Abstract
This study explores the role of second units in the socio-economic integration of new immigrants living in the City of Mississauga, Ontario. Mississauga despite being a popular immigrant destination faces serious lack of affordable, social housing, and housing subsidies like many other Canadian cities. New immigrants generally face multiple barriers to access adequate and affordable housing here and often use illegal second units to fulfill their housing needs. The Province, owing to its inability to provide affordable, social, and increasing housing needs, is in the process of legalizing second units through Bill 140. espite their importance in immigrants' settlement process, there is virtually no research on this form of housing in the Canadian context. This study will fill this gap in the current literature. Moreover, it provides suggestions for the municipal government and civil society organizations to further alleviate barriers to the socioeconomic integration of new immigrants living in these units.
Highlights
This section informs about the benefits and drawbacks of second units in the perspective of the socio-economic hurdles faced by new immigrants in the settlement process
It suggests plans and programs that can be integrated with the second unit’s allowance with the help of government, non-profit organizations, and civil society to remove existing formal and informal barriers and address problems expressed in primary research for a smooth and swift settlement and integration of new immigrants in Canada
It is very important that the City, similar to the Santa Cruz case study does not increase housing costs by imposing certification fees or any other associated charges
Summary
Access to affordable and adequate housing is a prerequisite for an early and smooth settlement and integration of new immigrants arriving in Canada (Kilbride, Webber, Wong & Amaral, 2006; Hiebert et al, 2006). Conservative estimates are that 6% of Peel’s total housing stock or 2,80,000 single dwellings contain second units (Region of Peel, 2011) Owing to this conservative estimate of abundant use, it is important that the ambiguous role of second units or basement apartments is investigated in the socio-economic integration of new immigrants in the City of Mississauga in terms of its benefits and drawbacks. Primary and secondary research in the rest of this paper is organized in the following five sections: Literature review: This section establishes the context for research by exploring existing available literature on affordable and accessible housing opportunities for new immigrants in the perspective of multiple socio-economic challenges that retard their admission in the society towards a smooth, swift integration and settlement process.
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