Evidence of meeting #125 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was migration.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Are they for job opportunities for the asylum seekers that are there presently?
Peteris Ustubs
We have several approaches. One approach is that for those who have skills, we are facilitating their integration into the labour market. Some of the EU member states are very keen to make sure that integration is happening fast. They facilitate, let's say, the openness of the businesses in the EU within different EU member states to find a job for them because, basically economical integration is the easiest way of addressing it.
Having said that, there is another scheme, which I alluded to in my introductory remarks, and that is the EU Blue Card, which is not for those who arrived as asylum seekers or migrants into the territory of the EU but those who are in third countries and who have knowledge and credentials for all kinds of work. They can apply for the EU Blue Card, which would be a working permit. That is an ongoing activity.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Are there countries that you know of, specific countries in the EU today, that are working on encouraging the private sponsorship of refugees, such as private organizations, groups of five, non-profits, church groups, or that sort of thing?
Peteris Ustubs
Yes, very briefly, we have had several private endeavours that have helped to save lives on the sea. That activity has been provided by private sponsors, Médecins Sans Frontières and others, who actually chartered the ships. A large part of their financing came from private groups.
As for the movement of the migrants under the private scheme, it's not so often visible at the moment in the European Union. Canada is definitely having a different kind of approach to this.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Thank you very much.
Ms. Malcolmson, welcome, and congratulations on your upgrade.
Sheila Malcolmson Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP
Thank you very much, Chair.
I'd like to start by recognizing that the University of Toronto Women in House program is on the Hill today. I'm very glad to have Gabrielle da Silva with me, who is training in human rights, among other things. This is an especially good day for her to be shadowing us on the Hill.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I think we may have some others out there. Welcome.
This won't come out of your time, Sheila.
Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP
You're a great chair.
On my first question, I'm going to speak from my own experience in Canada and the riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith that I represent.
We're hearing a lot from people on the ground in British Columbia about the lack of capacity within Canada's immigration system to handle the massive influx of applications. The particularly painful one for families is when they apply to sponsor a family member or hope that their study permit will be extended, and they have to wait and wait and wait. There's stress on the family. They're unsure of their status. They're separated. They're unable to make long-term plans because of feeling like they're in limbo and a constant state of uncertainty.
Last year, this committee recommended that Canada provide more information to applicants to explain its visa denials. Right now what we get is a kind of terse and generic letter that doesn't provide any detail of the specific reasons for the denial. People don't know the reasons, and if they want to reapply they don't know how they might be able to correct that.
I'm curious. Given the volume of migrants that the EU has experienced, do you have programs in place so that visa applicants have a clear idea of the road map ahead of them, but especially to explain their visa denials so that they can be properly amended and have some assistance in navigating the bureaucracy?
Peteris Ustubs
There are two answers to your question.
First of all, I can't speak on behalf of EU member states because visa applications and visas—and that would be for any kind of third-country person outside of the EU who has applied for a visa and is travelling to the EU—are the prerogative of the EU member states individually.
Although we have the Schengen system and therefore travelling between the EU member states is easy, the person deciding to apply to travel to one specific country, and that country's embassy, whatever it would be, would take that forward. What kind of answer that member state would give when the application process is over is still the responsibility of that country. I don't have a good answer to that.
As it concerns the migrants of all kinds arriving and already being in the territory of the EU, we are doing our best to make sure that the processing of their requests is done in the shortest possible time.
One example of that is the number of EU staff I mentioned. The European border security agency will have 10,000 people—that is, 10,000 additional people will be sent as help, if required, to any EU member state who might face very challenging environments. It is basically the mobilization of border guard capacity all over the EU. If in any of the countries there is a spare capacity, it might be sent to that country to help tackle the problems as they arise. That would help registration and processing.
Peteris Ustubs
Therefore, for us, the key point is the personnel and the availability of the numbers of people who would tackle the given numbers.
Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP
Excellent. Thank you.
Another difficulty that I've heard, in particular from the Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society, is the lack of available child care. The pattern they've observed for refugee families and immigrant families who have come to Nanaimo is that they often stay at home to take care of their young children if they can't find affordable child care. That then limits their ability to take language lessons, and therefore leaves them more isolated and out of the workforce.
Do you have examples that you've seen within the EU programs that are made available to such families—child care or otherwise—that ensure they can get access to language training and get the support at home they need to be able to leave for job training and language training, so that they have economic and integration possibilities?
Peteris Ustubs
With regard to language training, definitely.... That is one of the key issues for any migrant arriving in the territory of the European Union. Again, that will depend from country to country where the migrant would arrive, be settled and stay.
To my knowledge, social systems of individual countries would make sure that language training is the priority, trying to accommodate and give possibilities to those who don't have the capacity to address and participate in language training. That might also encompass elements of child care, making sure that child care is linked with the language training.
That would help the integration process.
Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP
That's good confirmation. Thank you.
A third area that we've had difficulty with in Canada, in my own riding, is on the topic of family reunification. We hear very plaintively from refugees who've come to Canada. They cannot relax in this country while they know that their family is still in danger. They can't completely settle.
I have a constituent named Fatima. She and her two daughters were refugees from Eritrea. Once they had come to Canada as refugees, sponsored by the neighbourhood church in Nanaimo, which has been terrific at supporting them, they found that the father of the family who they thought had been killed in the civil war in fact was alive. They've now been waiting years since then. They can't get a timeline within our system about when his processing will be complete. At this point, her daughters are starting to say to her, “We don't even believe that our father is still alive. There's no evidence of him.” This is one example of a big heartache in the community.
Do you have examples of programs that can shorten and facilitate the family reunification process to avoid that dislocation?
Peteris Ustubs
One of the priorities we try to address when the migrants arriving in Europe are registered is whether or not they already have some relatives in the EU. They might travel to the EU or undertake very dangerous trips across the sea basically for reuniting with the family. If that is the element, then actually that facilitates the process. If there is no link with any family registered, then of course it's a slightly different case.
I think the reunification element is always kept in mind specifically because of the humanitarian aspect of it and each individual country decides on the application that has the highest priority. I can't give you any kinds of specific figures on how often and how frequently it is used, and whether it is a positive bilan or not, but I know definitely that it is used very often as one of the reasons for proceeding and stepping up the process if it is linked with a family reunification.
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here. I also have two University of Toronto students in the back who are observing today.
Thank you for your presentation, your initial speech. It was excellent and very well articulated. You mentioned that the EU received 3.4 million asylum seekers. That is the largest migration since the Second World War.
The International Migration Report 2017 from the UN concentrated mostly on economic migrants. I'm going to show you some of the numbers because we're discussing migration trends around the world and understanding what Canada is facing in the future.
In 2000, we had 173 million worldwide economic migrants; in 2010, we had 220 million; and in 2017, we had 258 million. In your testimony, you mentioned Africa and the reason a lot of these migrants are leaving is because there are not stable economic conditions to prosper and flourish. We're not just seeing that in Africa, but we're seeing that in various places, and the numbers indicate that there are many migrants travelling all over.
I wanted to get to a specific country and understand in an EU state what the scope of these conditions is meaning. How many migrants were accepted in the EU last year? What are those numbers in Germany and how do they compare to other EU countries? We want to have a comparison to see what Germany has done and some examples we can learn from.
Peteris Ustubs
In terms of the numbers, asylum application and citizenship for main groups for Germany, the number last year, 2017, was 222,562, so 222,000.
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
You mentioned that in 2015-2016 you had relatively the same number of asylum seekers, roughly 1.3 million. Then in 2017 that went down to 800,000.
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
Is the number of asylum seekers going to Germany higher than the 220,000 in other years?
Peteris Ustubs
As overall numbers declined, the applications for Germany also went down. To mention the origins a little more, specifically for Germany: 50,000 of that figure came from Syria alone, approximately 23,000 were from Iraq and approximately 18,000 were from Afghanistan. Those were the three major countries that generated the applicants for Germany.
Liberal
Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
We're seeing more asylum seekers coming to Canada. Last year we had a significant number of Haitian migrants in the summer, and this year we're having more Nigerian migrants. That matters, because depending on what's happening in certain regions of the world—population growth, economic opportunities—more asylum seekers are looking to have better prospects. Those numbers increased previously. In 2008 we had a spike in those numbers as well, and we faced these numbers this summer as well.
What are the main issues that the EU faces in migration? Again, I'm going to Germany. How is Germany addressing the issues of migration?