Canada is sending the right immigration signals to the world

2020/04/14 Leave a comment

Of note. Good summary:

Canada may be the most open country on the planet right now.

Countries around the world have shut their borders, closed their airports, and imposed lockdowns to fight the deadly coronavirus.

Canada, too, has implemented such emergency measures.

But, it is also seeking to strike a balance between containing COVID-19 while also enabling global talent and foreign nationals into the country. This is due to Canada’s recognition that newcomers are part of the solution to supporting its economy during this challenging period, as well as the country’s unwavering commitment to reuniting family members even in the wake of its travel restrictions.

Canada doing everything it can to accommodate immigrants

On March 16, 2020, Canada unveiled special immigration measures related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The most notable measure was the decision to restrict travel into the country until June 30th, although several major exceptions were made.

Recognizing that the immigration system would face significant disruptions due to developments that are both within its control as well as beyond its control, Canada has taken additional steps to try to keep its immigration system running as smoothly as possible.

For instance, Canada has stated that no immigration application will be refused due to incomplete documentation. Rather, the federal government will provide applicants with more time to obtain their documents before it makes a decision on their application.

Make no mistake about it, Canada’s immigration system is facing disruptions.

Canadian government officials must work remotely to protect their health and safety as well as the safety of their family, friends, and communities. They are also responding to competing priorities to navigate this crisis which is requiring them to divert their attention from their day-to-day immigration responsibilities.

Factors beyond Canada’s control include people overseas facing lockdowns, travel restrictions, service disruptions, and other obstacles that are hindering the ability of foreign nationals to come to Canada or submit a completed immigration application.

Nonetheless, Canada is doing its best to adapt which is sending the right signals to foreign nationals around the world.

That is: we will do everything we can to accommodate your immigration goals and help you during this period of need.

Permanent residents

Consider that despite all that is happening in the world, Canada continues to hold Express Entry draws.

Four Express Entry draws have taken place in the three weeks following the travel restrictions being announced, including two draws on April 9 that saw Canada issue a total of 3,900 invitations to apply for permanent residence.

In addition, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have all had Provincial Nominee Program draws.

Permanent residents outside of Canada are being accommodated in a number of ways. They are still able to travel to Canada. And, those who received a confirmation of permanent residence (COPR) prior to March 16 are also able to come to Canada.

International students

Some international students are exempt from Canada’s travel restrictions, but Canada took a step further recently to try to accommodate even more international students.

The decision to allow some international students to pursue online study and remain eligible for a Post-Graduation Work Permit was a major one. The majority of Canada’s international students are interested in transitioning to permanent residence. Hence, the PGWP is a critical stepping stone in helping them achieve their immigration goal.

Canada recognized it would be unfair to deem students ineligible for the PGWP due to circumstances completely out of the student’s control (that the student was forced to pursue online instructions due to the cancellation of classes to prevent the spread of the coronavirus).

Time will only tell if Canada chooses to take its PGWP flexibility one step further.

If public health officials advise the federal government to extend its coronavirus containment measures, Canada may feel the need to enable the September 2020 cohort of international students to also be able to access online courses while remaining eligible for the PGWP.

This may be necessary any way, given international students may struggle to find available flights or face other disruptions that could prevent them from being in Canada in time for September 2020 classes.

Foreign workers

Temporary foreign workers (TFWs) are largely exempt from the travel restrictions given how important they are to Canada’s economy. Canada has sought ways to make it easier for employers to hire TFWs by loosening Labour Market Impact Assessment rules in priority occupations in the agri-food and transportation sectors. Such flexibility is crucial to helping employers access workers to help sustain Canada’s food supply.

Assistance for newcomers in Canada

Much of the financial support announced by Canada in recent weeks is available to immigrants who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, as well as international students and temporary foreign workers. Irrespective of their immigration status, individuals within Canada may be eligible for vital government income support such as Employment Insurance or the new Canadian Emergency Response Benefit.

Here, Canada is telling the world that even if you are not a citizen or permanent resident of our country, we will stand by you to provide you with as much support during this difficult time.

Immigration will help Canada recover from the coronavirus crisis

We are currently living in an unprecedented moment in history that is taking a significant toll on the emotional, physical, and financial health of us all.

Nevertheless, it is important to remember that we will eventually get through this difficult period and once we get a chance to catch our breath, we will look back at how governments around the world responded to the crisis.

On the immigration front, it is difficult to criticize Canada’s response and it appears very likely that Canada will be lauded for the compassion it has shown to immigrants of all stripes during a period where it is very well within its right to shut down its borders and immigration system.

Immigration has various short-, medium-, and long-term benefits for Canada, and a very strong argument can be made that facilitating immigration even during this crisis is necessary.

In the short run, permanent residents, foreign workers, and international students will help to stimulate economic activity in Canada which will help to alleviate the economic strain Canada is currently under.

In the medium- and long-term, immigrants will be key to keeping Canada prosperous since they will spur economic activity as workers, consumers, and taxpayers.

Source: Canada is sending the right immigration signals to the world

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Canadian doctor once posted to Beijing ignored by Ottawa after offering help with COVID-19 response

2020/04/14 Leave a comment

Does seem to be an oversight. The more serious one is why was he not replaced (likely due to budget pressures and the high cost, and changing priorities):

For seven years, Felix Li served on the distant front lines of Canadian public health, in China. As a doctor posted to Beijing, he fostered ties with health authorities that let him peer beneath the official rhetoric of a country that has been the source of multiple viral epidemics in recent decades.

When Dr. Li returned to Canada in 2015 and retired from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) after 23 years, he was not replaced.

But he retained his contacts inside the Chinese public health system and was keen to help when another outbreak began to emerge.

So, a few days after the Jan. 23 lockdown of Wuhan, he sent an e-mail to the PHAC, including Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam, offering his expertise.

“I offered to go back to Ottawa to work with them on this. I needed to help, to save lives,” Dr. Li said in an interview.

In the e-mail, he described his knowledge of the Chinese system and the contacts he maintains there.

“I got an e-mail back saying, ‘We’ll talk about it and let you know.’ But I never had any response after that.”

Instead, the PHAC has relied heavily on the World Health Organization for information and guidance in its response to the rapid spread of the deadly new virus.

But critics have questioned the relationship between the WHO and China, whose response the WHO has praised effusively. The health organization has raised few public concerns about the reliability of information provided by Beijing, despite evidence suggesting Chinese authorities have significantly underreported the death toll from the outbreak.

Dr. Li said that, during his time in China, there was a difference in “the quality of the information” he was able to obtain by communicating directly with people at China’s Ministry of Health and the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. During the 2013 H7N9 avian influenza outbreak, for example, he received updates directly from Chinese officials.

Were he working now, he’d “probably get a lot more timely and accurate information on things,” he said.

There is good reason to seek more sources of information, public health experts say.

“In any acute emergency, there is always benefit of ‘on the ground’ expertise and contacts in getting access to data and understanding the nuances of actual context. There is also always value in having multiple sources of data, information or intelligence, and it would be wise to have as many sources as possible,” said James Orbinski, director of York University’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research.

“Relying on one source of information for critical decision making leaves you open to all of its biases and limitations, and every source – even ‘official’ ones, like the WHO, the government of China, the CIA, the government of the United States, the government of Canada – has biases and limitations.”

The PHAC says it has full confidence in its methods – and in the WHO. “With the situation related to COVID-19 continuing to evolve rapidly around the world, Canada will continue to work closely with its international partners, including the WHO and China, as well as with provincial and territorial counterparts to reduce risks to Canadians and the global community,” spokesperson Anna Maddison said in an e-mailed statement.

The agency can rely on Canada’s foreign service “to share and gather information related to health and public health matters,” Ms. Maddison said.

Canada’s embassies and consulates in China, however, have been working with low staffing levels after non-essential staff – including provincial representatives – were sent home.

Unlike the U.S., Canada does not have a wide-reaching global public health service, which makes it reliant upon the WHO. That’s not a bad thing, said Srinivas Murthy, an infectious disease specialist at the University of British Columbia who has worked with the WHO.

“The WHO is a very reputable, very strong organization which has that capacity,” Dr. Murthy said. “I don’t think Canada specifically needs a foreign public health agency.”

But there are also risks in relying on an agency that itself relies on information from China, a country where statistics are often bent to political imperatives. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has itself been criticized for cutting its staff in China by two-thirds before the COVID-19 outbreak.

In Canada, meanwhile, it appears health leaders are not receiving sufficient advice on the potential weaknesses of Chinese data being transmitted by the WHO, said Charles Burton, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute who has twice worked out of the Canadian embassy in Beijing.

The result is that China’s “politically motivated misinformation tragically leads to unnecessary Canadian deaths,” he said.

Dr. Li began his public health work in Beijing in 2008 with the belief that “Canada should not be responding to epidemics or pandemics when they reach the shores of Canada. We should be proactively working with China.”

He declined to offer his views on how China and Canada have responded to COVID-19, for fear of damaging his relationships with public health officials he still hopes to work alongside.

“As a medical doctor and a public health doctor, our task is to save lives. If I were called upon, I’d jump on the next plane to Ottawa,” he said.

Source: Canadian doctor once posted to Beijing ignored by Ottawa after offering help with COVID-19 response

Filed under Government Tagged with , , ,

Race-based coronavirus data not needed in Canada yet, health officials say

2020/04/14 Leave a comment

Big miss here IMO, given the confluence of race and socioeconomic disparities.

While it may not be an immediate priority during the pandemic, better data of health disparities among visible and non-visible minorities would be helpful, not just during pandemics:

Despite a growing awareness in the United States that some minority groups might be at higher risk for the coronavirus, provincial health officials in two of Canada’s hardest hit provinces say race-based data isn’t needed here yet.

Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said Friday that statistics based on race aren’t collected in Canada unless certain groups are found to have risk factors. The World Health Organization hasn’t yet said that’s the case for coronavirus, he added.

He said resources are much more effectively used tracking down the people each infected patient had been in contact with, rather than targeting entire groups.

“Right now we consider our main risk groups (to be) the elderly, those with other co-morbidities, regardless of what race they are,” he said. “Regardless of race, ethnic or other backgrounds, they’re all equally important to us.”

There is early evidence from the United States that shows African Americans may be disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Some large cities are seeing higher rates among their large Black populations who historically have had poorer access to health care and higher rates of poverty.

Among them is Chicago, whose mayor vowed Monday to launch aggressive public health campaigns aimed at her city’s Black and brown communities after numbers showed Black residents accounted for 72 per cent of deaths from complications from COVID-19, despite making up only about one-third of the population.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot told The Associated Press that the disparities in Chicago “take your breath away” and required an immediate response from the city, community activists and health care providers.

In Alberta, chief medical officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw said they know some groups in Canada are systematically disadvantaged based on their appearance or socioeconomic status.

While the province also doesn’t currently collect the race of someone who is tested or treated for coronavirus, she suggested it’s something that may be looked at in future.

“The information that we collect is really focused more on risk activities and less about ethnicity,” she said Friday. “But it’s certainly something we need to look closely at to determine if we need to start collecting that going forward.”

Hinshaw said the province has good information-sharing agreements with many First Nations in particular, so that is one way they might be able to compare numbers, though it’s not something they could release publicly without the Nations’ consent.

Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious disease specialist who co-chaired the Indigenous Health Conference at the University of Toronto, says First Nations are almost certainly at higher risk.

“A lot of Indigenous people have a lot of co-morbidities. For almost any disease out there they have higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive lung disease,” she said.

They were also significantly overrepresented in the last pandemic to hit the country. Despite representing 4.3 per cent of the population, they accounted for 27.8 per cent of hospital admissions reported to the Public Health Agency of Canada during the first wave of H1N1 in 2009, according to the National Collaborating Centres for Public Health.

Many First Nations are small or remote and face the added challenge of a historic lack of funding for things like medical services.

Banerji launched a petition last week to demand more action from the federal government, arguing Indigenous leaders have asked for more access to things like health care workers or rapid testing, but their communities have not received the same financial support as non-Indigenous towns and cities.

But while Banerji said it’s important to document how coronavirus is affecting Indigenous communities, she stresses that information is only useful if it leads to more supports.

“I think it’s good to collect that data,” she said. “But collecting data on how we failed Indigenous people is not a very useful thing, unless you act on it.”

Source: Race-based coronavirus data not needed in Canada yet, health officials say

Filed under Aboriginal, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

CDC Hospital Data Point To Racial Disparity In COVID-19 Cases

2020/04/11 2 Comments

More on racial disparities:

About 1 in 3 people who become sick enough to require hospitalization from COVID-19 were African American, according to hospital data from the first month of the U.S. epidemic released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even though 33% of those hospitalized patients were black, African Americans constitute 13% of the U.S. population. By contrast, the report found that 45% of hospitalizations were among white people, who make up 76% percent of the population. And 8% of hospitalizations were among Hispanics, who make up 18% of the population.

Don’t see the graphic above? Click here.

The study of about 1,500 hospitalized patients in 14 states underscores the long-standing racial disparities in health care in the U.S. It also echoes what has been seen in other coronavirus outbreaks around the world — people with chronic health conditions have a higher likelihood of developing a serious illness after being infected with coronavirus. The findings appear in the MMWR, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Overall, the report found that about 90% of people in the hospital with COVID-19 had at least one underlying health condition. Half (50%) had high blood pressure, 48% were obese, 35% had chronic lung disease and 28% had diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Hospitalizations were highest among people 65 and older, and about 54% of those hospitalized were men.

People who were hospitalized had a wide range of symptoms. The most common symptoms at the time of hospital admission were cough (86%), fever or chills (85%), and/or shortness of breath (80%). Upset stomach and gastrointestinal symptoms were documented as well: 27% had diarrhea and 24% reported nausea or vomiting.

Asked about the reports of health disparities and racial divide at a White House coronavirus task force briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said that African Americans do not seem more likely to be infected by coronavirus.

But he added that “underlying medical conditions, [including] diabetes, hypertension, obesity, [and] asthma” might make it more likely that African Americans are admitted to the ICU or die from the disease. “We really do need to address” the health disparities that exist in the U.S., Fauci said.

“These findings underscore the importance of preventive measures (e.g., social distancing, respiratory hygiene, and wearing face coverings in public settings where social distancing measures are difficult to maintain),” the authors of the report write, “to protect older adults and persons with underlying medical conditions, as well as the general public.”

Source: CDC Hospital Data Point To Racial Disparity In COVID-19 Cases

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Federal guidelines for temporary foreign workers aren’t enforceable, says advocate

2020/04/11 Leave a comment

Of note. Legitimate concern although the associated position by the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change for the government to “extend EI benefits to workers who chose not to travel to Canada this year due to coronavirus concerns” and some other demands are largely non-starters:

The federal government’s new guidelines for employers of temporary foreign workers coming to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic won’t offer substantial protections for critical agricultural labourers, says a migrant workers advocate.

Syed Hussan, the executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, says the federal government must create enforcement mechanisms for these new guidelines to ensure the rights of workers are upheld.

“We need proactive enforcement,” said Hussan, who’s also a member of the Migrant Rights Network, a coalition of self-organized groups of refugees and migrants.

“We are very far away from instituting actual protection for essential migrant workers.”

Employment and Social Development Canada published the guidelines late last month, which include instructions that workers must self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival to Canada and employers must pay workers for the time they spend in self-isolation.

Hussan, though, said many workers aren’t aware of their rights because the guidelines are only available in English. He said organizations like MWAC created education materials to share with workers so they could understand employment rights and social distancing.

“What is the point of a guideline if the workers who it’s supposed to protect doesn’t know [the guideline],” he asked.

Hussan said some members have been told to work by their employers, despite the self-isolation guidelines, and then were refused pay when they declined, to adhere to self-isolation measures. He also said some workers are in quarantine and employers aren’t providing groceries or medication they’ve requested, with local churches instead stepping in.

He said the federal government should create calling and internet hotlines for foreign workers to file complaints about their employers anonymously, as well as to have regular spot checks at farms where migrant workers are hosted.

“We need proactive enforcement,” he said.

Keith Currie, first vice president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said despite some frustration among members about not having access to labourers during their self-isolation period, farmers are prepared to do whatever is necessary to maintain Canada’s foreign labour force — including following the protocols set in place by the government.

“The government made it very clear that [migrant workers] are to be paid for these two weeks, so [farmers] will do what they have to do,” he said.

Currie, who’s also president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said farmers would like the government to include migrant workers under the employment insurance benefits that have been announced for Canadian workers rather than paying them out of pocket. Meanwhile, he said proper payment to foreign workers will be documented through a businesses’ tax filing.

“[Famers] will build that unto their business case, and they will pay [migrant workers] for the 30 hours a week while they’re in isolation,” he said. “It’s all on the record.”

Hussan also said migrants workers deserve to be treated like permanent workers as a permanent part of Canada’s labour force. As a part of this, he said the government should extend EI benefits to workers who chose not to travel to Canada this year due to coronavirus concerns. Workers who grow ill from COVID-19 should be covered under Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), but Hussan said some workers don’t have access to valid SINs because they just arrived in the country and Service Canada offices are closed. He said the federal government should make CERB available on the basis of expired SINs for workers that can’t renew their number this year.

Hussan said quarantine measures are showing the necessity of “urgent immigration reform,” including a national housing strategy, noting that workers with temporary status can’t enforce their rights “even when facing a deadly pandemic.”

He pointed to a COVID-19 outbreak in a Kelowna B.C. nursery, where 14 migrants workers have tested positive for the virus, with a total of 63 in self-isolation.  The migrant workers arrived in Kelowna from outside Canada on March 12, before any travel restrictions were in place.

“Worker lives are being put into danger because of inaction by the federal government,” Hussan said.

Marielle Hossack, press secretary for Employment and Workforce Development  Minister Carla Qualtrough, said all employees coming to Canada to help secure our country’s food supply deserve a safe working and living environment. She said employers have an an important role to play in helping prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19.

“Our government has provided guidance to employers of temporary foreign workers to ensure they meet public health requirements regarding accommodations, hygiene and working conditions,” she said in an emailed statement to iPolitics. “We continue to engage with key stakeholders to ensure this program supports the Canadian economy and protects the health and safety of Canadians and workers.”

Currie urged that farmers are willing to do “whatever is necessary” to maintain the foreign worker’s program, noting that 16,000 agriculture jobs went unfilled last year.

“It’s desperately needed because we just can’t get Canadians to fill those jobs,” he said. “We just want the public to know, there still are jobs available should they choose to work on a farm, but these foreign workers are key to food production in Canada.”

Source: Federal guidelines for temporary foreign workers aren’t enforceable, says advocate

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , ,

‘Billions of dollars are at risk.’ Colleges and universities scramble to protect international student sector amid COVID-19 pandemic

2020/04/11 Leave a comment

The “education industry” concerns along with the students affected:

When Maria Olaifa was accepted into Fanshawe College’s marketing management program for May she was thrilled, eager to pack her belongings and leave her native Philippines.

But her plans to study at the London, Ont., college were abruptly halted due to travel restrictions imposed in the wake of the global COVID-19 health crisis.

“My country has closed its borders and flights are not available,” said Olaifa, 32, of Cebu City. Even if she could come, she’s not sure she would.

“I am afraid to be in a country where I do not know anyone and have nowhere to go during this pandemic,” she told the Star. “I don’t think it would be mentally healthy for me to go to a place for the first time, alone with all these problems.”

Olaifa is among a growing number of international students who intended to come to Canada in the next few months, but are now deferring study plans.

Border closures, flight cancellations, shuttered language testing sites and closed visa offices are posing major challenges. It’s too early to say how many students have deferred or outright cancelled study plans — even those with valid study permits. But a significant decrease in the number of international students at Canadian colleges and universities — a segment that’s been booming in recent years — would deliver a financial blow to schools that rely on their hefty tuition fees as a revenue source.

International students contribute $6 billion a year just in tuition at Canadian universities, but their economic impact extends beyond the campus. Government figures show that in 2018 they pumped $21.6 billion into schools, communities and the broader Canadian economy. As of Dec. 31, 2019, there were 498,735 post-secondary international students in Canada, a 14.5 per cent increase from 2018.

As the health crisis drags on, colleges and universities are asking the federal government to allow international students to do online courses while in their own country.

The federal policy typically stipulates that international students must attend most classes in-person to receive a Post-Graduation Work Permit — but there have been recent updates. Those currently in Canada can now do e-learning and have it count towards their work permit, since in-person classes are temporarily cancelled. And on Tuesday the federal government said international students with a study permit for a program starting in May or June, but who can’t get here because of travel restrictions, can complete up to 50 per cent of it online without it impacting eligibility for a work permit.

Kevin Lemkay, press secretary for Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, told the Star officials will continue assessing the impact of the current situation and make further adjustments as needed.

President and CEO Denise Amyot of Colleges and Institutes Canada, which represents publicly funded colleges, institutes, CEGEPs and polytechnics, said “important decisions” can now be made about the spring/summer intake. But the fact students can only complete up to 50 per cent of their program outside Canada is too limiting, she said. That means a student in an eight-month postgraduate program would need to be in Canada by the fall.

“We are all faced with a high degree of uncertainty as to how long the pandemic will last and when borders will open, and so we are asking students to make important decisions with incomplete information,” she said, adding they shouldn’t be penalized if unable to travel to Canada.

Amyot’s focus is on supporting international students here or on their way over — those approved for a study permit by March 18 when travel restrictions took effect can still enter Canada if they can get here. But she’s also keeping a close watch abroad, where some language testing and visa offices are closed and has asked the government to loosen testing rules and relax biometric requirements at visa application centres.

“The evolving nature of the situation requires that we engage in constructive dialogue and quickly find solutions to emerging issues, including those related to the ongoing processing of study permits given continued service disruptions.”

For those hoping to start college in September, wondering if they too can do e-learning, Amyot will continue asking the government “for flexibility and for similar measures to be put in place for the fall.”

Paul Davidson, president and CEO of Universities Canada, which advocates for Canadian universities at the federal level, is looking to the fall intake. That’s when 50 per cent of international students enrol in universities and because now is when many are making decisions about where they’ll study in September.

“(If the infection) curve is not flattened, and in the event that visa processing takes a little longer, we would very much like to be able to onboard students online in the fall — its in the realm of contingency planning at this point,” said Davidson. “We want to do everything we can to make sure that Canada is a welcoming place … These next six to eight weeks are critical in terms of what the onboarding and the pipeline will look like for the fall for international students.”

“Billions of dollars are at risk if we’re not able to enrol international students in September,” he said, noting for some universities international students contribute 50 per cent of tuition revenue.

Online registration “will keep the door open to international students to come when it is safe to do so and feasible to do so, in terms of permits and processing.” And, he said, international student enrolment allows schools to offer more courses and labs, which also benefits domestic students.

Cindy McIntyre, assistant director of international relations for Universities Canada, called Tuesday’s announcement a “good first step,” but noted it doesn’t address the fall intake. She said she expects a decision about that cohort will be made “within weeks.”

The British company QS Quacquarelli Symonds, which analyzes global higher education, surveyed 14,416 prospective international students worldwide on the impact of the coronavirus. Among the 2,846 originally planning to come to Canada, 54 per cent intended to defer entry by a year, 9 per cent wanted to study in a different country and 6 per cent wanted to stay in their home country. Cumulatively, the number of lost applicants for Canada — those choosing another country or opting to remain home — is 15 per cent, which is similar to the United Kingdom. By comparison, it is 26 per cent for the European Union, 14 per cent for the United States, and 13 per cent for Australia.

In recent weeks Earl Blaney, a London, Ont., immigration consultant who is an education agent in the Philippines, has had several dozen clients request deferrals for the spring/summer and fall intakes. They were set to attend colleges such as Niagara, Lambton, Georgian, Conestoga, Seneca and Centennial.

He commended the government for giving students set to begin their programs in May or June the flexibility of doing online studies, but noted “it would have been a sensible announcement three weeks ago.”

The “late notice” means many students have likely already made arrangements to travel here and quit jobs back home, while many schools have “initiated a flood of deferral offers to students from May to September.”

“Had this option been available three weeks ago, it would have prevented large losses to the education industry. Schools no longer have the time to market May intake under these circumstances.”

For many international students, one of their biggest concerns is being eligible for a work permit. Blaney suggested Canada — a top choice worldwide — can remain competitive by temporarily letting students enrol in programs from abroad and still issuing work permits upon completion so they can eventually come and work here.

“(That) would allow tuition revenue to keep flowing during this time, and keep everyone safe … It is not meant to be long-term, rather a model of accommodation for both sides.”

A longer-term decision should be made as quickly as possible, he added, because it could impact whether prospective students see Canada as a viable option for 2021 since many start thinking of possible countries, schools and programs a year in advance.

Even for students who can enter Canada — those issued permits before March 18 — Blaney questioned if it’s wise to come, saying it will be tough for schools to accommodate them for the upcoming spring/summer intake because residences are closed and there’s limited staff to assist them.

“International intakes are usually all-hands-on-deck affairs,” said Blaney, referring to in-depth orientation sessions. “In this set of circumstances, students arrive blind and struggle to find their own accommodation. What’s the advantage? Schools get to cash student admission cheques, while the new students get to sit in isolation while taking online studies? Brutal welcome.”

Centennial College teacher RM Kennedy, also chair of the faculty division at OPSEU representing 17,000 unionized college faculty, worries about potential job loss, noting “If enrolment is down, we could see hundreds of contract faculty not being re-employed.”

There’s also a concern about revenue loss, said Kennedy, adding, “We’ve had decades of underfunding and the whole international strategy was designed to make up that shortfall…Without that revenue the colleges are going to take an enormous hit.”

The policy update on Tuesday “may alleviate some short-term financial pressure but it doesn’t address the need to properly fund and rebuild the college system going forward,” said Kennedy, pointing out it’s unclear if international students will even enrol in online programs.

Another concern is that international students invest a great deal in Canadian education and the opportunity to eventually get work permits and permanent residency.

“The exception is currently only for the summer semester, but what if shutdowns continue through the fall?” asked Kennedy. “If we accept international students, we have an ethical responsibility to support them through the completion of their studies with the ability to enter the country and get (work permits).”

International student Amey Jadhav, 27, who is doing a bachelor of business administration program at a Toronto college, was visiting family in India when Canada closed its borders. He could have returned, but decided to skip the upcoming term, despite not knowing how that would impact eligibility for a work permit, which is key because it will help him recoup study costs. He’s completed about half of his program, which costs about $54,000 in total.

“Online courses are a very thoughtful and viable option as it saves time that otherwise would have (been) wasted,” he said, but noted that in-person learning is “much more interactive.”

As for Olaifa, she’s “very happy” those scheduled to start in May or June can do online learning that’s eligible for a work permit. But she’s frustrated the announcement was just made, saying she couldn’t afford to wait for a decision and had to defer study plans until September.

Olaifa has a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman and is currently working as a project director at an advertising agency. Her dream was to complete the one-year graduate certificate program at Fanshawe, which costs $16,000, then get a work permit, and apply for residency. It’s unclear if that dream will become a reality — or if she’ll even pursue her studies in the fall.

“As for online classes, personally, it is not the best time for me to study right now because of the uncertainties.”

Source: ‘Billions of dollars are at risk.’ Colleges and universities scramble to protect international student sector amid COVID-19 pandemic

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , ,

Canadians would not have backed strict pandemic measures in mid-January, says official

2020/04/11 Leave a comment

While legitimate of course to criticize the government’s response (and lack of follow-up to the SARS report Ottawa had a playbook for a coronavirus-like pandemic 14 years ago. What went wrong?), tend to agree that many of the same people criticizing the government for being too slow would have criticized the government had they acted much earlier:

Closing the border and telling the public to self-isolate at home in the early days of Canada’s COVID-19 outbreak would have done more harm than good, according to a national public health organization.

Ian Culbert, executive director of the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA), told a virtual committee of MPs today that while critics have said the federal government should have acted sooner, there would have been “very little” public support for strict measures in the middle of January, which could have undermined health officials’ efforts when the situation became more dire.

“Low public support would have led to low-level adherence and a diminished support for any future interventions,” he said. “Slowly, you have to change people’s thinking … that takes time. It takes evidence. You have to prove to people that it’s serious.”

The House of Commons health committee is studying Canada’s response to the COVID-19 virus to ensure the federal government learns lessons that can be applied to the next pandemic. The Liberal government has faced criticism for waiting until the eve of Ontario’s March break to tell people not to travel. The Conservatives have accused the Trudeau government of failing to restrict public gatherings soon enough and waiting too long to impose tougher measures at the border.After critics accused it of lax screening at airports for returning travellers, Quebec Premier François Legault sent his own public health officials and police to airports to warn travellers to self-isolate for two weeks. This week, B.C. Premier John Horgan took it a step further and imposed a new legal requirement forcing travellers to present formal self-isolation plans to authorities at airports and border crossings.Culbert said while public health officials’ incremental approach has been attacked, he believes it was backed up by evidence.

Culbert said it’s hard to change human behaviour — especially in Canada’s case, given that the pandemic started halfway around the world in China. Canadians felt a sense of “insulation,” he said. That attitude carried on even when Canada reported its first cases in British Columbia and Ontario, he added.

“There’s a sense of them and us,” he said. “Slowly, you have to change people’s thinking. There’s no them and us. It’s a ‘we’ situation.”

He turned to an example from the 20th century: when Canadians with tuberculosis were forced to leave their families and isolate in sanatoriums, he said, many avoided public health authorities as a result, which spread the disease further.

“This shows coercive actions can only be used as a last resort,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it will take months of Canadians’ “continued, determined effort” to follow pandemic measures such as physical distancing to overcome COVID-19. 1:55

There’s been a “massive cultural change” over the last century in the public’s attitudes toward science and health authorities, Culbert added. But he pointed to the anti-vaccination movement as a current example that shows public health officials can’t just tell people what’s good for them and expect them to listen.

“Just telling people the right thing to do doesn’t work anymore,” he said. “We have to convince people. It takes time, unfortunately … but it’s actually what works.”

‘We’re just trying to strengthen the message’: Tam

Conservative MP Tamara Jansen questioned the government’s incremental approach to the restrictions.

Jansen said that in January, the Langley Chinese Cultural Arts Association cancelled a large event proactively before Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam banned large gatherings.

She also said that, early in the outbreak, members of the Chinese community in B.C.’s Lower Mainland were picking up people at the airport returning from China to ensure they didn’t take cabs. They were also buying them groceries so they didn’t go to the grocery store, she said.”They were begging me to get the government to be more proactive,” said Jansen.”This was all done on a completely voluntary basis. Is it possible it was a misjudgment of [the] willingness of Canadians to self-isolate that this didn’t go quicker?”

Culbert said this particular community likely felt directly affected because of their ties to the epicentre of the outbreak in Wuhan, China.

“You’re talking about a highly sensitized community,” he said. “They had a direct connection [to] what was happening in China and were very much aware. Many Canadians were not that connected and [were] thinking of it as a problem on the other side of the country.”

Dr. Tam, meanwhile, was asked at a press conference today if she’s recommending the government enact even stricter measures.Tam said she’s working with her provincial and territorial counterparts to monitor the trajectory of the pandemic and figure out how effective the current measures are. She said innovative studies are underway to track how well Canadians are following those measures, which could point to places where they can be bolstered.

“We’re just trying to strengthen the message to Canadians that really you should avoid all non-essential travel and stay at home as much as possible during this critical period,” she said.

Source: Canadians would not have backed strict pandemic measures in mid-January, says official

Filed under Government Tagged with , , , ,

Paradkar: Unlike Canadians, Americans at least know how Black people are faring with COVID-19 (very badly)

2020/04/10 Leave a comment

Agreed but not only a Black issue.

Need better health data on all visible minority groups (and Indigenous) given that poorer health outcomes generally go hand-in-hand with more vulnerable socioeconomic outcomes:

“Let me rant,” said Angela Robertson, “because you’ve sparked me.”

As executive director of the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, Robertson has long been a front-line witness to the lives of the most marginalized in the city — the homeless, the undocumented, the working poor — all of whom are also disproportionately racialized.

We are discussing the horrendous data streaming from the U.S. on the rates at which COVID-19 is infecting and killing Black people. In Chicago, African-Americans account for 70 per cent of the 86 recorded deaths, but make up 29 per cent of the city’s population. Louisiana saw the same 70 per cent of deaths among African-Americans who constitute just 32 per cent of the population.

What about Black people in Canada, I ask her. Are they better off here compared to the U.S because of universal health care and because — here I wave the red flag — Canada is not as bad as the U.S.?

“As much as we have critiques of the health-care system in America, they have done data collection, they can disaggregate by race within health care,” she said.

“We in Canada have been glacial in our movement in the collection of race-based data in our health-care system. As a result we will not be able to identify the disproportional access challenges, deaths, illnesses that Black communities will experience as a result of COVID-19.

“My fear is that the real health impact on Black community will be hidden.”

COVID-19’s impact on Black people is highlighting the similarities and differences between the U.S. and Canada. They collect data. We don’t. We have universal health care. They don’t. But underlying structures in both nations are deeply racist, which means Black people on both sides of the border live in circumstances that leave them more vulnerable to illnesses at the best of times — and now make them susceptible to the ravages of the pandemic.

These structures are unleashing what the American author and anti-racism scholar Ibram X. Kendi called “a racial pandemic with the viral pandemic.”

Last Friday, Black health leaders in Toronto released a statement that identified the underlying risk factors that COVID-19 would amplify. “Ontario is home to the largest proportion of Black people in Canada. Here too, as in the rest of Canada, race is a determinant of health,” they said.

Who are the people who still need to use public transport to get to work? Who hold precarious jobs? Who don’t have the luxury to shelter at home and buy healthy provisions for a week or two? Who need rent relief? Who are most at risk from higher policing on the streets? Who are at risk in the prison system?

While race-based data exists around these social factors, hospitals and clinics don’t collect detailed demographic data including race as a matter of routine. Advocates have long railed against this lack of data, calling it harmful to Black women after research found they may be underscreened for breast and cervical cancer.

Andrew Pinto is a doctor at St. Michael’s Hospital. He is also the director of the hospital’s Upstream Lab — a research group that looks at interventions or remedies to the socio-economic factors that affect health.

The St. Michael’s Hospital Family Health Team, and other groups in Toronto including Toronto Public Health, was part of a pilot program to ask patients questions on income, race, gender, housing, religion, etc., and then use this data to identify health inequities, Pinto said. Researchers found doing such a survey was “feasible and acceptable.”

“Social factors are definitely associated with health outcomes,” he said. Many studies show income and race play a big role. “We lack the data that we need in Canada to really be able to pinpoint inequity by race. That’s what our work is trying to move toward.”

Why do we need the data if we know discrimination already exists? “Data helps with accountability. It’s not just to document inequity. We need to anticipate the inequity and think about how do we hold our systems to account.”

On the plus side of the ledger against the U.S, Canada has universal health care. Even then there are gaps.

While Ontario advocates who campaigned under OHIP For All managed to open health care for people regardless of their immigration status, “what we are concerned about while policy has changed, practices on the ground have not changed,” Robertson said.

Even during the pandemic, Robertson heard reports of people turning up in emergency departments and being asked to pay $500 for treatment.

What about the people who don’t turn to agencies for support? “For folks who because of fear walk away, they walk away ill,” she said.

Pinto points out that the “danger of data collection is it can convey that something is being done. Data alone is not sufficient. There has to be commitment that it should come with change.”

In a crisis like this, governments at all levels have to look at their response policies through the eyes of the most vulnerable and account for bias. This is particularly important for Black people who are among the most discriminated people here.

If this is not done, as the Black leaders’ statement said, “Black people will be exposed to greater harm.”

Source:  Unlike Canadians, Americans at least know how Black people are faring with COVID-19 (very badly) | The Star

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,

‘Where Is This Going To Lead?’: Roma People In Europe Face Coronavirus Disaster

2020/04/10 Leave a comment

Like other marginalized populations:

The Roma are Europe’s largest ethnic minority — and among the most marginalizedEuropean citizens, excluded from society for decades. With the coronavirus pandemic, now they’re facing a potential humanitarian disaster.

Many of the estimated 12 million Roma in Europe live in shantytowns without access to water, electricity or sanitation — not to mention with sometimes limited access to doctors.

“You have many family members living in the same improvised structure, when they’re supposed to be social distancing to survive,” says Ciprian-Valentin Nodis, a Roma and researcher from northern Romania. “And they can’t eat because there’s no work due to the pandemic. Where is this going to lead?”

COVID-19 testing is limited in Central and Eastern Europe, and it’s unclear how many Roma have been infected, though there are some documented cases. But Nodis and other Roma activists say the conditions for a swift outbreak are there.

In northwestern Romania’s Pata-Rât, where Nodis has documented conditions, some 2,000 are crammed into huts made of rotting wood that are built right on the local landfill. Residents sort through the trash for recyclables to sell.

“The children there are covered in so much dirt that you can’t see the diseases on their skin,” he says. “Many residents suffer from tuberculosis and hepatitis.”

Nodis contributed to an upcoming report by the European Environmental Bureau, a collection of nonprofit groups, which documents environmental discrimination against Roma communities in Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and North Macedonia.

At Europe’s largest Roma settlement, outside the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, about 60,000 Roma are cut off from clean water and sanitation. In Hungary, where Roma communities also lack access to basic services, Roma leaders say they cannot obey curfew orders if it means their families will starve. In Slovakia, the government sent the military to quarantine Roma settlements to prevent a potential spread of COVID-19.

In Albania, the Council of Europe is helping municipalities deliver food, water, medicine and hygiene products to Roma settlements.

“People in our community leave to work in France or Italy,” says Brisilda Taco, a Roma activist in Tirana, Albania’s capital. “When the coronavirus outbreak took over Italy, I knew people who were very afraid to say they were sick because they were afraid how the authorities would react.”

She says they grow up hearing insults about the Roma, that they’re the cause of society’s problems. “We have always been the scapegoats,” she says, “but a virus never discriminates.”

Source: ‘Where Is This Going To Lead?’: Roma People In Europe Face Coronavirus Disaster

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

The Coronavirus Has Derailed The Citizenship Oath For Thousands Of Immigrants Who Are Anxious To Vote

2020/04/10 Leave a comment

As in Canada. Need to look at ceremonies by video conferencing as in Australia.

Of course, for the Trump administration and those Republicans wishing to discourage voting, this is more a feature than a problem:

Luis Molina had waited months to complete the final step in his decadeslong journey to become an American citizen: repeating the oath of allegiance to the United States along with hundreds of other would-be citizens on March 19.

Molina, a 51-year-old who left El Salvador as a young man, had planned to hold a celebratory dinner at his favorite restaurant in Pasadena, California — President Thai — after the naturalization ceremony in Los Angeles.

To become a US citizen, immigrants must go through a long, and at times arduous, process that includes an interview with an immigration officer and a test on American civics and the English language. The final step, however, is the easiest of them all: repeating 140 words in a celebratory event that’s often held in American theaters, convention centers, and courthouses.

This simple, but legally necessary step, is all that stands in the way of Molina being granted citizenship.

But that opportunity has been on hold: In March, naturalization ceremonies across the country were canceled due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus, and the agency that administers immigration benefits, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, closed its offices to the public. The ceremonies are supposed to be rescheduled, but like many other parts of American life, the timing is uncertain.

In the wake of the cancellations, immigrants like Molina fear that they not only won’t get the chance to call themselves Americans anytime soon, but that they won’t be able to vote in the upcoming presidential election. Experts warn that the delayed naturalizations could have an impact on the number of eligible voters in November, as many states require registration by October.

“I’m kind of nervous,” Molina said. He’s watched how the Trump administration has enforced the public charge rule, which penalizes green card applicants for using public benefits, and other restrictive immigration policies. “I’ve been thinking about how they change the rules and the laws and maybe I won’t be able to get citizenship. I feel intimidated.”

A USCIS spokesperson said field offices will send notices with instructions to applicants with scheduled interviews or naturalization ceremony appointments, which will automatically be rescheduled once normal operations resume.

Some ceremonies in Los Angeles that had been scheduled for later in May have yet to be canceled, but California officials have indicated that strict social distancing measures could last beyond that.

Under normal conditions, USCIS is able to naturalize 66,000 immigrants on average every month, according to Sarah Pierce, an analyst at Migration Policy Institute. The agency generally relies on in-person oaths at its office or in larger ceremonies outside of its own facilities.

“So far, because of COVID-19, there are already tens of thousands of immigrants who have had their naturalizations delayed, and these numbers will easily exceed 100,000 as this crisis drags on,” she said.

The agency regularly hosts ceremonies that pack more than 1,000 soon-to-be Americans in one place to conduct the oath altogether. If USCIS offices are able to open as planned on May 3, the agency will still face an inherent challenge: How will large groups of people be quickly naturalized?

“Unless USCIS implements an ambitious series of naturalization ceremonies once they are able to reopen in-person services, there will be tens of thousands of immigrants who will not be able to vote in this fall’s election, despite having completed nearly all the legal requirements to receive citizenship,” Pierce said. “Because naturalization ceremonies entail gatherings of large groups of people, there are a lot of outstanding questions about when USCIS will be able to restart these and what exactly they will look like. If the ceremonies are limited by public health concerns, unless USCIS comes up with innovative solutions, these delays could reverberate for years to come.”

Former senior USCIS leaders told BuzzFeed News the cancellations will inevitably have an impact on the number of people who are able to obtain citizenship this year.

“Field offices are 100% closed, meaning not just no naturalization ceremonies, but no naturalization interviews and also no green card interviews,” said Leon Rodriguez, former director of the agency under the Obama administration. “All of this was already severely backlogged before, so the problem will become much worse depending on the length of the closure.”

As of September 2019, there were already more than 600,000 naturalization applications pending.

The naturalization oath has been a long-held American tradition, spanning back to the late 1700s. Before the early 1900s, courts from across the country administered the oath in various ways, and it wasn’t until 1929 that a standardized oath was created. Later, the Immigration Act of 1950 added language to the oath that made immigrants promise to bear arms for the US and perform “noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law.”

There are waivers for the requirement to recite the oath, like if an individual does not agree to bear arms for the US because of religious circumstances or has a developmental disability that prevents them from understanding the oath, but in most circumstances it is required.

“It’s like being on the 1-yard line and suddenly there’s a timeout that may last for months. If you can’t take the oath of allegiance — a pro forma final step but a moving one — then you can’t become a US citizen,” said Doug Rand, who worked on immigration policy in the Obama White House and is now the cofounder of Boundless Immigration, a technology company that helps immigrants obtain green cards and citizenship. “That means you can’t vote, of course. It also means you can’t count on being safe from deportation or on protecting your family by sponsoring them for US citizenship.”

Rand has advocated for the agency to skip the live event altogether in light of the pandemic, while others have called for oaths to be administered via televideo.

Duncan Williams, a professor of religion at the University of Southern California, had also been scheduled to recite the oath of citizenship in Los Angeles on March 19. Williams, 50, came to the country as a 17-year-old from Japan for college. The Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies — such as the travel ban and the policy that led to families being separated at the border — created a sense of urgency for Williams to obtain his citizenship.

“What is more unsettling is the uncertainty about the future implicated in the inability to complete the naturalization process,” he said.

Williams had expected to get his US passport and vote in the upcoming elections, confident in his status as an American.

“As a Japanese national,” he said, “I’ve been observing the rising anti-Asian sentiment in the US with some trepidation, with some regret that the protections afforded to citizens is not something I can secure at the present time.”

Source: The Coronavirus Has Derailed The Citizenship Oath For Thousands Of Immigrants Who Are Anxious To Vote

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →