Ottawa, June 2 – the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM) invited the Chair of Levant settlement Centre (LSC) and retired Citizenship Judge Aris Babikian to testify as a witness at the hearing organized by the Committee on the Federal Government’s Initiative to Resettle Syrian Refugees in Canada.
After the initial seven minute opening remarks, Mr. Babikian and representatives of two other organizations, for an hour, discussed with Members of Parliament the various aspects of the Federal Government plan to resettle 25, 000 Syrian Refugees and the challenges, concerns, and integration struggles the refugees are facing.
Mr. Babikian stated that the LSC testimony is based on the organization’s eight months experience with Privately-Sponsored Refugees (PSR). He then addressed the difficulties the refugees are facing in accessing suitable job markets, the lack of affordable housing, the accreditation of professionals’ qualifications, the unaffordability of academic level education to university age students, the inconvenience of English language education for the middle and older age newcomers, the disparity the PSR are encountering in comparison to the Government-Assisted Refugees and the unfairness of the airline tickets loan policy.
LSC also expressed grave concern in regard to the Government new policy to limit sponsorship spaces for the upcoming fiscal year. The new quotas issued to the Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAH) generated ambivalence with Canadians who are willing to sponsor refugees. The limited quotas handicapped the SAHs and the cosponsors and made them agonise and make difficult choose of whom to select to sponsor.
LSC advocated making the Syrian refugees quota stand-alone quota separate from the overall annual refugees’ quota of the ministry and increase the SAHs quotas. The center also recommended that the Loan program should be waived. The LSC made 14 additional recommendations to improve the program.
At the end of the hearing, Babikian said: “We are grateful to CIMM members and staff for the opportunity to bring to their and the Minister’s attention some of the most pertinent issues the federal government Syrian refugees program is facing. The most important aspect is to treat the Syrian refugees equally regardless of the program which they came under.” He further stated “By tweaking some of the shortfalls, we believe the Canadian Government Syrian refugees’ policy could be model for the rest of the world to follow.”
The Levant Settlement Centre (LSC)