Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) denounces Conservative cutbacks
on settlement services as cutting corners on immigration
National Statement
For immediate release
January 24, 2011
Once again, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) Minister Jason Kenney proves he is no Santa Claus for struggling newcomer immigrant communities with his announcement to cut funding towards settlement services. Immigrant communities now welcome the New Year by bracing for more challenges and structural barriers in their struggle for genuine settlement and immigration. The Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), a national alliance of Filipino Canadian women, youth and workers organizations, condemns the $53 million cutback as not only a disservice to already vulnerable newcomers, but ultimately as a clear indication that the Conservative government has no political will to secure the full participation entitled to immigrant communities as members of Canadian society.
Cutting $53 million from settlement funding —$43 million taken from Ontario alone—is a direct attack against racialized and working-class communities. Heavy criticisms from opposition parties and the general public fall deaf on Minister Kenney’s ears, who stubbornly justifies the cut to 35 Ontario agencies through the annual decrease of newcomer residency in Ontario within the last 5 years. Meanwhile, he has failed to acknowledge the worsening poverty and declining living conditions in Ontario. Also, before we can accept the idea of maintaining “efficiency” with regards to settlement services funding, we have to acknowledge the amount of money that is drawn into the National Budget through permanent resident application fees/right to landing fees, which range from $490 to $550 per principal applicant. While the Conservative cuts are defended as mere financial restructuring to better serve racialized populations on a national scale, our experiences as Filipino Canadians in Ontario prove otherwise.
Since Canada’s immigration doors opened after the 1950’s, over half a million Filipino Canadians, 250,000 of whom currently reside in Ontario, have been welcomed through the merit of their skills and education and the attraction of greener pastures. While our vital contributions are welcomed for propelling national progress and sustaining Canada’s economic edge in the global market, our full participation in Canada’s economic, social, cultural and political fabric is otherwise stunted and denied as we are relegated to poverty as units of cheap labour. As we are pushed into increasingly precarious and low-paying jobs, our cheap labour has been used to fill the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs that no other Canadian would take, all for the sake of global competitiveness.
We acknowledge that settlement services cannot radically address problems deeply rooted in the exploitative nature of immigration programs. From the passing of Bill C-50, the expansion of Temporary Foreign Workers Program, the amendments to the Live-in Caregiver Program to the pending Bill C-49, the neoliberal character of the Canadian immigration system has created a reserve pool of cheap labour to be utilized and disposed of when not needed anymore.
However, to cut funding for communities who uphold the bare bones of Canada’s economy is not only an insult to their contributions as Canadians, but also a hypocrisy on the part of the Conservatives. Siphoning settlement funding for other priorities shows their clear interest in advancing the neoliberal anti-worker agenda at the expense of the active commodification and recruitment of immigrants as sources of cheap labour. No amount of settlement funding will ever be enough while entire communities are treated as mere exploitable economic units by the immigration system.
We firmly denounce all efforts that ceaselessly inhibit our community’s struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada. As participants and contributors to Canadian society, we demand policies and programs that allow us to develop and attain our full entitlement. We condemn the Conservative government’s attacks on the working-class and racialized communities in Canada, strengthen our resolve to expose and oppose the neoliberal agenda and continue to work towards building genuine solidarity along anti-racist and pro-worker lines.
As we are determined to create fuller lives and empowered communities, we intensify our efforts to educate, organize and mobilize the community with unwavering strength and resiliency and continue to advance the struggles of the racialized and working-class peoples in Canada.
No cutback to immigrant settlement funding!
Strengthen our struggle for genuine settlement and integration!
Expose and oppose the neoliberal project!
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Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB-Canada (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – National
Sinag Bayan Arts Collective – National
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)
For more information:
Contact Joy C. Sioson
www.magkaisacentre.org
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
416-519-2553