The second meeting for residents concerned about the Syrian refugee crisis, held at the Barrhead United Church on Wednesday, Dec. 9, drew more support from the community and brought more definitive answers to some of the questions people have.
“First of all, in terms of sponsorship, the refugees are organized through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees,” Rita Lyster, acting co-ordinator for the loosely organized group, told the twenty people in attendance. “We don’t just go out there and try to find our own. They are already gathered and they need to be with the UNHCR group.”
Lyster said her information comes from the Mennonite Central Committee, an organization committed to helping other groups become vetted so that the process of sponsorship can move forward.
“The refugees have to be vetted to a certain degree and it’s a long process,” she said, adding that readers should take comfort in knowing that it is not a case of a person just showing up with papers and wanting to be let in.
According to Lyster, one of the most important things about these meetings is that it is not a recruitment tool for the churches. “It is about getting like-minded individuals together to do something about this problem, to offer our assistance,” she said. “If we can affiliate with a church however, the process would get done a lot quicker and that’s kind of what we want to do.”
That being said, Lyster stressed, there would be procedures to follow if they went that route as well. “It isn’t like we could just do this tomorrow,” she added.
“Our first meeting was about finding out what sort of interest was in the community, whether or not we would even do something like this,” Lyster said, adding that finding out the depth of opposition was equally important. “I know there are groups that are doing this and they have come across people who are against it, who are scared and worried about the infiltration of Islam.”
“The reality is if we don’t embrace immigration, we’re going to have problems,” Mark Myrehaug said. “We better wake up because 5,000 people come to Canada per week and I never knew that, but I checked. It’s not a Mickey Mouse operation. There are a lot of steps involved. I feel confident however that the United Nations and our own Canadian government are involved, screening people.”
We have to get over some of these fears and see the humanity, Myrehaug said.
“One of the things that became abundantly clear to me at our last meeting was that we have people on the ground already, people in our own community, who do not know the ropes,” Lyster said. “Part of what I’d like to see us organize is having some support and help in place. Little things that seem insignificant to us, things like drug plans, we need to be mindful of that sort of thing.”
Another thing people have to be aware of is the difference in customs, Lyster said.
“We have some Muslim people here, devote ones and I know of one lady in particular who is not learning English very well, but she cannot go out to meetings like this or anything else without a male relative along,” she said, adding that those are the sorts of issues people need to be sensitive about.
“We’ve dealt with other refugees for a long time through the Christian Reformed Church,” Clifford Tuininga, the guest speaker of the evening, said. “We organized a committee on our own, because not everybody knows what to do, and we found out pretty quick that the people who served as the contacts for the refugees quickly had full-time jobs on their hands, having to take these people to the dentist or with their English, or whatever.”
Tuininga explained that his group took their issue to the committee they had formed, broke the task up into smaller, more manageable chunks, and met at least once a month.
“We had a budget and paid for all of their utilities, their accommodations and gave them $1,250 a month for food,” he said, adding that that was his group’s obligation. “If you get a blended family, the government pays half and you, or your group, pays the other half. That’s what I think these Syrian refugees are going to be like too.”
According to Tuininga, taking care of the refugees financially will be the easy part.
“We have, over the years, kept in contact with a lot of the other refugees we’ve helped and it is not just a one-year thing,” he said, adding that the refugees get dreadfully lonely on their own. “We found that it is important to keep in contact with them and to visit them. The last family we worked with, in Neerlandia, we were there sometimes three times a day. We weren’t the contact people, but we did it to be friendly.”
Depression and other mental health problems are issues that many of these people face, Tuininga said.
“I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to be friendly,” he said. “When I see and hear about all of the enthusiasm for the Syrian refugees, I don’t know if anyone realizes what it means to take care of these people, the kind of commitment that is needed.”
“There are many different kinds of people,” Lyster said, adding that her own parents were immigrants. “The big thing to watch out for is that we aren’t coddling whomever we sponsor too much.”
“First thing we have to do is teach them English and the best way to learn it is through courses and interaction with people like us, in a sort of English-immersion, but it can be difficult,” Tuininga said.
“There are challenges ahead for sure, but I am encouraged by the on-going support from this community as well as by the number of people who showed up to this meeting, based on the last article in the paper,” Ralph Helder, one of the group’s participants, said. “We would all want that help if the situation were reversed, regardless of the cultural differences. As a community, I think we would have no difficulty in sponsoring a family. The whole idea now is to start talking logistics and to figure out how we are going to get this thing started.”
“What I’ve found interesting is that immigrants love it here,” Lyster said, adding that even if the parents want to leave, once their children are involved in the schools, the kids do not want to move. “I think we need to continue to promote the great things in our community and remember that we are only an hour and fifteen minutes from the big city,” she said.
“I’m concerned that if we don’t move quickly on this, that nothing will happen,” Myrehaug said. “I’m not impatient, I just know the need is great and that time is of the essence.”
“Something that needs to be understood is that the Mennonite Committee is already doing the same kinds of things that Rita and some of the others are talking and advocating about,” Helder said, adding that it might be better to work through an established committee. “That way we don’t need the five signatures that are required and then all we would need would be to be vetted. I think this is the best way to proceed.”
“It is always challenging before Christmas because there are many groups that depend on givings, and I don’t want to introduce a new project that distracts people from that,” Lyster said, adding that was a reason she does not want to launch this right away. “I’m not discouraging people to give however. We’ve already had a ten per cent commitment for a family and we want people to think about doing things like that, but we are not quite there yet. We need the Mennonite Central Committee, or something like it, to say yes, we support this.”
The next step, Lyster said, is for meeting attendees to go out into the community, into their respective groups or organizations and to find out what sorts of resources are available.
The next scheduled meeting will be held at the Barrhead United Church on January 12 at 7 p.m.
