Citizenship and Immigration committee  First of all, I thank the standing committee on citizenship and immigration for the opportunity to provide our comments on the federal government's initiative to resettle Syrian refugees. I will start by providing you with some information about the Afghan Women's Organization,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, especially on the mental health. I really appreciate that. I meant that if the settlement organizations are also supported and receive funding, especially to deal with the mental health cases, that would be very helpful. There are mainstream services, but we

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When we are looking at best practices in settlement, there has to be a holistic approach in terms of settlement, not just looking at the selected needs but looking holistically at the needs and the quality of the needs of the newcomers, and also recognizing and acknowledging thei

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay. That's okay.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, that would be very useful. Also, referring to the job-specific language training, it exists here in Toronto as well. We used to call it ELT, employment language training. We found that very useful because it teaches the terminology, and also the workplace. That would be usef

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Our LINC classes are women-only classes. We have two classes for men in the evening. On the turnover in our classes, a big majority of those newcomers attend classes, but because of other family commitments they sometimes stay back. Most of the immigrants who come here want to ge

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually I said that I agreed that it would be a good idea. It's a great idea, but it's not the solution for newcomers to get jobs. It's not the ultimate solution. More work has to be done for that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, language also plays a very important role in terms of family dynamics, because most immigrants, when they come here, they don't pick up English very fast. Their children go to school, and they become translators for their parents and have a controlling role over their p

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Almost 85% of our clients are from Afghan communities. Actually, you mentioned about the law. This is something that is in one of our orientation packages. Right from the beginning, from their arrival at our organization, we talk to them about Canadian law, and also about Canadia

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think this is a very good idea. It's not only the name. We had a case where the woman was called for the interview, but because she was covering her head, she was actually asked in the interview if she could change her dress. She ended up not getting the job, obviously because

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, we are—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm done, thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll be happy to answer questions.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good morning, everybody, and thank you for inviting me. I'm going to do a brief introduction of our organization and programs, what works well and what the challenges are, and also cover some recommendations. The Afghan Women's Organization is committed to promoting the success