Rethinking Poverty 2 Community Forum: Immigrant Perspectives

“If we are to truly rethink poverty, we must acknowledge that poverty and race go hand in hand.”

This statement was spoken this morning by Uzma Shakir, the keynote speaker at the Rethinking Poverty 2 Community Forum. Held at Ottawa’s City Hall, the Forum brought together recent newcomers and providers of immigrant support services to dialogue on immigrant perspectives of poverty.

The Forum was organized by the Coalition of Community Health and Resource Centres of Ottawa. Its creation stemmed from concern over the fact that poverty rates for visible minorities and recent immigrants in Ottawa are at least double the national average. The goal of the Forum was to raise awareness about economic and social exclusion and to find ways of making local communities more inclusive for immigrants.

The keynote address was given by Ms. Uzma Shakir, a community-based researcher, advocate, and activist from Toronto. A dynamic and engaging speaker, she discussed the growing racialization of poverty in Canada and the need for greater dialogue on the relationship between race, marginalization and poverty.

In her talk, Shakir highlighted the fact that a majority of people living below the poverty line are people of colour. The racialization of poverty has begun to result in the segregation of neighbourhoods along race and income lines, further exacerbating the issue.

Immigrant discourse still often centres upon the belief that, while newcomers may be low-income when they first arrive, their standard of living rises to match or exceed the Canadian average as they gain employment and settle into Canada. However, in reality, while immigrants to Canada are more highly skilled and educated than ever before, a greater percentage are finding it much more difficult to raise themselves out of poverty. An ineffective professional accreditation system and greater income inequality are two significant reasons for this.

Shakir emphasized that, in order to address the racialization of poverty, we must not shy away from talking about race, as poverty cannot be effectively addressed without doing so. Dialogue on multiculturalism must go beyond simply celebrating differences in our food, music and dances to focus on restructuring our society to foster greater inclusiveness.

This is necessary for not only the greater well-being of recent immigrants, but our society as a whole. Canada relies upon immigration to keep our population growing. There is an enormous need for greater translation between immigrant skills sets and the needs of the Canadian economy if both are to benefit from immigration.

Shakir’s talk provided a refreshing perspective on the issue of poverty and it challenged me to rethink how I understand the root causes of poverty.