48 search results for
Migrants and refugees
Recommendation 8:
Ending the requirement that graduates of international medical schools sign a return of service contract as a condition of working as resident physicians where they ‘agree’ to work in the community and clinic where the government directs them for a specified number of years after they are fully licensed.
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Recommendation 3:
Eliminate the English proficiency exam when medical training was undertaken primarily in the English language.
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Recommendation 15:
Development and application of an Equity Framework
UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) calls for the “[adoption of] a general policy aimed at promoting the function of the intangible cultural heritage in society, and at integrating the safeguarding of such heritage into planning programmes.”
At a high level, we recommend that the City of Vancouver develop an equity framework to better include and understand the needs of Vancouver’s existing and growing diverse populations. The topics discussed in this report do not exist in a vacuum, but rather have complex intersectionalities, which can only begin to be understood from a framework of equity. For example, conversations about contributing to Chinatown’s character must be rooted in an understanding of the cultural blindness of orientalism and racial stereotyping.
The equity framework would apply to all aspects of municipal governance, such as services, outreach and engagement, decision making, hiring, and other key functions of the City. Multiple forms of equity, such as gender, race, disability, and economic, should be taken into account.
This framework would include a holistic recognition of culture (beyond Arts & Culture) and from there, approach policy-making and implementation through a culturally appropriate lens. As discussed in our Vancouver Chinatown Food Security Report (2017), we recommend that the City recognize the importance of culture and enact culture as the 4th pillar of sustainability. Similar equity-based approaches can be found in UNESCO’s definition of Intangible Cultural Heritage where culture “is recognized as such by the communities, groups or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it—without their recognition, nobody else can decide for them that a given expression or practice is their heritage.” This speaks to the self-determination approach where a healthy community is one that has the right and the ability to shape their own present and future.
This equity framework will be critical in our collective work to further define Chinatown’s intangible cultural heritage—a key part of the community’s bid for a UNESCO designation. UNESCO states that intangible cultural heritage “has capital importance as it allows cultural diversity to be maintained through dialogue between cultures and the promotion of respect towards other ways of life.” The phrasing “other ways of life” comes from principles of recognizing that diversity is beyond a settler-centric celebration of perceived differences; it’s about meaningfully working alongside diverse people towards empowering their autonomy and actualization.
This gives credence to the understanding that there should be more emphasis put towards the community’s right to self-determine their future. Further work will need to be completed to design a tangible and measurable framework that covers the various forms of disparities that our communities face and hold.
UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) calls for the “[adoption of] a general policy aimed at promoting the function of the intangible cultural heritage in society, and at integrating the safeguarding of such heritage into planning programmes.”
At a high level, we recommend that the City of Vancouver develop an equity framework to better include and understand the needs of Vancouver’s existing and growing diverse populations. The topics discussed in this report do not exist in a vacuum, but rather have complex intersectionalities, which can only begin to be understood from a framework of equity. For example, conversations about contributing to Chinatown’s character must be rooted in an understanding of the cultural blindness of orientalism and racial stereotyping.
The equity framework would apply to all aspects of municipal governance, such as services, outreach and engagement, decision making, hiring, and other key functions of the City. Multiple forms of equity, such as gender, race, disability, and economic, should be taken into account.
This framework would include a holistic recognition of culture (beyond Arts & Culture) and from there, approach policy-making and implementation through a culturally appropriate lens. As discussed in our Vancouver Chinatown Food Security Report (2017), we recommend that the City recognize the importance of culture and enact culture as the 4th pillar of sustainability. Similar equity-based approaches can be found in UNESCO’s definition of Intangible Cultural Heritage where culture “is recognized as such by the communities, groups or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it—without their recognition, nobody else can decide for them that a given expression or practice is their heritage.” This speaks to the self-determination approach where a healthy community is one that has the right and the ability to shape their own present and future.
This equity framework will be critical in our collective work to further define Chinatown’s intangible cultural heritage—a key part of the community’s bid for a UNESCO designation. UNESCO states that intangible cultural heritage “has capital importance as it allows cultural diversity to be maintained through dialogue between cultures and the promotion of respect towards other ways of life.” The phrasing “other ways of life” comes from principles of recognizing that diversity is beyond a settler-centric celebration of perceived differences; it’s about meaningfully working alongside diverse people towards empowering their autonomy and actualization.
This gives credence to the understanding that there should be more emphasis put towards the community’s right to self-determine their future. Further work will need to be completed to design a tangible and measurable framework that covers the various forms of disparities that our communities face and hold.
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Recommendation 4:
Chinese and Asian Canadians also face racism as workers. As frontline and essential workers during the pandemic, they are vulnerable to racist attacks and the same vulnerabilities that frontline and essential workers face. Fighting anti-Asian racism is also about recognizing how systemic inequity renders racialized communities more likely to be frontline and essential workers, and also ensuring that these workers have the protections they need:
- Ensure all workers have access to legislated paid sick days: seven permanent paid sick days in regular times and 14 paid sick days during health emergencies.
- Ensure satisfactory income support during and after the pandemic for all.
- Ensure status on arrival and implement a regularization program to grant permanent resident status to all migrants and people with precarious immigration status.
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Recommendation 68:
Apply an equity lens to all provincial, regional, and municipal transportation planning to ensure all forms of transportation infrastructure are affordable, accessible, and safe for at-risk and low-income community members.
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Recommendation 16:
Amend the Commencement of Enrolment Policy (MOC 15-074) to remove the wait period for all new and returning BC residents coming from outside of Canada and ensure access to health care upon arrival.
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Recommendation 1:
A GBA+ (Gender-Based Analysis, plus “race”, ability, social-economic status, sexual orientation, legal status etc.) approach underpins public policy and spending related to pandemic recovery in BC, informed by a diversity of voices.
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Recommendation 1:
Create a network of stakeholders involved in the dissemination of legal information and provision of legal services
A network of stakeholders is necessary to coordinate multiple entry points into a system that facilitates access to legal information and services for migrant workers. The network would consist of multiple stakeholders working together to provide a seamless experience for migrant workers to access information at the prearrival, on-arrival, and employment stages of their migration. Stakeholders include both government and nongovernment actors, as follows:
Pre-arrival:
A network of stakeholders is necessary to coordinate multiple entry points into a system that facilitates access to legal information and services for migrant workers. The network would consist of multiple stakeholders working together to provide a seamless experience for migrant workers to access information at the prearrival, on-arrival, and employment stages of their migration. Stakeholders include both government and nongovernment actors, as follows:
Pre-arrival:
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, through its Canadian visa offices overseas, would distribute legal information materials to migrant workers prior to their arrival to Canada. These materials would be provided when the worker’s visa is sent to or picked up by the prospective worker, and would be made visibly available at Canadian embassies, consulates, and visa processing centres abroad.
- The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) would distribute legal information materials to migrant workers at their point of entry to Canada at airports and border crossings. CBSA officials would provide these information materials to migrant workers when they receive their work permit.
- Legal advocates in the region would provide post-arrival information sessions to migrant workers.
- Trained call centre staff at key government agencies would provide information and referrals to legal advocates, the dedicated website and the dedicated hotline.
- Websites of key government agencies would refer migrant workers to the dedicated website and the dedicated hotline.
- Trained community service providers, including key settlement agencies, grassroots migrant worker organizations and faith-based organizations, would conduct outreach to migrant workers and provide legal information and referrals to legal services.
- Legal advocates would provide direct legal advocacy services, workshops and mobile clinics to remote areas. Legal advocates would also regularly update the dedicated website and answer the dedicated hotline.
- Lawyers would provide supervision to the legal advocates, and training to the legal advocates and community service providers.
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