Blogging break for a few weeks
2023/05/11 2 Comments
Scofield: Believe it or not, Canada’s population will hit 40 million in June. It’s time we learned how to retain newcomers [IMO, also question levels and impacts]
2023/05/10 Leave a comment
Disappointing in that Scofield doesn’t question some of the assumptions behind the immigration levels and their support by the business community, education institutions and others. So much easier to turn up the immigration dial, so much harder to address housing, healthcare and infrastructure needs:
Canada’s population is about to break the 40 million mark this June.
Chief Statistician Anil Arora took to the stage last week to illustrate Canada’s surging society, and that number was his starting point for a very good reason.
Canada’s population is growing quite quickly by historical standards and compared to the rest of the world, and almost all of that growth is thanks to immigration. At the same time, it’s important to note that in any given year, there are thousands of Canadians who leave the country — either permanently or temporarily. You can actually see it happening in real time, thanks to a “population clock” built by Statistics Canada, which shows a couple thousand people per day coming into Canada mainly as immigrants or non-permanent residents.
And what’s true for the country is even more so for the GTA, the centre of the country’s vibrant and dynamic diversity.
The implications are far-reaching and profound, as Arora pointed out in the prestigious, annual Manion lecture to public servants — especially for the economy.
To make the obvious point, it’s essential that policymakers and employers alike anticipate the change coming at us, and make the most of it. That’s not lost on any employer desperately trying to fill job postings these days, nor is it lost on our political leaders.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser and his entourage are travelling the country, looking for bold ideas for the long term, practical ideas for the short term, and tight timelines to deliver a new vision to his colleagues in cabinet.
At stake is our standard of living, our ability to compete with other countries, our regional development and, importantly, our ability to get along with one another.
Here are a few more numbers to add to Arora’s headline.
Last year, permanent residents coming into Canada reached a historic high, and the same goes for temporary workers. In other words, Canada has a healthy flow of people moving here for the long term, along with a more haphazard intake of stopgap workers whose future is uncertain.
Employers are scrambling to fill more than 731,000 positions right now, but this is down from the one million job vacancies that dominated the news last fall. The vacancies reflect an underlying labour shortage in Canada as the population ages and retirements pile up. But layered on top of that is an expected shorter-term slowdown in hiring as the country’s employers grapple with rising interest rates and stagflation.
House prices in the GTA were up four per cent in April but down 7.8 per cent from a year ago. Similarly, the volume of sales was up nine per cent on the month, but down 5.2 per cent compared to a year ago. In other words, Toronto homes are really expensive and the market is very much in flux. It’s a confusing array of short-term mismatches and long-term demographic trends that require a nuanced approach, if the country’s economy is to set itself on a growth trajectory.
There’s no doubt that we need a growing labour force over the long term, and that immigration is the source of that growth. There’s also no doubt that business leaders routinely list labour supply as their top challenge, and they’re constantly reassessing the mix of skills that they need. There’s no doubt that the challenge of expensive housing repeatedly throws a wrench in the best-laid plans. And there’s also no doubt that Canada’s reputation as a magnet for the world’s best and brightest is under pressure because other countries are mirroring our approach and taking us on.
Canada has fallen behind on key issues that impact our reputation, including administrative backlogs, inadequate housing, and poor recognition of foreign credentials. In the 2022 Global Talent Competitiveness Index, Canada fell to 15th place — down from 9th place in 2015, with its lowest scores for immigrant retention.
Helpfully, the federal government separates out the “acute” short-term dynamics from the “chronic” longer-term pressures and is actively talking to business about how to collaborate and make sure the mix of newcomers adds to our ability to build homes, fill job vacancies and set the stage for longer-term productivity.
There’s talk of fast-tracking the flow of newcomers attached to trusted employers and trusted institutions such as universities. There’s creative thinking around how large-scale employers can work together to recruit pools of workers overseas. The discussion with professional organizations to streamline credential recognition is vigorous. And there’s some promising use of technology to speed up approvals in a way that also helps with matching people with jobs and smooths out integration.
And of course, on top of the push for speed and the right mix of workers, Canada’s immigration policy is also about a humanitarian approach to refugees and family reunification, as always.
We’re in the midst of a promising collective brainstorming around how — a brainstorming that will become more complicated in the next months as government drives towards decisions and as the economy slows down.
Luckily, most of the public, the government and business are on the same wavelength in making immigration work well for the economy, and the country as a whole.
Let’s keep that consensus in mind as policymakers and employers figure out how.
Source: Believe it or not, Canada’s population will hit 40 million in June. It’s time we learned how to retain newcomers
Black Class Action Secretariat expressing sharp disapproval of new Canadian Heritage hire for multiculturalism, anti-racism
2023/05/10 Leave a comment
Suspect this is driven as much by the need to keep the organization and its issues in the public spotlight as substantive concerns. Not a political appointee unlike Amira Elghawaby, the special representative on combatting Islamophobia:
An organization working to eliminate systemic discrimination in Canada’s public service is concerned about a new hire for the Department of Canadian Heritage’s acting director general of multiculturalism and anti-racism.
Melanie Mohammed, a former leadership member at the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), took on the job at Canadian Heritage in April.
The Black Class Action Secretariat (BCAS) is expressing sharp disapproval of the decision to appoint Mohammed to the role, as the CHRC was recently found to have discriminated against its Black and racialized employees.
Mohammed’s hiring came less than a month after Treasury Board made a ruling that the CHRC, the mandate of which is to deal with complaints of discrimination, had itself breached the “no discrimination” clause of a collective agreement between the Treasury Board and the Association of Justice Counsel, the bargaining agent for approximately 2,600 lawyers employed by the government.
BCAS executive director Nicholas Marcus Thompson said last month that the appointment of Mohammed, who was the CHRC’s chief of staff, is “disturbing” and “reckless” as it sends a message to Canadians that there is no accountability or consequence for discrimination.
“If the government has moved an employee from an organization that was deemed to be discriminatory to now an even bigger organization to address anti-racism, it’s not only hypocritical, but it’s a farce,” Thompson said. “There’s zero credibility in this type of leadership.”
The role of the director general of multiculturalism and anti-racism is not only to provide funding to organizations led by Black and racialized people but to address racism and hate through federal multiculturalism and anti-racism strategies, including Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy and the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat.
“Employees report being harassed and facing retaliation from Ms. Mohammed after speaking up,” a statement from BCAS stated. “Therefore, it is completely unacceptable for the Government of Canada to appoint this individual as Director General of anti-racism for the entire government.”
This newspaper reached out to Mohammed, who declined to comment on the matter via her lawyer.
Dominique Collin, a spokesperson for Canadian Heritage, said in an email statement last month that the department was taking BCAS’ statement “very seriously” and was looking into the organization’s concerns.
“We remain committed to improving the experiences of Black public servants, but while progress is being made, we know there is still more to do to make our workplaces inclusive and equitable for all equity-seeking employees,” Collin said.
Canadian Heritage confirmed Monday that Mohammed remains in the position.
Thompson added last month that he’d like to see the prime minister take ownership of the issue, and re-affirmed his concern about the lack of accountability within the government in an address to the Senate last week regarding anti-Black racism, sexism and systemic discrimination in the CHRC.
“We have this vicious cycle within the federal public service where there’s no accountability, wrongdoers are often either transferred when it comes to discrimination or promoted,” Thompson told the Senate.
In its statement, BCAS called on the government to rescind Mohammed’s appointment and issue an apology. The group also urged the feds to appoint someone with no connection to CHRC’s leadership and who has demonstrated “an understanding of systemic anti-Black racism.”
BCAS said the appointment also speaks to the “urgent need” to transfer the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat to the Privy Council Office in order for it to have independence and power to implement its mandate.
The organization also called for Mohammed’s appointment to the Federal Executive Leadership Development Program to be revoked and said it would like to see the government mandate that senior Canadian Heritage executives undergo anti-Black racism training and meet with Black employees and address their concerns within the department.
“This appointment is completely counter to the government’s promise and commitment to create a diverse and inclusive workspace that is free from discrimination and harassment,” Thompson said.
Roberge juge intolérable que des immigrants temporaires ne parlent pas français
2023/05/10 Leave a comment
Well, they’re temporary unlike permanent who have a much greater incentive. And legitimate concerns regarding the impact of high immigration levels in the rest of Canada compared to more modest levels in Quebec (set by the Quebec government):
Le ministre de la Langue française, Jean-François Roberge, juge intolérable que des milliers d’immigrants temporaires vivent au Québec en n’ayant aucune notion de français. Certains de ces travailleurs venus d’ailleurs veulent pourtant apprendre le français, mais Québec doit leur offrir des cours, si possible en milieu de travail, estime le président de la Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropolitain (CCMM), Michel Leblanc.
Plus de 290 000 immigrants temporaires se trouvaient en sol québécois au 31 décembre 2022, selon le ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI). Il s’agit notamment de travailleurs et d’étudiants. Ces gens ne sont pas obligés d’apprendre le français, parce qu’ils viennent au Québec pour de courts séjours — qui peuvent tout de même s’échelonner sur plusieurs années. Certains souhaitent aussi devenir résidents permanents.
Ces gens travaillent entre autres dans les commerces, dans les cafés ou dans les restaurants de Montréal. Ils changent le visage de la métropole en ne maîtrisant pas la langue nationale du Québec. « On ne peut pas tolérer qu’ils anglicisent le Québec », a déclaré le ministre Roberge lors d’une conférence organisée par la Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropolitain, lundi midi.
Le président et chef de la direction de la CCMM, Michel Leblanc, a salué la volonté du gouvernement d’aider les immigrants temporaires à se franciser. Il affirme que plusieurs entreprises (en technologies de l’information ou en aéronautique, par exemple) souhaitent garder leurs travailleurs temporaires.
« Il y a des gens qui travaillent fort, qui viennent d’arriver, parfois avec des enfants, des femmes ou des maris, qui veulent s’intégrer. Il faut leur faciliter la vie. Si on blâme l’immigrant, on perd de vue que notre système n’est pas assez accommodant pour son horaire, pour sa réalité », dit M. Leblanc.
Comme le faucon pèlerin
L’organisme Francisation Québec, qui entrera en fonction le 1er juin, est susceptible de faciliter l’apprentissage de la langue nationale de tous les nouveaux arrivants, y compris ceux issus des programmes temporaires, a fait valoir le ministre Roberge.
Le ministre québécois de la Langue française était invité par la CCMM avec son homologue fédérale, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, après leur entente historique visant à améliorer la protection du français au Québec. La ministre fédérale des Langues officielles a déjà reconnu, avec le projet de loi C-13, « qu’une seule des deux langues officielles est en déclin au Canada, y compris au Québec ». Et cette langue est le français.
Mme Petitpas Taylor a remis à son « ami » Roberge un faucon pèlerin en peluche, pour témoigner qu’il est possible de freiner le déclin d’une espèce vulnérable. Les deux ministres s’étaient entendus en mars dernier pour que le gouvernement Trudeau renforce le français au Québec. Il s’agit d’un geste impensable jusqu’à récemment, car Ottawa a généralement pour mission de protéger les minorités linguistiques, dont celle de langue anglaise au Québec.
Le projet de loi C-13 obligera notamment les entreprises sous réglementation fédérale au Québec à se conformer à la Charte québécoise de la langue française. La langue de travail devra être le français ; il sera aussi obligatoire de pouvoir servir les clients en français. Tout indique que ce projet de loi sera adopté cette semaine par la Chambre des communes.
Immigration francophone
Le ministre Jean-François Roberge a appelé les sénateurs canadiens à sanctionner par la suite le projet de loi « sans le passer à la lessive », en maintenant la référence à la Charte québécoise de la langue française.
Le ministre Roberge a pressé Ottawa d’établir des cibles ambitieuses d’immigration en français. Il dénonce l’« initiative du siècle » visant à faire grimper la population canadienne à 100 millions de personnes en 2100. « J’ose nommer la question de l’immigration massive. Certains appellent ça l’initiative du siècle. Pour moi, c’est la lubie du siècle de penser qu’on peut, de manière démesurée, perdre le contrôle de nos seuils d’immigration. Ce n’est pas bon pour le Québec et ce n’est pas bon pour la francophonie canadienne », a-t-il dit.
La ministre Ginette Petitpas Taylor, une francophone du Nouveau-Brunswick, a reconnu l’importance d’augmenter l’immigration francophone au pays, y compris au Québec.
Source: Roberge juge intolérable que des immigrants temporaires ne parlent pas français
How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Crushed Crowdfunding for Minority Entrepreneurs
2023/05/10 Leave a comment
Another interesting study. Words matter:
What does fearmongering about immigration have to do with crowdfunding new ideas on Kickstarter?
For Black, Asian, and Hispanic entrepreneurs, such rhetoric can undermine fundraising efforts, making it even less likely that new ideas will come to fruition, argues Harvard Business School Professor William Kerr. In a new paper, Kerr and his collaborators shed light on how discrimination affects fundraising, and ways crowdfunding sites, entrepreneurs, and investors can take action.
Minority business founders already typically face a fundraising disadvantage compared to their white counterparts, but that gap triples during periods of high public anxiety over immigration in the United States.
“WHEN THERE IS THE GREATEST ANXIETY, WE SEE THIS FUNDING SHORTFALL.”
Banks have historically rejected loan applications from Black, Asian, and Hispanic small-business owners at higher rates than for whites, according to Federal Reserve data, potentially driving some to alternative sources of capital, like Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites. The pullback in support noted in Kerr’s research is national in scope, taking place in cities like Seattle and New York, with reputations as progressive bastions, as well as in more conservative-leaning locales.
“When there is the greatest anxiety, we see this funding shortfall,” says Kerr, the D’Arbeloff Professor of Business Administration. He cowrote the paper with John (Jianqui) Bai, an associate professor of finance at Northeastern University, and Chi Wan and Alptug Yorulmaz, associate professor and graduate research assistant, respectively, at UMass Boston.
Measuring fear during the Trump era
The paper looks closely at two different sets of data. The first is the Migration Fear Index, which counts the number of newspaper articles that include at least two terms associated with the debate over immigration, such as “migrant, asylum, refugee,” and “human trafficking,” as well as “anxiety, panic, bomb, crime, terror, worry, concern,” and “violent.”
Kerr and collaborators then compared the quarterly fluctuations of the Migration Fear Index from 2009 to 2021 to efforts by minority entrepreneurs to raise money on Kickstarter, which has raised $7.3 billion for popular projects such as opening restaurants and publishing comic books.
“YOU CAN COMPARE QUARTERS WITHIN THE SAME YEAR AND FIND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE HOSTILE RHETORIC AND GREATER DIFFICULTY IN FUNDRAISING FOR MINORITY CREATORS.”
The fear index surged when former President Donald Trump, with a barrage of anti-immigrant rhetoric, launched his first campaign in 2015, and continued speaking disparagingly of immigrants through his first year in office. Overall, minority entrepreneurs were less likely to meet their fundraising goals during periods like this of high anxiety over immigration, the study finds.
“You can compare quarters within the same year and find the connection between the hostile rhetoric and greater difficulty in fundraising for minority creators. You can also follow individual minority creators over time and see ups and downs in their rates of success,” Kerr says.
Certain groups feel it more
The heaviest impact was felt by groups that found themselves the most frequent targets of hostile rhetoric.
Hispanic entrepreneurs or creators suffered the sharpest pullback in support from financial backers on Kickstarter during the 2016 election cycle, while Chinese ethnic creators in the US faced a harder time meeting their financing goals during “episodes of Asian hate,” including Trump’s use of the phrase “Chinese virus” to describe COVID-19.
By contrast, while Black entrepreneurs had lower success rates overall in raising money, support did not fluctuate as dramatically with the ups and downs of the Migration Fear Index.
The paper finds that even during periods of low anxiety, minority creators are 2.4 percent less likely to achieve their fundraising goals on Kickstarter. But during periods of higher anxiety, minorities experience an 8.2 percent lower success rate.
Where and why it’s happening
Meanwhile, Kerr and his co-authors considered—then knocked down— several different theories for the decline in support, including the idea that funding support from minority communities may be pulling back during times of heightened tension around immigration or that creators might be posting different types of projects.
Rather, the evidence points to another hypothesis, that spikes in anxiety over immigration trigger a broader, nationwide retraction of support among backers of Kickstarter projects. Most backers are white, the study contends.
The decline in support for minority creators during increases in the Migration Fear Index are most pronounced in conservative counties. But Kerr and collaborators “also find sizable impacts in very liberal counties,” according to the paper.
“A majority of financial backers for typical Kickstarter campaigns live more than 50 miles away from the creator they support, tending to reside in big cities like Seattle and New York,” the researchers note.
Drawing lessons from the data
The report builds upon previous research on “systemic racial bias in entrepreneurial finance,” illustrating a “more direct” connection between shifts in public attitudes and struggles experienced by minority creators in raising money for new ventures, Kerr and his co-authors write.
Still, the study does not have data on potential backers who looked at pitches by minority entrepreneurs, only to take a pass on their proposals. That, in turn, made it hard to draw any conclusions on whether these decisions by white backers were driven by conscious racism, unconscious racism, or a combination of the two, according to Kerr.
However, there might be ways for Kickstarter and similar platforms to offset or at least mitigate some of these tendencies and trends.
Minority entrepreneurs are less likely to have projects promoted as “staff picks” on Kickstarter during period of hostile rhetoric, which is not the case normally. That is likely driven by the algorithms used, which tend to pick up on momentum, Kerr says.
Given this research, platform operators could keep an eye out for this trend and look at ways of compensating for it in the algorithm, Kerr explains.
“One of the hopes for crowd funding is that it will democratize access to capital from those previously excluded,” the authors write. “Prior work has shown that discrimination still exists on crowd-funding sites … we take a step further in understanding how minority creators can suffer acute funding shortfalls in moments when anxiety over immigration is high.”
Source: How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Crushed Crowdfunding for …
Les experts avec un accent sont jugés moins crédibles
2023/05/10 Leave a comment
Interesting study:
Les accents étrangers influencent grandement l’opinion qu’on se fait des nouveaux arrivants et des experts, suggèrent les résultats d’une nouvelle étude. Le fait d’avoir un accent et d’être issu d’une minorité visible « entrave » la possibilité d’être perçu comme légitime, digne de confiance ou même crédible.
Cette étude confirme ainsi d’autres études au Québec sur les barrières à l’emploi et sur la « glottophobie », une forme de discrimination linguistique qui inclut l’accent. Il est déjà connu que la couleur de peau, la religion ou le genre des experts influencent l’opinion qu’on s’en fait. Cette fois, « le point de départ est la discrimination basée sur l’accent », précise le professeur Antoine Bilodeau. Il a notamment mené cette enquête avec son équipe de l’Université Concordia et en présentera les conclusions au congrès de l’Acfas cette semaine.
« On connaît bien le concept de minorité visible, mais beaucoup moins les minorités audibles », affirme ce spécialiste en science politique et en intégration des immigrants. Les résultats actuels montrent que le fait d’avoir un accent étranger, combiné ou non avec le fait d’être racisé, « entrave la possibilité » d’être perçu comme un expert légitime, digne de confiance et même crédible.
Les chercheurs ont demandé à 1200 personnes dans chacune des provinces d’évaluer la crédibilité d’un expert à partir d’une photo et d’un enregistrement audio. L’effet de l’accent est indéniable dans tous les cas de figure soumis au sondage, mais il n’est pas le même au Québec qu’en Ontario.
Chaque répondant au sondage ne voyait qu’une vignette, soit un homme blanc ou noir, puis entendait cette personne parler une seule fois des changements climatiques et de la taxe sur le carbone. Au Québec, cette voix avait soit un accent québécois, ou un accent de type Europe de l’Est ou encore de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (du Togo). En Ontario, c’était plutôt un accent anglophone assez neutre, puis les mêmes accents étrangers.
Ni la « provenance » de l’accent, ni le but de l’évaluation, n’étaient révélés au répondant, précise M. Bilodeau, « puisqu’on voulait que les gens interprètent eux-mêmes cet accent ». On demandait ensuite de juger la crédibilité de l’expert sous plusieurs angles : l’éloquence de son message, sa compétence et son professionnalisme. « Est-il convaincant ? Est-il digne de confiance ? », exemplifie aussi le professeurDépend de la conception du « nous »
Au Québec, l’effet de l’accent étranger était plus grand pour la personne non racisée. En Ontario, il était plus « punitif » chez l’expert racisé. « C’est peut-être là, la spécificité québécoise : la langue est tellement centrale que dès qu’on voit une personne blanche on s’attend à ce qu’elle ait le même accent », avance M. Bilodeau.
Il existe ainsi un « effet de surprise » qui contredit cette attente et affecte négativement la perception. Inversement, l’expert racisé avec un accent québécois est celui qui obtient le score le plus haut en termes de crédibilité.
Une minorité visible qui a ou adopte l’accent local est en quelque sorte « récompensée », selon ces résultats. « C’est comme si le fait qu’il ait un accent de la majorité [québécoise] venait désamorcer une anticipation de distance. Ça rapproche tout à coup le répondant de l’expert en train de parler », propose comme hypothèse le chercheur.
« Est-ce que c’est suffisant de parler français, ou faut-il le parler de la “bonne manière” pour faire vraiment partie du groupe ? », réfléchit M. Bilodeau.
L’étude allait justement plus loin pour mieux comprendre la réaction des répondants, selon leur propre conception de ce qui forme leur groupe d’appartenance. Il y avait ainsi une série de questions sur les critères importants pour être un « vrai Québécois » ou un « vrai Ontarien » : doit-on être né dans la province, avoir passé la majorité de sa vie dans la province, être blanc, être chrétien, se sentir Québécois ou Ontarien, respecter les lois, etc.
Ceux qui avaient une conception qui exclut davantage de gens sont réagissaient aussi le plus fortement à l’accent chez l’expert blanc au Québec.Une forme trop socialement acceptable
« L’accent, on n’y pense pas ou on en parle moins », abonde en ce sens Victor Armony, professeur de sociologie à l’UQAM. Dans une étude qu’il a menée à l’Observatoire sur les inégalités raciales au Québec, l’accent figure pourtant au deuxième rang des raisons de discrimination citées par les répondants.
« Je partais d’une sorte d’énigme », décrit-il. Chez plusieurs populations, il persiste des écarts importants de revenus ou de postes pour les mêmes qualifications, même si elles ne sont pas des cibles « directes ou ouvertes » de racisme.
Il donne l’exemple des Latino-Américains : « Il y a parfois des préjugés favorables envers les latinos. On nous trouve chaleureux, on apporte une cuisine, une musique, la joie de vivre, etc. L’autre côté de la médaille : on n’est pas toujours pris au sérieux au niveau intellectuel ou professionnel », explique le chercheur.
Une personne qualifiée, avec un diplôme, « qui fait des efforts considérables pour parler français » et reçue sans hostilité préalable peut tout de même être dévalorisée en raison de son accent.
« C’est l’accent qui fait en sorte que le message devient irrecevable, moins intéressant et parfois laissé de côté », résume-t-il. Arrivé d’Argentine il y a plus de 30 ans, M. Armony l’a lui-même vécu. « C’est le regard moqueur, impatient, méprisant de l’autre qui finit par avoir un impact sur l’assurance, sur l’estime de soi ou dans le goût de s’exposer devant les autres même quand j’ai quelque chose à dire. Alors on finit par se taire et rester à sa place », explique l’homme.
La discrimination linguistique, notamment basée sur l’accent, aussi appelée « glottophobie » est plus insidieuse. « Socialement, la glottophobie n’est pas reconnue comme une discrimination. Alors elle peut servir de prétexte ou d’écran pour cacher une autre forme de discrimination socialement inacceptée », décrit quant à lui le sociologue Christian Bergeron.
À l’instar d’Antoine Bilodeau, mais dans un domaine différent, il note lui aussi une attitude différente selon la perception de soi-même : « Plus un locuteur pense détenir la norme, c’est-à-dire la bonne manière de s’exprimer en français, plus il a tendance à rejeter les autres manières de s’exprimer et parfois même à discriminerl’autre », dit ce professeur à l’Université d’Ottawa.
Plus sournoise ou moins affichée, elle peut néanmoins devenir une barrière réelle à l’emploi, rappelle M. Armony. « On va invoquer par exemple l’idée qu’on a besoin d’une personne qui a “un français parfait”, mais alors on confond la grammaire et la qualité du français du point de vue de l’accent », rapporte-t-il.
La Charte des droits et libertés de la personne du Québec ne nomme pas explicitement l’accent, mais plutôt la langue. Il est toutefois interdit de traiter différemment une personne ou d’avoir des comportements offensants et répétés à son égard en raison de son accent, indique la Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse du Québec.
La France est allée plus loin en 2020, en adoptant une loi qui punit la discrimination fondée sur l’accent avec des peines allant jusqu’à trois ans d’emprisonnement et à 45 000 euros d’amende. « Les minorités “audibles” sont les grandes oubliées du contrat social fondé sur l’égalité », avait alors déclaré l’instigateur du projet de loi, le député Christophe Euzet, lui-même d’une région de France connue pour ses sonorités différentes de celles de Paris.
Source: Les experts avec un accent sont jugés moins crédibles
If you are in trouble abroad, will Canada come get you?
2023/05/09 Leave a comment
Good realistic explainer featuring the former ambassador to Lebanon:
It was Louis de Lorimier’s first posting as an ambassador for Canada when he arrived in Lebanon in September 2005, after almost a quarter-century in the foreign service.
His appointment came just a few months after then Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri was assassinated in a truck bombing, and the relationship between Israel, the militant group Hezbollah and neighbouring Syria was tense.
Political and military skirmishes between the various forces in the region were not uncommon, but de Lorimier didn’t foresee he would be caught at the centre of Operation LION, Canada’s largest international evacuation effort of its citizens to date.
“You did have violence to a certain extent on the border but nothing could suggest that it would go so far,” recalls the retired career diplomat, now a fellow at the Montreal Institute of International Studies.
“Lebanon was a turning point. I think they really got the (evacuation) system much better organized after that.”
In July 2006, after Israel’s military attacked Hezbollah forces in Lebanon to retaliate for the killing and kidnapping of its soldiers, Ottawa came under heavy fire for what some criticized as chaotic and slow response to bring home its citizens stranded in the war zone. By the end of that August, 14,000 Canadians had been evacuated.
Nearly 17 years later, after a civil war erupted in Sudan between the ruling government and a paramilitary group, the Canadian government’s evacuation effort has once again raised the questions of its responsibilities to its citizens abroad and its readiness to save its people from harm’s way.
Last Saturday, Canada ended its evacuation flights to bring Canadians home from Sudan amid escalating violence and deteriorating safety conditions. Over two weeks, of the 1,728 Canadians in Sudan who had registered with the government, more than 400 had been evacuated, with hundreds of others still looking for assistance.
“Canada continues to monitor the situation actively and will continue to provide assistance to Canadians and permanent residents wishing to depart Sudan,” Global Affairs Canada said in a statement on Friday.
“Our officials will keep in contact with those who call on us for help. We will keep in touch using whatever is the most effective way to help them stay safe, be it phone, e-mail or text message.”
De Lorimier said taking care of Canadians abroad has always been a top priority for consular staff, who constantly monitor conditions on the ground and report them to Ottawa.
“One of our responsibilities is to have a plan in place to deal with social unrests and major events of that nature, or it could be earthquakes or natural disasters, and it goes as far as war,” said de Lorimier, who headed the Lebanese mission until 2008 and then served as ambassador to Belgium and Mali before he retired in 2015.
“But what is obvious is that Canada doesn’t have the assets in the region to deal as quickly as we have to deal with a huge crisis.”
There are many variables in an evacuation effort and officials have to constantly negotiate with the local security authorities to seek safe pathways for both Canada’s personnel and citizens alike.
“I think most people do have unreasonable expectations. Sure, your government is there to protect you in every way possible. Obviously, it’s what we try to do. But the government also tells people, ‘Well, you’re responsible for your own safety first and foremost,’” said de Lorimier.
“If you go to a place where there’s social unrest, or even war, well, there could be consequences. There’s only so much we can do. That’s why we have these warnings that in certain countries, you’d better be careful. It’s not that the government doesn’t want to take care of people. But sometimes you have situations where you just can’t.”
The operation in Lebanon was certainly unprecedented in terms of the scale. At the onset of the war, only 1,000 Canadians registered with the embassy, which quickly ballooned to 30,000 a week into the conflict.
Although Lebanon was under complete blockade by the Israelis who bombed the main runway at the airport and blew up its fuel depots, Canada’s strong diplomatic relationships with both countries assured safe pathways to bus its citizens to an evacuation spot and then repatriate them via Cyprus.
In Sudan, however, de Lorimier said Canadian officials are dealing with two warring parties declaring ceasefires that never hold, and there’s a complete breakdown in the rule of law. The only blessing is the main airport in the capital Khartoum seems to be working of late, letting Canada shift its emergency evacuation efforts toward assisted departures through commercial transportation to exit the country.
Still, de Lorimier said there still could be a lot of uncertainty.
For example, on the first day of the Lebanese evacuation, the Canadian government had initially secured six ships to each carry 250 people out of the Lebanon’s main port. However, at the last minute, the Turkish company that loaned the boats was not satisfied with the security assurances and decided to send just one ship.
“We had prepared more than 1,000 people to evacuate. That’s when the press reported in Canada that the operation was a mess. We got really bad press. Some people were complaining that we left them out in the sun and they didn’t have water and they didn’t have food. It was quite something,” recalled de Lorimier, who didn’t sleep for weeks then and was running on his adrenalin.
“We almost had a catastrophe because we had this 1,000 people that were waiting in a room. We weren’t expecting to give them room and board for a night. So you can imagine kids running around and older people, and we didn’t even have enough restrooms.”
Canada recognizes dual citizenships and dual citizens are treated equally as their Canadian-born peers, but the Lebanese evacuation led to a public debate about whether these individuals’ birth country or adopted country is actually responsible for them.
“If there’s a problem, is it not logical that he be supported by his birth country before being supported by the consular service of Canada, his country of adoption?” asked de Lorimier. Yet in the end, “anyone that had Canadian papers was evacuated.”
The evacuation effort would end up costing Canada $94 million, which also prompted prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2009 to restrict the passage of Canadian citizenship by descent to the first generation of Canadians born overseas.
In its post-mortem of the Lebanese operation, the Canadian Senate, made many recommendations, including urging Foreign Affairs officials to review and ensure adequate resources to missions in countries where the size of the Canadian population and regional risks are high.
In hindsight, de Lorimier said he felt the Lebanese operation was provided with proper resources, with 200 Foreign Affairs staffers redeployed from outside Lebanon to assist with the evacuation, along with additional immigration and military personnel.
“People will always say there’s not enough resources. That’s a tricky question. We evacuated 15,000 people and everybody made it … no casualties,” he noted.
“The first responsibility lies with you. You have to know what you’re getting into and where you’re going in terms of security, military and war and even tsunamis or earthquakes. There’s so many risks that you have to figure out and decide if you want to take the risk.”
Source: If you are in trouble abroad, will Canada come get you?
Here’s why the U.S. is pushing Ottawa to require visas from Mexicans
2023/05/08 Leave a comment
Good explainer:
When Canada lifted the visa requirements on Mexicans in late 2016, one of the first things Selene Mateos did was book a vacation to visit Vancouver with her girlfriend.
Drawn by Canada’s reputation as an “open and friendly” country, the couple jumped on the travel opportunity without the hassles of having to put together an application package and line up in queues —and without the prospect of cancelling their trip if a visa didn’t come through.
“If I’d needed a visa, I would’ve had to think about it three or four times more, even though I had all the proofs, of a job, income and ties to Mexico,” says the 35-year-old environmental engineer. “This makes travel easier and faster.”
Mateos was surprised when she learned from media reports this week that Washington has requested that Ottawa reimpose visas on Mexico after a surge of Mexican irregular migrants trying to cross into the U.S. through the northern border via Canada.
“I don’t think that’s fair, to be honest,” said Mateos, who now works in hospitality in Toronto on a work permit. “Even the U.S., Canada and Mexico are trade partners, we are the poor partner. We are not equal.”
That inequality is at the centre of concerns some have over the potential move — one critics say would severely restrict asylum seekers and punish residents of Mexico, a country that is a significant trading partner, but lacks the clout to resist whenever the U.S. wants to change the rules of the relationship.
The situation at the border
Mexicans are increasingly crossing the land border into the U.S. from Canada. The number caught crossing illegally has risen from a total of 1,169 in 2016 to some 300 a month since October, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Mexican refugees made up 7,483 of Canada’s 60,158 asylum claimants in 2022. During that year, more than 400,000 Mexicans came to visit. (That number of claims was up significantly from 250 in 2016, which was before Ottawa lifted its visa requirements on Mexico.)
In March, in response to the irregular migration at the northern border, Washington and Ottawa expanded the Safe Third Country Agreement across the entire land border, not just at official ports of entry, so asylum seekers crossing anywhere are turned back.
Still, compared to the U.S. southern border, where more than 2.5 million irregular migrants were stopped last year, the U.S.-Canada frontier is peanuts, says Laura Macdonald, a political science professor at Carleton University.
So why the increased amount of attention?
“There is some pressure being exerted by Republicans in Congress, Republicans from the northern states. Some of the northern states who want to make an issue out of this partly because they’re trying to convey the message that the Biden administration is weak on border control policies and weak on migration control,” said Macdonald, who studies North American relations and Latin American politics.
“I don’t think it’s a huge issue for the Biden administration. They have many other issues to deal with. But you could see how politicians in the border states could get caught up in that kind of dynamic. So he’s telling Canada they have to fall into line about policies that the U.S. government wants to enact.”
An unequal relationship
The U.S. has always required visas from Mexicans in order to screen out those who come to seek asylum or likely overstay their visits, while Canada has changed its policy back and forth under different governments.
In 2009, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government slapped Mexico with a visa rule in response to an influx of Mexican refugees who fled gang violence and drug cartels. The requirement was lifted in 2016, after Justin Trudeau’s Liberals came to power.
For Washington and Ottawa, visa decisions are tied to border control and economic interests, said Macdonald, but Mexico can never afford to put up travel barriers against its northern neighbours.
“Tourism is such a huge interest. So that goes back to the power asymmetries in the region. The U.S. and Canada could contemplate having such a visa and Mexico will never, ever retaliate in that form,” she said.
The reasons for crossing from Canada into the U.S.
Ramiro Arteaga, founder of a Mexican Canadian Facebook group, says there’s been a lot of discussions within the diaspora about the Biden administration’s visa proposition to Ottawa, with many worrying about further stigmatization of the community.
Arteaga says he’s against visa requirements which would restrict Mexicans’ families and friends from visiting them in Canada, and he doesn’t believe such measures would stop irregular migrants determined to cross into the U.S. at all costs.
He said it has always been easier for Mexicans to get to Canada than to the U.S., even when both countries required visas. And some of his compatriots have always had their eyes set on the U.S., for a variety of reasons.
“The language is not a barrier down there. You can go to Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, anywhere you go, you can find someone who speaks Spanish. You can find your own church, your own community, your own places to gather,” said Arteaga, 48, whose Facebook group has 250,000 members, mostly in Canada.
“It’s more likely to have a family member or someone from the same town back home living in the U.S. You can get jobs easily there. It’s more difficult if you are coming here and you don’t know the language and you don’t know anyone.”
The fallout of imposing visas
Efrat Arbel, an immigration law professor at University of British Columbia, said a visa requirement is a blunt instrument imposed by western countries to stem asylum flow from so-called refugee-producing countries.
“ If an asylum seeker is fleeing for their lives, then they don’t have the time, the ability or the capacity in most situations to apply for a visa in order to set foot on Canadian soil,” she said.
“The effect is that those individuals are prohibited from travel, are prohibited from making access of lawful routes of entry in order to seek refuge from persecution. It works contrary to the basic commitments of refugee protection that underpin our asylum regime.”
The visa requirement is among many tools Canada has implemented over the years to restrict people from certain regions and countries from coming, she said.
Even valid visa holders can be kept off a Canada-bound flight by air carriers that fear sanctions for bringing in “improperly documented persons,” or by border liaison officers stationed abroad, who flag travellers at their discretion.
“All of these mechanisms operate in tandem and Canada is systematically closing its borders to refugees,” said Arbel.
How will a decision be made?
In assessing whether to impose or abolish visa requirements, Canada’s immigration department said officials look at the socio-economic profile of the country, immigration issues, travel documents, security concerns, border management, human rights and bilateral relations.
“Canada values its strong ties with Mexico. The visa lift (ending the requirement in 2016) underscores the commitment Canada made to further enhance and expand its relationship with Mexico,” said department spokesperson Stuart Isherwood.
“The visa lift has generated positive results for Canadians and Canadian business. It has deepened our bilateral relations and expanded trade, investment, and tourism between both countries.”
Since the visa requirement was removed against Mexico, Isherwood said, Canada has welcomed more than two million Mexican visitors and they’ve spent more than $2.4 billion in Canadian hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
Mexican officials said leaders of the three countries met in a summit in Mexico City in January where they reaffirmed their commitment to collaborate on regional migration issues.
“Mexico is working closely with the United States and Canada to achieve safe, orderly and humane migration in the region through a holistic approach that includes addressing its root causes,” the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa said in a statement.
Mateos is well aware that the political wind can shift at any moment. She just hopes any visa change won’t come before her wedding this August; 20 guests, including her family, are expected from Mexico.
“It’s going to be devastating for me not having my family and friends on my side on this very important day of my life,” she said.
Source: Here’s why the U.S. is pushing Ottawa to require visas from Mexicans
Schools survey: Non-German students more likely to ‘sit next to a …
2023/05/08 Leave a comment
Interesting study:
A study on children’s attitudes toward their classmates resulted in some surprising, and other not so surprising, findings.
Based on surveys of ninth-grade children (aged 14 to 15) in Germany, research led by Zsófia Boda at the University of Essex and Georg Lorenz from Leipzig University has found that classes that are ethnically diverse are more welcoming of refugee students.
That’s the unsurprising part.
What it also revealed, however, was that students who were born in Germany to German-born parents were the most likely to reject their refugee classmates, and the least likely to refer to them as friends.
Would you sit next to a refugee?
The study is based on the results of a national survey of 6,390 children in Germany in 2018, which asked the students who their friends were and who they would not want to sit next to in class. Most of the refugee students involved in the survey came from Syria and Afghanistan — the two main countries of origin of people seeking protection in Germany.
The results, published this week in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, showed that the refugee children had fewer friends and experienced more rejection than their non-refugee peers.
But in a more mixed or ‘high-diversity’ classroom, it was much less likely for a child to say they would not want to share a desk with a refugee or asylum seeker, and more likely that they would name a refugee student as a friend.
The research found that there are two processes at work here: In a classroom with a high proportion of ‘non-German’ children, you are more likely to get people who are accepting of other non-Germans, the researchers explained. But also, ethnic majority (i.e. second-generation German) students are less inclined to reject refugee peers if they are surrounded by diversity.
The study suggests that this finding – that more diversity does not lead to greater rejection by the ethnic majority group – is an important one, because it challenges critical views of multiculturalism.
A large proportion – about half – of refugees and migrants in Germany are under the age of 18.
These young people need more than just access to education. Having positive and supportive relationships with others their own age in turn leads to them achieving better grades at school and results in overall better health and wellbeing for minority students.
The study suggests that if you take these away, the educational success and psychological adjustment of refugee adolescents will likely be put at risk.
Barriers to acceptance
So what is it that is stopping students from accepting their refugee peers?
There are several possible reasons, the researchers behind the study say. One is language, which is often said to be a major barrier to integration. Traumatic experiences can also make it hard for young refugees to adjust.
Other explanations for refugees having lower levels of social integration or acceptance in the classroom include the fact that they are likely to have joined the class later when friendships between other students have already formed. There is also the dynamics of friendship groups, which often grow and develop between people of the same ethnic group.
Moreover, the study also points out that social integration is not a one-sided process: “[T]he attitudes and behaviors of peers [is] crucial,” it notes.
What should policy makers do with these findings which, taken at face value, seem to suggest that refugee students should attend schools that are already ethnically diverse?
If they were to take this approach, it might jeopardize refugee students’ language development, which usually benefits from having a high proportion of majority-ethnic children in the classroom.
Steering refugee children into diverse schools could also lead to segregation instead of integration, and that would not help in promoting positive attitudes between German and non-German students, the study suggests.
There are some concrete steps that could “mitigate the negative consequences of prejudice,” according to the researchers. They recommend that teachers and principals are made aware of the challenges and that they support integration by, among other things, encouraging cooperation and showing support for mixing ethnic groups.
With global forced migration having become a ‘megatrend,’ Boda and Lorenz argue promoting the social integration of refugees, including adolescents, will remain crucially important for the refugees themselves. According to them, it will also reduce negative attitudes and prejudice towards immigrants — a problem which is widespread in Western societies.
Source: Schools survey: Non-German students more likely to ‘sit next to a …
More Islamic lessons in Swiss schools? – SWI swissinfo.ch
2023/05/08 Leave a comment
Of note:
With a “Salam aleikum”, teacher Nimetullah Veseli greets the pupils of year four in the Kirchacker school building. Veseli stands in front of the six boys and six girls in the classroom in Neuhausen, Schaffhausen. Wearing jeans and a white shirt, he explains the Islamic religious teachings.
Imam Nimetullah Veseli gives confession-oriented Islamic lessons at the public school. Confession-oriented means that the children learn about their own religion, in contrast to the inter-faith lessons in most primary school.
Normally, these confession-oriented Islamic lessons take place in mosques. It is an exception that it is offered in a public school. Only ten Swiss schools offer such lessons.
Religious education with quality control
A recent study by the universities of Lucerne and Fribourg corroborates the advantages of this type of teaching: “The school is a neutral place,” says study director Hansjörg Schmid. This also means that children from different Muslim backgrounds receive lessons together.
In addition, more emphasis is placed on instructive elements of its study at the school. “The Islamic teachers are obliged to present their concepts to the school,” says Schmid. “This makes quality control possible.”
The director of the Swiss Centre for Islam and Society at the University of Fribourg, together with three other researchers, has examined all the Islamic instructions offered at schools. The study shows that once the lessons are up and running, the feedback is very positive. Generally the criticism and resistance comes beforehand.
Expand the programme – but how?
The study also shows that the lessons availability are strongly dependent on individuals. Most of the proposals came about as a result of initiatives by imams or Muslim religious teachers. “More stability would be important,” says study director Hansjörg Schmid.
The classes in Kreuzlingen could be a model for future programmes. There, various mosque associations, an interreligious working group and the local parishes have jointly set up Islamic instruction, and an association has taken over the sponsorship.
The study recommends expanding confession-oriented Islamic instruction in public schools. But who will pay for it? At present, the programme is supported by voluntary work as well as parental contributions or subsidies from mosque associations.
Broad-based teachings with trained teachers are lacking. In addition, there is another hurdle as in most cantons, teaching requires recognition under public law.
“Salam aleikum” in chorus
If a comparable religious education as that of the Christian national churches is to be developed, the Muslim communities would first have to be recognised. This is a lengthy process.
But Hansjörg Schmid says, “A lot is possible at the level of pilot trials.” He therefore advises trying out as much as possible at a low-threshold level – as in Neuhausen. There, Imam Nimetullah Veseli ends the lesson with “Salam aleikum”: “What does that mean?” he wants to know from the fourth graders. “Peace be with you and with you,” they answer in chorus.
Source: More Islamic lessons in Swiss schools? – SWI swissinfo.ch
Multiculturalism in Canada: Evidence and Anecdote
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Multicultural Meanderings 