Mauritians in Toronto-Looking back looking forward (by Pamela De St Antoine)

Week-End, 22 June 2008

 

Mauritians in Toronto-Looking back looking forward

In many ways, it would seem like frigid and blustery Canada would be the last place where you would find more than 20,000 immigrants from a tropical island.

This North American country is a very long way from Mauritius: about 10,000 miles and two continents away. It takes two days and one stopover to get there. And the weather can be down right nasty, with winters that never seem to quit, lasting from October to April, with loads of snow and deep-freeze temperatures. While January is one of the hottest months back home, it's one of the coldest in Canada.

Weekend Correspondent Pamela de St. Antoine took a closer look at Canada and discovered why the country is so attractive to immigrants from Mauritius and more than 140 other countries. For several days in April, she met with Mauritians who have settled in Toronto, one of Canada's most diverse and largest cities, to learn more about why they left Mauritius and how they have carved out new lives in what is known as "The Great White North."



Since World War II, Canada has pursued a liberal and open immigration policy, as the country realized that it needed to recruit foreign-born workers to fuel its emerging economy and fill its enormous land mass. A second wave of immigration occurred in the 1960s, and Canada continues to welcome newcomers today - although policies are more restrictive and are currently under review.

Canada and Australia are regarded as models for open immigration, and as a result, a rising proportion of Canadians has roots outside the country. A survey done in 2007 revealed that one in five Canadians - 19.8 percent of the national population - are foreign born. This number is expected to double by 2017.

Cold weather aside, Canada has offered many opportunities to Mauritians who have settled here. They have been encouraged to succeed in Canada's robust economy. They have felt at home in a bilingual country where their English and French skills are coveted. Their children have thrived in an excellent public education system that offers affordable university education. And they feel at home in a multi-cultural society that, at least in the larger cities, respects and encourages diversity.

The largest wave of Mauritian migration to Canada occurred soon after Independence in 1968. With the installation of a Hindu-run majority government in Mauritius, the Chinese, French and Creole communities were concerned about their political and economic futures.

"In the '60s and 70s, when the United States was in Vietnam, the Australian government became reluctant to let in Asians, so Mauritian Chinese looked to the next country that would be open to immigration and that was Canada," said Jean-Mario Tanyan, whose father, Yves, ran the Immigration Bureau in Mauritius at the time. "While Creoles went to Australia, Chinese went in droves to Canada. Being bilingual, it wasn't difficult to adapt."

While the majority of Mauritians in Canada are of Chinese ancestry, the immigration picture has become more diverse in recent years, with immigrants coming from the Indian and Creole communities. The reasons cited for the move include better economic and educational opportunities (immigration tends to spike when the economy sours in Mauritius), as well as a genuine wanderlust and desire to see the world beyond the coral reefs.

"It is genetic in our DNA," said Tanyan, who left Mauritius as a student in 1974 for France and later the U.K. Now a Canadian resident, he shuttles back and forth between Toronto and Montreal selling American-made machines that detect and analyze the presence of lead in various objects.

Mauritians are found in just about all of Canada's major cities, with the largest populations in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa. They have forged new lives in an array of occupations: computers, medicine, university teaching, the arts, politics, engineering, research, law, banking and the culinary arts. Many have used their bilingual skills to find jobs as translators, teachers, linguists, journalists and government workers.

But they haven't forgotten their roots. They have formed Mauritian friendship associations and celebrate Chinese New Year, Christmas and Diwali. They raise funds to help renovate poor schools in Mauritius. And their children balance two cultures, speaking Creole or French at home, while playing ice hockey and rooting for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.

"We're trying to preserve our culture. We come here, get a job, have a house, and what's next? We forget the reason we bordered the plane and came here in the first place," said Shiv T. Seechurn, president of the Friends of Mauritius organization in Toronto. "With the Friends of Mauritius, we want to regroup our values for us and our children."

In Toronto, home to an estimated 8,000 Mauritians (there's never been an official count), there are several Mauritian organizations: Club M, founded in 1988, sponsors weekly sports activities and social/cultural events, such as a talk this month by Dr. Vinesh Hookoomsing on the Mauritian diaspora; Friends of Mauritius, a new group that promotes cultural, recreational and community service events and helps newly arrived Mauritians settle in Toronto, and a student group at the University of Toronto, which acts as a social meeting point for Mauritian students.

But some complain that the different ethnic groups don't mix freely and tend to stay within their communities, especially the Chinese Mauritians. "I found this in both Toronto and Montreal," Tanyan said in an interview. "They created associations and clubs that regroup members of their own community. There was this feeling that the Chinese people should stick together."

"Some feel they are not part of the Mauritian community - that there's something missing," added Eric Cader, who anchors a French-language radio show on Sunday mornings in Toronto that highlights news, culture and events in the French-speaking world. Some still have the old mentality that the ethnic groups should be separated along religious lines. "Luckily the younger generation is more open-minded."

Mauritians in Toronto follow news and developments back home very closely, thanks largely to the Internet, and they have some very specific ideas and impressions about what is going on in Mauritius.

Anil Bucktowonsing, who works in the banking industry in Toronto, suggested that Mauritius develop a "strategy of immigration" that encourages people of certain skills and educational background to leave the country - similar to what was done in the 1970s and '80s.

As Mauritius struggles with competition from globalization and the realignment of its sugar and textile industries, many people will find that their skills are more needed in other countries than at home.

"With capacity problems and finite resources" of the island's limited size and small economy, encouraging immigration might actually be a good thing, he said. "Bilingualism is a big asset that Mauritius has and it's an asset that Mauritius can export."

Bilingualism can also work in another way: attracting foreign companies to Mauritius to take advantage of a bilingual workforce and develop businesses like back office operations.

"The key is education," said Hamid Abdool Rahman, who came to Canada in the 1990s and has worked for the Ontario government and as a teacher and translator. "The University of Toronto School of Translation or York University could possibly set up a branch in Mauritius."

Mauritius should also make it attractive, perhaps by changing the income tax structure, for Mauritians living overseas to return and bring with them their money, education and high level skills, said Seechurn, who works at the Canada Revenue Authority.

On another note, he and others expressed deep concern about crime and security in Mauritius, and what they view as a lack of respect for others and a deepening divide between the have and the have-nots in the country. "We have seen a breakdown of values," said Rahman.

Immigration slows but still flows

Canada is still a land of opportunity for newcomers, but it will take some patience to get in. There are currently more than 900,000 immigration applications pending a final decision.

To address this massive backlog, the country is making some important changes to its immigration policies that will likely affect who gets to stay in the country. The changes are controversial and would give the Immigration Minister more power to fast-track immigrants and set an annual limit on how many cases can be processed.

The reason for the backlog is that Canada has traditionally had an open immigration policy. Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the federal agency that processing immigration applications admits roughly a quarter of a million new permanent residents each year.

Canada has three different permanent immigration categories:

- Economic class, which relates to skilled workers and business immigrants; in recent years, 60 percent of newcomers have been in this class. Almost all new Mauritian immigrants are in this category.

- Family class, accounting for 25 percent, of all new immigrants, is based on the concept of family reunification.

- Refugee class, about 15 percent of total, is a longstanding part of Canadian humanitarian tradition to protect refugees from cruel treatment.

In addition to permanent resident status, Canada also offers temporary visas, which allow foreign workers and students to apply for work permits.

"These temporary residents contribute to Canada's economic development by filling gaps in the labor market, enhancing trade and purchasing goods and services," said Sanita Juddoo, an attorney at Able Immigration, with offices in Toronto and Mauritius. "As a general rule, foreign workers must have an approved job offer and a work permit before arriving in Canada."

A group of Mauritians recently obtained temporary permits under this program to work in Canada' meatpacking industry.

Juddoo said that Mauritian applicants for immigration have an advantage over those seeking entry from other countries: they speak English and French. They are also known to be efficient workers, she said, "and adaptable in Canadian work environment."

She encourages newcomers to Canada to research the country prior to arrival, as climate and employment opportunities differ among the 10 provinces.

"They also need to check their professional qualifications equivalencies. In most cases, they will have to go on the specific websites pertaining to their professional and find out which courses they will need to follow to get the proper certification they need. They might not find employment within their field of expertise and might need to take any temporary job while upgrading their skills," she said.

Able Immigration's focus is to help immigrants become permanent residents and citizens of Canada. President Nemaduthsingh Juddoo, a member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultant, is a former prosecutor for the Attorney General of Mauritius, a barrister at the Supreme Court, and Supreme Court Judge in the Seychelles. http://www.ableimmigration.com

Toronto Facts

- largest city in Canada, with 2.5 million residents, almost twice the size of Mauritius

- the financial center of Canada

- has been an important destination for immigrants; about 50 percent of the population was born outside Canada, adding a rich diversity to the city

- snow can fall in Toronto from November until mid-April

- located in Southern Ontario, Toronto touches three of the five Great Lakes

- the famed Niagara Falls are one hour away by car

- about 8,000 people of Mauritian descent live in greater Toronto, although there's never been an exact count

 Pamela De St Antoine