SYR Refugees to Canada (split fm SYR refugees thread)

[The Bread Guy]

Meanwhile, while receiving end is working full tilt to bring folks over, it appears not everyone who's left Syria is in a huge hurry to move to Canada at this point - highlights mine:

Only a fraction of the tens of thousands of Syrian refugees whom the United Nations tried to contact over the past month said they were interested in coming to Canada by the end of the year, federal immigration officials revealed Wednesday.

While the low response rate raises questions about why Syrian refugees don't want to travel here, officials said they remain confident about the Liberal government's plan to resettle 25,000 Syrians by the end of February.

The officials' comments came during an off-the-record briefing, the first of what the government says will be a weekly occurrence designed to ensure Canadians are kept up-to-date on the progress and challenges of its Syrian refugee plan.

Officials, who cannot be identified by name, said there had been early progress. Since the Liberal government was officially sworn in and the clock started ticking on its refugee promise on Nov. 3, officials said, 271 Syrians had arrived in Canada. Of those, 208 were privately sponsored, and the remainder had some sort of government involvement.

A further 1,015 Syrian refugees had been approved to come to Canada but hadn't yet arrived, while more than 9,000 applications were being processed. Officials acknowledged that the majority of those applications had been submitted weeks and months earlier.

Canada could take 50,000 refugees by end of 2016

But it was the next bit of information that stood out as a challenge. Officials said the UN had sent more than 41,000 text messages to potential applicants to see if they were interested in coming to Canada. These refugees would have been identified as being among the most vulnerable.

It turned out that only about 28,000 of those phone numbers actually worked. Even then, only 3,049 agreed to meet with UN officials for an interview. And of those, only 1,801 - or less than five per cent of those the UN initially tried to contact - said they were interested in coming to Canada by the end of the year ....

 

[c_canuk]

alternating between wanting to laugh and cry.

my god what a gong show.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I can't say that this is much of a surprise to me.

There are a few factors at work here, IMO.

First, the Media has conflated the issue of the European "refugee crisis" by making it look bigger than it was. How many people here have noticed that you regularly saw pictures of alleged "huge" columns of refugees on the march, but when you paid attention to the top of the pictures, you could see that the tight column just ended a few hundred feet further. these pictures did not denote "thousands and thousands" of refugees on the march everywhere, but a few hundred in one specific location - likely a group traveling together. Similarly, I am sure the media showing the "assault" on European borders probably was filmed at the specific locations where such "assault" was carried out and therefore, by its very nature the pictures exaggerated the overall reality.

Secondly, no distinction was made during the crisis between economic migrants and real refugees. Yes some refugees were in the masses (at some specific points, likely the majority were refugees), but if the number of real refugees was actually determined and then compared to the number of  Syrians displaced by the civil war and taking refuge out of country, I suspect that the proportion of refugees that  want to get into Europe, or the West generally, is not that high. In fact, I suspect that, like refugees every where else, the first and foremost hope of the large majority of refugee is being able to go back home, and the sooner the better.

This leads to my third and last point: There is a false belief in the USA but also in Canada, though not to the same extent, that we live in the best country in the world and that the whole world is beating a path to get in here and live like we do. In my experience, nothing can be further from the truth. There will always be people that wish to immigrate to North America and start a new life, but by and large, the citizens of other countries, when they even know anything about Canada or the US*, are quite happy with their societies and to spend their life in their own countries, without any inkling of moving somewhere else.

*: Anybody see that family being processed for Canada on the National yesterday? They decided to apply after checking Canada on the internet and discovering, in their words, that Canada has forests and lakes and nature like Syria and that this fact clenched it for them.

 

[GAP]

Well..............if you were a refugee leaving Canada......where would you like to go?

or would you just want to go home?

 

[The Bread Guy]

Well..............if you were a refugee leaving Canada......where would you like to go?

or would you just want to go home?

Depends on how bad Canada was, and how long it might take for it to get better. 

 

[Gunner98]

Meanwhile Op Provision carries on with soldiers and Bases wasting time and money. Just WOW!  New government, big promises, great plans, poor estimate of the situation. Same shyte, different pile.

 

[Jarnhamar]

41,000 text messages to potential applicants to see if they were interested in coming to Canada.

No one has ID but everyone has Iphones lol

So are we going to double the benefits we offer them in order to meet the magic 25'000 number?

 

[Danjanou]

Thanks a lot. 
And after that resettlement assistance they can apply for regular assistance.

yup and be interesting to see how many do, however there will be no tracking of that.

 

[ballz]

Well..............if you were a refugee leaving Canada......where would you like to go?

or would you just want to go home?

Switzerland. I told my current partner that if things don't work, I am going to do just that... and judging by her reaction, I would be legitimately seeking refuge.

 

[The Bread Guy]

The Minister's response to the low hit rate for offers to come to Canada?

The idea that there are many refugees who don’t want to come to Canada is “crazy,” said federal Immigration Minister John McCallum on Thursday, in response to reports that only a small percentage of Syrian refugees are interested in relocating to this country.

McCallum had just returned from visiting a refugee camp in Jordan, where he said there is “huge enthusiasm — a great hunger to come to Canada.”

He was responding to questions about comments his own immigration officials made on Wednesday, which were reported by several Canadian news organizations ....

 

[dimsum]

The Minister's response to the low hit rate for offers to come to Canada?

To be fair, would the translators for the Minister really say "oh, most of these folks you're here on this high-profile visit don't actually want to come to Canada"?

 

[captloadie]

Maybe its true that many don't want to permantly relocate to another country. Maybe we are taking people from the wrong areas. Let's assume that those that have made a rush for a European border are those who have finally made the leap to resettle somewhere other than the middle east. Is it possible the majority that remain in the Camps are groups who either haven't reached the breaking point yet, or who really want to return to their homeland of Syria and are just waiting it out?

 

[The Bread Guy]

To be fair, would the translators for the Minister really say "oh, most of these folks you're here on this high-profile visit don't actually want to come to Canada"?

A different question to consider:  would the Ministers be given a chance to speak to anyone other than those wanting to come to Canada?

 

[Eye In The Sky]

The idea that there are many refugees who don’t want to come to Canada is “crazy,” said federal Immigration Minister John McCallum on Thursday, in response to reports that only a small percentage of Syrian refugees are interested in relocating to this country.

McCallum had just returned from visiting a refugee camp in Jordan, where he said there is “huge enthusiasm — a great hunger to come to Canada.”

He was responding to questions about comments his own immigration officials made on Wednesday, which were reported by several Canadian news organizations ....

I think I see what is actually crazy in this...a political mamby-pamby ignoring SME opinion. 

I am not sure which of these applies more;  :facepalm: or  : or  :brickwall:

 

[Colin Parkinson]

So has anyone heard anything concrete about using the Cadet camp at Quadra for the refugees? Apparently the rumour is going through the cadet corp.

 

[The Bread Guy]

I think I see what is actually crazy in this...a political mamby-pamby ignoring SME opinion. 

Happens under all colours of government - sadly ....

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Happens under all colours of government - sadly ....

Yes but at least try to not be so...open...about it!  >

 

[quadrapiper]

So has anyone heard anything concrete about using the Cadet camp at Quadra for the refugees? Apparently the rumour is going through the cadet corp.

If the disembarkation points were on the West Coast, it'd make sense (along with Work Point, Albert Head, and a smaller number of spaces at 19 Wing): that said, suspect rumour is all it is, as the refugees are IIRC entering through Montreal and Toronto.

If there was a need to quarter refugees on this coast, Quadra would likely be the least-bad option, though most of the quarters are spartan barracks bays.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

thanks

 

[The Bread Guy]

This, from the Info-machine this morning - highlights mine:

New receiving areas for Syrian refugees at ports-of-entry at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport are being temporarily put in place and will be operational until the end of February 2016. This will make processing at the airport as efficient and comfortable as possible for refugees who have made a long journey to their new home in Canada.

(....)

Government-assisted refugees will also begin to be transported on to their destination communities in the following days. If their destination community is not yet ready to receive them, their onward travel could be delayed up to a few weeks. Until communities are ready to receive them, they will be accommodated in Interim Lodging Sites (ILS).

Six initial ILSs have been identified at Canadian Forces Bases (CFBs) Kingston, Valcartier, Meaford, Petawawa, Trenton and Borden.  If activated, CFB Kingston and Valcartier will be the first to accept refugees as they have suitable accommodations, and are closest to large urban centres, and airports. The Red Cross, and the Departments of National Defence, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will work together in running the ILSs.