Thank you very much.
My name is Mohamed Boudjenane. As you said, I'm the executive director for the Canadian Arab Federation. With me is our legal counsellor, Amina Sherazee.
I'd like to thank you for the invitation.
Briefly, just to give you a little bit of information about our organization, the Canadian Arab Federation is a national non-profit, membership-based organization representing Canadians of Arab descent on public policy issues. Since its founding in 1967, CAF has sought to create a non-partisan relationship with the media and government officials in order to highlight issues of importance to the Arab community, including those concerning immigration and refugee protection rights.
The Arabs in Canada have been here for a while. The first wave of Arab immigrants came here in 1880, from the Syrian and Lebanese communities. But of course we receive newcomers on a regular basis, and according to Statistics Canada, the Arab immigrants now are one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in Canada. According to Stats Canada, we have between 350,000 and 500,000 Arab immigrants or Canadians of Arab descent. Recently, in Quebec, for example, this immigrant population increased 45% since 2000, especially in the Montreal region. Those people, of course, come from north Africa--mainly Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia.
Arabic is the second most frequently used language in francophone schools in the Montreal region. It is a rapidly growing community, and it has very serious concerns. For the past three years we have, unfortunately, been witnessing a particular phenomenon: a sharp drop in the number of Arab immigrants, and more particularly, refugees. The waiting lists are longer for these communities. One has the impression that the Arab and Muslim world is being subjected to a system that is different than the one that is used for other immigrant communities, because of the so-called anti-terrorism measures that were instituted after September 11, 2001.
We are not here—with all due respect to the democratic process and the invitation that was extended to us—to validate or endorse today's exercise. We feel that this bill, or at least the section of the bill dealing with immigration, should be debated separately. Part 6 of Bill C-50 should become a separate bill, since, in our opinion, the proposed changes should not be taken lightly in view of their wide- ranging effects on Canada's immigration system.
Therefore, we are not here today to validate the work of this parliamentary committee. However, we do have serious concerns and we would like to share them with you. We feel that the powers being sought by the government—and particularly by the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration—are arbitrary and completely unprecedented. Unfortunately, we do have some concerns relating to the Arab and Muslim community. We feel that these measures could eventually lead to racial profiling. As I have already said, there are clear and rather distinct trends to indicate that immigrants from the Arab and Muslim world are being processed differently from those originating from other communities.
Also, we feel that an emphasis on what is being called an economic type of immigration challenges the fundamental values of Canada's immigration system. Economic considerations have never been the sole determining factor in Canada's immigration policy. Through immigration, Canada has always sought first and foremost to build and create this multicultural, diversified and multi-denominational country. We believe that an emphasis solely on business immigrants will eventually affect other immigrants, particularly those who are in the family reunification category.
The minister has stated that this type of immigration should be stimulated in order to maintain Canada's dynamic economy. We share the same view, and feel that the first step should be to tackle problems related to discrimination and the barriers that prevent immigrants here from accessing employment. I can give you a list of 250 doctors who have settled in the Montreal area, who are of Arab origin, and who have passed all of the tests that are required for them to practice here, yet they cannot work because no hospital wants to take them on as interns.
I can also give you a list of 1,000 foreign-trained doctors living in Toronto who have not yet found employment. If the government is really serious about employment access for foreign-trained immigrants, then it should take this situation seriously.
We are not against bringing in experts from the oil and gas sector, perhaps to help Alberta's economy or whatever, but there should be an objective approach when dealing with business immigration.
Moreover, we feel that this bill does nothing to help with the backlog in the system and the long waiting lists that the government claims to want to deal with. As you know, changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act will only affect people who apply after February 2008. Therefore, the argument in this case does not hold water.
Finally, I would simply like to tell you that we have not come here only to criticize, but to make a constructive contribution to the debate on immigration. We feel that if the government truly wishes to be inclusive and democratic, it will split this bill, make part 6 a separate bill, and consult with communities such as ours.
I will now ask our legal advisor to discuss the clauses that are of particular concern to us and the fundamental changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.