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Today, the Star published an article by Marina Jimnez, a foreign affairs writer: Canada’s warm welcome for refugees scores highly, but real test is coming. It quotes that “Canada ranks among the best countries in the world for integration, according to the 2015 Migrant Integration Policy Index, a study of 38 developed countries.”

Canada has a history of successfully integrating refugees

• from 3,000 Black Loyalists, among them freemen and slaves, fled the oppression of the American Revolution and came to Canada in 1776;
• to Scots highlanders, refugees of the highland Clearances during the modernization of Scotland, settled in Canada in later 1700s;
• to thousands of persecuted Jews, fleeing programs in the Pale of Settlement, sought refuge in Canada between 1880 and 1914;
• to the migration of 170, 000 Ukrainians began, mainly to flee oppression from areas under Austro-Hungarian rule, marking the first wave of Ukrainians seeking refuge in Canada in 1891;
• to 20,000 Soviet Jews, deprived of political and religious freedom, settled in Canada between 1970 and 1990;
• to  7,000 Ismaili Muslims, following Idi Amin’s expulsion of Ugandan Asians, were brought to Canada in 1971 and 1973;
• to more than 60,000 Boat People,  after the Communist victory in the Vietnam War, found refuge in Canada between 1992 and 1980;
• to 5,000 Bosnian Muslims, escaping the ethnic cleansing in the Yugoslav, were admitted to Canada in 1992;
• to more than 5, 000 Kosovars, most of whom were Muslim, were airlifted to Canada in 1999;
• to 3,900 Karen refugees from refugee camps in Thailand  were resettled in Canada in 2006;
• and to more than 5,000 Bhutanese refugees were resettled in Canada in 2008.

Just like the previous refugees, time will tell how well the Syrian refugees will adapt and integrate into the Canadian society.