EDMONTON - Alberta resident Shamaila Akram says she can handle the increase in racial slurs and derogatory comments being thrown at her, but she worries about her newcomer and immigrant clients.
As debates unfold over Canada’s immigration system, those who provide help to newcomers in Alberta say there has been an uptick of hostility toward immigrants.
“I hear from people in my own communities — women specifically who wear hijabs — many bad things and we realize there is a need to educate people,” said Akram, with Calgary’s Centre for Newcomers.Â
“Clients are coming with severe anxiety and sometimes panic attacks after hearing racial slurs outside our door. We have instances where they’re being harassed while walking in (the) downtown.”
People have also screamed, “Go back to where you came from!” at Akram while she has been with her children multiple times this year, she said, and some have been aggressive.
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network says charged debates about immigration in Canada and the United States are behind the rise in hostility toward immigrants online and in person.
“We have been noticing a large increase in online hatred towards migrants, and especially towards South Asian communities lately,” said Evan Balgord, the organization’s executive director.
“We are seeing classically racist narratives being spread that groups of people are dirty, criminal, incompatible with society and dangerous.”
In Calgary, Kelly Ernst, the Centre for Newcomers’ chief program officer, says it has had to increase building security, reduce its online program marketing and bolster the number of workers on its crisis line for newcomers.
Racialized workers at the centre are increasingly being harassed, and he said people often walk by screaming at the centre.
Ernst said he and those working with immigrants noticed the increase in the last year as the immigration system returned to the spotlight.
He said the ongoing Alberta Next panel led by Premier Danielle Smith that’s touring the province to hear public grievances with the federal government is stoking that anger.
“Since (the) Alberta Next panel raised its ugly head, it’s also created additional hostility with some of the comments associated to that,” he said.
Ernst said he agrees that the population of newcomers in Canada and Alberta has exploded, but said governments need to stop using immigrants as scapegoats for housing and infrastructure issues.
“It’s not the people themselves that are creating that particular strain,†Ernst said. “The problem is government policy.”
The Alberta Next panel has already made stops in Red Deer and Edmonton and will return to Edmonton again, with visits to Fort McMurray and Lloydminster in August.
Six surveys launched on the panel’s website help inform what questions the government is putting to locals, and one of them is about immigration.
“If Alberta isn’t satisfied with the number or economic qualifications of newcomers moving to our province, we may have the option to withhold provincial social programs to any non-citizen or non-permanent resident who does not have an Alberta-approved immigration status,” says a video participants are required to view before taking the immigration survey.
The speaker in the video says although the federal government decides who is let into Canada, provinces pay for most social programs that they need.
The video says immigration is to blame for high housing costs and unemployment rates, adding that “many of the divisions and disputes that plague other countries have begun making their way into ours.â€
Smith’s press secretary Sam Blackett said in a statement this week that the number of newcomers entering Canada needs to be sustainable.
“Everyone wanting to come should be committed to upholding the Canadian values of hard work, love of freedom and peaceful co-existence,” he said.
”(Former prime minister) Justin Trudeau’s Liberals upended Canada’s immigration system for over a decade by instituting essentially an open borders policy that permitted millions annually to enter Canada, often without any sort of proper vetting, job prospects or needed employment skills.
“The results have been disastrous. Housing prices have skyrocketed, and unemployment keeps increasing as immigration outpaces job growth.”
He said the province and federal government have a shared responsibility to manage the population.
Alberta Immigration Minister Joseph Schow, in a statement, added, “Alberta’s government stands firmly against racism and continues working to build a province where everyone is respected — no matter their cultural background or where they come from.
“Immigrants have been contributors to the economic and social fabric of Alberta, and they deserve to feel safe and respected in their communities.”
Laurie Hauer, the interim executive director of Edmonton’s Newcomer Centre, said education is the key.
“Immigration is vital for our economic growth, and it’s really important to get that message out to people and understand those elements because what’s coming out right now is just constantly, ‘Immigrants are the problem,’” Hauer said.
She said several of the centre’s clients and workers have been accosted in the last year.
Akram added, “We need to work on ways of making our communities more safer rather than scapegoating the vulnerable and racialized minority groups.Â
“We’re very proud of our diversity but we need to make sure that this pride is reflected in how we protect and support each other.”
— With files from Jack Farrell in Edmonton
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