Throughout the semester I got to learn more about Canada's immigrant policies and what the people coming into Canada have to deal with once they arrive. I got to learn how Canada and the world view immigrants and the negative effects these views can have.The information I learned surprised me a little bit. It kind of made me question some of my older beliefs and also made me thankful for not having to be in the situation some people who come over to Canada have to face. The worst part about learning all this is knowing it is only going to get worse do too the current government that we have in place here in Canada. The other reason I believe it will get worse is because of the current political system we have in place here in North America and around the world. The system is Capitalism. This system's main goal is to increase profits and the social aspects are forgotten and not improved.
The main thing that stuck out to me during my research is how negative some people's views of immigrants can be. This to me doesn't make sense. The people who do not think immigrants are a good thing for a country have clouded judgement. They do not understand the upside to having immigrants in our society. Immigrants can add a lot to a country. Not only adding their culture but they can also help the economy as well.
I hope people become more educated about immigrants and the struggles that they go through in order to create a better life for themselves and their families.
-John
Friday, December 21, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Immigrant Housing Issues in Canada
The idea of coming to Canada for immigrants and refugees
seems like a bright future with new opportunities to create a new life for
themselves and their families. In some cases this is true. Other times not so
much. The issue of finding suitable employment is a major issue but another
issue that faces families is being able to find housing. Most of the immigrants
coming to Canada head to one of three major destinations. These three locations
are: the greater Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal area. Groups of immigrants
with the same nationality tend to form communities together and create a more
comfortable environment. Even though this is a positive for them there are even
more negatives.
Some of the
problems that face immigrants within their communities are: “adequacy,
affordability, imminent notice of eviction, isolation and high crime levels.” (mosaicbc.com) In some areas where
immigrants settle the housing conditions can be poor and impoverished. The cost
of housing can also be too high for the families to afford or takes up a large
percent of their income. Another problem the immigrants have to deal with
within their communities are unfair landlords who can be unfair, impatient and
sometimes racist. The locations of living can be in a poor location, which can
be far away from services that the family might need. Due to poverty and other
social issues the communities immigrants settle in can have a high level of
crime because of the desperation of its residences.
A
new life in Canada sees very desirable but in some cases it is not everything
it seems. There are a lot of challenges that they will have to face in order to
find success here in Canada. Once again it seems that Canada is not as great to
its immigrants as it presents itself to the world.
-John
References:
Mosaicbc.com, http://www.mosaicbc.com/sites/all/files/publications-public/SCPI%20Summary%20Report_0.pdf
M, Carlos. A, Chambon. D, Hulchanski. C, Teixieira (1995). The Homeless Hub. http://www.homelesshub.ca/Library/Housing-Issues-Facing-Immigrants-and-Refugees-in-Greater-Toronto-Initial-Findings-From-Jamaican-Polish-and-Somali-Communities-36219.aspx
Monday, December 17, 2012
Reflection Blog
Looking back at all that I learned in the blogs posted about immigrants and refugees, I have noticed a trend. In today's society and years back, immigrants are thought of as bad. During times in the Industrial Revolution, immigrants were forced to use hard labour to make a dollar for themselves and their family. Children were forced to work as well and treated poorly. Now, people have to travel to different countries in order to get opportunities that will benefit them more than if they stayed where they were.
Even though Canada brings many opportunities for immigrants and refugees, it is a hard process to be considered to be a Canadian citizen. There is paperwork that must be filled out, health examinations and much more that an immigrant must go through in order to be considered. Once an immigrant comes to Canada, it seems as though they are not considered to be good people by Canadian born citizens. Many Canadians think that immigrants are stealing their jobs and free health care and do not see the positives in immigration. The government may be at fault for this, but to everything there are ups and downs.
Doing these blogs helped me to understand the criticism that immigrants and refugees given by Canadian citizens. With a topic as touchy as this one, it goes on the saying "don't judge a book by its cover." These people come to Canada hoping for a better life, and we continually judge them by what has happened in some cases, like people getting laid off or unemployment. An open mind needs to be kept with this topic, and other people need to be considered in life.
-Alannah
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Looking Back...
I think many of us started out this class, or course for that matter, with the idea that Canada is a model country in which we accept everyone, and have first-rate social policies and and equality for all. However, after finishing this course, I found that underneath some of the more positive aspects of Canada, we still have many issues that need to be looked at.
Firstly, after listening to all of the presentations, each group mentioned one or more of the other groups in the class. For example, my immigrant group mentioned mental illness, and the First Nations group mentioned women. This showed that no one aspect of social welfare stands alone and if a person belongs to any of the groups mentioned in class, it had the potential to greatly oppress them. Also, these groups showed aspects of intersectionality such as race, gender, class, and sexuality, and how they interact in order to create social inequality. This information went along well with that of my CESD class in that we talked about the different kinds of oppression and how it creates "isms" such as sexism, ageism, and heterosexism.
Secondly, by learning the history of social welfare and the many changes over the years, I sadly realized that Canada is no longer making progressive strides with our welfare state. In fact, we are starting to mirror the United States in that we value capitalism more than the well-being of our citizens. I also noticed after learning about the Poor Laws, that the stigmas of deserving and undeserving poor are resurfacing, in that this country seems to value those who work and contribute to the economy more than anyone else. For example, business and entrepreneur-class immigrants have an easier time becoming Canadian citizens and finding work here.
Thirdly, even though this wasn't actually part of the course material, but I definitely learned of the importance of access to education. By this, I mean I applaud Timmins and the rest of the class with the technical difficulties that occurred from videoconferencing. The one class when Silvia was in Timmins and we were watching her on the projector was really a different experience. I felt the disconnect there as the instructor was not actually in the room with us, and I thought that perhaps this is what the Timmins group must have felt all the time. Even with that barrier, you guys were always so involved and your presentation was great!
Lastly, learning the different political ideologies really helped to put the class together and understand their views on social welfare and the aspects of our country they value. For example, conservatives wanting to preserve the nuclear family with heterosexual marriages, and radical feminists see that patriarchy is the cause of most oppression. Mostly, these ideologies showed the different lenses people wear when making decisions and therefore, there is more than one lens available when creating solutions.
Overall, this class set the foundation for many of the classes I took this semester, and will take in my remaining years at Algoma. It definitely helped to show me that all of my courses are related and touch on each other somehow. This is important for me to better understand the material and relate it to social work practice.
Shannon
Firstly, after listening to all of the presentations, each group mentioned one or more of the other groups in the class. For example, my immigrant group mentioned mental illness, and the First Nations group mentioned women. This showed that no one aspect of social welfare stands alone and if a person belongs to any of the groups mentioned in class, it had the potential to greatly oppress them. Also, these groups showed aspects of intersectionality such as race, gender, class, and sexuality, and how they interact in order to create social inequality. This information went along well with that of my CESD class in that we talked about the different kinds of oppression and how it creates "isms" such as sexism, ageism, and heterosexism.
Secondly, by learning the history of social welfare and the many changes over the years, I sadly realized that Canada is no longer making progressive strides with our welfare state. In fact, we are starting to mirror the United States in that we value capitalism more than the well-being of our citizens. I also noticed after learning about the Poor Laws, that the stigmas of deserving and undeserving poor are resurfacing, in that this country seems to value those who work and contribute to the economy more than anyone else. For example, business and entrepreneur-class immigrants have an easier time becoming Canadian citizens and finding work here.
Thirdly, even though this wasn't actually part of the course material, but I definitely learned of the importance of access to education. By this, I mean I applaud Timmins and the rest of the class with the technical difficulties that occurred from videoconferencing. The one class when Silvia was in Timmins and we were watching her on the projector was really a different experience. I felt the disconnect there as the instructor was not actually in the room with us, and I thought that perhaps this is what the Timmins group must have felt all the time. Even with that barrier, you guys were always so involved and your presentation was great!
Lastly, learning the different political ideologies really helped to put the class together and understand their views on social welfare and the aspects of our country they value. For example, conservatives wanting to preserve the nuclear family with heterosexual marriages, and radical feminists see that patriarchy is the cause of most oppression. Mostly, these ideologies showed the different lenses people wear when making decisions and therefore, there is more than one lens available when creating solutions.
Overall, this class set the foundation for many of the classes I took this semester, and will take in my remaining years at Algoma. It definitely helped to show me that all of my courses are related and touch on each other somehow. This is important for me to better understand the material and relate it to social work practice.
Shannon
Friday, December 7, 2012
Intimate Partner Violence
When one hears of violence against women many may think solely that it involves such things as physical abuse such as bruses or broken bones, and others may think sexual abuse such as rape. In fact violence against women can take the shape of many different act. Guruge, Roche, and Catallo (2012) describe violence against women as a global phenomenon that can be in the form of physical, sexual, and psychological acts of control, threat, aggression, abuse, and assault. This type of violence is demonstrated through acts such as female infanticide, female child abuse, incest, rape, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence (IPV), and abuse and neglect of our senior women. These horrible acts are experienced by women from people such as close and distant family members, neighbors, and my men who hold a position of power.
Lets take a closer look into IPV or intimate partner violence. IPV is defined as a physical, sexual, emotional and/or financial abuse carried out by an intimate partner as stated in Vol 2. Issue 6 of the BMJ Open. I would think that this form of abuse is very difficult on women let alone an immigrant women. If you can imagine yourself as a women who is perhaps leaving her home, family, friends, and all her familiar surroundings to accompany her intimate partner to another country. She has no support around her, and perhaps barely speaks the local language. Dealing with the transition of a completely new world is hard enough to adjust to, but to also deal with abuse from the person she has made all these life changes for seems rather unfair and not to mention cruel.
Women world wide are experiencing this same type of abuse. When comparing immigrant women to canadian born, the levels of abuse does vary but in all areas, between cultural groups, types of abuse and levels of abuse. There have been no studies determining that immigrant women receive more or less abuse from their intimate partners then Canadian born women. Although women who are living in an institution or some form of temporary accommodation seem to be predominantly susceptible to this form of abuse by men who are in a power position or by their intimate partner being the ones placing them here, therefore abusing them through isolation.
This form a treatment towards women has to come to an end. Women are supposed to be considered an equal in todays society and yet still we still suffer through abuse and inequality. There are many organization that are fighting against these issues such as Because I am a Girl, Act to End, and YWCA Rose Campaign.
-Denise
References
- Guruge, S., Roche, B., & Catallo, C., (2012). Violence against Women: An Exploration of the Physical and Mental Health Trends among Immigrant and Refugee women in Canada. Hindawi Publishing Corporation Nursing and Research Practice, 1-15.
- Du Monte, J., Forte, T., (2012). An Exploratory Study on the consequences and contextual factors of intimate partner violence among immigrant and Canadian-born women. BMJ Open access medical research, 2:e001728.
- Image retrieved from Irishhealth.com
- Act to End: http://www.jwicanada.com/
- Because I am a Girl: http://becauseiamagirl.ca/page.aspx?pid=3816
- YWCA Rose Campaign: http://ywcacanada.ca/en/pages/rose/about
Lets take a closer look into IPV or intimate partner violence. IPV is defined as a physical, sexual, emotional and/or financial abuse carried out by an intimate partner as stated in Vol 2. Issue 6 of the BMJ Open. I would think that this form of abuse is very difficult on women let alone an immigrant women. If you can imagine yourself as a women who is perhaps leaving her home, family, friends, and all her familiar surroundings to accompany her intimate partner to another country. She has no support around her, and perhaps barely speaks the local language. Dealing with the transition of a completely new world is hard enough to adjust to, but to also deal with abuse from the person she has made all these life changes for seems rather unfair and not to mention cruel.
This form a treatment towards women has to come to an end. Women are supposed to be considered an equal in todays society and yet still we still suffer through abuse and inequality. There are many organization that are fighting against these issues such as Because I am a Girl, Act to End, and YWCA Rose Campaign.
-Denise
References
- Guruge, S., Roche, B., & Catallo, C., (2012). Violence against Women: An Exploration of the Physical and Mental Health Trends among Immigrant and Refugee women in Canada. Hindawi Publishing Corporation Nursing and Research Practice, 1-15.
- Du Monte, J., Forte, T., (2012). An Exploratory Study on the consequences and contextual factors of intimate partner violence among immigrant and Canadian-born women. BMJ Open access medical research, 2:e001728.
doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2012-001728.
- Image retrieved from Irishhealth.com
- Act to End: http://www.jwicanada.com/
- Because I am a Girl: http://becauseiamagirl.ca/page.aspx?pid=3816
- YWCA Rose Campaign: http://ywcacanada.ca/en/pages/rose/about
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Violence Against Immigrant and Refugee Women
One of the reasons immigrant and refugee women face so much violence is because they are in a lower socioeconomic level than immigrant men and women in general (Fulford, 1995). Not only do they face racism and language barriers, but there is no specific policy towards female immigrants and refugees in order to protect them (Fulford, 1995). Because not much is said publicly about this issue, it is almost invisible to regular society. Also, when female immigrants and refugees are in need of help regarding violence, there is no funding in order to support the programs to help these women heal (Fulford, 1995).
Some of the women coming to Canada aren't even here by choice; many are victims of trafficking and are subject to violence, abduction, fraud, and deception (Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women [CRIAW], 2012). Additionally, some women are so desperate to leave persecution from their own countries, that that they become mail order brides or domestic workers, and may become victims of physical or sexual abuse (CRIAW, 2012).
There are many reasons why immigrant women feel helpless when it comes to violence; one of the reasons is that many of these women feel a sense of shame about being a victim, seeking help, or leaving their abusive husband (Justice Institute of British Columbia [JIBC], 2007). Another reason is that experience of fear or racism may deter them from seeking help (JIBC, 2007). Lastly, since many of these women face challenges earning a living or accessing income assistance, it may be impossible for these women to leave their abusive situations and find appropriate housing (JIBC, 2007).
An example of an immigrant group who faces violence is Indian women. These women "face cultural constraints in accessing the benefits of Canadian policies for domestically abused women" (Shirwadkar, 2004). Culturally, Indian women live in an extremely patriarchal society in which they are seen as submissive (Shirwadkar, 2004). If an Indian woman is not meeting specific standards such as cooking, taking care of her in-law's family, or remaining docile and submissive, this is seen as deviating from the cultural norm and may be met with abuse (Shirwadkar, 2004). Unfortunately, this creates the idea that abuse is justified and is a regular part of marriage (Shirwadkar). When coming to Canada, some of these values are then brought here, so one can see that there are definite cultural differences when dealing with the issues of abuse and violence.
Overall, it is important that immigrant and refugee women feel safe when coming to Canada. I can see that this is a very touchy subject, as abuse is seen differently in many cultures. While our society still focuses on patriarchal family values, it is not to the extent of India or some other countries. Many of the feminist issues related to class can be found within this blog, including: our policies are gender neutral and do not take into account the special needs of women, women are oppressed by men as a class, and that male violence perpetuates domination over women (Straka, 2011).
Shannon
References
Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (2012). Immigrant and refugee women. Retrieved from http://www.criaw-icref.ca/ImmigrantandRefugeeWomen
Fulford, S. K. (1995). Feminism, multiculturalism and violence against immigrant women in Canada. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Circle. The University of British Columbia.
Justice Institute of British Columbia. (2007). Empowerment of immigrant and refugee women who are victims of violence in their intimate relationships. British Columbia.
Shirwadkar, S. (2004). Canadian domestic violence policy and Indian immigrant women. Violence Against Women, 10, 860-879. doi: 10.1177/1077801204266310
Straka, S. (2011). Feminist approaches to social policy [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from Algoma University Course Management System.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Reflection...
In looking back over my journey through this blogging assignment, I was very surprised in the beginning to see how unwelcoming Canada is, or is becoming, to immigrants and refugees. I had always heard wonderful things about the policies and practices that Canada had towards newcomers. We are known for our diversity, our multiculturalism and our welcoming nature. I then discovered, through reading journals and articles, that it is not quite so picture-perfect as it seems. Once I reached this conclusion, I did my first two blogs on how little we've changed in five hundred years in how unwelcoming we are, and how poorly we treat some people viewed as inferior.
Perhaps the thing that stands out the most, however, is that it is only too easy to see all these negative things that Canada is doing in it's reception of immigrants and refugees. Yes, there are unjust policies that have been or are being put in place regarding newcomers. And yes, we are becoming very neo-conservative with our welfare system. My first two blogs spoke of the prejudices and unfair treatment of refugees.
However, it takes a lot more determination to find positive actions towards immigrants and refugees. My last two blogs, the ones about the World University Service of Canada, and the Office for Refugees, Archdiocese of Toronto, were very encouraging. They showed what a massive difference that individuals, who join together to support a common cause, can make. I know that I would like to be more involved with these initiatives. These undertakings support a more socially democratic or socialist viewpoint on how we should be treating immigrants and refugees.
One aspect of the blogging assignment I really appreciated was that we got to read and comment on several other blogs. This was very interesting, finding out what people are passionate about and getting into discussions regarding various social issues. It was a very stretching, informative experience. My thanks to everyone for making this a valuble assignment.
-Selina
Perhaps the thing that stands out the most, however, is that it is only too easy to see all these negative things that Canada is doing in it's reception of immigrants and refugees. Yes, there are unjust policies that have been or are being put in place regarding newcomers. And yes, we are becoming very neo-conservative with our welfare system. My first two blogs spoke of the prejudices and unfair treatment of refugees.
However, it takes a lot more determination to find positive actions towards immigrants and refugees. My last two blogs, the ones about the World University Service of Canada, and the Office for Refugees, Archdiocese of Toronto, were very encouraging. They showed what a massive difference that individuals, who join together to support a common cause, can make. I know that I would like to be more involved with these initiatives. These undertakings support a more socially democratic or socialist viewpoint on how we should be treating immigrants and refugees.
One aspect of the blogging assignment I really appreciated was that we got to read and comment on several other blogs. This was very interesting, finding out what people are passionate about and getting into discussions regarding various social issues. It was a very stretching, informative experience. My thanks to everyone for making this a valuble assignment.
-Selina
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