The Humboldt and Area Refugee Coalition are on their way to sponsoring a Syrian family to come to Humboldt.
Now it has become a question of cost and direction, which was discussed at the Community Gather Place on Dec. 10.
Erin Ruel with the coalition says that she was talking about what could be done with friends when she heard about other groups wanting to sponsor a family, or maybe more than one.
Getting together was the best course of action.
“If we got organized, there was a lot we could do working together.”
Which lead to the open meeting on Dec. 10, a night to “open the dialogue” says Ruel.
“Anyone who was interested, whether they want to be involved with sponsoring or not, if they have questions or concerns, that was the goal for the night.”
The coalition invited Klaus Gruber to talk about the different ways the coalition could go about sponsoring a family.
Gruber, who has been a social worker for 45 years and a strong advocate for refugees, works with the Anglican Diocese as a refugee coordinator and has refugees living with him from Laos, Bosnia, Uganda, and South Sudan, as well as been a visitor to camps in Kenya, Cairo, and Columbia.
The Syrian conflict was something that those in the refugee world have tried drawing attention to for the last 5 years.
No one was paying attention, says Gruber.
“One picture changed everything.”
When pictures surfaced of 3-year-old Aylan Al-Kurdi drowned on the beach, the world could not ignore the problem anymore.
Syria had a population 22 million people before the crisis; half of which are displaced from their homes and another half of that is out of the country.
The ones that are still in the country are considered internally displaced and are not considered for sponsorship, says Gruber, since they do fit the refugee status.
Even though the coalition wants to focus on sponsoring a Syrian family, Gruber is quick to mention that there are many other people of different nationalities that are looking for a safe place to live.
December is a fitting time to look into welcoming a refugee family because Christmas is about welcoming a refugee family who was depending on the kindness of others.
Most senior officials he has discussed the topic with says their faith talks specifically about helping refugees.
“Everyone of them says, ‘we’re instructed to welcome the stranger, help people who are vulnerable.’ That is what this is about.”
Neighbouring countries, like Lebanon (1.3 million refugees) and Turkey (1.5 million refugees), have been taking the blunt of the refugee load from Syria and they rely on government donations to feed, register and provide healthcare for them.
That money is running out, says Gruber.
“The World Food Program, which looks after feed the refugees has had to reduce the amount it spends on food per family from about $35 a month to $13 a month.”
The amount of people who are lucky enough to get resettled is very low, says Gruber. Most of them will remain in refugee camps for the rest of their lives, even for the rest of their children’s or grandchildren’s lives, he says.
Canada is one of the best countries in the world that work to resettle refugees, says Gruber. The People of Canada even won an award for refugee work in 1983.
We’re the only country in the world to have a privatized refugee program, allowing private citizens to sponsor refugees.
This can be done in many ways, says Gruber.
Any group of five citizens can get together and sponsor a family if they have the resources to do it.
Community groups can also apply to sponsor refugee.
That group would then be responsible for the family, and there are many problems for the refugees when they get to Canada.
To sponsor privately, the government makes sure that there are supports in place for those coming into the country, both financial and personal supports.
“The government wants to ensure two things; that whoever is doing the sponsorship has the financial resources and the human resources to make sure the sponsorship does not fail.”
Gruber estimates that there are ninty-five groups across the country that are also sponsorship agreement holders.
Smaller groups can go through these group holders to convince them that they have the resources to support a family instead of going through the government.
“Many people, instead of doing a group of five, are finding a sponsorship agreement holder to work with, who can then do the sponsorship.”
Many of these agreement holders are faith based, like Gruber himself through the Anglican Diocese, but there are ethnic groups that those wanting to sponsor can go through as well.
There would be some training involved, says Gruber, to help deal with problems that may come up and members of the agreement holder group would help with that.
One of the programs through the government that is available is a three year old visa office referred program where those looking sponsor refugees can pick from refugees who have already been processed and screened by the government.
“They’ve already been processed and approved, they’re just looking for someone to bring them here.”
There has been changes to the program in recent years so that the government and the sponsor share the cost, says Gruber.
The next step from here is just to keep on talking, says Ruel. Forms were provided at the meeting to discuss how people want to get involved.
“We’ll connect with people once we get that information together, see what people’s interests are and what resources they have to offer, ideas people have.”
The coalition will then form a few small groups that will start the process of sponsoring the families and go from there, says Ruel.
Humboldt is the perfect candidate for sponsoring a family because we are a small community with a lot of really good resources, says Ruel.
“Because we’re a smaller community, we’re not getting the government sponsored refugees but that doesn’t mean we don’t have room for them.”
This is an advantage over the bigger cities because we’re not being overwhelmed with refuggees, says Ruel.
Refugee does not equal terrorist
Klaus Gruber was born in a refugee camp. He has been to many refugee camps since then and he knows the plight of refugees.
For those who think terrorists will be coming into Canada through refugee channels, Gruber says that is just not feasible.
The extensive year long process of getting a refugee into Canada would not be the best way for terrorist to get into Canada.
The term refugee fits very specific guidelines, Gruber explained.
“These are people who do not really have a choice. They’re not leaving because they didn’t get a job. They’re not leaving there because they want to move to a richer country or to try something new.” Says Gruber.
Immigrants are free to move as they choose, he says, while refugees have no other choice but to leave their country.
There is a lot of fear involved with being a refugee; from persecution from others but also depending on their kindness.
“The flight takes many forms, we’ve seen desperately trying to get to Europe because it’s closest they’ve can get to and we’ve seen the result of that.”
In the process, a lot is lost in the flight, says Gruber.
Homes, belongings, support networks, position, status, money, family; fleeing your country is a risk that no would take lightly.
“Almost all refugees, at least in the beginning, just want to go home.”
The risk of travel and finding a place to stay, sometimes in a refugee camp, is not taken lightly by refugees.
“The only way they could get into the Canadian system would be referred by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. If they end up in the wrong camp, they could sit there for 6 years, 10 years or until the war ends.”
Only 1 per cent of refugees get referred to the Canadian system.
There are screening checks from both UN and Canadian security, including identity checks and biometric information like fingerprinting and retinal scan.
There are much easier ways for someone to get into Canada if they wanted to, says Gruber.
Gruber says that even he has trouble understanding peoples fear of refugees since it is so far from his experience with it.
“Most of the people I’ve heard making negative remarks have no experience or know very little about the Syrian issue, particularly the refugee program.”
This inexperience creates a fearful environment and it is this fear that leads to peoples hostile reactions.
This hostility can lead to dangerous places.
“People often make a connection between the refugee program and Paris bombings.” Says Gruber.
In the case of Paris, it was not refugees who created the crisis but people want to make that connection because they think it is what is in store for Canada.
The refugee crisis in Europe and our refugee program in Canada is two very different things, says Gruber.
“We have an orderly system that processes people extremely well.”
Terrorism is a low priority risk. Screening the government’s 25,000 intended refugees is a tiny amount compared to the amount of people screened at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, who screen around 2 million people a day, says Gruber.
“We think 25,000 in a couple of months is overwhelming, there are 2 million people cross the border everyday.”
Even though some people are anxious, the bulk of people that Gruber meets as Refugee Coordinator with the Anglican Diocese are open to getting refugees into Canada.
Gruber says he sees the negative views on refugees as just a lack of empathy.
“The people who are hostile and hateful somehow can’t put themselves in place of the refugees.”
That where Gruber starts his discussion, introducing the refugee crisis from the point of view of a refugee.
“What would you do if you were stuck in a refugee camp and you couldn’t find anyone to take you and you couldn’t feed your kids?”
People do not often see the refugee as a person, Gruber says, they just see them as a very large group.
This makes it easier to be hateful.
Sidebar: The technical definition of a refugee fits these criteria:
1) Outside of their country.
2) They have a well founded fear of persecution, on their basis of their race, their religion, their nationality, social group, political affiliates.
3) Had to have tried to get protection from their home governments or their own systems and have failed. Sometimes they cannot ask for help because it is the government who is persecuting them.
