My family has been blessed to be friends with a family who came to Canada as government-sponsored refugees from Burma. We were introduced to each other through a local non-government program that matches Canadians with refugee families to help the newcomers adjust to life in Canada.

When they arrived, our friends were new to most aspects of life in Canada: cars, electricity, plumbing, the food and, of course, the English language.  As we got to know each other through a gradually decreasing language barrier, we introduced them to life in our city.  We were able to provide assistance with the day-to-day business of life, like bills, forms, appointments and school permission slips. They were so eager to learn and work… to become Canadians.

One day, as I was helping them go through some mail, there was a letter from the government of Canada. As was our normal practice, I read through the letter so I could explain it to them. I was shocked to read that, only six months after arriving in Canada, my friends were being asked to begin paying the government back for the six plane tickets that got them to this country. “But the government knows they have nothing,” I thought. “That’s why the government invited them to come here. This isn’t fair.” 

It just doesn’t add up. Government-sponsored refugees get income support for their first year in Canada, and they may attend government-funded English classes to help them get on their feet.  So the government seems to recognize that refugees are in no place to enter the workforce or be self-supporting as they settle in Canada. The government’s policy of asking refugees to repay their airfare is inconsistent but, even more, it is unjust. My friends left a starvation and disease-ridden refugee camp with nothing because they had nothing. To put them in the red almost as soon as they arrive in Canada—while they have little means of paying their debt—impedes their opportunities to rise above the pain they’ve come from.

—Names withheld to protect their privacy and safety, Story reprinted with permission of Partners, Diaconal Ministries Canada, September 2008