The number of newcomers resettling in London is expected to jump significantly in 2022, but the increase won’t be only the result of the war in Ukraine.
The London Cross Cultural Learner Center has seen its official resettlement target for this calendar year jump from about 540 to about 750, an increase of about 39 per cent.
But while the world’s attention may be on the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s the federal government’s efforts to support immigrants fleeing Afghanistan that is driving the agency’s increase, said Valy Marochko, the centre’s director.
“Our targets had already increased and now we have the Afghan arrivals on top of that,” he said.
“So, we’ve been trying to build capacity for more refugees in the last year. . . (but) we are stretched when it comes to staffing.”
Though London Cross Cultural Learner Center has partnered with local groups to help support Ukrainians arriving in London, they don’t fall under the agency’s jurisdiction because they’re arriving in Canada through a different immigration stream.
Unlike refugees, who come to start a new life in the country, Ukrainians fleeing the war are coming with a three-year visa that allows them to work and study in Canada. The program is based on Canada’s tourism stream that can accommodate more than two million visitors a year.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last August, the London Cross Cultural Learner Center has helped resettle in London 194 Afghan refugees, a large percentage of whom are children.
Marochko estimates about 40 per cent of the estimated 750 newcomers to arrive this year – a number he said could end up being higher – will be from Afghanistan. Ottawa pledged to take about 26,000 Afghan refugees, many of them former interpreters and support staff who aided Canada’s military mission in the country.
“Usually we resettle more than the target,” Marochko said. “It was only during the beginning of the pandemic that we resettled fewer people before the refugee flow started again in July 2020.”
Finding appropriate housing remains among the main hurdles the center is facing, Marochko said.
Though the agency aims to find homes for refugees within two or three weeks, high rent prices and lack of available units have extended that timeline to four to six weeks.
Yet, the London Cross Cultural Learner Center has managed to find “appropriate housing” for 190 of 194 Afghan refugees who already have arrived, Marochko said.
And though more affordable units will be needed to help house newcomers in the future, Marochko remains confident the support of the London community will help the agency meet its challenges.
“We are working very hard. We are putting resources (into it), and we have developed some relationships over our time with landlords, who have the advantage of knowing that our staff is there to support the landlord and support the tenant,” he said.
“And when there is support from the community, anything can be achieved.”
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