15 Minutes on Refugee Inclusion and Leadership: Part Two
Jun 18, 2021Season 3Episode 17
CARE Canada
We're marking World Refugee Day with a special two-part episode of Minutes to Change the World. Our inspiring guests are Masa Kateb and Tsering Norzom Thonsur, two members of the Refugee Advisory Network—which advocates for meaningful inclusion of refugee leaders in policy and decision making processes that directly affect the lives of refugees. Masa and Tsering share their experiences, talk about what meaningful refugee participation and leadership mean, and share their messages to policy makers, to refugees and to all Canadians.
We're marking World Refugee Day with a special two-part episode of Minutes to Change the World. Our inspiring guests are Masa Kateb and Tsering Norzom Thonsur, two members of the Refugee Advisory Network—which advocates for meaningful inclusion of refugee leaders in policy and decision making processes that directly affect the lives of refugees. Masa and Tsering share their experiences, talk about what meaningful refugee participation and leadership mean, and share their messages to policy makers, to refugees and to all Canadians.
Hello, and welcome to 15 minutes to change the world. We're in 15 minutes or less, you can learn a bit more about the world and how you can help change it for the better[inaudible]. My name is Lamelle Sophie, and I'm the host of this podcast. Welcome back to 15 minutes to change the world. And thank you for joining us for cartoon or episode on refugee inclusion and leadership with Masa Khatib and searing Northern sponsor, two members of the refugee advisory network, which advocates for meaningful inclusion of refugee leaders in policy and decision-making processes that directly affect the lives of refugees. Thank you so much for joining us today. My censoring, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for having us
Speaker 1:
Canadian policymakers knew about refugees.
Speaker 2:
It is important for our Canadian to know that the refugees who are here in Canada are not a burden on the society. We would like to be treated with dignity and respect, and we are here. The refugees who are in Canada here have contributed to the economic and the political and social fabric of the society and the country. You know, we are all educated professionals with rich experiences and we play an important role in the development of the country and the society to our daily profession and dedication to the improvement of refugee life. Uh, when we talk about Ren, we have 12 educated professionals who come with rich experience and backgrounds. And so there are refugees who are highly educated, who are efficient in making a difference in improving the Canadian society. And so I would like to, uh, appeal and request our Canadian Canadian friends to know that the refugees are not a burden on the society and that they are a very potential contributing members of the Canadian society to be very clear compared to the rest of the world, when it comes to empower and support the voices of refugees to be more active compared to other countries where refugees, they don't even want to say that I'm a refugee. They are refugees. When I came to Canada, it is different. There is a freedom of speech, freedom of expression. You embrace your to see that. Yes, I am a refugee went through so much in life. I went through so many challenges, so many reasons for, for people to seek refuge, please never assume, always ask or research, but then you get to see that there's so much life wisdom in a refugee. We can contribute so much to the collective of the universe of the world. How can we have people who are not refugees?
Speaker 1:
That's an excellent point. And it's, it's such a, a wonderful message to two new refugees, refugees who may have recently arrived in Canada, that's refugee issues, or thought about your, and the way that Canadians are making an effort. I'm learning as we go too, to welcome refugees as new friends and neighbors and new colleagues. Um, I think we're all learning and growing together in this area. And it's, that's why it's so valuable to have your, your voice and your, your messages here. Um, especially in this, um, in this context sharing, I wonder if, if you might be so kind as to give a message to refugees and might have recently arrived in Canada, and maybe to those Canadians who I mentioned, who might be welcoming them as neighbors and friends and coworkers.
Speaker 2:
I think it's very important, uh, for the new refugees who arrive in Canada to understand that there is help. And there is support the government of Canada, both at the federal and the provincial level have funded many settlements service providers to help, uh, refugees, newcomers immigrants, uh, with the settlement process in Canada. And just to let you know, for example, I work with a settlement service agency called Parkdale intercultural association in Toronto, and we help many newcomers and refugees with their settlement, uh adoptation and integration in Canada. So all new refugees who are here in Canada should, when they need help approach those settlements service agencies in your local area, go to the library, ask them for settlement support and settlement services. And they will direct you to those places where you can be helped with your documentation, with your refugee process, with your asylum seeking employment or health care. And for Canadians. Uh, also to know that, you know, Canadian, uh, refugees who are here in Canada next door as a neighbor or in the community, if you can show an extra support to the refugees during the most difficult period in their life when they are here as a newcomer and especially as a refugee emotional and social support. So when you see them, you know, uh, uh, have a discussion on their situation and see how you can support, you can help them by, you know, talking to your local politicians, asking your member of parliament or member of provincial parliament, and to see if there are enough refugee, uh, in their policies, and to see if there are extra professional support and, uh, employment programs that can support the refugees in getting employed, and then life here as a new refugee in Canada and make it easy for them,
Speaker 1:
NASA engineering. Is there any message or final thoughts that you'd like to revitalization?
Speaker 2:
Thank you for that on the refugees coming to Canada, I want to invite them to embrace a mind shift, knowing that yes, we have been on survival mode before we came here coming to Canada. And until we figure things out on our feet and integrate into society, we are technically also one way or another within survival mode. But having that mind shift of being able to think ahead five years from now and having that room in the mind is definitely very empowering. So I invite a refugee to explore that. And when it comes to Canadians, a very concrete cultural action is to support the economic inclusion of refugees. Whether you speak with your HR professional in where you work and say, can we have refugee policies where within the diversity and inclusion departments, there is a mention of, for example, some corporations or entities may say we have a specific rule about having newcomers work with us, but then there is a difference between newcomers and refugees. Refugees are way more vulnerable. And we didn't even speak about like refugee women or like minorities within the LGBTQ plus community or folks with disabilities. Um, so you have so many layers within that and being able to be as inclusive for that integration. So for refugees to empower their potential or to embody their potentials would be appreciated. And when it comes to policy makers at some points, I missed dimension within refugees. There are systemic barriers. So government sponsored refugee is, uh, is different from a refugee claimants. Refugee claimants needs a lot of support. There isn't enough support for refugee claimants. I highly recommend people to focus. If you want to have a better work in Canada, refugee claimants, we have easy access to internet. We're all humans. There is a lot of room for more compassion and love while there are a lot of the root causes of refuge that are taking place around the world. Every two seconds, a person at this place, people were displaced as we're talking. So how can we contribute to the collective consciousness and inspire the world to be a better place for all the work that you do? Thank you for having me and for having us today.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much. My, so thank you for those thoughts. Um, Syrian, please, I'll give you an opportunity if there's anything you'd like any final thoughts to leave our listeners,
Speaker 2:
You know, I would like to echo what mussel said, and I would like to add as well that according to the UNSC reports, you know, 79.5 million in the world are forced to flee homes and they are displaced 26 million refugees. And half of them are under the age of 18. According to the UN, there is more than 10 million sticklers, and the challenge is born every 10 minutes. So adding upon what Masa said, it is important that refugee leaders are supported and courage, refugee led organizations are funded and supported so that they can advocate for refugee rights and refugee leadership. So that, that society and the Canadian government as well can benefit from the participation, the meaningful participation of refugees. And I would like to acknowledge and thank the government of Canada for being so welcoming and helping the refugees and Canada, Canada was the first country in 2019 when there was the global refugee forum, Canada was the first country to take and include a refugee in their Canadian delegation. We have a missed us, Stefan, who is a refugee advisor amongst the refugee advisory network, who was the first Canadian refugee delegation to participate in the global refugee forum in 2019. And so that was a big achievement, not only for Canada, but for all refugees globally. And so we're asking all the government leaders globally to follow Canada's suit and encourage participation, meaningful participation of refugees in that application. And finally, I will conclude by thanking all the listeners for listening to our, uh, experiences and I think, uh, care foundation for giving us this opportunity in marking the world refugee day. It is an important day, but it is definitely an important day to remind people across the country, across the world, that the refugees in different camps around the world, and they need our help. We need to increase more refugee leaders so that they can amplify the voice of those refugees who are in dire situation. And I thank you so much for the opportunity again, to our listeners for listening to our story, or what are you going to do next, please consider contributing positively to the fabric of the universe for refugee rights.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much. My son for this wonderful conversation. Thank you also for your advocacy, your dedication, uh, your leadership. I know that you've inspired me and I I'm confident that you've inspired many of our listeners who tuned in today. Thank you as well to all of you who are listening now as always, you can find every episode of 15 minutes to change the world on Spotify, apple podcasts, and by visiting care.ca/podcasts.