Refugee support information
From the Government of Canada website: How Canada is helping Syrian and Iraqi refugees
211.ca is a free, confidential information and referral service for thousands of community and social services available across the province.
Paradise Refugee Support's Facebook Page
The Halifax Refugee Clinic
Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia
UNICEF
Canadian Council of Refugees
Oxfam Canada
Refugee Sponsorship Training Program
Amnesty International
Canadian Red Cross
Lifeline Syria
United Nations High Commission for Refugees (Canada)
Citizenship & Immigration Canada (instructions for sponsoring refugees)
Doctors Without Borders
The Rainbow Refugee Association of Nova Scotia
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NOVEMBER 21- UPDATE- NOVA SCOTIA- Weekend Focus: Over 60 N.S. groups ready to welcome Syrian refugees
AARON BESWICK
TRURO BUREAU
Published November 21, 2015 - 6:33am
Published November 21, 2015 - 6:33am
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1323566-weekend-focus-over-60-n.s.-groups-ready-to-welcome-syrian-refugees
OCT. 31...INCREDIBLE UPDATE...
What a glorious share Canada...
Many of the 60,000 so-called ‘boat people’ who fled the Vietnam war are paying it forward by offering financial support, housing and legal sponsorship to thousands of Syrians they have never met.
The human family.... THE STARFISH REFUGEE PROJECT COMMUNITY - FACEBOOK
Canada's
Vietnamese community lends helping hand to Syrian refugees
Some of the 60,000 Vietnamese who resettled in Canada
after the fall of Saigon are working with Lifeline Syria to sponsor a new wave
of displaced families
James Nguyen was five years old when he boarded a tiny boat with 100 other
people for a harrowing sea journey from Vietnam to Malaysia in the fall of 1980.“I don’t remember what it looked like, I was very young then,” he said. “All I know is that it was very crowded and we were out on the open sea for five days and four nights.”
In the 20 years after the fall of Saigon, around 800,000 people have fled Vietnam by sea, braving storms and pirates in search of a better life.
Nguyen and his sister finally made it to a refugee camp in Malaysia, where they lived for six months, uncertain of their future, before they eventually heard that they would be sent to Canada as part of a programme that resettled more than 60,000 refugees.
Today, he’s one of many in Canada’s Vietnamese community looking to pay the favor forward by extending a helping hand to a new wave of families displaced by war.
“It’s near and dear to the Vietnamese community’s heart because we know what it’s like to be a refugee,” said Nguyen, 40.
Nguyen and other Vietnamese-Canadians are working with Lifeline Syria – a citizen-led project to recruit and train Canadians who want to sponsor and financially support Syrian refugees.
War has been raging in Syria for five years now, causing more than four million people to flee the country, with many making dangerous journeys to Europe and abroad in what human rights advocates have called the worst refugee crisis of our era.
The Canadian government pledged this year to resettle 10,000 of them over the next three years, and prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau promised during the election to increase this number to 25,000.
But regardless of the exact number, sponsors will be the key to success.
Lifeline Syria is modeled on Operation Lifeline, the 1979 rescue program that was a major part of the Canada’s response to the Indochinese refugee movement that eventually resettled 60,000 people around the country.
Le Luong was still a toddler when her grandfather paid a fisherman to smuggle her and her family out of Hanoi in 1978.
Now 39, Luong said that images of Syrian families in refugee camps reminded her of the two years she and her family spent in a Hong Kong camp.
“You become so much more appreciative of everything that we have in Canada, having lived through poverty, having not eaten and having to stand in line for basic necessities like food and water,” she said.
Advertisement
She was sponsored by church groups in London, Ontario and is now a business
consultant in Toronto. In October she was one of dozens who gathered to launch
the program, called “Vietnamese for Lifeline Syria”.It costs roughly $20,000 (CAD) to sponsor a refugee family of four for a year, plus startup costs of roughly $7,000 (CAD.) Sponsors will do everything from meeting them at the airport to helping find and cover costs for housing, clothes, food, furnishings, healthcare and training for employment.
But supporters say it’s a small price to pay.
“Without such generosity my life wouldn’t be the same, I don’t know where I would be right now,” said Tom Tang, 44, whose family was sponsored by a farming community in Port Perry, Ontario. Today, Tang has his own accounting firm in Toronto and has no question about helping.
“We’re going to do something about it,” he said. “It’s about being human – the good side of human.”
My Christmas gift to grandbaby- helping Syrian Refugees/Canadians need to step up to help our refugee brothers and sisters from the Muslim Refugee Camps... Politicians and UNITED NATIONS MONEYLENDERS....DON’T CARE.... it’s us... it’s humanity..... let’s take some of that Climate Change Money $$$$ and make this happen now/UNITED NATIONS AND USA- make it law that women equal men and the world will change immediately...it's time/ like we did with the Vietnamese Boatpeople Movement..... we can change the world.... our world for our kids.
Heads UP- thank u Jesus:
Iceland does what the US won’t: 26 top bankers sent to prison for role in
financial crisis http://www.rawstory.com/…/iceland-does-what-the-us-wont-26…/
…
To my beautiful grandbaby....
As u know I don't own a lot but love u much..... u are way too little to know about the horrific crimes men; especially rich men do to others in the name of progress and luxury lifestyles whilst billions starve.
In Canada, we certainly live among the poorer of our brothers and sisters and happily so.... and sharing what we have is just who we are... and we learned it well from our forefathers and mothers...... and this Christmas your biggest gift is going to b a card with a MONEY ORDER TO NOVA SCOTIA'S CANADIAN RED CROSS.... to the Syrian Refugees by the legitimate sources..... and no they won't know your name.... and u won't know theirs.... but God will and someday when u get older and wiser.... u will fall upon a simple Christmas Card with your Christmas Gift helping some little ones in hard places of this world with simple food, clothing a safe place... and maybe even a book in their language....
You come and visit your nana and u love it here.... with so much nothing but shares, dares and little things that make/made the world just a little better..... and honey.... u will receive a little stocking of goodies.... but the best goodies... will be your sharing with boys and girls so far away.... hugs and love... your nana...
The Resettlement of Indochinese Refugees in Canada
Looking Back after Twenty Years
As a result, the Canadian people themselves sponsored 34,000 of the 60,000 refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam who arrived in 1979 and 1980 to begin a new life in Canada. Twenty years later, it is worth remembering this exceptional period of history and highlighting its lasting effects.
| In recognition of the compassionate response of thousands in Canada to the needs of refugees from Indochina and elsewhere, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees took the unprecedented step in 1986 of awarding its prestigious Nansen medal to the Canadian people themselves. |
As the number of people in the refugee camps in the region expanded rapidly in 1978 and 1979, the international community gradually recognized that only a massive resettlement program would meet both the needs of the refugees themselves as well as the concerns of the governments receiving them. Not only was it clear that the refugees would not be able to return home in the foreseeable future, but it also was apparent that local countries would not take in many more refugees without substantial international support.
Political, economic, and social conditions were highly unstable in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam in the 1970s, leading to an exodus of over 3 million people from 1975 until well into the 1990s. Although the precise causes of the refugee movements were different in each country, the forms of persecution were similar.
Those who had worked for the defeated U.S.-backed regimes were singled out for harsh treatment, while others — particularly those of Chinese ancestry — were targeted because of their ethnicity. Many people were put into "re-education camps," moved to another part of the country against their will, or forced to work for the new government in power. On top of such widespread human rights abuses, continued violence both within and between states put the lives of thousands more at risk.
By mid-1979, an estimated 1.4 million people of all ages had fled to another country in the region. Many left over land — risking capture or being turned back at the border. For hundreds of thousands of others the only way to escape was by sea.
In recognition of the compassionate response of thousands in Canada to the needs of refugees from Indochina and elsewhere, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees took the unprecedented step in 1986 of awarding its prestigious Nansen medal to the Canadian people themselves.The "boat people" — as they came to be known — travelled for days in search of safety, often in rough seas and with little or no food and water. Many boats were so crowded that people had only enough room to sit. The vessels were generally old and small, and engine trouble was frequent. In addition to these dangers, pirates murdered, robbed, raped and abducted refugees. The number of people who perished on the seas is unknown, but is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
Even after the refugees reached land, they faced many more obstacles. Some countries pushed the "boat people" back out to sea, while the refugee camps themselves were a stop-gap solution to a growing problem. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees worked to ensure the safety of the refugees, both on the high seas (through anti-piracy programs and guidelines for ships rescuing refugees) and in the camps. The UNHCR also helped to co-ordinate refugees' resettlement in third countries, in an effort to preserve asylum.
By the summer of 1979, resettlement had become the focus of international efforts to alleviate the crisis by reducing the number of refugees in the camps. It was hoped that this would convince countries in the region not to turn back refugees at their borders. Canada, for its part, played an important role in this process, accepting more refugees per capita than any other resettlement country at that time.
The Private Sponsorship Movement
Such generosity was a direct result of the volunteer work of people all over Canada. Most were completely new to refugee resettlement. Dozens of organizations came into being to help co-ordinate this flood of goodwill, many of which remain active to this day. This period also saw the rapid formation of a partnership between the government and the public that has been called "a golden age in Canadian refugee policy, the highlight of leadership and the highlight of dedication."
In early 1979, the plight of the "boat people" filled newspapers and television screens. Day after day, a compelling story was told of refugees searching for safety against incredible odds. This unfolding drama touched the Canadian public directly. Many who volunteered as private sponsors remember watching the televised reports in their living rooms with tears in their eyes, feeling that they must do something to help. As one organizer recalls, "There was all this compassion building up and people just didn't know what to do with it."
The government, for its part, had so far charted a fairly modest course, resettling about 9,000 Indochinese refugees between 1975 and 1978. As the international community began to respond to the huge increase in the number of refugees in 1978 and 1979, however, immigration officials looked to the newly created private sponsorship program to bolster the country's commitment.
The program allowed approved organizations or groups of at least five individuals to sponsor refugees by providing them with administrative, financial, and personal support during their first year in Canada. Having set the program in motion, the government soon found itself responding to — indeed, trying to keep pace with — an explosion of sponsorship commitments from across the country. The recently created Private Sponsorship Program quickly became a household term.
| "As a group of human beings we really rose to a level of excellence that we don't usually challenge ourselves to achieve." Marion Dewar |
In practical terms, sponsorship was — and is — about more than just helping refugees find a place to live and a job to make ends meet. It meant explaining Canada to newcomers, introducing them to their new communities and helping them adjust to a thousand facets of everyday life generally taken for granted. It was also a learning experience for the sponsors, many of whom had never before had personal contact with a non-European culture. Moreover, in helping others, sponsors gained a better understanding of their own country. Said one: "It gave people a little insight into their own communities as well."
| "What was so remarkable about this time was the way that Canadians responded. And there was a tremendous response from the government as well." Flora MacDonald, then Secretary of State for External Affairs |
| One
time I crossed
The China Sea, Full of fear, In a small boat, Two typhoons, High waves Fierce winds, Death was so close. One time I flew Over the Pacific Ocean, Full of expectation, For a new life, Also full of uncertainty, For the days in a new country. From a poem by Nhung Thuy Hoang |
For the refugees there were many difficult adjustments to be made. They arrived in Canada with few possessions and many memories of their traumatic escape, mixed with hopeful anticipation for the future. Most had left family behind and looked forward to the day when they might be reunited. First, however, the refugees had to establish themselves in Canada, a process that required many more changes in their lives.
The most immediate challenge was language — many remember meeting their sponsors for the first time without being able to speak to one another. The way of life in Canada also presented challenges, such as shopping for food on a weekly instead of daily basis and enrolling children in the school system. Sooner or later, everyone had to learn to live with the cold of a Canadian winter: "What I remember most about first coming to Canada was the cold! After all these years I am only now beginning to get used to it!"
| "We wanted to do something for the new country that had accepted us. We were very grateful to the people of Canada and we worked very hard to adapt to the economy and the society." Vietnamese refugee |
These adjustments were never easy, but were often viewed as a necessary price to pay to secure a better life for the next generation. Most became Canadian citizens as soon as possible. This was not just a sign that they knew they would not go home: it also showed that Canada had, in fact, become their new home. Many sponsored — and continue to seek to sponsor — their families to join them.
Twenty years later, the presence of people originally from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam can be seen across the country. They have created community organizations and have built places of worship that reflect their own cultural origins, and become active politically, with some in public office. Hundreds have joined the workforce as engineers, computer systems analysts, doctors, and pharmacists. Others have their own businesses (such as restaurants and groceries, travel agencies, autobody shops, video stores and hair salons) or are active in international trade, while others still work in settlement services for newcomers, using their hard-earned experience to help others coming to Canada.
| Special
needs refugees
|
Today, the more than 200,000 Indochinese who have come to Canada since the 1970s are firmly established as fully contributing members of Canadian society. Through resettlement Canada provided these refugees an escape from persecution and the chance to find security in a new land. They have added new dimensions to the Canadian multicultural mosaic. They are now part of "us".
Canada's refugee sponsorship and settlement community today consists of a strong, broad-based, national network of organizations offering a humanitarian response to refugees. "Scratch the surface of many organizations involved today," it has been said, "and you'll probably find that they began in 1979, 1980, 1981 . . ." The arrival of the Indochinese refugees also helped to popularize private sponsorship, with the result that over 168,000 refugees from Indochina and other parts of the world have been welcomed into Canadian communities over the last two decades.
These legacies are clearly visible in the recent response in Canada to refugees from Kosovo. Settlement agencies quickly swung into action while people across the country, some of whom had been private sponsors twenty years ago, came forward to offer their help. Among these were Vietnamese community organizations that held fundraising events and collected donations, as well as doctors and pharmacists who, once new refugees in Canada, were now helping other refugees on their arrival. One such pharmacist explained: "I'm a boat person, so I know the agony they had to go through."
Twenty years after the Southeast Asian crisis, there are still over 12 million refugees around the world, most in the countries of the South. Dramatic though their situations are, they rarely make it to our TV screens.
For many refugees, resettlement represents the only option for a durable solution — a chance for life. Canada — and Canadians — can make this last chance a reality.
| "The overwhelming response of the Canadian public to the plight of the refugees gave them a sense of belonging to this country. It helped to facilitate their integration process into Canada." Vietnamese refugee | The main lesson of the Indochinese program is that voluntary sponsorship
works — and that it works exceedingly well. It provides a better
and more personal base for refugee resettlement, self-sufficiency and integration.
It also provides a clear signal to all levels of government that individual
Canadians care deeply about mass human suffering, and that they are willing
to invest their resources, their time, and their compassion to do something
about it.
Indochinese Refugees: The Canadian Response, 1979 and 1980, Employment and Immigration Canada |
Copies of the pamphlet can be obtained, free of charge from the Canadian Council for Refugees.
Canadian Council for Refugees
6839 Drolet #302 Montréal, Québec, H2S 2T1 tel: (514) 277-7223 fax: (514) 277-1447 email: ccr@web.net http://www.web.net/~ccr http://ccrweb.ca/sites/ccrweb.ca/files/static-files/20thann.html ----------------
Danish politicians want immigrants to be taught about sex
Danish
parliamentrians wants language courses for immigrants to include a component on
national attitudes to sex. The calls come with recent figures showing a
disproportionate number of rapes in the country are committed by immigrants and
their descendants.
Representatives
from four parties, including the centre left Social Democrats and
anti-immigration Danish People's Party, want sex education for immigrants to be
introduced. According to official figures, between 2013 and 2014, 34.5% of all
rapes were committed by immigrants or their descendants, despite this group
making up only 12% of the country's population.
Supporters
of the measure point to the success of a similar scheme in Norway, where
residents in asylum centres can choose to take a five-hour course focussing on
attitudes to sex.
"We
talk about opinions toward sex and we explain Norwegian law. Some asylum
seekers think that Norway is a very liberal country when it comes to sex and
misunderstand women's signals," Linda Hagen, who leads an organisation
that runs 34 asylum centres in Norway, told Denmark's Metroxpress.
"In reality, we are doing asylum seekers a disservice
if we do not teach them about this. They really want to talk about it and learn
more and they have a lot of questions," she added.
According to figures from Statistics Denmark, of the 615
people who received a rape conviction from a Danish Court between 2004 and
2013, 212 were immigrants or descended from immigrants.
"New Danes are clearly over-represented among those
convicted of rape. Some immigrants do not know and do not understand Danish
gender culture, and that if a Danish woman is drunk going home at night that
does not mean that she is accessible," sociologist and immigration expert
Mehmet Ümit Necef told Metro after the release of the figures in
August.
The measure is backed by representatives from the Social
Democrats, the Radicals, Danish People's Party and Conservatives.
Peter Skaarup, chairman of the anti-immigration DF told
Metroxpress that the measure should be introduced immediately: "If what
they are doing in Norway is working, we should copy it," he said.
Denmark's new centre right government has introduced a
range of measures designed to stem immigration, including restrictions on the
benefits immigrants can access. An all-time high of almost 65,000 immigrants
moved to Denmark in 2014, up 15% from the previous year.
------------
ISIS shuts down
all women's clinics, threatens male gynaecologists with death
-----------
HOW DID UNITED
NATIONS LET THIS HAPPEN???
Every child left behind in the Islamic State’s
new elementary schools
---------
Five reasons why the majority of
refugees reaching Europe are men
I come from a very, very tiny village in the Southern part
of Sweden. About 14% of the population around my village voted for a party with
right wing and xenophobic roots last time there was an election, to mine and
many people’s dismay.
Because of this right wing political movement growing in
Scandinavian countries, I’m starting to see a lot of the same old ignorant and
racist conspiracy theories seep out on social media. The arguments and
complaints are usually the same, but one question that has come about lately
is; “Why is it just men that come to Europe? They don’t care about their women
and children and they just leave them behind in warzones to survive
themselves!”
Nope, nope, nope. That theory is
simply not true, and I’m about to give you 5 arguments and
explanations to why it isn’t:
1. According to the UNCHR, women and girls comprise about
half of any refugee, internally displaced or stateless population. That’s that.
There’s not more men that flee their countries than women, which makes sense
since about half of the population is men and the other half women. Simple as
that. However, the majority of refugees reaching Europe is at the moment a
majority of men, according to the UNCHR, and my upcoming arguments
will explain why;
2. Young men can handle a dangerous and risky trip like the
one refugees are taking better than women and children. Women and children are
often left in the refugee camps in neighboring countries while the men decide
to leave the camps in order to take the risky and often deadly trip to Europe
by boat. According to statistics, the split between men and women in refugee
camps is almost fifty/fifty. The number of Syrian refugees is currently approaching 4
million, with UN data showing women and children make up over three-quarters of
that total. In Lebanon, the majority in the refugee’s camps are actually women and
children. The families then stay behind and wait until the men have
made the trip to Europe, applied for asylum and then are able to have the rest
of their families follow in a much safer way.
3. Another reason is that a lot of women and children die
on their way to Europe. The majority of those who have died in the Mediterranean waves
are women and children. Men are usually physically stronger and will
live longer in the water than women and children. This theory can be supported
by the gender division of the survivors during the disaster in Estonia. A study
of 18 catastrophes over the past 300 years was carried out by Swedish
researchers Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixon and shows that captains and their
crew (men)are 18.7 per cent more likely to survive a shipwreck than their
passengers. The research also showed that Out of 15,000 people who
died in 18 sinkings, only 17.8 per cent of woman survived compared with 34.5
per cent of men.
4. Families that travel together in a big group have a
harder time with the logistics, simply because it’s hard to look after multiple
people. Often the groups get stuck in countries on the way, don’t have enough
energy for everyone to continue or decide to stay in the first place where they
feel safe. It’s also easier for men travelling by themselves to get past border
patrol or military than it would be if a whole family was travelling along
5. Last but not least: No one would send their daughter to
do this trip by herself. No one. The risks for a girl travelling by herself on
a dangerous route such as from Syria to Europe, are too
high. Along the coastline, criminal gangs are reportedly charging Syrian
families tens of thousands of dollars to transport them to Greece. According to
the UN, women and children are at an extremely high risk of sexual abuse,
violence and exploitation on the route from a war zone to a safe zone. Much
more so than men. Sending your young daughter instead of son is basically
guaranteeing exploitation and abuse. No sane parent would do that
This is not about saving men and leaving women behind,
which is what many right-wing politicians and supporters are trying to portray.
This is about trying to get everyone to survival without suffering. Images of
children and mothers and phrases such as “among the dead were X many children
and women” are being portrayed in media on a daily basis and somehow it is as
if people have forgotten that men, too, have the right to survive. We can’t
dehumanize men just because they’re men. They're also human. They’re also
terrified of death.
People need to stop letting racist and xenophobic social
media try to control the narrative. The world needs to realize that everyone is
equal and everyone deserves dignity, a right to life and humane treatment. No
one should be left behind; and, trust me when I say this, I’m quite sure that
most Syrian fathers and brothers agree with me on this. The hardest walk to
take is the one you have to take alone.
Written by Anna
Strindberg
Anna is a Global Policy and Advocacy
Intern at Global Citizen. She is originally from Sweden, the motherland of
meatballs and IKEA, and has been an advocate for women’s right and race- and
gender equality in countries reaching from New Zealand to Jamaica. She enjoys
political debates, dance hall and spending her lunch money on everything but
lunch.
-----------
Refugees
The complex costs
of integrating refugees in Germany
A German
organization representing local municipal governments sounded the alarm this
week, saying Berlin will need to feed more money down the chain. So what's the
government planning to spend, and what's the shortfall?
Refugees: Germany
faces stiff bill
Housing, food,
supplies, a personal monetary allowance, policing, education, childcare -
there's a long list of potential costs when a country takes in refugees or
asylum seekers. To complicate matters further, these costs will vary from
person to person, and place to place. Cities such as Munich or Stuttgart, two
of the German property ladder's priciest rungs, might have particular problems
finding affordable accommodation. In former East Germany or northwestern cities
struggling to overcome the decline of heavy industries such as mining,
integrating migrants into the labor market or schools might pose the greatest
problem.
Munich's real
estate market, for instance, is notorious - this house-hunting couple is
offering a 1,000-euro reward to anyone who can put them on the trail of a
suitable rented home within budget
Despite these
potential discrepancies, the federal government has agreed on a new, unified
approach to the funding issue starting in 2016. It was a key part of the
package of asylum laws passed on a fast track this month . Starting in January,
the national government will award each of Germany's states a fixed sum of
money - 670 euros (currently $740) - per asylum seeker, per month. It will then
be up to the states and to their municipalities to divvy up this money to cover
their specific costs.
"The risk here
is self-evident," warns a new report from the Deutscher Städtetag
(Organization of German Cities), which represents municipal governments in
Germany's highly decentralized system. "The agreement completely neglects
to obligate German state governments to pass these means on to the
municipalities."
Who pays what,
where?
Stephan Articus,
managing director of the Deutscher Städtetag, suggests a "transparent,
unified and national process" to solve this, in which states simply pass
the entire premium they receive straight on to the municipality or city where
the person is living. "For, up to now, different states' financial
contributions towards the costs for municipalities have differed vastly."
In principle, German states are legally
responsible for the reception, accommodation and provision of benefits to cover
the vital needs of asylum seekers. In practice - with exceptions such as
Bavaria and the city-states of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg - most states pass
this responsibility on and then reimburse local governments for the costs
incurred. As a 2014 federal government report from the Federal Office for
Migration and Refugees (BAMF) put it: "It is, however, virtually
impossible to compare these [state figures] with one another because of different
accounting periods and different variable shares." Most states, the report
continued, were aiming to shoulder between 70 and 85 percent of the
municipalities' costs at the time.
Articus'
second-in charge at the Deutscher Städtetag, Helmut Dedy, wrote an editorial to
accompany Thursday's report, playing on Angela Merkel's now-notorious "wir
schaffen das" ("we can do this") refugee motto. Entitled
"We can do this, if…," Dedy's thesis points out that Germany is
essentially in stage one of three when it comes to refugees: reception. Stages
two and three, "beginning with the approval of the refugees' asylum
applications," will pose challenges on the local level more than for
states, he posits. After identifying integration in the community, which "also
requires financial resources," as stage two, Dedy comes to the third step:
"Refugees - just like other residents - need a flat, and access to the
city's schools and childcare facilities."
Has Berlin
earmarked enough?
What's more, the
Deutscher Städtetag estimates that the 670 euros is only likely to cover around
two-thirds of the actual costs. The group suggests 1,000 euros per person, per
month, as a more realistic level.
Like many
governments, Germany's has been unwilling to offer predicted figures, waiting
instead for the data to come in - but that's a problem for planners
One reason why
per-person figures are favored over lump sums - even in the legislation - is
the current uncertainty as to how many people will arrive in Germany in the
coming months and years. The report offered two scenarios, one based on 500,000
new arrivals in 2016 and the other on 1.2 million. This put the total estimated
costs for states and municipalities at between 7 billion and 16 billion euros -
and, perhaps more importantly, it put the shortfall after implementing Berlin's
new laws at between 3.5 and 5 billion euros.
However, the
report did not call for responsibility to be taken out of towns and cities'
hands - arguing that only they had the flexibility to find solutions tailored
to the lay of the land.
"In
economically weak regions, major programs will be needed to integrate refugees
into the labor market. In regions with low unemployment, but an expensive real
estate market to go with that, massive investment towards social housing will
be necessary," Dedy said.
---------------
The US & Europe
Will Collapse Regardless Of Economic "Contagion"
Submitted by Tyler
Durden on 06/26/2015 22:25 -0400
In order
to understand what is really going on around the globe in terms of the
collapsing economy, we must set aside false mainstream versions of reality. When
it comes to the EU and its current fiscal turmoil, it is very important to, in
some respects, ignore Greece entirely. That’s right; forget about all the
supposed drama surrounding Greek debt obligations. Will they find a way to pay
creditors? Will they default? Will they make a deal with Russia and the BRICS?
Will there be last-minute concessions to save the system? It doesn’t matter.
It’s all a soap opera, an elaborate Kabuki theater run by international
financiers and globalists.
It is most
important to remember the fundamentals. Greece will default on its debts.
Period. There is no way around it. Maybe Greece makes a deal today, maybe it
makes a deal tomorrow; but eventually, the country’s ability to stretch out its
resources in order to meet its exponential liabilities will end. It is
inevitable, and no last-minute “deal” is going to change the math at the core
of it all.
Why are so many economists so
worried about a little country like Greece? It's all due to a great lie: a
dishonest narrative being perpetuated by the establishment that if Greece
falls, defaults or leaves the EU, this could trigger a domino effect of other nations
hitting a debt wall and following suit. The lie embedded in this narrative is
the claim that Greece will cause a “contagion” through the act of
default. Let's be clear - there is no contagion. Multiple countries
within the EU have developed their own debt problems in spite of Greece over
the past couple of decades, not because of Greece. Each of these countries,
from Italy, to Spain, to Portugal, etc. has its OWN sovereign debt disasters to
deal with caused by its own fiscal irresponsibility. The only legitimate reason for a so-called contagion is the fact that
these countries have been forced into socialist interdependency through the EU
structure.
Never forget this: The EU is in trouble not because of Greece, but
because of forced supranational interdependency. The EU by all rights should
not exist, nor should any centralized supranational single currency system.
I would also point out that globalist institutions like the International Monetary Fund are highly
motivated to initiate disaster in the EU, despite some people’s assumptions
that the EU is some kind of representative model of globalization. It’s not. If
this were the case, then the IMF would not be stiffing Greece on debt aid while
continuing to help Ukraine despite Ukraine’s
similar inability to pay.
Why would the globalists want a
partial breakup of the EU? What would they gain from such an event? That’s
easy; they gain crisis, chaos and an opportunity to present a false dialectic.
Europe is not at all representative of what globalists
really want in terms of economic and political structure, no matter what many
people assume. It is a, rather, a kind of facsimile; a half measure. When
Europe hits the bottom of the financial abyss and the bewildered public begins
asking what the hell happened, the elites will be there with an immediate
explanation. They will claim that it was not the EU’s interdependency that was
the problem. Instead, they will assert that the EU was actually not centralized
ENOUGH. They will claim that in order for a
supranational economy and currency to work, we must also have supranational
governance. In other words, the system failed because it needs to be stabilized
by global government.
The Fabian socialists will argue that it was the barbaric
and outdated institution of national sovereignty that caused the full-spectrum
crisis. They will completely gloss over the negative effects of an
interdependent economic system and the fact that a lack of redundancy leaves
cultures simpering and impotent. We’re all one big human village after all, so
we should accept the idea that we all succeed or fail together. Free markets
and individual innovation apparently have nothing to do with a thriving
economic structure. What we really need is a hive mind amalgamation that turns
us all into easily replaceable parts in a massive rumbling lawnmower that chews
up our heritage, history and principles for the sake of some arbitrary greater
good and the promise of alchemical floating cities in the sky where no one has
to work anymore.
The fall of the EU is a means to an
end for globalists. There is almost no nation or institution they will not
sacrifice if that sacrifice can be exploited to further their goal of total
global political and economic dominance. They don’t just want a completely
centralized system; they want all of us to BEG them to put that system in
place. They want the masses to think it was all our idea. This is the most
pervasive and effective form of slavery, when the slaves are manipulated into
demanding their own enslavement. When the slaves are fooled into
believing their enslavement is something to be proud of — a badge of honor in
service of the collective, if you will.
The fall of the U.S. will be no
different in this regard. We do not necessarily have a supranational structure
like the EU. So our narrative for collapse will be slightly different, and the
engineered lesson we are meant to learn will be carefully crafted.
You see, Americans are meant to play
the role of the spoiled imperialists who are finally getting what we deserve,
an economic punch in our tender parts. We are the new Rome, bread and circuses
and all. And when the U.S. comes crashing down like Europe, the Fabians will be
there yet again to admonish the greed inherent in national sovereignty and the
destructive aspirations of power that must be squelched by a more evenhanded
global political system. I don’t really know how many people out there realize
this, but we are meant to play the bad guys in the global theater being put on
by the elites. Americans are the villains, the rest of the world plays the role
of innocent victim, and globalist centers like the IMF and the BIS are meant to
play the heroes, coming to the rescue of humanity when all appears lost.
Our debt generation by far outmatches that of the whole
of EU nations combined, a fact I outlined in Part 3 of my series One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes.
Unlike Greece, though, the U.S. has the direct option to print fiat at will in
order to prolong punishment for our massive debt spending. However, as we have
seen with recent market reactions to the very notion of an interest rate hike
by the Federal Reserve in September, such an event will trigger extensive
outflows from stock markets and herald the end of the “new normal.” Again, why
would the banksters do this? Why not keep interest rates at a constant near
zero? It is not as if there is any public pressure to raise rates; in
fact, it's quite the opposite. Why is the Fed ignoring the hundreds of signals
showing that the U.S. is in a recession and pushing ahead with discussion of
interest rate hikes despite what one might logically conclude would be in the
Fed's best interest?
The Fed knows that the only things
propping up American markets are free money and blind faith by the public that
banks and government will act to stop any pain or economic suffering, should
such a potential for crisis arise. When the free money is gone and that faith
disappears, then we will have an epic catastrophe on our hands. The globalists
within the Fed know this, and they want this - at least , they want a
controlled version of this. The elites NEED the fall of the current U.S. system
exactly because this will make way for the rise of what they often term the
“great economic reset.” This reset is the next stage in the plan for
total global economic centralization.
This is not about contagion. There is no such thing. It is an excuse, a scapegoat designed to distract
from the real problem. This is about a concerted effort over the past several
decades by internationalists to maneuver Western cultures into a position of
vulnerability. When people are weak and frightened, they become malleable.
Social changes you would have never thought possible today become very possible
tomorrow in the midst of a crisis. I believe we are now seeing the onset of the
next great crisis, and the fundamentals of economy support my view. When the
entire European system hangs by the thread of Greek debt and the entire U.S.
system hangs by the thread of near zero interest rates and blind market faith,
something is about to shatter. There is no going back from such a condition.
There is only the path forward, and the path forward is not pleasant or
comfortable and it cannot be ignored.
We cannot forget that crisis is in
itself a distraction as well. Whatever pain we do feel tomorrow, or the next
day, or the next decade, remember who it was that caused it all: the
international banks and their globalist political counterparts. No matter
what happens, never be willing to accept a centralized system. No matter how
reasonable or rational it might sound amid the terror of fiscal uncertainty,
never give the beast what it wants. Refuse to conform to the dialectic. This is
the only chance we have left to get back to true prosperity. Once we cross the
line into the realm of worldwide institutionalized interdependency, we will
never know prosperity or freedom again.
----------
“The New Face Of EU Immigration Is Young,
Fit And Overwhelmingly Male,”
by Simon Kent, Breitbart, September 6, 2015:
BUDAPEST,Hungary (Sep. 6) – Meet the self-styled ‘Aleppo
Boys’. Pictured above, they are the collective face of mass immigration
entering Europe from the Middle East. Their story is indicative of so many you
can hear right now at Budapest Keleti railway station.
They are young. They are fit. They clearly know what they
want. They have no intention of staying and fighting in Syria. Instead they
have travelled overland through Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and
into Hungary. They say their last stop is Germany.
None of them wants to stay in Hungary or any of they
countries they have transited. As one they see Germany as a future because
Chancellor Angela Merkel told them so. Besides, Hungary police want to
fingerprint them, check any travel documents and stop their progress as
specified by EU regulations.
The Aleppo Boys want none of it. They understand why some
of their compatriots broke out of a refugee camp on Friday night and
decided to try and walk to Germany.
“No good here in Hungary. No good,” said their leader
Muhammad. “They try and lock us up. But we want Germany, there it is good. We
have to worry about nothing there. They give us food and house and job.
“Hungary just want to watch us all the time.”
Which is not to say they aren’t grateful. As one they seem
tremendously happy and unfailingly polite. They are also in the majority
amongst the thousands who arrive each day on their way north.
Yes, there are families in the throng at Keleti. Plenty
with young children. But if you stand and take a rough count it is hard not to
come to the conclusion that young men are in the overwhelming majority. They
have been dressed by charity and have cash for tickets. They want to charge
their iPhones, eat more pizza and board their trains.
The families sit in tight groups or they sleep underneath
the station concourse waiting for their chance to leave. Local Budapest
volunteers have delivered food and clothing, showing goodwill which the
travellers are only too willing to accept.
Moving around the station the sheer scale of the tide of
humanity now crossing Europe is apparent. I spoke to two young men from
Bangladesh. There were Pakistanis and Sudanese. I even met a family from Nepal.
Syrians are the highest number followed by Iraqis and some Jordanians and they
all seem amply versed in the ways and means of securing a passage to Germany.
Social media is the one connecting link. Everyone either
has an iPhone or knows someone else who does. They use them to talk to family
members on the other side of the world or network with each other sharing
information. It also helps them to know what lies ahead.
According to local police, up to 10,000 immigrants crossed
the Austrian/Hungarian border over a 24- to 48-hour period after Budapest
station was closed to all travellers on Friday afternoon due to the surge in
numbers.
Around 1,500 spent Saturday night in Nickelsdorf waiting to
be processed, half in the open air, the Austrian Red Cross said. Those left in
Budapest heard the news and waited knowing that when trains resumed they would
be ready to board them.
For the young men travelling on their own, there is safety
in numbers but a deep suspicion of anyone who is not another fellow immigrant.
Most do not want their photograph taken but if they agree, it is under the
strict understanding their family name will not be included.
Like Ahmed (pictured right). He refused to let me have his
family name. Ahmed, 21, just wants wants to get to Norway and settle in Oslo.
He has also made the overland trip from Damascus in Syria, a journey he said
cost around US$5,000. He was waiting to board a train to Vienna and when he
arrives in Oslo he feels he will be safe.
He told me: “I want new life. I want to go to university.
Make money. I want to work in a bank, be a banker. Bring my family.”
I asked why he didn’t stay and fight. His answer revealed
he thinks there is nothing left to fight for.
“Oh no, no. There is no future there. I see babies and…” He
makes a cutting motion across his neck. “I see families killed. Women die. All
people killed who not want to work with terrorists… no future. Europe is the
new hope for all of us.”
As Breitbart News has already reported from Budapest, nobody knows how
many more are to follow across the Mediterranean, although it could be
‘uncountable millions.’
This is the future that awaits Europe today.
--------------
Syrian wives and mothers left behind
condemn men who have fled the country, and ask: ‘Who will free us? Who will
protect us?’ It is wrong to leave your country’
Women living in refugee camps in Syria asked
about men fleeing to Europe
They accuse men of abandoning their country in times of
crisis
Another say it is forbidden under Islam to leave your home
nation
--------
Benedict
Cumberbatch to a UK Government Not Doing Enough For Syrian Refugees: “F**k the
Politicians!”
by Teresa Jusino
( ) Friday, October 30th 2015 at 3:04 pm
Benedict
Cumberbatch is a vocal campaigner for the Syrian refugee crisis, and during his
current run as the lead in Hamlet at the Barbican, he’s been doing a nightly
collection for Save the Children, using his celebrity to try help children
suffering as they flee their war-torn home. However, after Tuesday night’s
performance, Cumberbatch showed that there are some problems that are so big
and so deserving of attention that even a typically unflappable British actor
has permission to lose his cool.
Cumberbatch gave
his usual speech about the crisis in Syria and his plea to the audience to
donate to Save the Children in the provided baskets. Then, his speech became
more emotional and more political. He passionately criticized the UK
government’s plan to accept only 20,000 refugees over the next five years,
(which is considered too meager by opposition, considering that there are more
than 3 million refugees that have been displaced in Syria) and ended his speech
by saying, “Fuck the politicians!”
Cumberbatch has
never shied away from using his celebrity to educate the public about important
issues as they’re snapping photos and taking video, and this seems to have had
the same effect. Audience members have come away emotionally affected and
thinking about something they might not have otherwise. According to NBC News,
audience member Charlotte Fletcher said:
He stayed at the front and gestured for
silence. He burst into this magnificent monologue about Syrian refugees, about
how they are all fathers, mothers, daughters and sons, just like us. Then
[after discussing the UK’s refugee plan] he just shouted, ‘F*** the
politicians!’ It was a wonderful moment. It was very impassioned and from the
heart. It was amazing to see an actor just being so impassioned and raw.
It seems that the
idea that “British accents making curse words sound less crass” extends to
British people themselves! In any case another audience member, Rachel Martin,
said:
[The speech was] so moving. The show was
fantastic but you left in tears after his speech. It was very eloquent,
emotional and beautifully put … He gave a four-letter word to the politicians
and said, ‘We’ve got to do something about it.’
Now, hopefully,
those people will carry that emotion into actual activism and perhaps petition
their government on behalf of the Syrian refugees.
In case you’re
wondering, the United States has only agreed to take 10,000 refugees over the
next year. If this matters to you, the phone numbers of your congresspeople are
easily researched.
Meanwhile, here’s
a video of one of Cumberbatch’s speeches. Sadly, this one is expletive-free,
but it doesn’t make the message any less urgent:
VIDEO
-----------------
VIDEO
WorldLink:
Identity and acceptance
On this week’s
show: A DW reporter is attacked by anti-immigration protesters, whilst another
colleague is invited for tea and cupcakes with a Syrian refugee and his German
housemates. Also, the woman who shamed US Athletics into letting women run
marathons and the plight of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar.
-------------
Rape and domestic violence follow
Syrian women into refugee camps
Victims hide their shame to avoid being stigmatised for
life after assaults by marauding gangs
Children have witnessed massacres, mothers seen their sons
killed, families watched their homes looted and burned. But there is one act of
violence that refugees from the Syrian crisis will not discuss.
The conflict has been distinguished by a brutal targeting
of women. The United Nations has gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault
of women and girls by combatants in Syria,
and describes rape as "a weapon of war". Outside the conflict, in
sprawling camps and overloaded host communities, aid workers report a soaring
number of incidents of domestic violence and rampant sexual exploitation.
But this is a deeply conservative society. The endemic
violence suffered by Syrian women and girls is hidden under a cultural blanket
of fear, shame and silence that even international aid workers are loth to
lift.
Dr Manal Tahtamouni is the director of the Institute for
Family Health, a local NGO funded by the European commission that was among the
first to open a women's clinic in Zaatari refugee camp. When asked, she says,
most women will not admit to being raped. They will say they have seen others
being raped.
"This is a conservative area. If you have been raped,
you wouldn't talk openly about it because you would be stigmatised for your
entire life. The phenomenon is massively under-reported," Tahtamouni says.
Only after a long process of building trust through one-on-one counselling
sessions might a rape survivor talk. Of the 300 to 400 cases her clinics receive
in a day, 100 are female victims of violence, mostly domestic.
In the day, the camp bristles with the economic and social
buzz of a resilient society attempting to reclaim normality. Under the broad
blue skies of the Jordanian desert, groups of women in full black veils peaked
with sun visors shop in a makeshift high street of UN tents. At night, when gun
battles raging at home can be heard across the border, the atmosphere darkens.
Even "Abu Hussein", a local boss of Zaatari's
brothel and bar district, has requested that UN officials launch patrols to
control gangs of young men wreaking havoc in the camp and harassing women.
Groping and lewd name-calling during food distributions and in the public
latrines are common. Rapes have been reported."There is a tendency to
think that once [women] have crossed the border, they are safe," says
Melanie Megevand, a specialist in gender-based violence at International Rescue
Committee charity. "But they just face a different violence once they
become refugees."
In a reversal of the cultural norm, many families here are
headed by women. Fathers and husbands have either been killed or gone to fight.
At least three-quarters of these families don't live in Za'atari camp but in
nearby towns, where they quickly disappear beyond the reach of aid workers and
their resources. With no means to support themselves, they are vulnerable.
Um Firas has lived in Mafraq, near Zaatari, for more than a
year since escaping Homs. She rarely leaves her home. Her husband disappeared
years before the war so she is alone, accumulating an enormous debt to cover
her rent. She still believes her family is better off in debt than inside the
camp.
She is particularly concerned for her teenage daughter, who
took to sunbathing until her skin burned in Syria. "She told me, 'If I
turn black, the Shabiha [pro-government militia] might not want to rape
me," she says. "They were targeting women. Iranian and Hezbollah
fighters came into our neighbourhood with their swords drawn. The women they found,
they raped. They burned our homes," she adds, too exhausted by grief to
stop crying.
"I saw maybe 100 women stripped naked and used as
human shields, forced to walk on all sides of the army tanks during the
fighting. When their tanks rolled back into the Alawite neighbourhood, the
women disappeared with them."
In Mafraq, her landlord wants to evict her. He had offered
to let the family stay only if Um Firas allowed his 28-year-old son to marry
her 16-year-old daughter. Beautiful young Syrian women are in high demand. She
refused.
The Rev Nour Sahawneh leads the community effort to help
refugee families in Mafraq. He has noticed with alarm a growing number of men
flying in from the Gulf states to take Syrian girls from their desperate
families.
"Their pale skin, the way they talk, cook – it's a
fantasy for them, even if she is only 14," Sahawneh says.
"Yesterday I heard a man I know accepted 9,000 dinars
[£8,420] from a Saudi guy for his 15-year-old daughter. He will take his 'wife'
to a flat and stay with her for a few months then go home without her. It's
illegal to marry women under 18 in Jordan.
Saudi men cannot marry non-Saudis without permission. She is not a wife but for
sex only."
In the past three months, a bridal boutique has sprung up
in a small tent in what residents ironically call Zaatari's Champs Élysées. It
offers a choice of six elaborate, bedazzled bridal gowns to rent for 2,500
Syrian pounds (£15.80). The average age of the wearer is 15.
Rihab, 19, is marrying her 27-year-old camp neighbour
tomorrow. Five months ago she met his sister, who made the match. Surrounded by
the groom's female relatives and shaking with nervy excitement, Rihab strips
out of her niqab to try on the strappy dress only her husband will see her in.
Her family had refused the marriage initially, the boutique
owner explains under her breath. It's going ahead now only because the groom's
family have arranged for the new couple to be "bailed out" of Zaatari
to start a new life in Jordan. Jamilla, Rihab's future mother-in-law, looks on,
pleased. She married her 15-year-old daughter to a man in Amman last year and
already has a one-year-old grandchild.
"Isn't it better that they are married, that she is
protected by her husband? I am marrying off my daughters as quickly as I can.
They are young. They don't know any better," she says with a laugh.
There is no time to ask how the bride is feeling. The dress
has been bagged and she is being hurried out into the bustle of the camp. As
her veil falls back over her face it covers a startled, wide-eyed expression of
excitement – or fear.
-----------
Human trafficking
crackdown on sex trade across Canada yields 47 people charged http://www.cbc.ca/1.3283514
-------------
HOW SOME MIGRANTS
SAY THANK U: Tents torched at transit camp Slovenia by migrants And they
refuse2 clean up their messes http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34592797#
…
-----------------
-------- MEANWHILE IN CANADA...
'Boat people' still grateful for Canada's help
ROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)Amy Allison was just eight years old at the time but she remembers the kind church lady stopping by her family’s house in Leamington with a Sears catalogue.
It was 1980 and Carolyn Reid was there to see Amy’s parents, Peter and Sui Hoang. The catalogue was pressed into service as a way to communicate.
The Hoangs didn’t speak any English. They were part of a flood of refugees, often referred to as “boat people,” who fled Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the late ’70s as communist governments took over.
Part of a historic Canadian government sponsorship program, nine members of Peter’s family wound up in Leamington with the help and support of the Knox Presbyterian Church.
Their new life was just beginning and Carolyn and the church pastor were trying to figure out what the family needed. They pointed to different items in the catalogue trying to sort it all out.
After they left, Amy, now 41, remembers the family used pages of the book for placemats.
April 30 marks the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the demise of South Vietnam. The end of the protracted Vietnam War ignited a mass exodus of civilians estimated to be as high as 1.5 million.
The Hoangs owned a barbecue house in the northern Vietnamese city of Hai Phong. While the brutal 20-year civil war had ended, Vietnam was fighting a border conflict with China and the Hoangs were Vietnamese-Chinese.
“They said, ‘You’re not from this country.’ They looked at you in a different way,” Peter said of mounting tensions.
Government officials told him he couldn’t work in his own restaurant, he said. “I had kids to feed.”
The future for Amy and her younger brother Yung and sister Stephanie was bleak. As Vietnamese-Chinese, Peter wasn’t sure his children would be allowed into a university and he knew they couldn’t aspire to “an important job.”
So the Hoangs sold everything they owned and Peter bought a 26-metre fishing boat. He made plans to leave Vietnam with his wife and three kids, a brother and sister-in-law and his parents.
By the time they shoved off, the boat brimmed with 265 refugees. Those who had money or gold paid for their passage. Those who didn’t helped fix the boat.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimated between 200,000 and 400,000 boat people died at sea. Women were raped or abducted and possessions stolen by pirates.
The trip to Hong Kong was not as perilous for the Hoangs, Peter said. “It was a big boat.”
They did, however, come across a smaller vessel in more desperate straits. There were 160 people on board with no food, water or motor. They shared water and rice and ended up towing the second boat to Hong Kong.
The Hoangs spent a year in a refugee camp there, living in a space the size of a modest walk-in closet.
“For the future, for the kids we had to get out of there,” Sui said.
Canada’s sponsorship program was in full swing by 1979. Government immigration officials visited refugee camps to interview potential candidates and they accepted the Hoangs.
Canada welcomed 60,000 in a chaotic 18-month period. Eventually, that number swelled to 150,000. More than 2,000 settled in Windsor and Essex County. How many stayed in the area is unknown but there were at least some who headed for bigger cities such as Toronto.
While the efforts of then Ottawa Mayor Marion Dewar to accept 4,000 refugees in 1979 was widely reported, research into resettlement shows Windsor, spurred by the compassion and vision of Mayor Bert Weeks, was ahead of the country in responding to the plight of the refugees.
“In the summer of 1977 Bert Weeks organized a committee to welcome Indochinese refugees,” said Michael Molloy, president of the Canadian Immigration Historical Society and co-director of the Jerusalem Old City Initiative at the University of Windsor. “That was 18 months ahead of everybody else. He was mulling over what he thought was a need to do something at a time when no one else in Canada was paying attention.”
Molloy and University of Windsor research associate Giovanna Roma found several clues of the city’s precedent setting involvement, including a Windsor Star article from August 1978 noting the first refugees were scheduled to arrive within a month.
“That’s long, long before the rest of Canada is at all involved,” Molloy said.
The committee Weeks assembled had among its members a number of socially active pastors and priests, including Rev. Robert Gordon Warden.
Warden was a co-founder of the Windsor Coalition for Development, a group that bought houses, fixed them up and donated them to the less fortunate.
As the movement to help the boat people picked up steam across the country, Warden travelled to different parishes explaining how they were delivering aid in Windsor.
A poster featuring him as a guest speaker was unearthed in a church archives in Edmonton as part of the extensive research done by Molloy and Roma.
Another key member of Weeks’ committee was Ralph Talbot, the local settlement counsellor for the Canada Employment Centre.
“I never forget Mr. Talbot,” says 77-year-old Hai Nguy, the owner of Hai Ho Upholstery on Wyandotte Street East. “I never forget and appreciate the Canadian government and the Canadian people. Many churches help me and my family.”
Like the Hoangs, Nguy was Vietnamese-Chinese.
He was as an accomplished choreographer and Russian-trained ballet teacher in Vietnam. Nguy met his wife, Ho, when she came to take dance lessons from him.
Together with their two young children, they left by boat in 1979. Nguy arranged for “a very very big boat” to take 295 people to Hong Kong. They had plenty of food and water for the trip and even gained one mouth with an on-board birth.
Like the Hoangs, the Nguys spent a year in a cramped Hong Kong camp before being accepted into Canada.
“They send me to Windsor. I don’t know where that is. I just say OK and that’s good enough,” Nguy said.
Upon arrival, he walked around his adopted city.
“I said Windsor is a good place. I see Windsor has three big (auto plants) and I think it’s a good location for business I do in the future.”
Talbot got Nguy a job making $2.75 an hour at a delicatessen. At night, he’d prowl the streets for discarded couches that he took back to his garage and reupholstered. He had a degree in engineering but he knew upholstery from his grandfather.
His late wife, a talented actress and singer, cleaned floors, windows and worked in the fields.
Talbot had never seen a work ethic like the one ingrained in the South Asians he helped.
“They took a run at life and made it work,” said Talbot who remains friends with Nguy to this day.
The Hoangs also worked several different jobs before opening a Chinese restaurant, first in Essex and then for the last 27 years they’ve operated Wong’s in Leamington. They’re closing at the end of June. Peter will turn 65 in a few weeks and Sui is 61. They work 10 to 12 hours a day and they’re ready for a change.
Like Nguy, they’re effusive in their gratitude to Canada.
“When I first got here I cried every day for the future of my children. I had no English, no job,” Sui said. “I am so glad this country accepted my family, this town accepted my family. I am very happy. The group from the church and the lady (Carolyn) were so friendly.”
Carolyn and her late husband Jim Reid often had the Hoangs over for dinner. She’s attended the weddings of both Amy and Stephanie.
“They accepted me and they thought the world of me,” Carolyn said. “I wouldn’t trade any of it for a minute.”
The experience was life changing for Talbot, too.
“Helping them was my job but it went beyond that,” Talbot said. “It was a good group of people.”
A single father with three teenage boys, Talbot ended up meeting his wife, Thu, who arrived in 1980 with a niece and nephew. She was a teacher who spoke English and Talbot often called upon her to translate. The relationship grew from there. An air force pilot Talbot helped resettle was the best man at his wedding.
To this day, the 77-year-old Talbot still gets recognized in the community and thanked for his efforts.
During the time of resettlement, Talbot often heard stories of great sacrifice for the sake of the children. For both the Hoangs and Nguys, the rewards have been great.
Nguy’s son Phong is the maintenance manager for the City of Windsor and his daughter Van is a supervisor at Caesars Windsor. Allison’s brother Yung is a nuclear scientist in Toronto, her sister Stephanie is an accomplished interior designer and their youngest brother Adam, who was born in Canada, works in IT.
A Grade 5 teacher at Dr. David Suzuki School, Allison chokes up with emotion when conveying her appreciation for the chance at a wonderful life.
“I was small and didn’t know the language. We came with garbage bags of things to their church and these people invited us into their homes. From our hearts we have to thank these people,” she said.
mcaton@windsorstar.com
twitter.com/winstarcaton
-----
CBC radio listener pledges $250K to Syrian refugee program
CBC
News Posted: Oct 30, 2015 5:37 PM ET
Last Updated: Oct 30, 2015 5:37 PM ET
photo
Syrian refugee children play in an informal tented
settlement near the Syrian border on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan, on
Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015. (Muhammed Muheisen/The Associated Press)
An anonymous listener has pledged $250,000 to an initiative aimed at
bringing Syrian refugee families to Canada after hearing an Etobicoke city
councillor issue a challenge to residents on CBC Radio's Here and Now.On Thursday afternoon, Coun. Justin Di Ciano (Ward 5, Etobicoke-Lakeshore) told the program about the Etobicoke Challenge, an initiative he launched to help the Archdiocese of Toronto meet its goal to raise $3 million in 100 days. The Archdiocese plans to use those funds to bring 100 refugee families to Canada via its Project Hope.
Di Ciano challenged Etobicoke residents to help raise $250,000 by Dec. 15.
On Friday morning, Di Ciano was in his office when an email came through from an Etobicoke resident who felt compelled to donate the full amount after hearing the interview.
"It's unbelievable," Di Ciano told Here and Now on Friday afternoon. "I've got to say I'm not surprised that there are that kind and generous people in Etobicoke and across the city."
Now that the initial goal has been met, Di Ciano has "upped the ante" and doubled the goal to $500,000.
For residents who cannot give money, volunteers are going to be needed to help these families once they arrive in Canada, he said.
"Donating money is one very, very important factor," Di Ciano said on Friday. "Another important factor is being able to volunteer your time over the next year, when refugees come to Canada and need to settle here."
Volunteers will be needed for a variety of tasks, including helping refugees find housing, register for English as a second language courses, find doctors and dentists, and get oriented in the community.
The Archdiocese has long been involved in helping refugees settle in Canada, and so should not face the same red tape that other organizations have as they've tried to assist with the crisis in Syria, Di Ciano said. He expects the Archdiocese to start bringing families here in January.
"It is a big commitment," Di Ciano said during the initial interview on Thursday. "You're bringing families here. You're not going to just leave them on the doorstep at Pearson airport."
Leading by example
Di Ciano and his wife also chose to "lead by example," and donated $30,000. As of Friday, the Archdiocese had raised $1.7 million.Like many other people around the world, Di Ciano was compelled to help when he saw the image of Alan Kurdi, the young Syrian refugee whose body washed ashore as his family tried to get to Greece.
"We're parents of a young family and it was just devastating," Di Ciano said on Thursday. "We all want the best for our children, and there are a lot of people right now who don't have that option."
Although Project Hope is an initiative of the Archdiocese of Toronto, "it's not a Catholic thing," Di Ciano said. People of all faiths can donate money or volunteer their time.
Despite the anonymous donor's initial request to keep his identity a secret, Di Ciano hopes he will let his name be made public so his generosity can be acknowledged.
"It's just something that he wants to do. I'm hoping that one day he changes his mind because people that kind and generous need to be applauded," Di Ciano said. "I mean, leading by example is one of the most important things that we can do as residents in this great city, and this gentleman did it selflessly."
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The Canadian Armed Forces are scrambling to determine how many Syrian refugees could be temporarily accommodated at military bases as they draft plans to help the incoming Liberal government fulfill a campaign promise to bring 25,000 asylum seekers here by Jan. 1.
Ottawa is considering private airplanes to bring the refugees to Canada. Military aircraft are available, and the CC-150 Airbus Polaris could bring as many as 190 per flight, but Forces officials say it is hard to beat the cheaper, high-density seating of a chartered wide-body aircraft.
The Trudeau Liberals, meanwhile, are hoping to tap the wave of popular support that washed them into office to enlist more Canadians to sponsor Syrian refugees privately. This would help defray the cost to Ottawa of settling 25,000 newcomers.
Sources say the Liberals will call on mayors and other politicians in coming days to facilitate the arrival of refugees on their home turf after some prominent politicians pledged to sponsor Syrian refugees in early September.
Refugees will need to be screened, transported to Canada and housed somewhere until they can be processed and transferred to the care of provincial authorities and sponsor groups.
In 1999, Canada initially housed 5,000 refugees from Kosovo at CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia and CFB Trenton in Ontario. They spent six to eight weeks on bases.
Forces officials say taking a major role in the transport and care of Syrians would eat up a significant amount of military resources in the short term, and whether Ottawa could bring all 25,000 to Canada by the new year depends on how much money the Liberals are willing to devote to the effort.
“It depends how much we’re asked to do and how much is accommodated by other agencies instead, such as Citizenship and Immigration and the Red Cross,” one military official said.
Sources say the Liberal transition team, which is headed by Peter Harder, asked the Forces about how to house refugees and transport them to Canada. Another option would be to charter a private ship.
“The Canadian Armed Forces stand ready to implement government direction when it comes,” Department of National Defence spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said.
“The Canadian Armed Forces routinely provides military advice and analysis to the government of Canada in support of its objectives and priorities. As such, the CAF continually engages in contingency planning in order to provide the government with a range of potential … options.”
The Liberals will also urge Canadians to get involved, showcasing what is expected to be part of the new Trudeau government’s modus operandi.
In the current context, this means the Liberals will rely on their supporters to help transform their ambitious target into an achievable goal. It is uncertain whether a significant number of Canadians can be persuaded to sponsor refugees privately. The defeated Conservative government’s 2015 immigration plan predicted the maximum number of refugees that could be sponsored privately this year was 6,500.
As part of the transition process, the federal bureaucracy has studied the Liberal platform and its campaign pledges, and came back to Mr. Trudeau’s team with options to fulfill its promises, including bringing in the 25,000 refugees. While the Liberals are sticking by their target, some experts are skeptical about the time frame.
“Moving 25,000 over the next eight weeks, with Christmas and winter at the end of it, is really ambitious, and I don’t think it serves any practical purpose,” said Mike Molloy, a former Canadian bureaucrat and ambassador who was involved in the relocation of Ugandan and Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s and 1980s.
“There is no refugee agency in the country … that would thank you for hitting them with those numbers that quickly.”
Still, Mr. Molloy agreed it would be a good idea to use Canadian Forces bases to welcome refugees, to give them time to rest, undergo medical tests and get ready to integrate into Canadian society.
“The military is the only landlord in the country with that type of capacity,” Mr. Molloy said.
The Canadian Forces would be hard pressed, however, to accommodate all 25,000 Syrian refugees.
The Canadian Forces Housing Agency’s total inventory of military homes across the country is only 12,000 houses. Many can accommodate three or four people, but forces members live in a large number of them.
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