Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Oct. 6th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

The hearing will commence. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the comhamdittee on February 25, the committee will resume its study on family reunification.

On our first witness panel today, we have Huda Bukhari, executive director, and Zena Al Hamdan, programs manager, from the Arab Community Centre of Toronto. Welcome back.

From the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations, we have Dianqi Wang, executive director, and Zaisun Ma, adviser, both by video conference from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Welcome to all the panellists. I now invite the witnesses from the Arab Community Centre to speak. You have seven minutes, please.

[Huda Bukhari, Executive Director, Arab Community Centre of Toronto]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee, for inviting us to present today.

The Arab Community Centre is a federally funded settlement agency that provides assistance to newcomers of every Arab country and anyone who walks through our doors. We're not exclusive to Arabs. We provide settlement assistance, and family reunification is part of that.

The centre normally sees about 4,500 clients a year. This particular year—and thank you for the extra funding from IRCC—we're opening a second satellite office in Scarborough. I am very pleased to know that Salma Zahid is our MP in that area, so thank you. You're all invited to the opening some time toward the end of the month.

We have been providing, as you might imagine, quite a bit of settlement assistance to newcomer Syrians, who have been arriving since last December and prior to that.

Zena will be talking in detail about some of the family reunification issues that we are seeing within the client base.

[Zena Al Hamdan, Programs Manager, Arab Community Centre of Toronto]

With regard to the quota system, we're very happy to see that the quota is the highest its been since 1910.

The first issue is with the super visa. While it provides a very swift entry to parents and grandparents for newcomers, the financial requirements are unrealistic and, in most cases, unattainable. Newcomers, on average, take about 10 years to achieve the level of an average Canadian. To do that for three consecutive years and to be able to submit an application, and then wait for that application to be approved with a processing time of over two years, represent lost years to parents coming to the country and lost years for assisting in the settlement, stability, and contribution of these newcomers to the Canadian economy.

Most newcomers have to go to school to do an upgrading, and most of them have been admitted in skilled workers programs. Both parents will not be able to enter the labour market without that upgrading, which leaves.... If the family achieves the income necessary to pay the high cost of day care, which is a much higher threshold, it will make them ineligible for a lot of subsidies for day care. One member of the couple will have to stay home. That is a lot of lost contribution. Having the grandparents here would not only provide stability and family values and peace of mind for the newcomer family, but would also speed up the length of time it take the newcomers to enter the labour market and contribute.

The first question most of our clients ask is “How do I bring my parents and my children who are over the age of 19?” Your responsibility toward your parents does not end at any age, and your responsibility toward your children does not end automatically at the age of 19. A lot of newcomers are faced with a situation where they will have to leave somebody over the age of 19 when they come to Canada. Having to wait the processing time will leave them even older, even if it's pushed.

The other issue is spousal sponsorship. The matter of processing time is one thing, but the other thing is the lens through which these applications are viewed and assessed. It's a very specific and very rigid sense of what constitutes a legitimate marriage. A lot of officers are not aware of premarital interactions between spouses in different cultures. We have seen a lot of clients whose spouses are actually not deemed credible because they did not know their exact date of birth; a lot of people in the Middle East do not celebrate birthdays after the age of 10. Or, they might not know the exact details of their spouse's job, or the full name of the first spouse. We have a lot of clients with that issue.

The last issue is the fees for these applications. They are very problematic for our clients, in general, as is the case for most newcomers. A citizenship fee of $600 for a newcomer who is working minimum wage to be able to support their family is not something they can pay within a month, or within six months. A lot of them are not able to submit their applications because of the amount of money these require, not only to submit the application but also to translate the documents, and then the waiting time.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

I would now like Mr. Dianqi Wang to make his submission please. Seven minutes, please.

[Dianqi Wang, Executive Director, Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations]

I am the chairman of the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations. It was established—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Just a moment, please. We seem to have an issue with the translation.

Okay. Please proceed.

[Dianqi Wang]

The association was established in the year 2008 and has 130 associations under its umbrella, all consisting of new immigrants from China. Even though we're only eight years old, we have led our new immigrants in actively participating in social and charitable activities. Whether for the earthquake in China, or typhoon in Taiwan, or the forest fire in Alberta, or fundraising for local community hospitals, we have contributed financial and human resources in substantial numbers. For the fire in Alberta alone, we have raised $270,000 Canadian in donations. We have also made donations to help restore the historical town of Barkerville located in the north of British Columbia.

Another mission of ours is to express the concerns of our new immigrants. That that is why today we'd like to talk to you about the importance of family reunification with parents and grandparents. In the west, a family usually consists of only parents and their children, but in many other countries and traditions, a family includes parents and grandparents. For example, a Chinese family often consists of four generations, even five. We live together and take care of each other. This family model is also followed by new immigrants after they arrive in Canada, and it becomes even more important, because if you leave your parents behind, this results in a long-distance divide and can be detrimental to both the individual and the family emotionally and in their relationship.

The Chinese family model is good and beneficial for both the family and society. The most obvious benefit is that parents or grandparents can help with child care when both father and mother need to work. They can also help with household chores. Canadian society lacks child care resources and it can also be very expensive. The issues caused by this can be alleviated by parents or grandparents immigrating to Canada. The children can also learn their mother tongue and cultural traditions through their grandparents.

This not only enriches our multiculturalism but also helps Canada in international trade and global exchange in different sectors by cultivating talent that understands different cultures.

Canadian-born children in young families can enjoy care given by their grandparents, but this is unavailable for children of immigrants.

From an economic perspective, sponsored parents and grandparents will not cause burdens to taxpayers.

One thing that is neglected by many is that these immigrants, when they come to Canada, will bring their entire savings, wealth of knowledge, experience, and social networks to Canada. These resources are all brought in from foreign sources. Some grandparents are scholars, artists, writers, teachers, or engineers. Even though they're retired, they can still contribute to society, including becoming community volunteers.

Have any of you ever had a chance to go to visit a Chinese restaurant in the morning? Every morning, there are many retired Chinese elders drinking tea and eating breakfast. If you go to the supermarket and malls during work hours, you'll see many elderly people shopping, and grandparents buying things for themselves and also for their children and grandchildren. Their friends from back home will also visit them. They also frequently travel back to visit relatives and friends. This is good for travel and tourism.

The increasing popularity of Canada-China flights is something I've witnessed myself. China's Xiamen Airlines began offering services to Vancouver this year. I also participated in the opening ceremony. Starting in November there will also be flights from Zhengzhou to Vancouver. Other airlines have also expressed interest in offering new flights.

Right now there are still many problems and unreasonable situations concerning sponsoring immigrant parents and grandparents. The government and government leaders say that immigrant parents and grandparents have to wait four to five years, but it can actually take up to as long as eight to 10 years.

Four to five years, the government claims, is the review time at the foreign consulates and embassies. But before that, the applicant needs to undergo review procedures in Canada. These procedures can take up to four to five years as well. If you add the two up together, it takes eight to 10 years. Some families wait year after year for approval. Sometimes the parents and grandparents have already passed.

The government told us four to five years. This is something the government needs to look at and probably shorten. Canada accepts approximately 300,000 immigrants every year, including refugees. Last year it was 330,000 immigrants, including the Syrian refugees. So we would like this number broadened and the procedure shortened.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Wang.

Mr. Ehsassi, for seven minutes, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

I'd like to thank all the witnesses for their testimony. This obviously will be very helpful to us as we focus on the issue of family sponsorship.

I'll start with you, Ms. Bukhari. Welcome back. Thank you for once again appearing before us.

Your centre does an exceptional job in assisting newcomers, with the aim of empowering them and assisting them to integrate into Canadian society. Would you be kind enough to share with us your observations on how significant family sponsorship is for the process of empowerment and integration?

[Huda Bukhari]

Family reunification is great in empowering the clients who are already here, just in terms of their peace of mind. The Middle East, where many of our clients come from, is in a turbulent state at the moment. Clients who are here feel paralyzed by having have left their family members behind, especially their parents, and especially within conflict areas. They'd like to be able to bring them out here as quickly as possible. This worry about not knowing whether they will be coming, and about the long processing times for bringing family members here, immobilizes many of our clients. They can't seem to concentrate. They can't seem to move on with their lives.

Not only that, but the family members we're dealing with in our office are forever thinking of ways to send money back, to make remittances to their family members who are back there. Taking $300 or $400 a month, let's say, and trying to send it back with someone who may be going there, or through someone who is there, immobilizes them financially here.

What we try to do at the centre is to provide information. That is what we do. We provide information. We try to help with the applications. We call on their behalf. We send them to their MP's office if the application takes too long. In reality it is immobilizing for them. If you know that your parents and all your children who are over the age of 19 are in Syria, in Aleppo, let's say, and you are doing your best to put your resources together to try to get them out, which is what we're seeing at the moment, it's immobilizing for you.

We try to be as positive as we possibly can, but in the current situation that is happening not only to the Syrian community that we're assisting, for example, but also to the Yemeni community that we're working with, and to the Eritrean community that we are working with, and to some parts of the Sudanese community that we're working with, and anywhere where there is conflict in the Middle East, when we get those clients in the office we can see that it is very immobilizing. They can't seem to move forward, especially those with young children.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Al Hamdan, in your statement you were referring to specific experiences of members of the Arab community. Thank you ever so much for that guidance. Are there any other experiences that are specific to the Arab community that you would like to share with us today?

[Zena Al Hamdan]

On the specifics with the spousal sponsorships, a lot of the newcomer clients that we see, by the time they actually get their finances and their lives together, want to start a new family. They eventually end up getting married, and by the time they come back, a lot of the details that are deemed reasons to constitute a legitimate marriage in a Canadian context are not really something that is shared or important in other cultures.

For example, on the specifics of somebody's job, a lot of professional engineers end up taking administrative jobs in other companies. When the wife is asked what her husband does, most of the time she responds, “My husband is an engineer”, because to her and in her country, her husband is an engineer. That deems her not credible.

What is the exact date of birth of her husband? There are things like that. For example, some of the clients, if he or she were married before, have to give the exact full name of the first spouse. It's these little details. It's not done in malice, but a lot of the time these are not important details for somebody who is starting a new life. These are not things that are taken into consideration and, in the context of a traditional Middle Eastern marriage, there isn't a lot of time for the couple to actually interact in the way it is understood in the Canadian context. That means that a lot of the time, the spouse, the marriage's legitimacy, and the credibility of the spouse who is being sponsored are undermined.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you for that.

Now I'll turn to Mr. Wang.

Thank you so much for explaining to us how significant family reunification is and how members of the family, especially the elderly, are there to assist their children and grandchildren.

I was wondering whether you could kindly comment on your experience with super visas because that is essentially a novel approach that has been adopted in our immigration system. Could you tell us how it's been working out insofar as members of your community are concerned?

[Dianqi Wang]

I would like to ask Mr. Ma to answer this question.

[Zaixin Ma, Advisor, Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations]

The super visa is great. It provides convenience. For grandparents and parents to come to Canada, it is a great approach, but it is a temporary visa. It cannot give a permanent solution. The parents and the grandparents can stay here only for a period of time. It's not a permanent solution.

When they come here they have to spend a lot of money to buy their medical insurance, which can prove to be very expensive. So this is a temporary solution.

On providing permanent help, I do not feel that this provides permanent help to us.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Mr. Tilson, you have seven minutes, please.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I appreciate all of your comments. Of course, the purpose of this study is to prepare a report to recommend to the House of Commons, or to the minister, how to improve the family sponsorship program. I appreciate a lot of the comments that you've made thus far explaining the benefits of parents and grandparents.

Mr. Wang talked about child care, teaching or maintaining language skills, community volunteers, and buying for the family. All of those are excellent things.

You also emphasized the length of time it takes to process these things, and it sounds, from your experience, like it's a minimum of four to five years.

We'll start with Ms. Hamdan, perhaps, but I wonder if each of you could make recommendations to the committee as to how the family sponsorship program could be improved.

[Zena Al Hamdan]

The family sponsorship program, especially when it comes to parents and grandparents, should at least consider the impact of a statement saying how bringing your parents and grandparents is going to help your life, how it is going to help your integration and settlement. That's number one.

Number two is a realistic minimum financial income. The financial income that is the threshold now is really unrealistic for the length of time that is being provided. And on the matter of giving specifics on the processing time of over four or five years, over that time people's circumstances and needs change. Also, the impact of the parents coming in from the date of submission to the date they actually arrive will change.

On the processing time, we are processing from January 2014, which is over two years ago. That doesn't even mean that the parents will be arriving right away once their application is picked up. It really need to take into consideration all of these aspects.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

How long should the processing time take?

[Zena Al Hamdan]

The last time we looked at the processing time, we saw that they're looking at applications from January 2014.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

But my question is—

[Zena Al Hamdan]

Our recommendation would be less than two years, between 18 and 24 months.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Wang, the committee will be making recommendations to the minister in the House of Commons on how to improve the family sponsorship program. Do you have any recommendations the committee could consider?

[Zaixin Ma]

Both of us agree with what Ms. Hamdan just said, that we would need to reduce the time for review. The sponsorship standards also need to be lowered because new immigrants, if they have just arrived, don't have a high wage. Before the Liberal government came into power, the income requirement, I think, was only one year; now it's three years. We would like this to be returned back to one year; that is, the sponsor would just need to provide one year's proof of income. That would be more convenient for us.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

In 2014 caps were introduced for the intake of applications for family class sponsorship of parents and grandparents. There was a limit of 5,000 new applications, which was increased last year to 10,000 applications. What is your opinion of this cap limiting the intake of parent and grandparent applications?

Perhaps we'll start again with you, Ms. Hamdan.