Good evening.
My name is Meyer Burstein. I'm the North American Co-chair of the Metropolis International Steering Committee.
It is my pleasant task, on behalf of the Metropolis International Steering Committee and its members to welcome all of you to this, the fifth international Metropolis conference and the first one to be held in Canada.
We are thrilled to be able to report that some 700 people will be in attendance from over 30 countries.
Over the next four days, we have tried to put together a program based on excellence and commitment.
Commitment to the importance of the issues.
And commitment to the ideal of intellectual exchange in the service of advancing knowledge and improving public policy.
Those of you who know the Project from its beginnings will have noticed, I am sure, that this year's plenaries and 52 workshops span a much greater range of topics than ever before.
We have remained faithful to our origins - the integration of migrants and minorities - but we have extended our reach to also look at migration and how it is managed and molded by public action.
We think this demonstrates the maturity of the Project and it reflects our belief that migration has to be managed - and understood - from the broadest possible perspective
We are proud of the quality of the plenary sessions that will unfold tomorrow and of the independently organized workshops that so many of you have devoted so much of your time to organizing.
And to reward you for your efforts we have also tried to create social settings that will give you pleasure and will offer opportunities for the informal exchanges that are often among the chief benefits of conferences.
I hope you take advantage of these. We have enjoyed the hospitality of our partners in the past and we have tried hard to repay them with examples of Canada's hospitality. I would urge to take advantage of the social events.
On that note, and in keeping with the spirit of this evening, I will end my brief remarks and invite Elinor Caplan, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to address you.
She has been a great friend of the Metropolis Project.
Many of you, I am sure, have met her in her capacity as Minister at various academic conferences across the country and during her recent visits abroad.
She has a keen intellect; she is deeply committed to the Program; and she has shown herself to be a champion and afficionado of research.
It is my pleasure to welcome her to the conference
I now turn over the floor to Elinor Caplan.
Thank you madam Minister.
It is now my pleasure to ask Valerie Mitchell, the Deputy-Minister of British Columbia's Ministry of Multiculturalism and Immigration to offer her words of welcome on behalf of the Province of British Columbia and her own department.
As many of you know, Metropolis has tried to respond to the cross-cutting nature of migration by bringing to the Project not only the agencies of the federal government and academic researchers but also other levels of government and key stakeholders, particularly the NGO's.
British Columbia has been an exceptionally active player and the partnership we have forged testifies to the aptness of our original vision.
Valerie . I now give you the floor.
Our next introducer, it gives me pleasure to announce, is Phillip Owen, the mayor of this wonderful city of Vancouver.
Aptly, Mr. Owen will be introducing a short presentation depicting his city and the changes it has undergone as a result of migration but I am sure he knows these changes in a much more visceral way.
I would like to thank the mayor for his hospitality - to note that I came by my name at birth while he had to acquire his much later in the same way as an immigrant acquires citizenship - and I would now like to turn over the podium to Mayor Owen for his introductory remarks.
Our final presenter this evening will be Anita Rau Badami.
Ms. Badami is a Canadian author .. she has published several wonderful books - Tamarind Mem and The Hero's Walk along with numerous short stories - and she is here to offer us her perspective on immigration.
This is a conference organized around science.
But all of us who work in this field know that immigration is a deeply emotional experience.
It forever changes those who uproot themselves and, in more subtle ways, it forever changes those who receive them.
We asked Ms. Badami to speak to us because immigration - the reasons that motivate it and the passions it creates - are not just matters of the head but also of the heart.
Ms. Badami ...
Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, I now turn the evening over to you.
Please be aware that tomorrow morning we have a particularly full agenda and so we will start promptly - I emphasize promptly - at 8:30 A.M. with a brief opening address by Elinor Caplan immediately followed by a plenary session.
I would ask you to please be in the Crystal Pavillion by that time.
Again. Welcome. Thank you for participating. And now, please enjoy yourselves.
