Refugees who entered Canada at the "irregular crossing" make up 50 to 60 per cent of the people helped at Ottawa's social service agency Matthew House.
The raging debate over refugees entering Canada at Roxham Road means little to Allan Reesor-McDowell.
Where some see controversy, the executive director of Ottawa’s Matthew House sees only people in need.
“For me, it’s a bit of a distraction. They’re all refugee claimants and we serve any refugee claimants,” said Reesor-McDowell, who estimates Roxham Road migrants make up 50 to 60 per cent of the people helped at Matthew House.
“What we’re trying to do is divert them from homelessness,” Reesor-McDowell said. “My concern has almost nothing to do with what is being discussed. If people arrive and they don’t get support they need, they’re at real risk of chronic homelessness.”
More than 40,000 refugees entered Canada last year at the “irregular crossing” at Roxham Road, a dead-end road on the international border between Quebec and New York State, due south of Montreal. That’s a huge jump from 2021 when 4,246 crossed at Roxham, but it still represents just a fraction of the refugees Canada welcomes annually.
More than 150,000 Ukrainians alone entered Canada last year, about 92,000 of them as refugees with no family here to sponsor them.
“How many Ukrainians have come and how many of those have we accommodated?” asks Arghavan Gerami, an Ottawa immigration lawyer. “It shows we are willing to open our arms to refugees when they’re coming from overseas. They’re giving work permits to stay here and they’re given status. And all of those people have needed homes too.”
Last month, Quebec Premier François Legault said Quebec could no longer accept refugees from the Roxham Road crossing. Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has begun moving some of them to Ontario, including 4,300 to Niagara Falls, 1,400 to Cornwall, 720 to Windsor. As of March 5, according to IRCC, 1,028 had been transferred to Ottawa.
The mayors of Niagara Falls, Cornwall and Windsor have pushed the federal government for financial support to help support the new arrivals.
Currently, IRCC is paying to house the refugees in hotels and covering meal costs if local shelters are full “until asylum claimants are able to transition to longer-term housing within the community.” The average length of stay is 60 days, according to IRCC.
The City of Ottawa isn’t paying to house any of the Roxham Road arrivals, but help is available if needed.
“Any individual or family, including recent migrants, who experience homelessness in Ottawa are eligible to be assessed for placement in the shelter system,” said Paul Lavigne, Interim Director, Housing in an emailed response. “The shelter system includes emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, and overflow at hotels/motels/post-secondary institutions.”
The service is available 24/7 and is accessed through the city’s 3-1-1 telephone service, he said.
“The mayors have every right to be pressuring IRCC for more resources,” said Louisa Taylor, co-founder and executive director of Refugee 613.
The federal government provides some funding for legal aid for refugees, but there is no federal money for social agencies like Matthew House that provide services to newcomers. And while IRCC gives temporary assistance to the irregular border crossers from Roxham Road, refugees who make it to Ottawa on their own are left unaided. That’s when cities start to bear the cost of the new arrivals.
“If those folks are going to join our community, why are we making it so hard for them and delaying their integration by preventing them from getting the services they need? Getting health care they need? Getting the employment support they need?” Taylor said.
“They’ve been working somewhere else, they have the right qualifications. They just need a little push to get them started.”
Getting support quickly to the refugees is in the best interest of everyone, regardless of which side of the political spectrum their on, Reesor-McDowell said. “Whether you’re a real social justice warrior, or whether you’re the mayor of Ottawa and want to prevent a homelessness crisis. You have to make sure that you offer very quick support to the refugees that are arriving so that they don’t become homeless and end up staying that way.”
Matthew House … I was a stranger and you invited me in … ”), and the non-profit social service agency has been helping refugee claimants and asylum seekers in Ottawa since 2010. It operates nine homes with 62 beds and is adding two more homes and 15 more beds in April. Its workers advise newcomers about how to find legal help — the federal government will pay for Legal Aid for those who need it — and how to navigate the complex process of applying for residency status and work permits.
“Some people have been waiting for a year to get a work permit,” Reesor-McDowell said. “Getting a work permit, to me, is one of the most important steps. If you’re not working, there’s zero chance you’re going to be able to support yourself. If the federal government was able to do one thing, it would be to quickly give refugee claimants the ability to get a work permit.”
Meanwhile, calls to close the Roxham Road crossing or to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. would do nothing to solve the problem, Reesor-McDowell said. Globally, there are more than 100 million forced migrants, people on the move because of war, natural disaster, famine or political oppression.
Since 2017, the Immigration Review Board has received more than 81,000 applications from irregular border crossers, nearly 21,000 of those last year alone. Of that total, 30,518 claims were accepted and 20,680 rejected. More than 23,000 claims remain outstanding.
According to the IRB, Haitians make up most of the irregular border crossers with 9,353, followed by Nigerians and Colombians.
“That’s a global trend and Canada is going to continue to see more people and nothing we do policy-wise will make a major change on those trends,” Reesor-McDowell said. “Realistically we have to come to terms with the fact there are more people around the world who are forced migrants and they’re going to be travelling more.”
Canada has signed UN conventions on refugees and has obligations it can’t ignore, said Gerami, the immigration lawyer. She has a Cuban client who crossed at Roxham Road after a harrowing, frightening journey overland through the U.S.
“We’re going to continue to see refugees because that’s what refugees do,” she said. “They cross borders for protection. They’re not coming here for a holiday. They’re fleeing persecution. They’re coming because they’re at risk. They are not illegal refugees. Refugees that come through borders are permitted and that’s why we take them in and we process them.”
And to anyone who thinks closing Roxham Road will make it go away, Gerami says, “that’s a complete fallacy.”
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