Sent Regrets: Geri Sadoway, Jean Vecina, Martha Ocampo, Nora Angeles, Suruthi Ragulan, Natasha Brien, Anna Korteweg, Raman Hansra, Tzazná Miranda

Transcription

1 MMP University of Toronto How Conditional Settlement Impacts Immigrant Women May 2015 In this document we provide a summary of the Research Advisory Committee meeting that took place on May 15, 2015 from 10:00 am to noon at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Social Work. 1) ATTENDANCE Present: Anna Willats, Daria Stadnik, Esel Palanqui, Karin Baqi, Krittica Ghosh, Grissel Orellana, Maria Olaya, Maya Roy, Santiago Escobar, Tamar Witelson, Adriana Vargas, Raluca Bejan, Rupaleem Bhuyan Sent Regrets: Geri Sadoway, Jean Vecina, Martha Ocampo, Nora Angeles, Suruthi Ragulan, Natasha Brien, Anna Korteweg, Raman Hansra, Tzazná Miranda (See full list of RAC members at the end) 2) AGENDA I. Welcome & Introductions II. Research Documents Study Goals Budget for Years 1&2 Potential Roles for RAC members III. Discuss Terms of Reference IV. Discuss Plans for Summer ) DISCUSSION SUMMARY Terms of Reference: the Research Advisory Committee meeting attendees discussed the Terms of Reference document in which the roles and responsibilities of the Migrant Mothers Project and the RAC are outlined. There were a number of wording/grammatical edits that needed to be made, with the following major points discussed and agreed upon: Language Around Gender and Women: attendees expressed that it is important to outline the way in which we define women, and that we should add some gender fluidity and references to people who identify as women. This is also important because it can bridge the way in which we understand gender in Toronto and Alberta. In addition, it was expressed that we needed to include sex, gender and family status to the section principles that govern our work. Responsibilities of Organizations and Individuals: We clarified that some people are attending as individuals. However, for people who are part of organizations, there may be

2 times in which they may wish to be less or more visible in certain parts of the project or certain activities. Sub-committees: Two sub-committees categories were created: 1) data collection and analysis; and 2) community outreach. Data collection will focus on: reviewing interview questions, recruitment strategies and what types of statistical data to retrieve from CIC and other government bodies. Community outreach: will focus on: recruiting women to join the RAC who have a precarious status (or recently had) related to the Caregiver program or sponsored immigration; developing ways to connect with community to share the research knowledge and build solidarity with grassroots work. Community Engagement: one of the main goals of the project is to reach out to different communities, listen to their stories and understand the way in which the recent changes to immigration policy are creating precariousness in their lives. During the meeting it was noted that service providers are already seeing the impacts of the conditional PR in the lives of immigrants that are experiencing violence. On the other hand, it was discussed that the caregiver community will be more difficult to reach out to, as it is very fractured. In terms of the temporary foreign workers and worker rights groups, it was noted that it is important to create relationships with them as well, since in this way we can understand the different ways in which immigration policy is creating precariousness and impacting their communities. Impacts that the Changes in Legislation and Immigration Policy is Having on Immigrants and their Work: attendees expressed that with the recent changes to immigration policy, immigrants are not being able to settle in Canada since they are being restricted by the government in their ability to call Canada their home. This is reflected in the precariousness of the conditional PR and the recent changes and restrictions to the Caregiver and Temporary Foreign Worker Program. In addition, it was also noted that issues such as the proposed sex-ed curriculum is creating tensions within the communities they work with and their own organizations. Therefore, it was noted that it is important to create ways to educate people and bridge those spaces. Policy analysis and data collection: policy analysis and data collection will play a vital role in the development of the project. From the data that the project has collected so far, it has been found that on average 25% of spouses are getting the condition. In addition, it has been found that the big source countries for immigration are the ones with the highest numbers of conditional PR. In order to move forward, we will be requesting the following information: Number of people that are asking for an exemption to the conditional PR in case of abuse Gender breakdown and country of origin Previous immigration status Data on the Caregiver program Question: is CIC mandated to release the information? Some of the information is available online, but often times they change the way in which the website looks.

3 We can also make access to information requests. We have also been able to access data and information regarding the conditional PR through an external statistics research group. 4) POST MEETING ACTION ITEMS o o o o Maria O. will send text regarding inclusion of trans identified women MMP Team will edit the Terms of Reference and send via for RAC members to review and make further comments. MMP Team will circulate contact list MMP Team will organize separate meetings for Data Collection and Community Engagement sub-committees NEXT MEETING DATES 1. September Hold for late afternoon/evening 2. December Hold for late afternoon/evening 3. March Hold for late afternoon/evening DETAILED NOTES: Attendees expressed concerns regarding the changes to the immigration system that have occurred under Harper s administration Many stated that they feel paralyzed in working with community members and seeing the changes. Concerns were also expressed about being institutionalized in terms of funding; therefore a project like the MMP one was seen as perfect - as UofT and SSHRC can offer some protection Harper was described under the epithet of vampire Recent changes in the immigration policy seem to have been creating further precariousness in the lives of immigrants, specifically for those with precarious immigration status (undocumented, sponsored spouses, temporary foreign workers and caregivers) In working with people facing the impacts of such changes - it is important to create an open place of security and space Anna Willats stated that in her work with women and trans or two spirit people that have experienced violence in their relationships, she has also encountered migrant mothers and migrant women who have been deported Participants also mentioned the importance of the Shelter Sanctuary Status campaign, which is focused on the migrants without legal status in the country

4 They also expressed concerns regarding the way in which issues such as the proposed sex-ed curriculum is creating tensions within the communities their work with and between the organizations they represent Rupaleem mentioned that it is important to create a process of gathering information on the issues that come up as result of these changes and then to register our dissent and be prepared for when the opportunity comes to share/use such info Also important to acknowledge that in the newcomer communities - many members are voting against their interest. People stated that there is a need to inform them. Particularly in Alberta, the South Asian communities are very conservative - yet we need to find ways/learn how to work with them because they are doing a lot of grassroots work B) Proposed agenda and overview of the new MMP project People have discussed how they want to work together going forward; Rupaleem wanted to make sure we talk about roles but also about how we can bring people together to get involved in our project So far we have some concrete things to share and discuss; we have developed some drafts of the interview guides with policy makers and service providers and also some MMP project specific terms of reference There are many pieces in the project; The community organizing and service delivery are very different; plus we need to be aware of the policy timing Initially, we wanted to understand immigration statuses. We wanted to know who was showing up in shelters and what kinds of support women were being offered We wanted to pay attention at the intersection between the criminal justice system and immigration policy We also wanted to see how the introduction of multi-purpose strategies to deter people are affecting women as well as the impact of the conditional permanent residence and how it is creating precariousness We have seen how the immigrant rights people and advocates are coming together and denouncing the precariousness of the caregiver program as well as the family separation issues that still exist This is why we wanted to work with caregivers - former LCP was very vocal but still a struggling space for women We want to talk with people working with migrant women but also with those working with caregiver women In the previous stage of the MMP, we looked overall at Ontario, so we also want to go beyond Toronto The caregiver community will be more difficult to reach out to, as it is very fractured; we reached out to several people who could not be here today or could not be here particularly due to the many changes in the program In addition, it is also important to create relationships with worker rights groups because we can include other people with precarious immigration. These have been groups that have been very secluded; separated There is a different story in terms of the conditional PR, people are seeing the impact and they are ready. There is a hunger for learning - we have seen it as true in Alberta but also here. As a project we are more ready to talk about conditional PR

5 And then we would like to look at ways to reach out to other communities With all the changes that we have seen, the word 'settlement' in itself needs to be problematized; particularly as it relates to the way in which people are entering Canada and are restricted by the government in their ability to stay and call Canada their home As it relates to the issue of enforcement and deportation, we want to understand how these work We have noticed that the situation and approach in Alberta is very different in terms of the Caregiver program and temporary foreign workers The conceptual timeline is important: when did fraud became a problem and when did the conditional PR became a solution? We want to explore the way in which policy makers are making sense of this Some people had questions about accessing the CIC data - in terms of CIC being mandated to give us/release information? Rupaleem stated that some of the information is available online, but oftentimes they change the way in which the website looks. We can also make 'access for information' requests We have been able to access this information through an external statistics research group. We have been ing this group and they have been giving us data on the conditional PR On average- around 25 percent of spouses are getting the condition. And then we are requesting the number of people that are asking for the exemption in case of abuse The big source countries for immigration are also the ones to have the highest numbers of conditional PR We also want to get gender breakdown and country of origin breakdown, as well as previous immigration status In terms of next steps we also want to request data for the caregiver program We want to understand how the government is making the lives of caregivers more precarious - the live/in live/out option ACNA Association of caregiver and Nanny Agencies Canada. Suggestion: It is important to look at the pros and cons of each of the changes. For example, in terms of the caregiver program there is an option to not live in but those opting out will fall under the regular TFW program, therefore who will opt out for that? This in itself makes it more precarious It is important to understand how these shifts affect people or affect people s choices It is important that more information is coming out as pro and cons If there is an option to not live in but if it's understood that if you opt out you fall under the TFW program - perhaps this could be related to the dissemination of information One potential source of data will be from CIC's centralization of their demographic and status data for newcomers that are attending LINC classes. Yet this centralized system is problematic because they are monitoring closer, and from a legal perspective there are also privacy issues. This system was centralized a year and a half ago, and basically it monitors who's in the English class Terms of Reference Discussion:

6 For the terms of reference the focus was on page 2 People have asked about continuing the digital stories as they seemed popular and many in the community have talked about them Maria Olaya has stated that there is support of the centre for continuing the stories It is important to insist on how are we defining women. We use very broad definitions of how we define women. How we talk in Toronto is very different than how we talk in Alberta for example We need to add gender fluidity and references to people who identify as women. Include a definition of women, some wording that defines how are we understanding the word 'women' The name of the Advisory Group will be changed from CAB to RAC (Research Advisory Committee) How we talk and name goals, we need to bridge all these spaces Change the mission statement from violence against women to gender based violence Update the different roles of the sub-committees: interviews; different kinds of data; doing an online survey on who is accessing the conditional PR section There were some questions about explaining the individual and organizational accountability of the RAC members to the overall RAC board The concern was that some people are part of organizations they work collectively as a group in their own organizations; there are times in which the organizations can be more or less visible. This is an important dimension, in terms of funding, predominantly for the issues in which the organization steps back People do not want to create risks in terms of their own funding. There needs to be some guarantee for the autonomy of each organization, a recognition that there might be a time in which not everyone will be participating Simplify individual accountability on the actions that we take on For instance, in the Ontario Coalition for Rape Crisis, participants talked about the autonomy of each organization. There needs to be a recognition that there might be times and issues that we might not be comfortable in taking on/or participating. The idea is to be accountable to the work that you are taking on. We all sign up at the same principles Maybe we can add some luggage under the first paragraph under the responsibilities - each organization also needs to retain or have the possibility of opting out from certain areas or discussion. This can be on a issue by issue, circumstantial basis. It was agreed that the sentence/wording will be re-edited/deleted It is important to have someone from the Caregiver program to be part of the committee. We want to reflect how people come together. We need to invite people with livedexperiences Add sex and gender identity; family status Sub-committees: 1. Data collection: (interview and CIC data): Tamar; Santiago. 2. Outreach: Grissel; Maria; Esel.

7 Other suggestions that were not discussed (group that didn t get a chance to discuss their suggestions): Add to the responsibilities of the individuals: to have a back up person on each agency and that it is a responsibility to have this discussion internally What does consistent participation looks like? The option of calling-in when a member cannot attend a meeting It would be good to have the opportunity to include the Alberta people in a meeting - at least once a year on teleconference The notion of the space we are occupying as a safe space and what does that mean as participants Our analysis: data should also look at sex-same couples in terms of conditional permanent residence not only a heterosexist analysis Santiago was wondering about including migrant female workers, which is very unknown. Is there the possibility to go outside of the city and see the different picture? To include a larger ethnographic area

8 MMP-Toronto Research Advisory Committee Members Nora Angeles Karin Baqi Santiago Escobar Krittica Ghosh Grissel Orellana Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO) Agricultural Workers Alliance VAW Program, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) Toronto Rape Crisis Centre-Multicultural Women Against Rape (TRCC/MWAR) Martha Ocampo Maria Olaya Esel Palanqui Suruthi Ragulan Maya Roy Geri Sadoway Daria Stadnik Jean Vecina Anna Willats Tamar Witelson CCESCO TRCC/MWAR Settlement Worker, TNO Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention Newcomer Women s Services Osgoode Law School, York University VAW Program Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office (TNO) Lawyer George Brown College / Women Transitioning to Trades and Employment METRAC Action on Violence MMP- Toronto Research Team Raluca Bejan Rupaleem Bhuyan Ontario Research Coordinator Principal Investigator Project Director

9 Bronwyn Bragg Alberta Research Coordinator Natasha Brien Pamela Dungao Anna Korteweg Adriana Vargas Lana Wells Project Manager Social Media Coordinator Co-investigator Administrative Coordinator Co-investigator