{"id":1405,"date":"2016-07-25T14:21:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T14:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.porticomagazine.ca\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2020-10-28T14:40:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T18:40:31","slug":"guelph-grads-give-refugees-a-fresh-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/07\/guelph-grads-give-refugees-a-fresh-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

How the humanitarian efforts of U of G grads are giving refugees a fresh start<\/h1>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Story by Andrew Vowles<\/em>
\n Illustrations by Gary Clement<\/em><\/p>\n

As an immigration and refugee lawyer in Toronto, Jackie Swaisland has encountered her share of horror stories about the ordeals of migrants. Still, when news outlets broadcast images last fall of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, the Syrian refugee crisis took on added poignancy. Swaisland had just returned to work from her first maternity leave. \u201cLike parents all across the world, I thought: \u2018What if that had been my daughter?,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIt struck really close to home.\u201d She felt driven to act.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s one of many U of G graduates who are helping refugees or internally displaced people, now numbering in the tens of millions worldwide. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says those numbers have reached their highest point since the Second World War, driven by recent conflicts in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

Ripples from the Middle East have reached other parts of the globe, notably Europe, where Edward Koning grew up in the Netherlands. The U of G political science professor \u2014 and, as of last year, a permanent Canadian resident \u2014 says Canada\u2019s geographical distance allows us to be more selective of prospective migrants than many European countries facing floods of people spilling over their borders. He says we could be doing more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story of Canada as the most generous place for refugees is a little self-congratulatory,\u201d says Koning, who is studying immigration policy in Europe and North America. Referring more generally to the country\u2019s careful selection process for admitting immigrants, he says Canada tends to accept applicants based on their potential for finding work. Government-assisted refugees to Canada, who are registered as refugees with the United Nations, receive public assistance for at least a year.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s no denying the refugee crisis has touched a humanitarian chord in many Canadians, including Swaisland.<\/p>\n

Stunned by those TV images last fall, she launched the Refugee Sponsorship Support Program (RSSP). Taking time off from her work at Toronto law firm Waldman and Associates, Swaisland, BA \u201903, worked with University of Ottawa law professor Jennifer Bond to enlist practitioners across Canada for this new venture.<\/p>\n

Under the network, legal experts offer pro bono services to groups and individuals looking to privately sponsor refugees to Canada. Within days, they received more than 100 responses. Today, the network involves 1,300 lawyers and law students in 11 major centres. The RSSP trains lawyers in refugee sponsorship issues and matches them with prospective private sponsors. So far, the group has helped sponsors submit applications for about 2,500 refugees \u2014 mostly Syrians but also from Burundi, Somalia and Afghanistan. Swaisland now helps run the program\u2019s Toronto chapter.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Swaisland served as co-counsel in a successful court challenge of cuts to federal health-care benefits for refugees imposed in 2012 by the former Conservative government. Earlier this year, the new Liberal government \u2014 already committed to resettling thousands of Syrian refugees \u2014 restored full benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred thousand refugees have better health care as a result,\u201d says Swaisland, 35. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, knowing that you have been a small part of helping so many people. How often do you have an opportunity to help on that kind of scale?\u201d<\/p>\n

Swaisland arrived at U of G to study philosophy, with a minor in business. \u201cI wanted a university with a sense of community and I heard that Guelph was social justice-oriented.\u201d She went on to complete degrees at Queen\u2019s University and Harvard Law School, and has worked at Waldman and Associates since 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawyers are people who can evoke change in society,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople who can challenge how things work and enter politics often have a legal background.\u201d Practising refugee law involves a high proportion of pro bono cases and more than a little resilience. \u201cYou deal with people who have faced trauma and who have been through things nobody should have to deal with.\u201d\"U<\/a><\/p>\n

While at U of G, Swaisland was involved in student governance and worked on Interhall Council. So did Michael Stephenson, who came to U of G to study biomedical science. After graduating in 2002, he went to medical school. One day he heard a talk by a man who had been tortured in Iran and said Canada\u2019s health-care system had been vital to his recovery. \u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in the care of more vulnerable populations,\u201d says Stephenson, who spent time travelling through Central and South America, Asia and East Africa.<\/p>\n

His residency took him to a Montreal clinic where half of the patients were refugees. Later he worked in Toronto at Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services, a community health centre focused on refugees. After moving to Kitchener, Ont., in 2012, he realized that services were lacking right where he lived.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard again and again there was a huge need in the region,\u201d he says. \u201cRefugees were facing a lot of access issues, and health providers misunderstood coverage and entitlement. I heard stories of insured refugees being turned away from walk-in clinics and emergency rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with local social service agencies, he established Sanctuary Refugee Health Centre in 2013. Today about 1,400 patients \u2014 mostly from the Middle East \u2014 are registered with the clinic. Stephenson, 37, retains a full-time social worker and a registered nurse, as well as other part-time specialists. He relies on volunteer receptionists, nurses and translators. Funding and administration are ongoing challenges, but he loves helping to improve people\u2019s health and change their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the good fortune of being able to assist somebody to become established in Canada,\u201d he says. \u201cMy patients have been through horrible life-changing events. Helping them move past this is an important part of settling into Canada.\u201d Recalling his anger over the 2012 health-care cuts, he says he was among numerous practitioners who joined the court challenge to overturn that decision.<\/p>\n

Prof. Edward Koning\u2019s research also looks at migrants\u2019 access to health benefits and social services. He says the Harper government invoked fairness and equitable access to health care to justify its cuts. Right idea, wrong approach, he says. To ensure the best chance of integration and to quell tensions between groups, Koning says the same benefits and social services need to be offered to all migrants.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Koning found himself in demand as a local speaker on the Mediterranean refugee crisis. That\u2019s where he met Jaya James, B.Comm. \u201902, a policy adviser with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs based in Guelph. When Ottawa announced plans last year to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada, James, 38, was drawn to the mounting efforts to sponsor local refugees and raise funds.<\/p>\n

\n

[pullquote]”THERE’S BAD IN THE WORLD, SO LET’S GO HELP FIX IT.”[\/pullquote]<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She took a six-month leave from work to devote her efforts full-time to the cause as the volunteer director of Guelph\u2019s Refugee Sponsorship Forum (RSF), which supports private refugee sponsors in the city. The organization recruits, trains and screens volunteers for various tasks, including transportation, housing, food and clothing collection, counselling for work and health care, and English-language training for new arrivals. More than 800 volunteers are organized into teams under the RSF umbrella.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sense of relief because they got out [of the country], but there\u2019s also anxiety because they had to leave some immediate family behind,\u201d says James of the new arrivals she\u2019s met, including many multigenerational families. \u201cYou can see how grateful they are, but also how concerned they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time her volunteer appointment ended in late June, more than 20 families \u2014 mostly from Syria \u2014 had settled in Guelph and Wellington County. She expects to join the forum\u2019s advisory committee and help with fundraising: the group hopes to raise $100,000 to support RSF operations until the end of 2017.<\/p>\n

Last spring, Stephenson returned to campus to deliver the Last Lecture to the 2015 graduating class. He says Guelph introduced critical thinking skills and enabled him to investigate history, political science and the arts \u2014 all useful grounding for dealing with humanitarian issues. He encouraged graduates to apply these skills to make a difference in the world.<\/p>\n

Next spring, it will be Swaisland\u2019s turn to deliver the Last Lecture. Before that, her volunteer work is being recognized this year by awards from the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers and the Advocates’ Society, and with a Precedent Setter Award for being a \u201cleader of tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says much of her conviction stems from her U of G days. There\u2019s a sense of enthusiasm and optimism around campus, she says: \u201cThere\u2019s bad in the world, so let\u2019s go help fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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