Today is World Refugee Day. Via CBC News, a report by The Canadian Press: Canada resettled more refugees than any other country in 2018, UN says. Excerpt:
Canada admitted the largest number of refugees who were resettled last year and had the second highest rate of refugees who gained citizenship, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency's global report.
The UNHCR's annual global trends report shows Canada took in 28,100 of the 92,400 refugees who were resettled in 25 countries during 2018; the United States was second with 22,900. About 1.4 million refugees were in need of resettlement in 2018, but only 92,400 were resettled.
The data also show Canada gave citizenship to the second largest number of people who had arrived as refugees — a figure that helps to measure how well countries are integrating refugees. A total of 18,000 refugees became Canadian citizens last year, a substantial increase over 2017, when just over 10,000 refugees were naturalized. The number had been declining over time.
Michael Casasola, UNHCR Canada's senior resettlement officer, said Canada has been a leader on welcoming refugees and giving them opportunities to thrive.
He pointed to Canada's private sponsorship program, which accounts for two-thirds of Canada's resettled refugees. By offering community-based supports that come directly from citizens and charitable organizations, refugees who arrive through this program achieve better outcomes and become better integrated into their communities than government-sponsored refugees.
"Canada's approach to integration works. It encourages integration, it welcomes refugees to become part of Canadian society, including obtaining citizenship, and among all the immigrants who come to Canada, refugees have the highest [citizenship] uptake," Casasola said.
Still, an influx of "irregular" asylum seekers crossing into Canada using a forest path between New York state and Quebec has become a divisive political issue, with conservative politicians often referring to these individuals as "queue-jumpers" and "illegal" migrants.
The UNHCR report shows Canada was the ninth largest recipient of new asylum seekers in 2018, with 55,400 claims filed. Over 19,000 of those were from people intercepted by the RCMP for crossing "irregularly" into Canada.
Only a fraction of global refugee issue
While these numbers represent an overall increase in the number of asylum seekers to Canada — a situation that has led to major backlogs in processing claims and problems finding housing for asylum seekers in Montreal and Toronto — the UNHCR figures show Canada's experiences are nothing compared to the waves of refugees flocking to other countries. There they await processing and possible resettlement elsewhere.
"Only 16 per cent of the world's refugees are in developed states," Casasola said.
