Citizenship and Immigration committee  The simple answer is no.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Eighteen countries in the world have resettlement programs, and the vast majority of them have announced that they will be increasing their targets for Iraqi refugees in the year to come. Obviously, the larger resettlement countries are the United States, Australia and Canada. S

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The target for the PSR program has been raised two years in a row now--the upper end of the target last year and the lower end of the target for 2008. So that leaves some flexibility for an increased PSR program.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That would be 84 government-assisted refugees and 412 privately sponsored refugees, for a total of 496.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. In the sense that there are 10 million refugees in the world right now, throughout the world there are about 100,000 resettlement spots that are available. So it's quite clear that resettlement will always be a solution for only a small portion of refugees.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, Mr. Chair. In fact, actually, as of now, more than 900 refugees have come to Canada so far this year. So that does put us among the top resettlement countries again this year.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, in fact it is out of 500.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, the UNHCR gave more recommendations. Many people have only begun arriving in the recent months. Their files will be reviewed next year.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Some of these people may have worked with the Americans. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the UNHCR, has identified 11 categories of persons it believes to be at the highest risk. These people must resettle. One of the 11 categories includes people who have worke

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That question goes above and beyond the issue of refugees. Are you talking about the integration of all immigrants including refugees or the integration of refugees only? That is much broader than the issue of Iraqi refugees.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, for April we had asked UNHCR to refer 500 or more cases. Recommendations began arriving in June. To date, we have received more than 1,300 recommendations from the UNHCR.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Of course. In the case of government-sponsored refugees, there are costs because the federal government provides an income support program during the first year, as well as basic primary services. It is clear that if the government were to increase the number of sponsored refug

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, indeed. Over recent years, the UNHCR often had difficulty meeting recommended targets for resettlement. Early this year, when we launched the recommendation program for Iraqi refugees, capacity was very limited. The UNHCR has, nonetheless, been able to increase its capacit

Citizenship and Immigration committee  A media release was issued by the minister.