This week I watched Ru, a moving film adaptation of Kim Thúy’s great novel. Although he loved the book, Sylvain Thibault is hesitant to watch the film. It’s not so much the fear that the film might be less good than the book that holds him back. Rather, the fear of coming out heartbroken and thinking about the gap between Ru’s beautiful history and the reality of collective refugee support today.
Published at 1:12 am. Updated at 6:00 am.
“I feel like I’m going to come out of the cinema so sad. “It pains me to see such a remarkable civic engagement program, which has produced such great results, now being undermined. It pains me to see that the winds of mutual aid that have made Quebec what it is today through this exemplary program are facing so many headwinds.
Sylvain got into sponsorship at a young age. He was 17 when his family welcomed two families of Cambodian refugees to Sherbrooke on a winter day in 1980. “It was an extraordinary welcome experience! » A fabulous story like that of Kim Thúy, who was welcomed to Granby with her family in 1979 thanks to this sponsorship program.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Sylvain Thibault
It was this experience that led Sylvain to work in the field of immigrant reception. It was this experience that encouraged him 40 years later to follow in his parents’ footsteps and become a godfather himself.
I told myself it was my turn. I am still privileged in life. I wanted to give something back…
Sylvain Thibault
With that, Sylvain joined a choir of 13 other committed Quebecers divided into three sponsor groups. In particular, he is the volunteer representative of a group that has been trying in vain for two years to support the Burundian refugee Emmanuel Ndikuriyo and his family.
Despite the godparents’ and godmothers’ desire to realize the dream of a family tested by war, Emmanuel’s sponsorship story is not as idyllic as in Ru, Sylvain notes bitterly. So far, it’s been a heartbreaking story that has come up against the cold bureaucracy of Quebec’s Ministry of Immigration, Francisization and Integration (MIFI).
“This is the first and last time I will do a sponsorship. And it makes me very sad to have to say that. Because it’s a great program. But today it is dysfunctional and inhumane. Deadlines make no sense. »
PHOTO PROVIDED BY EMMANUEL NDIKURIYO
Burundian refugee Emmanuel Ndikuriyo and his family wait in the Nakivale camp in Uganda to restart their lives in Quebec as part of the collective sponsorship program.
Emmanuel, with whom I was able to speak this week, lives in the Nakivale refugee camp in Uganda, one of the largest in Africa. He has six brothers and sisters who, like him, were forced to leave their native Burundi after their two parents were murdered on June 30, 2015. The eldest of his sisters was 12 years old at the time and the youngest was four years old. . Like him, all of his brothers and sisters have official refugee status recognized by the United Nations. Emmanuel was the only adult among her siblings at the time of her parents’ murder and, due to the circumstances, had to take care of them. “I’m both the big brother and the father,” the 39-year-old told me.
The living conditions in the refugee camp are harsh, he explains to me. In order to support his family, Emmanuel rents land on credit, which he cultivates. He also does odd jobs left and right. But there are days when he can’t find work and comes home empty-handed.
On these days we don’t eat or take credit from the store.
Emmanuel Ndikuriyo
Thanks to his godparents from Quebec, Emmanuel was able to build a new, less hard life here. But to give him access to that hope, Quebec asks him to abandon his six brothers and sisters under the pretext that their situation doesn’t fit perfectly into the little boxes of “family member,” “child,” or “dependent child.” the MIFI, which would enable their sponsorship.
“I don’t understand it,” says Emmanuel, who has until December 13 to make a decision. If his biological brothers and sisters, whom he has cared for since they were orphans, are not considered his family, then what is family? he asks.
“I don’t understand,” he repeats, looking dejected.
According to the MIFI, only the sponsored refugee’s biological or adopted children fit into the small “family” boxes in the sponsorship file. However, considering that the brothers and sisters in question have been dependent on their elder brother both emotionally and financially since the death of their parents in an armed conflict, they are in reality an integral part of the united family and meet the definition of ” “De- de facto relatives” under Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) regulations.
“These people must be included in the sponsorship application,” states clearly the federal regulations on the private sponsorship program for refugees1. Once Emmanuel’s file gets the green light from Quebec, he will have to seek approval from Ottawa anyway – a long and painful second step that can take an average of 33 months.
Why doesn’t Quebec just acknowledge this instead of imposing such an inhumane decision on Emmanuel? Why add more distress to orphaned children? Why prevent Quebec citizens from being welcomed?
I would have liked to have known that. But at the time of writing, no one at MIFI had answered my questions.
Sylvain also has difficulty understanding it. “I saw stories about immigration. But this one wakes me up at night. We can’t be here! We are leaving six children behind in a refugee camp while we are ready to welcome them here! »
This is all the more incomprehensible because, as the film Ru shows, it could be such a beautiful story.