca/fr/2014/04/04/les-relations-interculturelles-en-temps-delections/