Immigration is a family affair. National policy may define your status, but the experience of arrival and integration, especially in the case of families, is felt locally. In Spain, the City of Barcelona makes family reunification a local priority; in Canada, cities like Toronto have welcomed hundreds of new refugee families through citizen-led responses to Canada’s national refugee sponsorship program. What works? The path to successful family integration means navigating the complexity of new cultural, social, educational and economic systems for the young and old. How can city and community stakeholders weave all these strands together to ensure the future success of every member of the newcomer family?

On May 17, join us online to learn how innovative initiatives in Toronto and Barcelona are putting family first and embracing new refugee and reunified immigrant families based on the first principles of living together – building relationships, support, trust and a community of welcome – while engaging private citizens and public institutions as active agents of integration.

Featured Good Ideas

• In Barcelona, Barcelona City Council’s Immigration and Interculturality office started the New Families in Barcelona program in 2007. It provides orientation and support to families before, during and after the process of family reunification with different specialized programs that address the unique challenge for families who have experienced years of separation, including: re-establishing relationships with teenage children and spouses; reunified women; integrating youth into schools.
• In Toronto, the Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge (RULSC) was launched in July 2015 with the goal of supporting private refugee family resettlement by engaging community groups of students, colleges and universities. The RULSC was Canada’s first ever university-led refugee sponsorship organization that incorporates the needs of newcomer Syrian refugee families, students, and private citizens within Canada’s private sponsorship program.

Speakers

Tamara Sabarini, Project Coordinator, Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge (Toronto, Canada)

Tamara is the Project Coordinator of the Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge (RULSC). In her role, she supports RULSC sponsorship groups through the private refugee sponsorship process and manages student experiential learning opportunities within the program. Tamara has a background in the immigration and not-for-profit sector, working at organizations such as COSTI Immigrant Services and the Toronto Palestine Film Festival. Tamara graduated from Ryerson University with a Masters of Arts in Immigration and Settlement Studies, where her research explored the formation of refugee identity within the context of refugee camps. She completed her undergraduate studies in Political Science at Mcgill University and the University of Toronto.

Ramon Sanahuja, Director of Migrants Attention and Welcoming Policies, City of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)

Since August 2015, Ramon has been the Director of Migrants Attention and Welcoming policies of the City of Barcelona. He is current working on Immigration and Refugees, and responsible for the Nausica program for asylum seekers in Barcelona. From January – August 2015, he was Director of Social Innovation in the Municipality of Barcelona. He was responsible for implementing the Vincles Project, winner of the 2014 Mayor’s award of the Bloomberg Philanthropies. Ramon is amember and former Chairman of the Migration working group of Eurocites on behalf of the City of Barcelona. Since July 2011 – January 2015, he was director of Immigration and Interculturality and he was in charge of implementing the Anti-rumor strategy of Barcelona. From 2013 until 2015, he was responsible of the Department of Communitarian Action and the special plan for settlements. He was the Director of The Immigration and International Cooperation Department (February 2009- july 2011) and responsible of the Barcelona Intercultural plan. He was the Director of the Immigration Department of the Barcelona’s City Council,(2005-2009) which promoted the Barcelona’s Local Immigration Plan, the Immigration Hosting policies, responsible for creating the “New families” family reunification program.

Technical Requirements

No cost to participate. You will need a computer with internet access and speakers. Pre-test System Requirements. Adobe Connect requires the Flash Player plugin, download version 13.0 or above to run.

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