Morning Brief, Public Policy

Canadian Immigration Policy Examined  – Morning Brief March 21, 2018

Posted by Katerina Stamadianos on
Good morning subscribers!

Internationally, Canada is known as a polite and progressive country, celebrated for its immigration policy and efforts at refugee resettlement. On closer inspection, it appears that these sentiments fail to acknowledge the country’s fraught past, enduring racism and xenophobia, and don’t account for just how often Canadian immigration policy falls short. This week, we’ve collected several articles that push back on the idea of Canadian excellence in immigration policy.

This week’s Morning Brief was prepared by Katerina Stamadianos. Sign up here to receive the Morning Brief directly to your inbox.

Canadian Immigration Policy Examined  
  • Applauders of Canadian immigration policy may be forgetting the country’s treatment of Tamil refugees following the 26-year Sri Lankan Civil War. Under the Harper administration, the Canadian government passed Bill C-49, which enabled the detainment of 569 Tamil refugees. As Mirusha Yogarajah pointedly states, “Canada is no angel, let’s get that straight.”  [Yogarajah/PPGR]
  • Taken from the PPGR archives, this piece outlines the research of Professor Daniyal Zuberi and his work on Canada’s immigration successes and failures. While Canada prides itself on the contributions of highly-skilled immigrants, the country struggles with how to integrate temporary foreign workers and curb lasting racism. A year ago, Zuberi was already pointing to how Canada can get off its ‘immigration high-horse’.  [Ghebretecle and Sadiq/PPGR]
  • Despite the Ontario government’s efforts to uphold fair treatment of immigrants in the labour market, the current framework for assessing the credentials of newcomers may be placing unnecessary hurdles in front of skilled immigrants. This piece from the PPGR archives considers the role of licensing in immigration policy. [Lam/PPGR]
  • The responsibility of the Canadian government does not stop when a refugee crosses its borders. In the case of the Yazidi women entering the country after fleeing ISIS, trauma and cultural isolation persist long after landing in Canada. Is the federal government falling short in supporting these women? [Porter/The Star]
That’s it for us this week! The next edition of the Morning Brief will make its way to your inbox on March 28th, 2018.
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