The Canadian Refugee Sponsorship Agreement Holders Association Refugee resettlement in Canada from 1979 to 2020: By the numbers Presentation to OCASI Presenters: Brian Dyck and Don Smith January 15, 2018
Peaks of Resettlement GARs, PSRs & BVORs 1980 Indochinese 1989 Class Eastern European Self Exiled Class 2016 Operation Syrian Refugee 2020 Immigration Levels Plan
BVORs Canada s Refugee Resettlement in 5 Phases Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Ph 4 Ph 5 GARs PSRs
Phase 1 The Indochinese Resettlement Phase 1
Phase 1 of the Private Sponsorship Program - Enablers Immigration Act 1976 Refugee stream Private sponsorship Designated classes Indochinese Designated Class Political Prisoners and Oppressed Persons Class East European Self-Exiled Persons Class Annual immigration plan Inadmissible on grounds of excessive demands on health and social services Memorandum to Minister Sponsorship of Refugee and Humanitarian Cases, January 1978 2 Principle of naming Responsibilities of sponsors to newcomers Master Agreement March 1979 3 Master Agreement Holder responsibilities Departmental responsibilities Channels of communication 1. Molloy, M.J., Duschinsky, P., Jensen, K.F., and Shalka, R.J., Running on Empty: Canada and the Indochinese Refugees, 1975 1980, McGill- Queen s University Press, Montreal, 2017 2. Manion, J,K., The Sponsorship of Refugees and Humanitarian Cases, 25 January 1978, FS5200-5R, LAC RG76, vol. 1831, file 8630, part I 3. Janzen, W., The 1979 MCC Canada Master Agreement for the Sponsorship of Refugees in Historical Perspective, Journal of Mennonite Studies, Vol 24, 2006, pp211-222.
Indochinese Resettlement By the end of 1980 Privately sponsored: 32,281 Government sponsored: 25,978 Family sponsored: 1,790 Total: 60,049 Sponsoring groups: ~7,000
End of the Cold War Phase 2 1985 to 1996 The End of the Cold War Eastern European Class mostly from Poland Indochinese Class Sri Lanka Balkans Somalia & Ethiopia Latin America PPOP Class Landings by country/region of origin RLCs, GARs and PSRs
Program Review - 1991 The program that began as an imaginative and flexible partnership between the private sector and the government was, by 1990, beginning to experience distrust on both sides 1 Instead of a program characterized by an almost loving trust between the government and the private sector, it became a program characterized by a lot of mistrust. 2 1. Treviranus, B. and Casasola, M., Canada s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program: A Practitioners Perspective of its Past and Future, JMI/RIME Volume 4 Number 2 (Spring 2003): 177-202 2. Discussion Paper, Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program, Employment and Immigration Canada, Refuge. Vol. 12, No. 3 (September 1992), p.2
Issues identified during 1991 Program Review Employment and Immigration Canada Family reunification? Management practices of Master Agreement Holders Financial viability of Master Agreement Holders Sponsors Quality of visa officer decisions High refusal rates Lack of appeal process Processing times Lack of communication with visa posts
Regulatory and Structural Responses Regional Cold War Designated Classes replaced by more general Humanitarian Designated Classes Establishment of NGO Government Committee Replacement of the old Master Agreement with a new Sponsorship Agreement RSTP Inclusion of Privately Sponsored Refugees as a distinct part of annual immigration plan
BVORs Phase 3 1995 to 2010 Post Cold War Phase 3 GARs PSRs
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act - 2001 (2) The objectives of this Act with respect to refugees are (a) to recognize that the refugee program is in the first instance about saving lives and offering protection to the displaced and persecuted.
Annual Sponsorship Applications Submitted (People), by Sponsor Type (1994-2005). 1 1. Figure 2- Summative Evaluation of the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program - 2006
Submission Volumes (People) for the Top 15 SAHs, 2005-2006 1 SAH 2005 2006 * # of CGs People % of total # of CGs People % of total 1 20 929 18.2 25 627 22.9 2 19 644 12.6 18 155 5.7 3 0 414 8.1 0 194 7.1 4 8 315 6.2 5 228 8.3 5 63 276 5.4 37 210 7.7 6 0 266 5.2 34 238 8.7 7 9 253 5 8 127 4.6 8 15 133 2.6 11 92 3.4 9 9 122 2.4 8 61 2.2 10 35 119 2.3 12 42 1.5 11 13 112 2.2 4 22 0.8 12 2 103 2 1 7 0.3 13 5 93 1.8 5 133 4.9 14 12 85 1.7 4 18 0.7 15 12 84 1.6 6 28 1 Total 222 3948 77.3 178 2182 79.8 1. Table 6 - Summative Evaluation of the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program - 2006 A review of submission statistics between 2004 and 2006 showed that the high volume of sponsorship applications can be attributed to a small population of SAHs.
Levels Plan and Landings 1995 to 2010 GAR Landings GAR Plan Upper GAR Plan Lower PSR Plan Upper PSR Landings PSR Plan Lower
2010 Backlog Crisis Worldwide 25,026 individuals in inventory 13,999 applications for individuals received 8,454 applications for individuals processed Nairobi 7,833 individuals in inventory 2,492 applications for individuals received 1,405 applications for individuals processed
Creation of the SAH Association 2009 and 2010 1 December 2009: SAHs agreed to collaborative approach. May 2010: Charter presented and accepted in principle January 2011 Charter distributed to all SAHs. Regional workshops to present and explain the Charter were carried out across Canada between January and March 2011. May 11, 2011 - The SAH Association incorporated 1. Orientation Guide for Sponsorship Agreement Holder Elected Council Members, June 2012 (Revised June 2016)
BVORs Phase 4 2011 to mid - 2015 The Harper Majority Government Ph 4 GARs PSRs
Unfavourable Political Climate Photo credit: MCpl Angela Abbey, Canadian Forces Combat Camera MV Sun Sea August 2010 MV Sun Sea Leger Marketing poll, 60% of those polled agreed with the statement: They should be turned away - the boat should be escorted back to Sri Lanka by the Canadian Navy. 1 Legitimate refugees labelled Terrorists Queue jumpers Bogus claimants Illegal immigrants Deficit Reduction 1. Send Tamil migrants home: Poll Majority don t want boat to stay, Brian Lilley, Toronto Sun, 20 August 2010
Legislative, regulatory, budgetary changes Cuts to Interim Federal Health Program Reduction of age of dependants from 22 to 19 Bill C31 Primarily affected inland claimants (asylum seekers) Imposition of caps on PSR applications Budget 2012 cuts reduced GAR landing targets, resulted in BVOR program to make up shortfall in landings
Phase 4-2010 to 2014 Upper Lower Landed Upper Landed Lower GARs PSRs
National Caps for SAH PSRs 2012 2013 2014 2015 Non-capped 480 1,665 4,450 1,390 Nairobi sub-cap 85 85 500 400 Pretoria sub-cap 50 50 60 60 Cairo sub-cap 50 50 50 50 Islamabad sub-cap 50 50 0 50 Reserved for new SAHs 35 50 50 50 Ministerial priorities 600 100 1,000 * TOTAL SPACES 1,350 2,050 5,000 2,000 Ministerial priorities Iraqis in Syria Syrians Syrians *3,000 added target for Syrians and Iraqis
September 2, 2015 Aylan Kurdi s death
Phase 5 2015 to 2020 The Current Government Ph 5 Observations 1. The total of 44,800 refugees resettled in 2016 significantly exceeded the 40,272 peak in 1980 and the 35,529 peak in 1989 2. Based on the levels plan, the current government will increase resettlement from an average of 11,000/year between 1994 and 2014 to an average of 30,000/year between 2015 and 2020.
BVORs Phase 5 2015 to 2020 The Current Government GARs PSRs Ph 5 Observations (cont d) 3. PSR landings dropped off precipitously after the 1980 and 1989 peaks and remained low until the next peak. 4. In contrast, PSR landings are forecast to grow after the 2016 peak. 5. From 1994 to 2014 Canada landed 153,187 GARs vs 76,861 PSRs+BVORs for a GAR/PSR+BVOR ratio of 2/1. 6. From 2015 to 2020 based on the levels plan)\ Canada will land 110,104 PSRs+BVORs vs 67,691 GARs, for a PSR+BVOR / GAR ratio of 1.6/1.
Reflections The PSRP underwent a major reset with the end of the Cold War After the reset was complete, the PSR program was strictly constrained by the annual levels plan with landings around 3,000 per year down from an average of 10,000 per year in the period 1979 to 1993. With PSR landings constrained by the levels plan, but no limit on applications, the backlog and processing times increased dramatically. Led to caps on applications
Reflections - continued However, with Operation Syrian Refugee and the new multi-year levels plan, Canada will triple the number of resettled refugees compared with the previous 2 decades. This growth will be primarily through significantly increased landings of PSRs and BVORs with only modest growth in landings of GARs. This will require sponsors and service provider organizations and agencies to work more closely than ever before to ensure effective outcomes for the privately sponsored newcomers.
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