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Winnipeg, Man.
Refugees coming to Canada face many obstacles, challenges


In 1979, thousands of boat people fled persecution by the communist regime in Vietnam. Canada opened its arms to many of these refugees, as well as those from Cambodia and Laos.

Mennonite Central Committee helped Mennonite churches sponsor approximately 5,000 refugees from Southeast Asia.

Twenty years later, more boat people have arrived off the B.C. coast. This time they’re from China, sparking many questions and concerns: What are they doing here? What kind of illegal activities are they involved in? Can they be refugees when they just show up on our shores?

As coordinator of refugee programs for MCC Canada, Tim Wichert deals daily with these difficult issues. Mennonite churches have long assisted refugees they have selected overseas. But what of newcomers who come uninvited to our country and make refugee claims here?

“Our approach as churches must be based on compassion. Our challenge is to ensure that as Christians we are indeed compassionate,” says Wichert.

He says it’s important to look beyond the news to see the people involved and why they are taking such desperate actions.

“The reasons for migrating and fleeing these days are very complicated, but we can usually be assured that people are doing so because they really feel they have to. I’m not saying that all these people should automatically be allowed to stay, but that we need to at least listen to and try to understand their reasons for fleeing in such a desperate manner.

“If it turns out that they are not genuine refugees, then there is a process for sending them back.”

MCC also works closely with other church groups to advocate on behalf of refugees. Wichert says the federal government has drastically reduced the numbers of refugees that it accepts into Canada and is attempting to do so further. MCC calls for a more accepting environment for refugees.

For example, MCC has urged the government to remove the $975 Head Tax imposed on every adult refugee applying for permanent residence in Canada. Also, MCC has called for faster overseas processing time for refugees, which now can take up to two years.

The government proved this past summer with the refugees from Kosovo that it can process refugee cases more quickly if it really wants to, says Wichert.

“These delays simply encourage people to find more underhanded ways to get here.”

MCC’s high profile work in Mennonite communities continues to be refugee sponsorship. But Wichert also anticipates growing opportunities to work with refugees who have already arrived in Canada and are claiming refugee status here.

He believes it’s something in which congregations can also become involved.

Marina Maksimovic counsels newcomers from the Balkan region. She says newcomers run up against many barriers as they integrate into Canada. She suggests that the biggest barrier is language.

“All of a sudden, no matter what their background is, all of them are thrown to the ground,” says Maksimovic, who works for Mennonite New Life Centre, an immigrant settlement agency in Toronto.

She says refugees tell her they feel mute and stupid because they can’t communicate. Since children often pick up a new language quickly, they end up translating for their parents, and that can damage their elders’ pride.

“Parents are losing their natural role in the family and children are taking over,” says Maksimovic, who immigrated to Canada from Bosnia in 1993.

She says men, especially, feel humiliated when they can’t communicate, much less provide for their family. “And that’s where many problems arise,” she says. “Many marriages fall apart. That’s very common.”

John Docherty, director of Maison d’Amite, a refugee settlement agency in Montreal which MCC supports, says many refugees are also troubled by survivor guilt. They wonder why they are alive while other family members were killed. Others worry about the well-being of their remaining family members, and don’t feel settled until they’ve arranged for them to also come to Canada, a process which can take years.

He says after the trauma of war or persecution, refugees frequently fight sleep disorders. “Most of the refugees I know here have trouble sleeping. It’s very common in the people I see.”

Then there’s the struggle to find meaningful work. Many professional organizations for lawyers and doctors don’t recognize foreign credentials.

Docherty spoke of a Zairean doctor, a very respected researcher in Zaire, who can’t practise medicine in Canada. Yet, his entire identity is wrapped up in his status as doctor and medical researcher.

“It almost destroyed him,” says Docherty. “He had no role to play here.”

Ed Wiebe, who directs MCC Manitoba’s refugee work, says getting that first job is really difficult.

Certainly, some newcomers to Canada experience the hurtful barriers of racial discrimination. Wiebe says some Canadians don’t welcome “strangers” to their communities.

“They will not fit in with the neighbourhood. They will change our way of life. They will take our jobs,” he says, describing the fears of many Canadians.

“The one [thing] they come up against most is finding a place to live,” says Docherty, about the racism faced by newcomers. He hears stories from African refugees who were told a particular apartment was just rented, and then returned a few days later to see the “For Rent” sign still up. “That sort of thing apparently happens quite often.”

Wiebe says even churches sometimes erect barriers for refugees from particular countries by making special requests to only sponsor people who have a Christian background.

“A lot of refugees come here with very well-developed skills,” says Docherty. Refugees often have expensive education, training and experience already behind them, and put little drain on Canadian society.

Many refugees are already survivors, he continues. They have opted for life, and that translates into high motivation to advance and prosper. “That choice to move on and start over is a very life affirming decision,” he says.

Various studies, though not directed solely at refugees, show what immigrants contribute economically to Canada. According to a 1997 profile of immigrants in Canada, immigrants and Canadian-born citizens have approximately the same rates of employment. Immigrants are more likely to be self-employed than Canadian-born citizens.

Other studies show the economy often grows during periods of high immigration, contrary to some Canadian fears that newcomers make things worse for established Canadians.

“The reality is [refugees] usually take middle of the road to low-end jobs,” says Wiebe. He says refugees contribute fully as taxpayers, and also strengthen the economy as consumers.

Francisco Rico-Martinez and his wife Loly Rico run Hamilton House, a shelter for women refugee claimants in Toronto. He says with Canada’s aging population and slowing birth rate, it will need to rely increasingly on bringing in new people. “We don’t have enough people for the future. Our people are retiring and everyone knows that,” he says.

International law defines a refugee as a person who is outside his or her country and cannot return because of a well-founded fear of persecution, or who has fled because of war or civil conflict.

Docherty agrees that refugees bring an enhanced richness to the fabric of Canadian society. “It adds variety to how we see the world and tempers our own blind spots,” he says.  – Carol Thiessen, MCC Canada

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Last modified December 6, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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