i
CANADA’S REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM: A CASE STUDY
OF SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS 2015
Presented to fulfill the requirements for achieving the bachelor degree of International Program for International Relations (IPIREL)
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Written by:
Iqbal Dwiharianto 20130510038
Advisor:
Adde Marup Wirasenjaya., S. IP., M.A
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
FACULTY SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
CANADA’S REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM: A CASE STUDY OF SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS 2015
Written by: Iqbal Dwiharianto
20130510038
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
FACULTY SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
i
CANADA’S REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM: A CASE STUDY OF SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS 2015
Presented to fulfill the requirements for achieving the bachelor degree of International Program for International Relations (IPIREL)
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Written by:
Iqbal Dwiharianto 20130510038
Advisor:
Adde Marup Wirasenjaya., S. IP., M.A
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
FACULTY SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH YOGYAKARTA
ii
iii
STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICITY
I hereby certify that my undergraduate thesis is original and has not been asked to
get a bachelor degree at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta or in other
colleges.
In this undergraduate thesis, there is no work or opinions that have been written or
published by others except in writing clearly listed as a reference in the script with
the name mentioned and listed in the references.
I made this statement in real and if in future there is a mistake in this statement,
then I am willing to accept academic sanction in accordance with the applicable
rules at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta, April 2017
Author
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“I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic
fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism.”
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
All praise to Allah SWT and His messenger Prophet Muhammad SAW that
because of His blessing this undergraduate thesis entitled with “Canada’s Refugee
Resettlement Program: A Case Study of Syrian Refugee Crisis 2015” can be finally
completed. Therefore, the author would like to address his gratitude towards those
who have been involved, especially for my advisor, Adde Marup Wirasenjaya, S.
IP., M.A. The board of examiners, Ali Muhammad, M.A., Ph.D. and Wahyuni
Kartikasari, S.T., S. IP., M.A. The language supervisor, Lanoke Intan Paradita,
S.S., M.Hum.
This undergraduate thesis is submitted as a requirement for obtaining S-1
(Bachelor) degree in International Relations, Faculty of Social and Political
Sciences, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. Although this piece of work is
still far from perfection, the author hopes that it can give a contribution to the study
of international relations, specifically in the field of Canadian studies.
Yogyakarta, April 13th, 2017
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EXTENDED GRATITUDE
The gratitude is also addressed to those who have been very supportive of
me in completing this undergraduate thesis, they are:
1. My family, especially my mother and father (Drs. Suharsono, M. Pd. & Dra.
Leny Ariyani Ningsih). I thank you for the love, prayers, and every single
form of support that you have sincerely given to me all this time. Also thank
you to my brother (Reza Taufik Maluna S. Pd) for being one of my role
models in the academic life.
2. “Ilmuwan”, Aji Prasidha, Siti Widyastuti Noor, Galuh Octania. Thank you for being a productive circle of friend. Finally we graduate all at the same
time.
3. All those who have given their supports that cannot be specifically
vii ABSTRACT
The aims of this research is to identify the existence of socio-cultural as well
as the political influence towards the decision making process of Canadian
foreign policy (which is manifested in its refugee resettlement program) on
the issue of Syrian refugee’s resettlement in the aftermath of Syrian civil
war. Compared with other western countries which tend to be more
protective in their immigration policies, Canada has been doing all the
opposite. A very progressive approach has been showcased as a form of
response towards the discussed issue. In explaining the research, the author
utilizes the approach from constructivism theory and decision making
process as a tool of analysis.
viii
Table of Contents
UNDERGRADUATE THESIS ... i
ENDORSEMENT PAGE ... ii
STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICITY ... iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... v
D. Theoretical Framework ... 6
1. Constructivism Theory ... 6
2. Decision Making Process ... 7
THE ORIGIN, IMPACTS, AND WORLD’S RESPONSE TOWARDS SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS ... 12
A. The Origin of Syrian Civil War ... 12
B. The Distribution of Syrian Refugees ... 16
C. International Responses on Syrian Refugee Crisis ... 19
1. The United Nations ... 19
2. The European Union ... 21
3. Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) ... 22
4. Amnesty International ... 23
ix
CANADA’S SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION ON REFUGEES ... 26
A. Canada as a Destination for the Refugees ... 26
B. Canada’s Response towards the Syrian Refugee Crisis ... 29
C. Canada’s Social Construction towards Refugee ... 33
CHAPTER IV ... 41
CANADA’S DECISION MAKING PROCESS TOWARDS SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS ... 41
A. An Overview of the Government System in Canada ... 41
B. Canada’s Decision Making Process towards Syrian Refugee Crisis ... 44
1. The Cabinet Stage ... 44
2. The Parliament Stage ... 45
3. Coming into Force Stage ... 46
4. The Influencing Aspects of Decision Making Process ... 47
C. Feedbacks towards the Outcome of the Decision Making Process ... 55
CHAPTER V ... 61
CONCLUSION ... 61
x List of Table
Table 1. Decision Making Process ... 8
Table 2. Canada’s decision making process on accepting 25.000 Syrian
xi
List of Diagram
Diagram 1. Overall Polling Result on Syrian refugee resettlement plan ... 56
Diagram 2. Polling Result on the legacy of Syrian refugee resettlement plan ... 57
Diagram 3. Fluctuation on support for the government ... 58
ii
vii ABSTRACT
The aims of this research is to identify the existence of socio-cultural as well
as the political influence towards the decision making process of Canadian
foreign policy (which is manifested in its refugee resettlement program) on
the issue of Syrian refugee’s resettlement in the aftermath of Syrian civil war. Compared with other western countries which tend to be more
protective in their immigration policies, Canada has been doing all the
opposite. A very progressive approach has been showcased as a form of
response towards the discussed issue. In explaining the research, the author
utilizes the approach from constructivism theory and decision making
process as a tool of analysis.
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Issue
At the same year when the Syrian civil war escalated for the first time in
2011, thousands of people from Syria have been fleeing to various states located
nearby and faraway. As the conflict which continues up to the date still cannot be
resolved, the ironic fact occurs that the number of Syrian refugees does not actually
decrease but it goes the other way around. For the record, United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that Turkey is currently the country
within the region that hosts the biggest number of Syrian refugees up to 2.503.549
(UNHCR, 2015).
Going along with the same issue, various debates around the topic of the
significance of Syrian refugee crisis towards the potential security threat are
happening all around the world. The fear was becoming even more real as it was
intensified by the terrorist attack that happened in Paris, and Brussels. This, in the
other hand, complicates the way for Syrian refugees to find a safe haven for them to
live in. At least until the conflict is completely resolved.
The proof of such fear can be seen from the lack of acceptance of Syrian
refugee in several countries located in the western hemisphere. Speaking about the
United States in particular, from 10.000 Syrian refugees targeted to be resettled by
the President Barack Obama, only 1.300 (equivalent of 13 percent) have been
2
Located next to the U.S, Canada has shown a contrast and yet positive trend
in responding the issue of Syrian refugee crisis. Under the new elected Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada promises to resettle 25.000 Syrian refugees by
bringing them into the Canadian soil by 2015 (Susana Mas, 2015). Although the
target to complete all the resettlement processes failed to be completed by the end
2015, Canada still continues the effort to contribute in helping the refugee crisis until
the target to resettle 25.000 Syrian refugee was successfully completed by the early
of 2016. December 10th 2015 was marked as the day when the first 150 Syrian
refugees arrived in Pearson International Airport, Canada (Zorthian, 2015).
The fact that Canada seems to be so “open” with the wave of Syrian refugees
directly corresponds to numbers of reasons and arguments which justify the voices
that support the government of Canada (among all other countries in the world) to
see Syrian refugee crisis as one of the priorities to be taken care of.
As quoted by Los Angeles Times, Tarah Demant, a senior director of the
Identity and Discrimination Unit at Amnesty International USA, emphasizes a point
of problem which lies in the lack of responsibility taken by the wealthy countries in
handling the incoming refugees. She said, “Wealthier countries are not doing their
fair share,” to the extent of her discovery which shows that the burden of
responsibility “…is falling on countries that don’t have the resources” despite the
effect of this global crisis is actually affecting every countries (Simmons A. M.,
2016).
The urgency to open the border for Syrian refugees is also being emphasized
by the European migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos. In an interview
3
help on the refugees as he concerns about the Europe which is currently facing the
growing issue of xenophobia and populism. In the other hand, he also appreciates
Canada for already showing the positive response and, at the same time, realizes that
migration recently becomes a hot issue in the U.S. However, he looks forward to
settle the cooperation with the U.S government after the election has been done (Pop,
2016).
In the government’s perspective, the response of Canada in accepting the
wave of Syrian refugees can be tracked back into several motivations. One of the
most underlying fundamental motivations is that such policy is included as one of
the liberal party’s pledges (where the current Prime Minister is from) in the
campaign that is driven by the suffering of many Syrians as well as other surrounding
countries. As reported by Sonja Puzic for CTV News in October 2015, Justin Trudeau
promised to “…bring 25,000 refugees to Canada by the end of 2015 (Puzic, 2015;
Liberal Party, 2016).”
Speaking in the present context, what Canada has been doing in regards to
Syrian refugees has turned into a form of continuation on their commitment in
establishing resettlement for the refugees (Government of Canada, 2016). This form
of continuation is displayed through quantitative measure by increasing the target
number to 50.000 Syrian refugees (Associated Press in Toronto, 2016) and
qualitatively by keeping the refugee resettlement program revised and added by
various new systems.
In the other hand, the two different sectors that are involved in the refugee
resettlement program (namely government and private sector) have also created a
4
refugees. John McCallum, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, said to The Guardian that Canada will take “…in an additional 10.000 Syrian refugees” from the
remaining initial target, as he was also responding to the complaints from Canadian
groups whose sponsorship applications still have not been processed (Reuters in
Toronto, 2016).
Taking it into the scholar’s point of view, there are also several arguments
that can reveal the urgency of accepting refugees for Canada in particular. One of
the arguments that may add a reason to the notion of Canada to take part in handling
Syrian refugees is indirectly strengthened by Philippe Fargues, Director of the
Migration Policy Centre.
In a part of the policy brief entitled “Europe Must Take on its Share of the
Syrian Refugee Burden, but How?” he wrote that there is an increase of obstacles
for Syrian refugee. What he actually tried to explain is that although there were 86.7
percent of Syrian asylum seekers being granted for refugee or temporary protection
status, the sign of closure from the EU is still very visible. This is because the soaring
number of Syrian refugees who turn to smugglers does not stop since the very
beginning of the crisis. As a fact,within only 2 years (from 2011 to 2013) there is
30 percent increase of Syrian who smuggled through Greece or Italy (Fargues,
Europe Must Take on its Share of the Syrian Refugee Burden, but How?, 2014).
This fact supports the argument that it supposed to be enough to create an urgency
for humanitarian response.
The other argument comes from the article entitled “Can refugees benefit the
state? Refugee resources and African state building.” In this article, Karen Jacobsen
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resources in which a state can retrieve by becoming a host country. When she talked
about the resources, she to refer it to material, social and political resources that can
foster the state building process (Jacobsen, 2002).
However, her case study took place in the African states such as Ethiopia,
Guinea, and Namibia wherein, she observed, the state authority in these border areas
are considered weak and often being contested by rebel groups. That condition
creates a counterproductive result to her thesis which mentions that those potential
resources can only be utilized when a state can access and control these resources
(Jacobsen, 2002).
This somehow becomes very distinctive to the condition that happens in
Canada where the government control upon the border area is exercised better than
that in the mentioned African states. That being said, with such a longstanding
humanitarian activism which has been lasting for more than 60 years even before
Canada eventually signed the UN Convention and Protocol for refugee in 1966
(Bissett, 1986), it is believed that Canada is more than capable to translate the flow
of Syrian refugees into a kind of new resource that can be used to foster the nation
building.
B. Research Question
With the explanation above, the author would propose a research question as
followed;
Why did Canadian government build such a positive humanitarian response
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C. Purpose of the Research
This research is conducted with a certain expectation that it would be able to
identify some key factors that influence the decision making process of the Canadian
government, particularly in the context of resettlement of Syrian refugees. In the
other hand, this undergraduate thesis is also hoped to be an addition to the Canadian
studies.
D. Theoretical Framework
In analyzing the problem contained within this particular research, the author
utilizes the basic framework from constructivism theory of international relations as
well as decision making process model in order to answer the research question.
1. Constructivism Theory
Constructivism is one of the most significant theories known within
the realm of international relations studies. Compared to other theories
(primarily to the positivist theories such as realism and idealism)
constructivism is considered relatively new to be used as one of academic
tools in explaining the phenomena in international relations. The significance
of this theory is seen from the alternative view and a framework for the study
of IR. Popularly emerged in the era of 1940’s, constructivism is also believed
to be accountable in explaining the demise of Cold War (Lui, 2012).
This theory works with a fundamental assumption that international
politics is actually the result of “social construction.” Therefore, rather than
emphasizing the idea of state as the sole actor in the dynamics of
7
this sense is the society) as the starting point of analysis and state as the top
end point of analysis. Alexander Wendt in his book entitled Social Theory of
International Politics explains in retrospect that constructivism adapts two
basic tenets which are,
“(1) That the structures of human association are
determined primarily by shared ideas rather than material forces, and (2) that the identities and interests of purposive actors are constructed by these shared ideas rather than given by nature.” (Wendt, 1999)
Although there might be various forms and interpretations about
constructivism theory in IR, for the purpose of writing this research the
author would try to focus on the one that is stated by Wendt. The version of
constructivism theory which Wendt articulates is believed to be moderate
constructivism in which it provides the interaction of structural and
symbolical sociology.
In this research, this theory will be utilized as the tool to explain the
influence of Canadian society towards its government’s decision making process related to the policy of resettling Syrian refugees. That being said,
this theory could be implemented to explain the possibility of occurrence of
social construction within Canadian society that fosters its identity as an
“open for refugee” society.
2. Decision Making Process
Foreign policy can be acknowledged as the outcome national interest
of a certain country. Given that statement, the existence of national interest
would, by nature, bring a specific approach to the decision maker that further
8
William D. Coplin (2003) in the book entitled Introduction to
International Politics introduces a model in which he explains how a
decision within the government’s framework is made. In retrospect, Coplin explains that to analyze the process of decision making we should not
exclude the other factors to be considered. There are three things that Coplin
believes contributing to the final output of a foreign policy’s decision making process.
First, Domestic politics is believed as one of the influencing factors
in the decision making process. This may include some factors such as
cultural influence that may set certain set of political decisions. Second,
military and economic condition will also be essential for the purpose of
measuring the capacity of a state. Third, International context is included as
it determines how a state will have to contextualize their policy based on
their geographical, economical, and political condition. The process of
decision making according to Coplin is described as follows;
9
a. Pluralist Model
The type of decision making process into three models namely;
Democratic model; Pluralist model; and Ruling Elite model. For this
particular research, the author would like to utilize the pluralist model of
decision making process in order to explain the later findings.
As a basic understanding, pluralist model of decision making works
differently with the democratic model whereas people are more
well-informed and more directly involved in an individual manner. In the pluralist
model, people tend to be committed to give the autonomy to certain
representative groups (or as in the book is referred to organizations) that then
will act as the policy influencers.
But also in the other hand, this model tries to display an equilibrium
in the decision making process that no actor is holding the dominance over
others. With the characteristic of authority that is more decentralized, this
very model also tends to use more bargaining and compromise principle in
running the decision making process (Coplin, 2003).
Based on the explanation above, this theory will later be used to
explain the decision making process of the Canadian government and to find
the influencing factors outside the Canadian government itself.
E. Hypothesis
With the basic ideas that have been described previously, the author
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1. There is a push from Canadian historical value that can eventually shape
Canada’s identity as a country that opens to the refugee.
2. The decision making process towards the acceptance of Syrian refugees in
Canada is influenced by the three factors (domestic politics,
military/economic condition, and international context) as well as Civil
Society/NGO that lies outside of the government.
F. Method of Research
In writing this research the author uses descriptive method. To support such
method, the author also uses data gathering techniques in which the author would
collect the secondary data such as books, journals, news, websites as well as other
electronic data which related to the discussed topic.
G. Scope of Research
To set the focus of this research, the author would need to obtain the data
from 1947 which happened to be the year when the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights was drafted also in which Canada, said the Ministry of Global Affair has been
“…a consistently strong voice for the protection of human rights and the
advancement of democratic values, from our central role in the drafting of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1947-1948” (Global Affairs Canada,
n.d.) However, the research will be focused on between 2010 and 2015 when the
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H. Structure of Writing
This research would use the outline as follows:
Chapter 1
This chapter describes background of the issue, research question, purpose of
research, theoretical framework, hypothesis, method of research, range of
research and system of writing.
Chapter 2
This chapter explains about the origin of Syrian civil war which becomes the
starting point of Syrian refugee crisis featured with certain supporting statistics
that will show the significance of such crisis to the entire world’s political
constellation.
Chapter 3
This chapter explains about the approach that is taken by Canadian government
in shaping its identity as a country that opens to refugees.
Chapter 4
This chapter explains about the process of Canadian foreign policy towards
Syrian refugee crisis being formulated. This chapter will specifically attempt to
identify the other actors involved in the process along with their influence
towards it.
Chapter 5
This chapter concludes the entire research and explanations that have been
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CHAPTER II
THE ORIGIN, IMPACTS, AND WORLD’S RESPONSE
TOWARDS SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS
This chapter is about to explain three aspects. First, the origin of the Syrian
civil wars as the trigger of Syrian refugee crisis; second, the spread of Syrian
refugees to various countries all over the world; third, various responses from
international organizations regarding their stances on the acceptance of Syrian
refugees.
A. The Origin of Syrian Civil War
Syrian refugee crisis is the result of Syrian civil war. Due to many numbers
of actors involved in this war, Syrian civil war has a quite high level of complexity
to explain. That, in the other hand, makes this tragedy cannot be considered only as
a regular domestic conflict, but rather as a domestic conflict with such a strong
affiliation with international actors. The explanation of Syrian civil war below will
be presented in a sequential presentation.
The pro-democracy protest suddenly turned into chaotic as Bashar’s army started to demonstrate such a violent response towards the demonstrators all across
the country. About 280 people were killed along the unrest that lasted for about six
weeks (Marsh & Tisdal, 2011). The incident which was also part of the Arab spring
pursued some demands over political freedom as well as the ending of corruption in
Syria.
To scrutinize the motivation behind of the said demonstration it is necessary
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to this point. Bashar succeeded his father, Hafiz al-Assad, to assume the office
following his father’s death in June, 2000. That made him the 19th president of Syria
and the second in a row president from Syrian Baath Party. Among various religious
and ethnic groups residing Syria, Assad’s family comes from a minority-considered
groups named the Alawite. This group is believed to account for about 12 percent of
Syrian total population (Pipes, 1991).
Assad’s regime’s affiliation with the Alawit group is believed to be one of the triggering reasons of Syria today’s condition. Eyal Zisser in “Bashar Al-Assad: In or Out of the New World Order?” explains the significance of the Alawit within
Assad’s regime. He describes that commanders of the Security Service, the army
units, Syrian political bosses, and members of Baath Party are also part of the Alawit
group. To that extent, Zisser also describes that aside from Bashar al-Assad’s leadership that seems to have lack of experience and charisma, it was also considered
too weak to break down the said affiliation within the office (Zisser, 2005).
That constant style of leadership has compromised Assad’s vision to reform
Syrian political trajectory. His presidency has later been challenged by the Syrian
protesters who think that the country is getting way more distant from democracy.
In brief, these protesters start to gain more people and form themselves as the Free
Syrian Army whose stance is, of course, opposing Assad’s government.
Free Syrian Army (FSA) is apparently not just a mundane opposition group
which acts of opposition are manifested mostly through soft approaches. In fact, the
FSA is founded upon more than a thousand of Syrian rebel groups with different
scale of operations (BBC, 2013). From time to time, the FSA has been plenty of time
14
appealing to public are the clashes between the FSA and Assad’s army in the city of
Aleppo.
Within their struggles against Assad’s government army, the FSA recognizes
a problem on the side of coordination that is still lacking from one another. Departing
from that, these rebel groups under the FSA umbrella eventually agree to unify their
leadership body into one called the Supreme Joint Military Command Council or
also known as the Supreme Military Command (SMC) on December 7, 2012
(O’Bagy, 2013).
The situation in Syrian even got worse when Assad’s regime was reported to
launch chemical weapon attack against the civilians. There are at least two reported
incidents of the said-chemical weapon attack taking place in Idlib province on April
2014 and March 2015. Chlorine was confirmed by the United Nations to be the
substance used by Bashar’s regime within that attack (Ensor, 2016).
What makes the author called the Syrian civil war to have a strong affiliation
with international actors is that because in this civil war there are allegedly many
countries involved as either pro Assad’s party or against Assad’s party. Max Fisher
in a video entitled “Syria’s war: Who is fighting and why” visually illustrates the
flow of financial and technical support from several countries. More into that, he
visualizes the presence and involvement of Iran and Russia as two countries
supporting the existence of Assad’s regime. He stated that, “…in the end of 2012 Iran is sending daily cargo flights and hundreds of officers on the ground.” (Fisher,
2015)
In the other hand, the against Assad’s regime countries are said by the video
15
said to support the rebel groups through financial aids. Meanwhile the U.S is said to
give support to the rebel groups through the CIA by training and equipping them
(Fisher, 2015). In that sense, Syrian civil war has further become a proxy war.
Syria becomes an even more dangerous place to stay as in the middle of the
civil war also emerges an extremist group calling themselves the Islamic State of
Iraq and Sham (ISIS) (Issa, 2016). Unlike the rebel groups, this group specifically
aims to establish a caliphate state system in Syria and also in the states all across the
world. The approach to its goal is often manifested in many violent ways. Beheading
foreign journalists and terrorizing states overseas by bombing their public places are
mainly the idea that they constantly galvanize to the world.
The rise of ISIS in the middle of that civil war increases the level of hostility
in Syria. Thinking that ISIS is a serious threat to the world had U.S deployed a
collective intervention led by the U.S in September 22, 2014 (Saul, 2014). Russia
responded to this threat in a similar tone. In early October 2015, Russia finally
deployed a military intervention to Syria after Putin’s proposal was granted by the
Russian parliament (Walker S. , 2015).
Regardless what other spreading rumors and some alternative theories have
to explain on the actual American-led and Russian interventions’ purpose in Syria, all of these countries involvement in the Syrian civil war have justified the level of
insecurity that is very dangerous for the civilians to live in. Speaking on that sense,
having the idea to flee is just very logical for everyone to do as everyone’s life there
16
B. The Distribution of Syrian Refugees
The Syrian civil war, in fact, is not only destructing the infrastructures for
people to live in, but also the suprastructures where people mostly rely their life on
the aspect such as economy and politics. That is to say that the escalation of the said
civil war directly corresponds to the outbreak of Syrian refugees to various countries
across the globe. Some countries inside of the region have become the main
destinations for the refugees to flee. Not limited to that, a significant number of
Syrian refugees has also been found in the countries that are way further than those
inside the region.
Mentioned in the previous chapter is the fact that Turkey has been hosting
for more than 2 million Syrian refugees ever since its first outbreak in 2011. To be
more exact, the last data update by UNHCR on 7 November 2016 counted that there
are actually 2.764.500 Syrian refugees in Turkey (UNHCR, 2016). That, at the same
time, makes Turkey as the country to host the highest number of Syrian refugees in
the region.
Speaking on the region itself, the data says there are 4.810.216 Syrian
refugees distributed to several countries across the region involving Lebanon,
Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, countries in North Africa, and Turkey. Those countries are
currently responsible for hosting different amount of Syrian refugees in each
territories.
Lebanon, for example, has the second highest number of Syrian refugees
hosted in the region for about 1.017.433. Following that, the other 655.833 refugees
17
happens to have the lowest number of Syrian refugees that are 115.204, when the
rest of 29.275 Syrian refugees are hosted in the North Africa (UNHCR, 2016).
Outside the region, many of Syrian refugees have reached the countries in
Europe as their destinations. The data that is collected by the UNHCR in Europe
shows that there are currently 37 European countries involved in hosting the
incoming wave of Syrian refugees to Europe which 28 of them happen to be the
members of the European Union (UNHCR, 2016).
Data from the UNHCR also shows that Germany is observed to be the
European country that accepts the highest number of Syrian asylum applications up
to 449.770. The second highest is followed by Serbia which accepts up to 314.852.
The other 413.292 from the total amount of 1.177.914 Syrian asylum applications
are distributed to other European states ranging Iceland to Cyprus (UNHCR, 2016).
In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is reported to have welcomed 68 Syrian refugees
of total 3000 that are promised to be resettled by the Malaysian government over the
next three years (BBC, 2015). Meanwhile, the Philippines has stated that they are
ready to take in Syrian refugees although it is still not clear on how many Syrian
refugees are intended to be taken (The Philippine Star, 2015).
For the same reason, on September 2015, Australian government also
planned to resettle 12.000 places for the Syrian refugees as a form of Australian
humanitarian program. This is marked as an additional number to its humanitarian
program which makes Australia to be responsible for 13.750 places for the financial
year of 2015 - 2016 (Australian Government, n.d.).
In North America, the United States also shows some contribution in regards
18
Syrian refugees admitted by the U.S government by October 1, 2014. The report
extends that Obama has made an order to increase the number of acceptance for at
least 10.000 in the next financial year (Martinez, 2015).
In that situation, it is necessary to know that the movement of Syrians from
one place to another was not an easy story. In the process, as many of us may have
known, there has been a lot of dramatic incidents happening in it. The problems that
occur are mostly generated by the issue of limited acceptance in the destination
countries which is not linear with the exponential growth of the Syrian refugee itself.
The issue in resettlement capacity and process leave the Syrian refugees with
no option but to become illegal refugees. The term of ‘illegal’ mentioned in this
writing is to express the Syrian refugees that come across the national border without
going through any constituted measures. Mediterranean Sea is known to be the most
popular route for the Syrian refugees to get into the European countries. However,
this route is also known to be very dangerous. The Telegraph reported that in 2015
there have been more than 2.500 people died in their attempt to go crossing the
Mediterranean Sea. Quoted from the same source (Squires, 2016), it also said that,
“That number represents a significant increase compared with the same period last year, when 1,855 migrants lost their lives after their boats capsized and sank. In 2014, the figure for the same period was just 57.”
The other impact from the overwhelming number of Syrian refugees is the
occurrence of the refugee’s smugglers. Reported by the Guardian in May 2016,
Italian navy had forcibly sunk a trawler filled up with around 550 refugees after it
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fortunate that in that incident, Italian navy successfully managed to save almost all
of the refugees (Kingsley, 2016).
In the same issue, Greece also happens to experience the same problem as
one of the entry points to the European mainland. It is observed that Syrian refugees
who already arrived in Greece start to feel desperate as the Macedonian border (a
border that connects to the western part of Europe) is closed (Aljazeera, 2016). The
fear of not being able to be resettled in the western European countries leads the
refugees to take risky measure by paying the smugglers to get them crossing off the
border.
C. International Responses on Syrian Refugee Crisis
Syrian refugee crisis has invited many international responses ranging from
international governmental organization (IGO) until the international
non-governmental organizations (INGO). In regards to this particular tragedy, those
responses are specifically addressed for the possibility of solutions that can be
implemented to the current conditions of the Syrian refugee outbreak.
The following explanations are derived from the actions, recommendations,
and solutions given by the said actors whose capacity are clearly diversified
according to their role and either IGO or INGO. Thus, there are 4 different responses
to be discussed, they are first, Amnesty International; second, the United Nations;
third, the European Union; fourth, Organization of Islamic Conference.
1. The United Nations
When it comes to the issue of Syrian refugee crisis, the United Nations
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range of field, the UN has established a special commission called the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (often abbreviated as UNHCR).
Speaking on the form of response it has shown, the UNHCR is often
referred as the main platform for almost every other organizations and/or
humanitarian aid movements to work with. However, ever since the escalation of
the Syrian civil war happened (even before the Syrian civil war exists) there has
been plenty of conferences conducted by the higher board of the organization
such as the UN Security Council resulting various resolutions regarding the
condition in Syria.
Take for an example the resolution number 2254 that was adopted by the
UN Security Council in 2015. A resolution that sets in focus on endorsing road
map for peace process in Syria, also apparently manages to urge the UN member
states to participate in providing the necessary assistance regarding the issue.
Stated in the point number 14th of the resolution,
“Underscores the critical need to build conditions for the safe and voluntary return of refugees and internally displaced persons to their home areas and the rehabilitation of affected areas, in accordance with international law, including applicable provisions of the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, and taking into account the interests of those countries hosting refugees, urges Member States to provide assistance in this regard, looks forward to the London Conference on Syria in February 2016, hosted by the United Kingdom, Germany, Kuwait, Norway and the United Nations, as an important contribution to this endeavour, and further expresses its support to the post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation of
Syria (United Nations Security Council, 2015);”
Putting it into the recent practice, the UN, through UNHCR, says to have
been contributing on providing the basic needs needed by the Syrian refugees
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Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) in order to help the funding for the countries
that have received the Syrian refugees and are located in the same region. Not to
mention, the 3RP’s 2015 annual report says that they have successfully collected
USD 4.32 billion through the inter-agency program (UNHCR 3RP, 2015).
2. The European Union
As an international organization (or to be more exact, supranational) the
European Union, too, has its own way in responding and doing its efforts towards
the Syrian refugee crisis. Following some of the facts that have been mentioned
in the previous sub-chapter, we have known that the European land is one of the
most popular destinations for the Syrian refugees to come to. By speaking on
that sense, we need to also know that almost all policies made in regards to that
particular problem and which have been also affecting the decision in the
European countries are under the management of the European Union.
Mentioned in a research report written by the Migration Policy Centre in
2012 (Fargues & Fandrich, The European Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis:
What Next?, MPC RR 2012/14, 2012), the EU was said to have provided around
€230 million for the purpose of humanitarian assistance and other necessary
needs of the Syrian refugees. That is to say that, as a supranational organization,
the EU has taken the option of using financial aid as one of their effort of tackling
the Syrian refugee issue.
The other measure taken by the EU besides contributing through funding
the humanitarian aid for the Syrian refugees is also by suspending the
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Communication, 2014). This suspension has been gradually developed into a
restrictive measures (similar to sanctions) such as embargo on goods that can be
further used for internal repression, and many others (European Commission,
2016). This decision can be taken as an example of firm response to the Syrian
government for such a horrible humanitarian condition in Syria.
3. Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
This organization also has been showing its response towards the said
tragedy. As an organizations whose members consist of countries with large
Muslim population (if not a total Muslim countries), OIC acts through numbers
of strong advocacies and conferences in order to manifest its actions and
concerns towards the growing number of Syrian refugees.
A summit called the 13th Islamic Summit of the Heads of
State/Government of the OIC Member States that was conducted on April 15th,
2016 had succeed to make a final communique as an output. In particular, some
of the points written in that final communique address the OIC’s view and
concern on the Syrian refugee crisis. As one of the examples, mentioned in the
point number 54 of the communique,
“The Conference called on the international community and OIC
Member States to support Syrian refugees and countries hosting them as soon as possible, and to develop resettlement programmes for Syrian refugees in order to alleviate their plights and that of the hosting States (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, 2016).”
In particular, the OIC also manages to conduct a Permanent
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especially in the city of Aleppo. The meeting which took place on October 9th,
2016, also happens to result an output called the final communique. Most of the
points articulated within the output address the OIC’s condemnation towards the
ruling regime in Syria who starts using many kinds of heavy materials, especially
the use of chemical weapon in the city of Aleppo. At the end of point number 4
of the final communique stated that, “…the Syrian regime must be held
accountable and the Russian Federation and other states supporting the regime
must be held responsible for the continuation of these violations (Organisation of
Islamic Cooperation, 2016).”
In extending its effort on this issue, the OIC also urges the
implementation of several United Nations Security Council resolutions that are
believed to be potentially significant to stop the overwhelming impact of the
Syrian war. This is mentioned in point number 9 of the final communique,
“The meeting called for the implementation of Security Council Resolutions in particular resolutions 2254 and 2268 in order to reinstate the cessation of hostilities in all parts of Syria, and resolutions 2139 and 2191 on the provision of unhindered humanitarian aid to Syrian civilians. It urged Member States and the Humanitarian Department at the General Secretariat as well as civil society organizations active in the humanitarian field, to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to all Syrian refugees and displaced persons and to the countries hosting refugees. (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, 2016)”
4. Amnesty International
Among many international organizations involved in the effort of
handling the outbreak of Syrian refugees, Amnesty International (a non-profit
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particular NGO is often heard through its campaigns and advocacies that cover
almost every issues related to human rights.
In the context of Syrian refugee crisis, the author believes that Amnesty
International holds a quiet important role as one of the international NGOs
which campaigns and researches have been quite vocal in addressing the
said-issue. The way it works its objectives is basically through three steps; research,
advocacy and lobbying, campaign and action. In its research entitled “An
International Failure: The Syrian Refugee Crisis” Amnesty international
mentioned several recommendations based on their own research to which are
addressed mostly to the governments all around the world (Amnesty
International, 2013).
The other thing that Amnesty International do as an NGO to stop the
Syrian refugee crisis is by launching several campaigns related to the issue of
Syrian refugees. One that becomes the central attention among all things that
we have talked about is the rejection towards the incoming Syrian refugees in
the U.S. Having that situation occurred, in the fall 2016 it launched a campaign
called a global campaign for the protection of refugee and migrants’ rights (RMR) (Amnesty International USA, 2015).
It is indeed, the involvement of many other countries and international
organizations in the effort of handling the constantly increasing number of
Syrian refugees has been significant, measuring from the programs, policies,
and funding they have provided for it. However, this does not close the
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may clash with the idea of humanitarian ethics and other normative responses
we would usually hear.
Acting as the main actor on this undergraduate thesis title, Canada, in
the author’s perspective, has been showing a worth-explaining response. What
becomes the basic of that statement and how (in brief) Canada has been
supportively dealing with the issue of Syrian refugee crisis has been explained
in the previous chapter. The next chapter will elaborate more on the particular
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CHAPTER III
CANADA’S SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION ON REFUGEES
This chapter will manage to explain three aspects in regards to the Canadian
social construction on refugees. The first aspect is, Canada as a destination country
for the refugees, second Canada’s response on the Syrian refugee crisis, and third the construction of Canadian identity as a refugee-friendly country.
A. Canada as a Destination for the Refugees
Syrian refugees are not the first one to come to Canada. In accepting
refugees, Canada has been known as a country with some remarkable records on it.
Speaking upon Canada’s historical line, there has been groups of refugee coming to
Canada from various countries all around the world. Having that said, this
sub-chapter would manage to explain the underlying motivation of the refugees for
choosing Canada as their destination country. Based on that result, the author would
also attempt to draw a point to conclude the Canadian characteristic towards
refugees.
Even though the acceptance of refugees in Canada had begun before 1800’s (the time when there was an escape of thousands black slaves from the United States
to the upper part of Canada (Government of Canada, 2015), this part would only
explain several related events that had happened within the Canadian history.
The first acceptance of refugees by Canada was started in 1970s when
Canada became the host for Latin American refugees. Some Latin Americas
countries such as Chile, El Salvador, Argentina, Guatemala, and Peru were said to
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“Latin American Migration to Canada: New linkage in the hemispheric migration
and refugee flow system” by Alan B. Simmons gives a quite detailed explanation on
how this process of particular migration can possibly happen (Simmons A. B., 1993).
This article explains that the wave of Latin American refugees came in
several waves. The two largest waves were marked by the arrival of Chilean refugees
in 1970s and Salvadorans in the 1980s to Canada. Others are regarded as relatively
small ones. Quantitatively speaking, a statistical data shows that the highest number
of Chilean refugees to Canada happened around 1974 to 1980 with 14.846 refugees.
Meanwhile, the Salvadorans’ biggest wave to Canada happened around 1986 to 1990 with 16.414 refugees (Simmons A. B., 1993).
These waves of refugees that came from Chile and El Salvador to Canada
happened because of the eruption of Central American revolution in the late 1970s.
In regards to that, Simmons (1993) also adds that what motivated thousands of Latin
Americans (especially for Chileans and Salvadorans) fleeing from their own
countries were not the commonly known motivation such as economic, but instead
they were “… initiated and sustained largely by flight from dictatorship, state terror,
civil war, and violence. (Simmons A. B., 1993).”
Nevertheless, the reason why Canada became the destination country for
Central American refugees is not yet explained. Maria Cristina Garcia in “Canada:
A Northern Refuge for Central Americans“, explains a logical flow on how Canada
could appear as a “safe haven” for the Central American refugees (Garcia, 2006).
Concluding the points delivered within that article, there are at least two
underlying reasons that can lead to the answer according to Garcia. First of all, at
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policy, Canada was doing the other way around by providing humanitarian
emergency aid and assistances as well as setting out itself from taking any
military-related measure (Garcia, 2006). Second of all, Canada was also affected by the
implementation of Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) passed by the U.S.
Congress in 1986. Such immigration reform that happened in the U.S. allowed the
country to develop some measures to restrict the undocumented migrant issues. As
an outcome, Canada had to bear the significant increase of the number of petition
for Asylum to which eventually led them to accept about 10.000 Central American
refugees in only one year from 1986 to 1987 (Garcia, 2006).
Besides other waves of refugees that happened to come to Canada and are
listed in its history of refugee acceptance, the author would also talk about the case
of Vietnamese Refugees that came to Canada in around 1975. The cause of this
particular refugee crisis was known to be escaping from the war that was happening
in Vietnam, popularly known as the ‘Vietnam War.”
Other sources also explains that the arrival of Vietnamese to Canada was
divided into two different waves. In the first wave (that happened) in 1975, most of
the number of Vietnamese refugees were dominated by the skilled refugees and/or
the middle class Vietnamese who had relatives staying in Canada and acted as their
sponsors at that moment. Meanwhile, the second wave (that happened) between
1979 and 1981 consisted of Vietnamese refugees with more varied social
backgrounds (Joy, 2013). Following the rise of that crisis, Canada was recognized
to be the host for about more than 60.000 Vietnamese refugees by the end of 1980,
despite the fact that Joe Clark only announced that Canada would only admit 50.000
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With that being said, it is believed that, to some extents, the two cases
explained above have shown a point that there is a kind of pattern used by Canada
to respond towards the issues of refugee which is by showing and practicing their
‘openness’ to the incoming refugees. That pattern is also believed by the author to
be accountable for the creation of such a remarkable migration policy in the middle
of the humanitarian crisis. Besides, the stable economic and political condition in
Canada which is relatively way more stable are also believed to be the other factors
that make Canada becomes one of the prominent destinations for the refugees.
B. Canada’s Response towards the Syrian Refugee Crisis
The same positive reaction has also been shown by Canada to the case of
Syrian refugee crisis that began to escalate since 2011. However, before explaining
how its humanitarian response is being operated and developed in today’s practice,
the author would explain about Canada’s response in dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis at the very first occurrence.
Before Canada was fully into optimizing the humanitarian measures to deal
with the Syrian refugee crisis, the country was known to be involved in the U.S. led
coalition against ISIS. This particular coalition consists of more than 60 countries
including Germany and the United Kingdom. It is now called as the U.S. led
coalition as it follows the fact that it was agreed on December 2014 after the idea
was previously announced by the U.S. President Barrack Obama on September 2014
(McInnis, 2016).
The decision to join the said coalition was actually decided under the
30
At that time, Canada’s contribution into the coalition was dominantly manifested in
terms of military such as sending air supports as well as troops into the source of
conflict.
At that point, the author sees that such response was needed with a specific
understanding that ISIS, in the contrary, has been creating armed casualties that put
Syrians and other civilians’ life within the region in danger. Therefore, an equal counter-measure was needed to stop that. In the other hand, the author also argues
that Canada’s involvement at that point was necessary to boost up the coalition to
take off, and yet to keep Canada’s international image.
As Canada had its new head of government elected in late 2015, there was
some contrast shifts on how the country manifested its contribution towards the
coalition against ISIS. The Prime Minister-designate, Justin Trudeau announced that
Canada would stop sending support to the airstrike campaign done by the U.S.
coalition. As quoted by The Guardian, Justin Trudeau said some words to Barrack
Obama following the announcement he made,
“I committed that we would continue to engage in a responsible way that understands how important Canada’s role is to play in the fight against Isil, but he understands the commitments I’ve
made about ending the combat mission (Jacobs, 2015).”
What needs to be understood is that, Canada’s withdrawal was not to
devalue its own commitment on fighting the ISIS. But instead, in the author’s
interpretation, what Canada had decided on behalf of the announcement was to shift
the way its commitment is being practiced into more “Canadian way.” One thing
that can support the author’s interpretation in regards to the previous point was the
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a pledge to resettle 25.000 Syrian refugees along with approximately 250 million
Canadian dollars investment specifically set for the purpose of Syrian refugees
resettlement process (Walker T. , 2015).
Departing from that point, Canada finally ended its entire airstrike campaign
with the coalition by February 22, 2016. Reported by CBC News, the statement was
articulated by the Canadian Defense Minister Hajrit Sajjan at the moment when
Canada pulled out its entire CF – 18 jet fighters from their last mission in Syrian and Iraqi territories (Watters, 2016).
Now that we know, there is a significant change of treatment on how Canada
deals with the issue of Syrian refugee crisis. Putting ahead the idea of humanitarian
aid is basically what Canada posts up when it comes to a question about the new
measure taken as the replacement for the former one.
Up to this point, the author understands that the concept “purposive actor” which is mentioned in one of the Wendt’s tenets can actually be referred to the
Canadian (the society), merely because they are the one who is absorbing the identity
(to be exact, the Canadian identity) as the final outcome from such shared ideas and
they are also the one who becomes the main composing unit of the society. It does
not close the argument, however, that state can also be considered as purposive actor,
as Wendt said in retrospect , “I shall argue that states are also purposive actors with
a sense of Self “states are people too'' and that this affects the nature of the
international system (Wendt, 1999).”
Such argument works accordingly with the facts in the field. The pledge of
new Canadian government comes not only as a form of empty political promise. As
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that political promise came into being as the first 150 Syrian refugees landed in
Toronto through the Canada’s refugee resettlement program. Beyond the first
milestone that Canada had in its effort on resettling Syrian refugees, the aspect that
interests the author to explain is about the development of the program itself.
To relate more on that, Canada is known as the oldest country to implement
the private sponsorship program for refugees since 1978 (Kumin, 2015). To put it
into a comparison, commonly, the burden of responsibility to resettle refugees is
obligated and concentrated to the national government level, or so most of the
discursions would say, especially in terms of funding. That makes the private
sponsorship for refugees, at least in the author’s point of view, a good anomaly that occurs in refugee resettlement program.
After Canada, there has been several countries such as the United Kingdom
and Australia who show their interest in implementing the same program in their
countries. Technically speaking, the private sponsorship program allows the
refugees to have permanent resident status in Canada. That being said, the refugees
are also allowed to look for jobs available in Canada as well as to become the
sponsors for their own family to come to Canada. The refugees would also be
financially supported by the private sponsors for 12 months. Moreover, Canadian
Immigration Minister, John McCallum, told the media that there have been around
13 countries studying this model (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2014; Raj,
2016).
According to the statistical data gathered by the government of Canada, there
has been 35.745 Syrian refugees admitted to and have arrived in Canada by
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sponsorship program is known to have contributed on resettling 13.260 Syrian
refugees. That happens to be the second highest category after the government
sponsored program which had resettled 18.863 refugees and then followed by the
blended visa office-referred program with 3.622 Syrian refugees (Government of
Canada, 2016).
We can see that Canada has been showing a consistent response towards the
issue of refugee crisis. What the country has been doing to the Syrian refugees is
pretty much reflected on their own history that Canada is a refugee-friendly country.
However, the process of how Canadian societies form a collective consciousness like
so is not yet answered. The next sub-chapter would manage to answer that.
C. Canada’s Social Construction towards Refugee
Explained in the previous part that Canada’s response towards the Syrian
refugee crisis has been showing a consistently positive response similar to what they
did on the other cases of refugee crisis that ever involved the presence of the country
in it. What has not been explained is the process of how Canada sees the
humanitarian issue as something crucial for its identity. This particular part of the
chapter would manage to explain about the process of Canada’s social construction towards refugees.
With respect to the other perspectives, arguments, and findings that have
existed out there, this paper would argue that Canada’s social construction towards
refugees in general has been dominantly shaped by its own history. Later will be
explained that as Canada, from time to time, keeps practicing the similar response,
34
frameworks they develop as well as by the international recognitions and
achievements.
Surprisingly, although Canada’s generosity and leadership on humanitarian issues are known as its national “branding”, William Schabas explains that, in the
early drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (next will be referred
to UDHR) Canada’s stance was rather hesitant than what it is today. Stated by
Schabas, that point was proven by the abstain vote of Canada on the preliminary vote
for the UDHR in Paris, France. At that moment, Canada was the only country who
voted for abstain besides the Soviet-bloc (Schabas, 1998).
With that being said, the abstention was, indeed, an astonishing call to the
international community at that time. The Canada’s abstain on the preliminary vote of the UDHR itself was said to be motivated by some disagreement towards a certain
point contained by the Declaration which is somewhat contradictory to the
provincial and federal laws that are implemented in Canada. However, Canada
finally voted in favor on the final draft of the Declaration on 10 December 1948
after, Schabas describes, Canada was able to readjust its policy on it (Schabas, 1998).
As stated above, the author argues that the Canada’s social construction towards refugees has been driven by, one of them, its historical value. To that extent,
the author would borrow the idea of Andrew Lui about the construction of Canadian
identity through a constructivist view. In the book entitled “Why Canada Cares”, Lui in part describes the default setting of Canada as “…physically vast, culturally
diverse, and historically contested (Lui, 2012).” That statement signifies that
Canada actually possesses three of potentially sources of problem within its structure
35
Lui then puts it into a context that the factors such as colonialism and other
waves of immigration to Canada have made some fractions among the disparate
provinces and territories in Canada. The fact is connected by Lui into one of the most
vulnerable province in Canada called Quebec, a province in Canada’s federal system which was known to have the issue of separatist and growing terrorist networks (Lui,
2012).
The most essential impact of the said emergence was dominantly disrupting
the political stability in Canada which was reflected through an incident called the
October Crisis 1970, the kidnapping and assassination of Canadian politician Pierre
Laporte by a homegrown terrorist organization called Front de Libération du Québec
(FLQ). Moreover, the FLQ was also responsible for kidnapping a British diplomat
James Cross. Such incident happened due to the idea of movement to establish the
notion of an independent Québec (Clément, 2008). For that reason, Canada was
somewhat considered facing a state of emergency.
In response to that, Canadian government under Pierre Trudeau at that time
invoked a policy called the War Measures Act (WMA) with the consideration to give
assistance to the police who was quite occupied with the situation and needed some
reinforcements. Clément explained, the enforcement of WMA lasted for about two
months (roughly until December 3, 1970) after the Cross’ kidnappers were finally
flown to Cuba as part of the exchange deal, and Laporte’s killers got were arrested (Clément, 2008).
The constructivist approach was presented in a way that when the WMA was
called off, what appeared to be the next Canadian government approach was not to
