Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

Watch Out for the Bay Area!

// July 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Immigration

Finally.

Thanks to the (volunteer-run) Educators for Fair Consideration, we have support for an immigrant youth advocacy program that would give students the necessary tools to organize at the schools and in their communities. Over the duration of the week, we selected 19 students (yet to be announced) from a diverse pool.

The best part about the program is that it is student-run and justly compensated. It rewards students who have been organizing already or shown interest in organizing while also training them to go a step further. I also hope that the program will be a way to empower more students to take responsibility and action in their communities about issues of importance to them.

I have the usual roles and duties. Students for Fair Consideration will have the best website and outreach program of any immigrant advocacy group in the country.

I finally have some $ for the gym, food, bike maintenance, and to file my Canada visa application.

In Real Life, Sandra Bullock Would Be Deported

// July 7th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Immigration

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/2741/proposal17718271777329.jpg

Dear Ms. Bullock,

I have been a fan since Speed back in 1994 when I was barely 9. So it pains me to see one of my favorite actors make a movie that doesn’t paint a fair picture of U.S. immigration policies.

I took my mother out to see The Proposal yesterday–she had fun but even she recognized that it is not so easy to gain legal residency through marriage.

Forget the fact that this option is not even available to bi-national same sex couples for a second.

First, you wouldn’t be allowed to ‘jump in line’ ahead of the so-called gardeners and construction workers. “They are looking for terrorists, not book publishers” is just a line in the movie.

Second, the immigration official would have asked tougher questions, called your bluff within a minute and charged you with marriage fraud. Even if you wanted to return to Canada, you would be placed in an ICE detention center on taxpayer money to serve time for the felony. For meals, you would get peanut butter and jelly and that too, quite infrequently. You would also see people in the center that have been kept there indefinitely. You might even see children who should be in school, rather than locked away in detention.

In the meantime, ICE could lose your paperwork so even if you wanted to go back to Canada, you might not be able to do so voluntarily. Then you would wait for months more at the detention center to get a new passport or prove that you really have Canadian residency.

Finally, after many months, you would be allowed to go back on your own money.  But once outside the United States, you would not be able to come back for another 10 years, due to the 10-year ban for accruing illegal presence. The only way to circumvent this would be an I-601 waiver that no one could have filed for you.

So there is really no happily ever after here, except for the fact that Canada is just like the United States, only with free health care, a better banking system and same-sex marriage.

Canada – Call for Video Submissions

// December 22nd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Immigration

Throwing some love towards my Canadian readers (I wish to be in Canada one day, maybe for a doctoral program in political economy).

I don’t know much about migration in Canada but I know that it has a better, more efficient and streamlined process for immigration. 18 months, no lawyers needed compared to the $5000-$10000 legal fees required  here with a long backlog that is perpetuating the problem of ‘illegal immigration.’ I do remember blogging about the undocumented student struggles in Canada and the idiotic way in which ICE made criminals out of some jet-skiers from Canada that landed here accidentally. Also, see how tougher border regulations are tearing up communities in Vermont. And I had an undocumented blogger friend of mine who was traveling via Amtrak to New York for a Graduate school interview detained in Greyhound by ‘border officials’ toughening up on the US-Canada border. At the AAG conference in Boston this April, we had an interesting presentation on how the Portuguese in Canada face similar treatment to the Mexicans in the United States. A lot of issues obviously intermingle but this contest is for issues in Canadian migration and open for Canadians only.

This is from Francis:

I’m working on a project called WhoWeAre, and we presently have a call for submission that is open for people to submit video proposals on cultural diversity, multiculturalism and immigration. The selected proposals will be rewarded 1000$ for shooting and editing their videos.

Props to WhoWeAre for working on building video content for diversity and multi-culturalism. Anyone can upload videos on the site right now, but financing is only available to Canadians.

Who can participate?
The call for videos is open to everyone, professionals and non-professionals who are willing to direct a video about the Canadian cultural mosaic or submit an existing one on the same topic. The candidates must be at least 14 years of age and older.

For more information, go here.

Here is an interesting current happenings that might inspire some creativity

In Some Immigration News Across the Borders – Canada Holds Online Film Festival on Migration

// October 19th, 2008 // No Comments » // Immigration

I want to take time out to do this, at least every weekend. Let me know if the comparative / international perspective is helpful and something the blog readers would find interesting. This is by no means comprehensive; just under-reported news I found noteworthy and/or fascinating.

  • Debating 120,000 year old migration route? A new study on the cradle of civilization reveals an alternate path to early human migration than the one previously proposed. The Nile Valley is widely believed to be the most likely route out of sub-Saharan Africa for early modern humans but new research from the University of Bristol points to Libya as the exit route through the Sahara.

According to independent studies from the University of Helsinki and the University of Cambridge, our dispositions not only influence where we choose to live but also how often and how far we move. And over time, these choices can influence the social character of entire geographical regions.

  • Canada’s first and only online film festival–the Migr@tions Online Film Festival–features 80 short documentaries on migration that viewers can watch anywhere in the world at their leisure through to December. Quarterfinals are right now so you can log on and cast your votes for the short documentaries each week.

Migr@tion 2008 features a total of 80 short documentaries and dramas – 40 each in English and French – from more than 22 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, South Korea, U.K., U.S., Zimbabwe and, of course, Canada.

By going international, this year’s festival received more than 200 entries, each between four and nine minutes, from South African Sarah Van Borek’s Xenophobia Unplugged on a musician’s journey, to American Alana Kakoyiannis’ Cosmopolis, a documentary on Greek immigrants who, having gained social mobility, are passing the torch to the next waves of Mexicans.

Among the Canadian features are Ellen Tang’s Girl Any More, which examines if having an anglicized name affects who you are, Radha Rajagopalan’s Wires and Words, exploring how second-generation Tamil Brahmins in Canada connect to their heritage through the internet, and Punam Kumar Gill’s The Lesson, about the filmmaker’s father, who helped his Punjabi community in Edmonton by teaching newcomers how to drive.

(Read more here)

It sounds like the sort of trans-national and cross-border understanding that we need to develop in our pro-migrant network. Do check it out. I am sure we would come across some powerful narratives of value and worthy of discussion.
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Welcome to America – Here We Make ‘Criminals’ Out of Jet-Skiers

// September 1st, 2008 // 8 Comments » // Immigration

This news story feeds perfectly into the socio-political construction of the migrant criminal / ‘inmate’ touched upon in the last blog post. It also shows the ludicrousness and tragicomic hilarity of our archipelagos of detention.

Two jet skiers that had an accident in Lake Ontario and were “washed UP” or even swam into the United States, were held in detention as INMATES courtesy the U.S. border patrol for two days, until the Canadian consulate and media got on the case. They are now undergoing ‘REMOVAL PROCEEDINGS” and may be barred from entrying the United States for as long as 5 years.

All Canadian jet-skiers, in the future, carry your passport in a waterproof case, in case you get washed up on the U.S. shore–the agents will throw you into immigrant detention centers–estimated at $88 per day paid for by your dear American taxpayers–after dragging you out of hospital.

Here is the article, courtesy The Toronto Star:

In hindsight, it wasn’t the best move to stop on Yankee soil and empty out a waterlogged jet ski, admitted Jason Haist, who spent two days locked in an American detention facility after washing up on the wrong side of the Niagara River.

But what choice did he have?

His cousin Edward’s Sea-Doo had flipped over in the turbulent river and had taken on water. They hauled the craft over to the American side, and spent “two seconds” emptying it with cups, he said.

“We were at the bottom of a 15-storey hill; you could not climb up there if you tried. We weren’t even docked,” said Haist. “And we really weren’t sure what side we were on.”

That stop landed the 28-year-old and his cousin, 21, in jail, said A.J. Price, an agent with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

They were released from a Batavia, N.Y., detention centre yesterday on a promise to appear. “It’s been pandemonium. It’s been so crazy. A simple day of Sea-Dooing, just a regular guy, turned into ‘we’re inmates,’” said Haist.

Haist and his cousin, both of Toronto, are frequent jet skiers on Lake Ontario, but not as experienced with the strong undercurrents typical of the Niagara River.

Despite the Sea-Doo flip they thought they were getting the hang of the rough waters. Around 8 p.m. Saturday, Haist was knocked off the jet ski. He doesn’t remember much. The Coast Guard pulled him out and he was taken to hospital, unconscious with lungs full of water.

“Then at 10 p.m., I’m lying in my hospital bed and Eddy calls me … He goes ‘we’re going to jail.’ I’m like, ‘what?’ I have tubes down my throat.” Discharged about 3 a.m., Haist was promptly arrested.

“We were like, totally freaking-out … Eddy’s still wearing his wet suit. There’s a cold, hard floor and one blanket,” he said. “We wouldn’t believe this was happening.”

Haist called his girlfriend. “I said, ‘you’ve got to call the radio and newspapers … They’re talking about holding us here for months.’”

By yesterday morning, officials had changed their tune.

“They kind of just said to me, ‘today the media’s all involved in this.’ We got the Canadian consulate people calling, get your stuff and get out of here,” said Haist, who returned home. Price says the men never “washed up” on U.S. soil.

“That’s a big misconception. They swam to shore, and that was after the accident,” the agent said. “And that is not the only landfall (coming ashore on the American side) they made that day and that is why they’re in removal proceedings.”

It may be more than two weeks before the Haists see a judge and plead their case. They could be barred from entering the United States for as long as five years.

I don’t think any Canadian would be doing a “Michael Phelps” without ‘documentation’ anytime soon, accident or no accident. This is almost right up there with jailing hurricane / cyclone evacuees!

Critique of Borders – Canada no longer visible from Derby Line, Vermont

// August 25th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Gender, Immigration, Nationalism, Political Theory

Since this site is called ‘No Borders and Binaries,’ lets revisit the philosophy behind that term. The creation of a bordered world is a deliberate attempt to divide, contain and isolate communities, to forget about arbitrary and ‘disorderly’ origins, in order to create a ‘more ordered, more secure world’–an impossible goal. See the case of Derby Line in Vermont below.

One library, two countries by Soul of Beer.

The border fence between Canada and America in Derby Line, Vermont is spreading hatred and discontent among residents. The United Press International reports:

Derby Line, which has a shared library with the neighboring Canadian community of Stanstead, has had lettering painted on three side streets: “Canada” on one side, “U.S.A.” on the other. Then came an influx of U.S. Border Patrol agents who chased motorists who ignored signs telling drivers to use official entry points.

The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Sunday that there was a proposal last year to erect fences on the town’s small streets to officially barricade the United States from Canada.

“They’re stirring up a little hate and discontent with that deal,” said Claire Currier, who grew up in the border area. “It’s like putting up a barrier. We’ve all intermingled for years.”

See NPR for more coverage of this issue.

The residents are told that it is a matter of national security, that our borders are porous, that terrorists could enter the border through these unsecured places. It doesn’t seem to matter that the people living in harmony across the border, intermingling often, don’t like the idea of a fence that would create barriers amongst them, deny them access to golf clubs, libraries, shopping malls and other activities they share together. And then there are those that think that Vermont should belong to Canada.
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Immigrants Coming Up Big at the Olympics and not just for the United States

// August 14th, 2008 // No Comments » // Immigration

This was published in the Toronto Sun, August 8.
Article: Open-door policy at work;
Immigrants have history of excelling for Canada at the Olympics

  • Lennox Lewis, who left England for Kitchener at age 12. A decade later, he stepped on to the podium in Seoul to accept gold. A nation cheered.
  • Mark McKoy, winner of the 110-metre hurdles in 1992, is from British Guyana.
  • Daniel Nestor, gold in tennis in 2000, was born in Serbia.
  • Triathlon champion Simon Whitfield holds dual Australian-Canadian citizenship.

There seems to be a global trend towards migration of athletes in international sports. And for the countries that are welcoming, the ‘open door’ has paid off big.

Since 1988, a gold medal has been hung around the neck of a Canadian 20 times at the Olympics — and 11 of those have been worn by athletes who did not start life as Canadians.

“There are two things going on here,” Donnelly said. “One is the global migration of athletes. You can get citizenship very quickly in … a lot of countries if you’re a top-notch athlete. The other thing is that this is a very fluid society built on immigration. More than half the people in Toronto were not born in Canada. Minority Canadians are now 12% of the population and going up. You’re picking up that (Canada) has the second-highest rate of immigration in the world after Australia … percentage wise.”

Undocumented Students – Struggle Continues in Canada

// June 13th, 2008 // 12 Comments » // Immigration

During the Association of American Geographers conference in Boston this year, a graduate student researcher presented a comparative analysis of Canadian and American identity in light of immigration policy. When asked in surveys, most Americans generally responded that they had a much higher tolerance of immigrants from Canada mainly because Canadians seemed more assimilable and like 'other Americans.' However, when the same survey was given to Canadians, less than thirty percent identified with Americans–differing mostly on political viewpoints. While clarifying immigration policy today, the Canadian Premier in Ontario gave an example of the stark contrast between the two neighboring states while the actions of the federal government in deporting undocumented students said otherwise.

While the United States is busy deporting undocumented immigrant students and the states in the deep South are retreating back into time by closing doors on students, our neighbors up North are also struggling with the issue. In Ontario, Canada, politicians have expressed a "don't ask don't tell" policy on undocumented immigrant students. Yet, an undocumented student, Sarah Leonty, with federal grants and great scholastic record, faces deportation just like our undocumented students in America.

At the same time, Premier Dalton McGuinty welcomed all students to Ontario schools, stating that

"A child shows up at the door looking for an education and our responsibility is to provide that education. If the federal government feels that child, that family, should not be in our province, then that is something they should do something about. But we are not going to start picking and choosing which kids are going to be allowed into the classroom."

The declaration confirms the belief in sanctuary cities as well as the fact that school officers should act like educators, not adjudicators. A report by the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto urged the government to adopt a province-wide "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy to ensure that families feel safe sending their children to school. Does that not sound like a contradiction and the very struggle we are facing in the United States? Maybe we are more alike than different after all. It would be fair to say that we are living in an era of ICE, but global warming is on the horizon.

It is encouraging to see movements and declarations by politicians in other countries in support of undocumented students. A global perspective is necessary–after all we are all citizens of the world and merely separated by landmass and arbitrary boundaries.

In the United States, we have "No Child left Behind," an empty promise and a sad oxymoron like "Microsoft Works." Are we going to start lagging behind Western civilization in our treatment of undocumented students just like we already lag behind on same-sex couples, universal health care and welfare reform? For the sake of this country and for ourselves, I certainly hope not.