Refugee Sponsorship Programs

While I was searching for another positive example of Canada's response to immigrants and refugees, a friend of mine told me about a yearly refugee conference he attends in Toronto. So, I went on the Archdiocese of Toronto's website and found some very positive information regarding their welcoming of refugees. The Office for Refugees, Archdiocese of Toronto (ORAT), works with national and international partners to help relieve the strenuous situations of people who have been displaced from their homes (archtoronto.org/refugee/). The goal of this program is to ensure that the sponsored refugees settle in and find a comfortable place in Canadian society (archtoronto.org/refugee/). The way the program works in through “An agreement between the Archdiocese of Toronto and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, [that] allows for parishes, religious orders and other related groups within the Archdiocese to privately sponsor refugees” (archtoronto.org/arch_offices/refugee.html). The group that chooses to sponsor a refugee or a refugee family is then responsible for their moral, logistical, and monetary support. This program has already sponsored millions of refugees in the thirty years it has been running, and has integrated these refugees successfully into Canadian society (archtoronto.org/arch_offices/refugee.html).  Statistics Canada supports the idea that newcomers to Canada experience a better quality of life and material well-being here than in their previous situations. In fact, 84% to 92% of newcomers have said that their quality of life is better here. 

Helping refugees is a prime example of what it means to “go in peace to love and serve the Lord,” says Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins (Girard, 2012).

This situation and program falls under the socialist, or Marxist, ideology. "Marxism is a theory of power and it's distribution: inequality" (MacKinnon, 515). ORAT works to distribute some of the wealth more equally. They use money that is raised in the diocese to make better opportunities for refugee families.  It also promotes freedom, and collectivism in that they encourage the whole community to support the undertaking to sponsor refugee families.

I know that my friend is trying to get his parish here in Sault Ste. Marie to be able to sponsor a refugee family to come to our city. Quite some time ago, this parish sponsored a Vietnamese family to come to live in Sault Ste. Marie, but the parish has not been able to since, due to monetary or some other form of struggles. He hopes that, in attending this refugee conference, will make it easier for him to proceed.

 

The Report on Systemic Racism and Discrimination In Canadian Refugee and Immigration Policies defines Anti-racism as “working toward the elimination of racism by challenging our society and ourselves.” This is just what programs and groups like the ORAT are doing: challenging their various parishes and groups to raise enough money and support to encourage the welcoming of refugees into our society. 

 

Martha Piper once said, “Our goal must be to educate global citizens who see themselves not simply as citizens of a local region, but also as human beings bound to other human beings in ties of concern and understanding (Khan, 3).” This is just what socialism, and the ORAT suggest. I hope that this sense of global citizenship will spread through Sault Ste. Marie and make us all more concious, caring people. 

-Selina

References

Archdiocese of Toronto - Office of Refugees. (n.d.). Archdiocese of Toronto - Home Page. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.archtoronto.org/arch_offices/refugee.html

Canadian Social Trends. (2008, November 21). Statistics Canada: Canada's national statistical agency / Statistique Canada : Organisme statistique national du Canada. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2007000/9627-eng.htm#5

Girard, C. (2012, April 20). Archdiocese of Toronto Office for Refugees after 15 short months. The Catholic Register. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.catholicregister.org/features/item/12811-archdiocese-of-toronto-office-for-refugees-after-15-short-months

Khan, A. (2012). Forced Migration and Global Citizenship: Reflections on My Transition from Refugee to an Immigrant and Scholar. Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration (pp. 59-62). Unknown: OxMo.

MacKinnon, C. (n.d.). JSTOR: JSTOR: Feminism, Marxism, Method and the State:An Agenda for Theory. Retrieved November 30, 2012, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/3173853

ORAT - Office for Refugees - Archdiocese of Toronto. (n.d.). Archdiocese of Toronto - Home Page. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.archtoronto.org/refugee/

Report on Systemic Racism and Discrimination In Canadian Refugee and Immigration Policies. (2000, November 1). Canadian Council for Refugees. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from ccrweb.ca/files/arreport.pdf