As more Syrian refugees arrive in Canada through a mix of private and government sponsorship, the Ottawa Centre Refugee Action is recommending that the government direct more refugees to the thousands of private sponsors across the country who are waiting to provide support.
The organization links together people in Ottawa Centre who want to support refugees, forming groups of around 10-15 people who will help with the settlement of a refugee or refugee family when they arrive.
Angela Keller-Herzog has been working to coordinate all of the people who have stepped up to provide different kinds of support for incoming refugees, whether it includes financial resources or special skills such as teaching English as a Second Language.
“When (refugee families) arrive, they have a built-in extended family that will help them cope, help them navigate Ottawa, help them find suitable housing,” Keller-Herzog explained.
So far, they have raised over $170,000 in pledges for refugees. They’ve begun to help one family settle in Ottawa who arrived last week, but they have the resources to support more families, Keller-Herzog said.
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The Liberal government committed to sponsoring at least 15,000 of the 25,000 refugees due to arrive by the end of February 2016. However, the support of private sponsors could be more beneficial for the refugees, Keller-Herzog said.
“We understand the government wants to keep its word to Canadians and honour that commitment, but….there’s thousands of Canadians who would very much like to support (refugees) through private sponsorship, and I think that the stats bear out that if refugees come in and have that kind of network with Canadians, their job prospects are much better, and their prospects for integration,” Keller-Herzog said.
“The whole psychology of being welcomed, of fitting in, of integrating, from the get-go is established on a very different footing,” she said.
The Canadian government receives lists of refugees from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and has the option of sending them straight through the government-assisted refugee process or submitting them to to the Blended Visa Office-Referred program where they can be matched with private sponsors.
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Keller-Herzog said that right now the government is choosing to put refugees through the government-assisted process because it is faster. The Ottawa Centre Refugee Action would recommend the government to send all refugees through the blended program, she said, so that the refugees and refugee families who are found to be a good match with Canadian hosts can receive private sponsorships.
She said she doesn’t think this would delay the system by more than 10-15 days, and it would give the refugees a better foothold when they arrived in Canada to have the support system of an extended family in their community.
While it’s faster to have them arrive as government-assisted refugees, they might be disadvantaged in that process, she said.
“Once they arrive in Canada, they don’t have that sort of marriage to a little extended family that has committed to help them for a year,” Keller-Herzog said. “That’s how you find jobs, how you find schools, that’s how you make choices about what you want to become.”
Their centre has 10 groups of private sponsors that are currently ready to support refugee families arriving in Ottawa, Keller-Herzog said.
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