Welcoming the Stranger: The Canadian Church and the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program

Christine McKinlay

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14647872.v1

Abstract

Since the PSR program was founded in 1978, the Canadian church has portrayed a major role in the program. Many of the first sponsored refugees converted to the branch of Christianity that their sponsors practiced. Conversion was a mechanism for refugees to gain social capital and integrate into Canadian society. Today, sponsored refugees are able to tap into the rich diversity of religious communities found in urban Canadian centres and therefore are less likely to feel pressured to join their Christian sponsors in worship. This study demonstrates how the Canadian church has influenced the formation of the PSR program. The study provides an analysis of the role of Christianity in the identity formation of sponsored refugees and the inter-faith relationship between Christian sponsors and non-Christian refugees.

Highlights

Today, sponsored refugees are able to tap into the rich diversity of religious communities found in urban Canadian centres and are less likely to feel pressured to join their Christian sponsors in worship
Key Informant Professionals are individuals who have worked within the Private Sponsorship of Refugee (PSR) program for a number of years and who are currently employed by Christian-affiliated Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs)
Arranging interviews with former sponsored refugees was iv1 and iv2 are professionals in the field who are employed by Protestant Sponsorship Agreement Holders

Summary

Introduction

Introduction of the Humanitarian DesignatedClasses, including the Country of Asylum class, thereby expanding the categories of people eligible for resettlement.The report of the Legislative Review Advisory Group (“Not Just Numbers”) was released. The three-person advisory group had been commissioned to come up with proposals for a new Immigration Act. Creation of the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program (RSTP). Arrival of over 7,000 Kosovar refugees evacuated from Macedonia, under UNHCR’s Humanitarian Evacuation Program. Canada and the UNHCR identified entire refugee populations and resettled these populations in the same community. In this year, two groups of refugees, 30 Sudanese and 17 Somalis, arrived in Canada from the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. 2005 Creation of the NGO-Government Sub-Committee, a sub-set of the NGO-Government Committee. (*Taken directly from the Summative Evaluation of the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program Final Report, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Published April, 2007.) The responsibility of the Sub-Committee is similar to that of the Government Committee, the Sub-Committee focuses on more specific operational and policy issues and brings these issues to the NGO-Government Committee. (*Taken directly from the Summative Evaluation of the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program Final Report, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Published April, 2007.)

Objectives

Findings

Methods