Volunteer Research Entries

By Ben McTaggart

[Version française à venir]

The need for continued advocacy for and navigation of clearer refugee arrival bureaucracy

With refugee resettlement having reopened earlier this year after the reduction of normal levels due to CoVID-19, it is paramount that refugee sponsorship groups ensure adequate education and direction for document submission and reporting for Canada’s newcomers. Central to the arrival process for refugees is the mandatory submission of arrival documents like International Organization for Migration identification material, health coverage and permanent residency applications. The submission processes, however, are not always streamlined and can be complex for newly arrived individuals.

It is here that Non-Governmental Organizations, support and sponsorship groups, along with the provincial and federal governments, need to work in tandem to streamline the infrastructure already in place. Ottawa provides a unique lens through which to identify the role these groups play. Mara Sidney (2019) views NGO’s and Support groups as part of a larger “arrival infrastructure” (p. 53). Further, the author notes that NGO’s and support groups are part of a system that responds to the state’s ability (or inability) to adequately settle and provide necessary resources for newcomers as “...[the] state and immigrant (societal) elements are relational and intertwined” (p. 54).

As newcomers arrive and go through what Eva Swyngedouw (2019) formally, but not impractically, refers to as an ‘intake ritual’, there is a tradeoff between the newcomer and the support group (Swyngedouw, 2019, p. 91). While in many countries, newcomers deal directly with border agents and guards, support groups within Canada, and Ottawa specifically, assist in directly showcasing and helping newcomers “navigate the bureaucratic maze of civic organizations” (p. 91). The more we, our fellow organizations and the federal government communicate, the lesser the impact of confusing arrival requirements. Ottawa does provide a co-implemented NGO, sponsorship group and government resettlement response, outlined in official integration policy in 2011 (Sidney, 2019, p.60). Language, bureaucratic website design and time-sensitive document submission often, however, remain barriers.

Of particular importance is the submission of health coverage applications. Specifically, enrollment in the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), highlighted through the damage that miscommunicated and confusing changes to IFHP application can have to newcomers, especially those without organizational support (Antonipillai, Baumann, Hunter, Wahoush and O’Shea., 2017; Edmonds and Flahault., 2021). Even in the case of this writing, access to the application feature of the IFHP is determined by the Adobe Reader installed on the computer used to access the webpage. As sufficient computer access is not always a given for newcomers, adequate support is imperative and incumbent upon the RSA and other Refugee support groups.

To alleviate application wait times for newly arrived refugees, the Ontario government waved the mandatory three-month wait required for access to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), that the IFHP is designed to mitigate, in 2020 (D’Mello, 2020). Communication barriers still exist, and without engaged levels of support, past concerns over the long-term mental health of refugees, within their new community and out, impact refugee integration. Ghahari, Lui, Nagra and Morassaei (2020) highlight this “perceived lack of support” as one of the top barriers experienced by newly arrived refugees (p. 1257). Organizational support is crucial.

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[Version française à venir]

Toronto-Based resettlement group HanVoice aids North Korean refugees while educating Canadians

A new pilot program for sponsoring and resettling North Korean refugees will commence in February 2022, run by the Canadian group HanVoice, a resettlement organization with the mission to bring five families from North Korea to Canada within the next two years. Seeking to expand beyond just their commitment to resettle, they ascribe to the goals of developing policy aiming to guide Canada engaging with the Korean peninsula broadly and connecting students across Canada with human rights projects in the region (CTV 2021).

The mission is timely as the title and rights of ‘refugee’ are not evenly bestowed upon these fleeing North Korean families depending on the country they land in. South Korea’s unification policy raises particular concerns, but HanVoice’s policy program helps to mitigate this confusion over who exactly a citizen of North Korea is (HanVoice, 2021). Following North Korea’s passing of their Nationality Act in 1963, countries around the world have been able to officially recognize its citizens. This is in opposition to the view held by South Korea that any and all people living on the Korean Peninsula are citizens of South Korea, seeing their government as legitimate in the face of the Kim family’s Authoritarian dynasty (Kim, 2016). As such, “North Korean defectors are seen as South Korean citizens, not refugees” (Jung, Dalton and Willis, 2017, 2). This raises questions that help illuminate a common desire among North Korean refugees: the need to shed their identity.

Jung, Dalton and Willis highlight this concern through the concept of ‘habitus’, or a collection of sociality and culturally relevant beliefs about oneself that dictate where and how one can count themselves as a member of community (p. 5). They further explore how North Korean refugees, facing immediate reclassification and potential discrimination in South Korea, feel a strong urge to carry on to different receiving nations. As the authors note they “cannot deny that there are structural and economic reasons behind onward migration, attention needs to be paid to how structural inequality has played out in the embodiment of resettled migrants and how this might affect onward migration decisions” (Jung, Dalton and Willis, 2017, 3) This provides background for the use of HanVoice’s advocacy to connect human rights projects on the peninsula with those Canadians able to assist.

As the stated ambition of HanVoice is to promote the protection and support of women and children (HanVoice 2021), the need for strong supports in host countries are imperative to mitigate the negative effects of post-migration stressors which are leading to cases of depression, dislocation and suicidal ideation among North Korean women (Um, Rice, Palinkas, & Kim 2020). Having faced political and personal violence at the hands of the North Korean regime, the strength of the sponsorship aiding their resettlement is key, as “network diversity [...] is associated with better mental health outcomes among individuals with a high risk of trauma exposure” (Um, Rice, Palinkas, & Kim, 2020, p. 2).

As such authoritarian states like North Korea continue to rise in a world whose existing international law continues to augment and incorporate authoritarian groups (Hurd, 1999),

HanVoice represents an avenue for both human rights assistance and policy engagement within refugee resettlement. An advocative deliverable required in such a polarizing world.

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Ressources

Antonipillai, V., Baumann, A., Hunter, A., Wahoush, O., & O’Shea, T. (2017). Impacts of the Interim Federal Health Program reforms: A stakeholder analysis of barriers to health care access and provision for refugees. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 108, 435-441. doi: 10.17269/CJPH.108.5553

D’Mello, C. (2020, March 18). Ontario to waive three-month OHIP waiting period for returning Canadians. CTV News. Retrieved from https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/

Edmonds, J., & Flahault, A. (2021). Refugees in Canada during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 947-963. https://doi: 10.3390/ijerph18030947

Ghahari, S., Josie, L., Satmeen, N., & Sara, M. (2020). The Life Experiences of Refugees in Canada: A Comprehensive Scoping Review to Identify Unmet Needs and Barriers. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 21, 1249-1261. doi: 10.1007/s12134-019-00727-3

Hurd, I. (1999). Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics. International

Organization, 53(2), 379–408. https://doi.org/10.1162/002081899550913

Jung, K., Dalton, B., & Willis, J. (2017). The onward migration of North Korean refugees to Australia: In search of cosmopolitan habitus. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies, 9(3), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v9i3.5506

Kim, S. (2016). Lack of state protection or fear of persecution? Determining the refugee status of North Koreans in Canada. International Journal of Refugee Law, 28(1), 85–108. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eev062

Sidney, M. (2019). NGOs as Arrival Infrastructures: Pathways to Inclusion for Immigrants in the U.S. and Canada. In Arrival Infrastructures: Migration and Urban Social Mobilities (pp. 53-80). Retrieved from https://books-scholarsportal- info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/en/read?id=/ebooks/ebooks4/springer4/2019-07- 01/3/9783319911670#page=1

Swyngedouw, E. (2019) Governing Newcomers’ Conduct in the Arrival Infrastructures of Brussels. In Arrival Infrastructures: Migration and Urban Social Mobilities (pp. 81-101) Retrieved from https://books-scholarsportal- info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/en/read?id=/ebooks/ebooks4/springer4/2019-07- 01/3/9783319911670#page=1

Um, M. Y., Rice, E., Palinkas, L. A., & Kim, H. J. (2020). Migration‐Related Stressors and Suicidal Ideation in North Korean Refugee Women: The Moderating Effects of Network Composition. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33(6), 939–949. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22549

Woolf, M. Canadian citizens will be able to sponsor fleeing North Koreans for the first time. The

th Canadian Press, CTV News. October 26 , 2021.