Private Sponsors of Syrian Refugees Left in Limbo

A harsh reality but resources will never match demand.

Canada is the only country that allows for individuals to sponsor refugee claimants. 

Generally speaking 5 or more Canadians or Canadian Permanent Residents can support such a sponsorship. These sponsors provide both emotional and financial support generally for a year. These sponsors take on significant responsibility, including lodging, utilities and generally integrating them to the Canadian multicultural fabric. This seemed to be an ideal solution given the significant barriers to integration that all newcomers to Canada face.

Expectations of such large hearted individuals were raised, and then dashed with this Government's commitment to the Syrian crisis. 

My discussion on private sponsorships - colloquially known as "Group of 5" sponsorships follows on 'Afternoons with Danielle Smith' on AM 770 starting at mark 4:05. 

Backlog of Privately Sponsored Syrian Refugees

 There are issues when you roll out such significant policy initiatives, such as resettling what is, essentially, an arbitrary number by an artificial deadline. Part of the issue is that, frankly, these kind of problems are like Russian nesting dolls, amounting to challenges within challenges.

Also, I'm kind of the odd man out. This is a grotesque lottery; one family wins the lottery, another (maybe 10x the number) are relegated to a harsh existence. The majority of displaced individuals, refugees live close to the country of origin; the majority return and frankly, our efforts should be to support the countries that are shouldering the burden of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of refugees and pressure on nearby states that are not stepping to the plate for their co-religionists.

According to this Minister, at this stage, one more refugee, at this point, means one less immigrant from another class. People are going to start fighting over the pie (there's only so many immigrants as a whole that we can process) and this is unfortunate. 

We are starting to develop fissures and some cracks with this pronouncement and initiative and despite the disappointment of those that hoped to privately sponsor refugees, we also have a responsibility to the spouses that are waiting years for the finalization of their applications to bring their partners here.

Symbolism is fine, but it's not enough.