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.