Immigration in a Time of Pandemic: Confronting the Challenge
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COVID-19 Immigration in a Time of Pandemic: Confronting the Challenge VOLUME 17 | NO. 3 | 2020 INTRODUCTION HEALTH: SAFETY, ACCESS & VULNERABILITY COVID-19: A Wake-up Call COVID-19 and Canada’s Underutilized, 3 Miriam Taylor 41 Internationally Educated Health Professionals Joan Atlin Access to Health Care for Precarious and Non-Status BACKGROUND, CONCEPTS & DATA Migrants During COVID-19: Ontario and Québec 45 Graham Hudson, Chloé Cébron and Rachel Laberge Mallette COVID-19 and International Migrations: 7 Avenues to be Explored COVID-19 and meatpackers in southern Alberta – Victor Piché 50 Avoiding ‘the culturalist trap’ Bronwyn Bragg Impact of COVID-19 on Newcomers: Socio-economic concerns and experiences 12 of immigrants during COVID-19 Jane Badets FERTILE GROUND FOR RACISM The Impact of COVID-19 on the Evolution of (Re)settlement in Canada SARS-1 and COVID-19 in Canada and the US: 17 How Racism Shaped an Epidemic and Pandemic John Biles 55 Lori Wilkinson East Asian Canadians, discrimination, DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT: 60 and the mental health impact of COVID-19 STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS Cary Wu, Rima Wilkes, Yue Qian and Eric B. Kennedy Supporting Immigrant and Newcomer Entrepreneurs in Canada during the COVID-19 Pandemic COMMUNITY STRATEGIES AND EXPERIENCES 23 Wendy Cukier, Miki Itano-Boase and Akalya Atputharajah Crisis Response and Community Connections: Fostering Newcomer Economic Resilience: One Agency’s Strategy for Supporting Newcomers 28 The Lessons of COVID-19 66 through the COVID-19 Pandemic June Francis and Kristina Henriksson Fariborz Birjandian and Karen O’Leary COVID-19, Intersectionality and Concerns Corona and Rural Newcomer Stories (Manitoba) 34 about Violence in the Home 69 Don Boddy Ilene Hyman and Bilkis Vissandjee CANADIAN DIVERSITY IS PUBLISHED BY Canadian Diversity is a quarterly publication of the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS). Opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect ASSOCIATION FOR CANADIAN STUDIES BOARD OF DIRECTORS (ELECTED NOVEMBER 23, 2019) the opinions of the ACS or sponsoring organizations. The DR. JULIE PERRONE Association for Canadian Studies is a voluntary non-profit Chairperson of the Board of Directors, Director, Communications & Marketing, organization. It seeks to expand and disseminate knowledge Finance Montréal, Montreal, Quebec about Canada through teaching, research and publications. The ACS is a scholarly society and a member of the Humanities CELINE COOPER Editor, The Canadian Encyclopedia, Instructor, Concordia University, and Social Science Federation of Canada. Montreal, Quebec HUBERT LUSSIER Retired – Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Heritage, Ottawa, Ontario JANE BADETS LETTERS Retired – Assistant Chief Statistician, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Comments on this edition of Canadian Diversity? GISÈLE YASMEEN Executive Director, Food Secure Canada, Montreal, Quebec We want to hear from you! PROFESSOR HOWARD RAMOS Canadian Diversity / ACS Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia 850-1980 Sherbrooke Street West THE HONOURABLE MARLENE JENNINGS Montréal, Québec H3H 1E8 P.C., LLb.,Lawyer, Montreal, Quebec Or e-mail us at <[email protected]> MADELINE ZINIAK Consultant, Chairperson of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association, Toronto, Ontario PROFESSOR CHEDLY BELKHODJA Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec This special edition of Canadian Diversity is published in JEAN TEILLET partnership with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Partner at Pape Salter Teillet LLP, Vancouver, British Columbia We would like to thank them for their valued collaboration. PROFESSOR JOANNA ANNEKE RUMMENS Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario PUBLISHER Jack Jedwab MANAGING EDITOR COVER ART Miriam Taylor TRANSLATOR Vague by Simone Taylor-Cape Miriam Taylor COPY-EDITING AND PROOFREADING David Lazarus Laura Comboïgo DESIGN & LAYOUT CAMILAHGO. studio créatif INTRODUCTION COVID-19, A WAKE-UP CALL Dr. Miriam Taylor is the Director of Publications and Partnerships at the Association for Canadian Studies. The programs and badges were printed, the speakers all from the multitude of distractions that characterize life in our confirmed. The Association for Canadian Studies-Metropolis modern Western world. The attention turned towards more Institute was in the final stages of preparation for its annual pressing vital matters, relating to health, safety and securing event – the largest national gathering of experts, practition- the basic necessities of life. As the major shift in both perceptions ers and policy makers in the immigration field, who come and priorities gradually occurred, a few truths that are too often together every year for a massive exercise in cross-pollination, obscured from general consciousness began to take centre stage. sharing studies, strategies and best practices. Set to take place in Winnipeg, the 2020 edition of the Metropolis Conference, As families retreated into isolation, communities turned in on promised to be bigger than ever and was getting ready to themselves and countries closed off their borders, it became welcome over 1,000 participants when the World Health clear that we could no longer afford to turn a blind eye to Organization declared a world-wide pandemic and the the most vulnerable in our midst. Where proper measures to subsequent global lockdown brought everything to an abrupt ensure their safety were not taken, those lacking the resources and drastic halt. to protect themselves from the viral onslaught would surely become vectors for general contagion. Thus, born of necessity, Within a week of cancellation, the COVID-19 Social Impacts a new kind of internal sense of solidarity began to emerge, Network was born, the brainchild of ACS-Metropolis President creating a willingness to put energy and resources into and CEO Jack Jedwab. Drawing on the elaborate multidisci- addressing exposed vulnerabilities that, if left unchecked, plinary Metropolis network, and reaching out to new collab- could allow entry of the virus into our communities and orating partners, the network’s aim was to ensure that the overwhelm the system’s ability to care for us all. social and economic dimensions of the COVID-19 crisis be kept in constant view as Canada charted an unprecedented Where the cracks in society are a danger to the well-being course into untested waters. Indeed, the network has of all, it is perhaps harder to indulge in the collective denial monitored perceptions and behaviours; identified issues and fostered within a system that encourages each of us, in the indicators; and generated evidence-based responses designed normal course of events, to fend for ourselves, and focus to help Canada navigate through the storm towards recovery on our own success and survival rather than on the general and resilience. good. It might be fair to say that heightened vigilance has given rise to an increased awareness of the structural fault Early on, as Canadians were riveted to the news, trying to lines that weaken the foundation of our society, along with a follow the unfolding crisis, the world's focus pivoted away greater willingness to give these questions the attention they 3 deserve1. Some of these systemic challenges and the housing and support systems, have been particularly possible ways to tackle them are the focus of this special issue of vulnerable to the vagaries of the pandemic. She also considers Canadian Diversity, entitled “Immigration in a Time of how this might act as an impediment to their integration into Pandemic: Confronting the Challenge”. Canada, thus having more long-lasting implications requiring policy responses. Lastly, she points to the need for more data Created in collaboration with the Canadian Commission for collection and analysis that will allow us as a country to take UNESCO, one of our COVID-19 Impacts Network partners, the full measure of the situation. the publication includes contributions from researchers, gov- ernment and community representatives as well as service In the last article of (1), John Biles gives us a fascinating and providers in the field. It draws on the rich findings generated detailed inside look into the way the (Re)settlement service over the last months by the COVID-19 network. The publi- network in Canada turned on a dime to tackle the crisis, cation also considers the experiences of newcomers and respond, recover and thrive. He also emphasizes that, as recently immigrated Canadians – groups that are too often Canada continues to diversify, immigration resettlement and short on resources, support systems and the stability that integration must become the purview not of one department accompanies long-term establishment. The articles consider or programme, but rather a more generalized societal endeavour the disproportionate burden carried by the most recently that concerns us all. arrived residents in our country. Exposing the structural problems that contribute to the vulnerability of these groups (2) Disproportionate Impact: Structural Problems & Solutions, and examining the intersectional challenges faced by those zeroes in on the very structural problems that resulted in whose precariousness is compounded by multiple identity newcomers, and particularly racialized Canadians, bearing markers. The contributions also highlight the importance of the brunt of the pandemic. Wendy Cukier, Miki Itano-Boase data and research in getting to the root of societal challenges. & Akalya Atputharajah point to the way in which immigrant entrepreneurs, many of whom