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The Other Side of the Deportee Coin: These are children born in Canada to parents who are subsequently deported. When the children return to Canada in their teens, they have difficulty adjusting.
Canada’s ‘anchor babies’: Journey ‘home’ is tough for children deported with their parents
Canadian-born kids long to return, but often find the reality lonesome and disappointing.
More: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2...r_parents.html
Canada’s ‘anchor babies’: Journey ‘home’ is tough for children deported with their parents
Canadian-born kids long to return, but often find the reality lonesome and disappointing.
At age 2, Hillary Booker was taken to Grenada with her parents, who were deported to the island after they were caught overstaying their welcome — and visitor’s visa — in Canada.Growing up in poverty and despair, Booker always fantasized what life would have been like for her here.
But the return to her birthplace some 12 years later was a disappointment. The teenager, a Canadian citizen by virtue of her birth in Canada, was thrust into adulthood overnight — trying to survive on her own with no friends or family around.
“Back home, everything was a struggle. I thought everything was going to be fun and great in Canada,” said Booker, now 19, who returned to Toronto alone in 2007. “But it turns out to be all negative. I feel lost here.”
Children born in Canada to non-status migrants are Canadian citizens by birth but that doesn’t prevent their non-status parents, often failed refugee claimants, from being removed from the country.
These parents are faced with a dilemma: Should they leave their children behind in state care, or uproot them for a life of destitution and/or danger in their home country?
Some migrants hope their Canadian-born children — who in the United States might be disparagingly referred to as “anchor babies” — will find a brighter future and one day serve as a connection to help them legally return to Canada.
While immigration and border officials consider the child’s interests in deciding whether to let parents stay on humanitarian grounds, critics say such decisions are arbitrary.
Canada is a signatory to the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, said Agnes Samler, president of the Defence for Children International Canada, an advocacy group for children’s rights.
“There is a promise in Canada that we’d take into consideration the best interests of the children, but it doesn’t always happen,” Samler said. “Maybe the parents are not true refugees, but how can you disregard our obligations to the children and tell them we’re going to punish you because of your parents . . . that you need to go or you need to be abandoned?”
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is contemplating changing the Citizenship Act by removing the right to automatic citizenship by birth — a policy unique to Canada and the United States. In most other countries, citizenship is based on blood and requires one parent to be a citizen.
Both immigration and border service officials said they do not keep track of what happens to Canadian-born children of failed refugee claimants. But it appears most of these children end up leaving with their non-status parents.
“The Canada Border Service Agency has no legal authority over Canadian-born children. When making arrangements for removal of non-Canadian family members, the CBSA will advise them of the various options available for their Canadian-born children,” said CBSA spokesperson Luc Nadon.
“This includes travelling with their parents, finding a suitable guardian for their children in Canada, or, if there is no one who could assume guardianship, advising them to contact the provincial child protection authorities.”
Children’s Aid Societies cover children and youth under 16 and stay involved to 21 years of age, but do not keep statistics on Canadian-born children returning to Canada.
“From our experience, many Canadian-born children who return to Canada are between the ages of 16 and 18,” said Emily Strowger, a spokesperson for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies.
“As Canadian citizens, these youth are able to access the same services available to all Canadian citizens — health care, education, job opportunities, but not child welfare services because of their age.”
When her mother, Jamma, a nurse, and father, Scott, a construction worker, were deported in 1995, they were unable to find jobs and had to entrust their five girls — all born in Grenada except Hillary — to a grand-aunt who was already caring for four other children in her one-bedroom shed.
“I know what it’s like growing up in poverty,” Booker said. “There’s not enough food, no TV, no computer. You take showers in the river and get water from the river.”
In school, 45 kids would jam into small classrooms where worn textbooks were shared by groups of five pupils. There were never enough school supplies to go around.
“There’s nothing there, even after you finish school,” said Booker, who grew up constantly reminded by her parents that she was Canadian and teased by local children as the “abandoned” Canadian.
Booker said her parents always urged her to return to her birthplace for “a better life.” At age 10, she began planning for her return. It took her more than two years just to reacquire her lost birth certificate — “a mission impossible.”
Finally, on Aug. 26, 2007, she got a plane ticket to fly to Toronto. She arrived at Pearson airport at midnight the following day.
Booker shared an apartment near Jane St. and Finch Ave. with her eldest sister Natalie, who was seeking asylum in Canada, and she enrolled in Westview Centennial Secondary School. But after six months, her sister was deported to Grenada when her asylum claim was rejected.
Given her age, Booker was assigned to the guardianship of a pastor at a community church, attending school by day and working at a local No Frills store after school to support herself.
“I was left by myself with people I didn’t know when my sister was deported. You wake up, go to school, then go to work. Sometimes I just cracked and cried for no reason,” said Booker, who moved out of her guardian’s house when she turned 18.
She is now majoring in law and society at York University with hopes of becoming a lawyer.
“I do feel I’ve been wronged by Canada,” she added. “But the experience has made me stronger, more mature and independent.”
But the return to her birthplace some 12 years later was a disappointment. The teenager, a Canadian citizen by virtue of her birth in Canada, was thrust into adulthood overnight — trying to survive on her own with no friends or family around.
“Back home, everything was a struggle. I thought everything was going to be fun and great in Canada,” said Booker, now 19, who returned to Toronto alone in 2007. “But it turns out to be all negative. I feel lost here.”
Children born in Canada to non-status migrants are Canadian citizens by birth but that doesn’t prevent their non-status parents, often failed refugee claimants, from being removed from the country.
These parents are faced with a dilemma: Should they leave their children behind in state care, or uproot them for a life of destitution and/or danger in their home country?
Some migrants hope their Canadian-born children — who in the United States might be disparagingly referred to as “anchor babies” — will find a brighter future and one day serve as a connection to help them legally return to Canada.
While immigration and border officials consider the child’s interests in deciding whether to let parents stay on humanitarian grounds, critics say such decisions are arbitrary.
Canada is a signatory to the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, said Agnes Samler, president of the Defence for Children International Canada, an advocacy group for children’s rights.
“There is a promise in Canada that we’d take into consideration the best interests of the children, but it doesn’t always happen,” Samler said. “Maybe the parents are not true refugees, but how can you disregard our obligations to the children and tell them we’re going to punish you because of your parents . . . that you need to go or you need to be abandoned?”
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is contemplating changing the Citizenship Act by removing the right to automatic citizenship by birth — a policy unique to Canada and the United States. In most other countries, citizenship is based on blood and requires one parent to be a citizen.
Both immigration and border service officials said they do not keep track of what happens to Canadian-born children of failed refugee claimants. But it appears most of these children end up leaving with their non-status parents.
“The Canada Border Service Agency has no legal authority over Canadian-born children. When making arrangements for removal of non-Canadian family members, the CBSA will advise them of the various options available for their Canadian-born children,” said CBSA spokesperson Luc Nadon.
“This includes travelling with their parents, finding a suitable guardian for their children in Canada, or, if there is no one who could assume guardianship, advising them to contact the provincial child protection authorities.”
Children’s Aid Societies cover children and youth under 16 and stay involved to 21 years of age, but do not keep statistics on Canadian-born children returning to Canada.
“From our experience, many Canadian-born children who return to Canada are between the ages of 16 and 18,” said Emily Strowger, a spokesperson for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies.
“As Canadian citizens, these youth are able to access the same services available to all Canadian citizens — health care, education, job opportunities, but not child welfare services because of their age.”
When her mother, Jamma, a nurse, and father, Scott, a construction worker, were deported in 1995, they were unable to find jobs and had to entrust their five girls — all born in Grenada except Hillary — to a grand-aunt who was already caring for four other children in her one-bedroom shed.
“I know what it’s like growing up in poverty,” Booker said. “There’s not enough food, no TV, no computer. You take showers in the river and get water from the river.”
In school, 45 kids would jam into small classrooms where worn textbooks were shared by groups of five pupils. There were never enough school supplies to go around.
“There’s nothing there, even after you finish school,” said Booker, who grew up constantly reminded by her parents that she was Canadian and teased by local children as the “abandoned” Canadian.
Booker said her parents always urged her to return to her birthplace for “a better life.” At age 10, she began planning for her return. It took her more than two years just to reacquire her lost birth certificate — “a mission impossible.”
Finally, on Aug. 26, 2007, she got a plane ticket to fly to Toronto. She arrived at Pearson airport at midnight the following day.
Booker shared an apartment near Jane St. and Finch Ave. with her eldest sister Natalie, who was seeking asylum in Canada, and she enrolled in Westview Centennial Secondary School. But after six months, her sister was deported to Grenada when her asylum claim was rejected.
Given her age, Booker was assigned to the guardianship of a pastor at a community church, attending school by day and working at a local No Frills store after school to support herself.
“I was left by myself with people I didn’t know when my sister was deported. You wake up, go to school, then go to work. Sometimes I just cracked and cried for no reason,” said Booker, who moved out of her guardian’s house when she turned 18.
She is now majoring in law and society at York University with hopes of becoming a lawyer.
“I do feel I’ve been wronged by Canada,” she added. “But the experience has made me stronger, more mature and independent.”