Sponsor a Refugee | Refugees and Migration

Iraqi Refugees

Conference meetings have passed resolutions urging our government to respond more effectively to millions of Iraqis fleeing ongoing military action. In addition to pressing for non-military initiatives to end the violence, another important response is refugee sponsorship. Canada's visa post will be working with the UN High Commission for Refugees to identify high-need individuals and families for resettlement in Canada. These refugees will need friendship, mentoring, and financial assistance. The United Church has been asked to take a number of these Iraqi families. Please contact Susan Ferguson or your Conference office if your congregation or group would like to participate.

Can your congregation—on its own or in a collective—sponsor a refugee who urgently needs to be resettled in Canada? Download a flyer on refugee sponsorship [PDF: 2 pp/57 KB]

Compared to 1979, when the United Church signed its first Sponsorship Agreement, the movement of peoples is more severely restricted, within and between countries. Media attention spans one desperate situation and moves on to another. Our heads become crowded and close down after seeing too many dramatic images.

Can we still open our hearts to the plight of people fleeing imminent danger? In all parts of today's world, desperate refugees remain. For some, sponsorship is the only solution. Can you respond to one of them through sponsorship?

Does your community have the resources (human and financial) to give a refugee a home?

Each one of us can save the world. When we help protect one refugee from persecution, death, or wasted years in a refugee camp, we do save the world for that one person, and just maybe for ourselves.

There are three forms of sponsorship: Joint Assistance Sponsorship (JAS), and two forms of Visa Office Referred (VOR) sponsorships.

Joint Assistance Sponsorship

These are usually more vulnerable refugees or large single-parent families, who are supported financially by the government for up to two years.

Joint Assistance Sponsorship (JAS) cases often present medical or pyscho-social needs, and require intensive hands-on assistance and a commitment of two years. These cases are counted as government assisted and therefore come within the annual government quota.

Visa Office Referred

These refugees are accepted by the Visa Office abroad as “refugees in need of resettlement,” but are not admitted to Canada unless a private sponsorship is signed for them. Because they are admitted as privately sponsored refugees, they come in addition to the government quota.

Blended Assistance: Large VOR families are eligible for financial subsidy. According to the negotiated formula, settlement costs are shared between the government and private sponsors.

Sponsor Referred Refugees: These are individuals, named by congregations, who first must qualify as “refugees in need of resettlement” and for whom there can be no other durable solution available. These refugee applicants must be screened for eligibility by the Sponsorship Agreement Holder. Once a private refugee sponsorship is signed, they must then go through three to four years of immigration processing before a decision is made as to their admissibility to Canada.

To inquire about sponsorship, contact:

Susan Ferguson

Tel: 416-231-7680 ext 4019