Syrian Newcomers Research Articles

Syrian Newcomer Students Share Their Experiences in Canadian Schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of Syrian refugee students in Canadian schools. Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was used as a framework. Data collection involved one-on-one interview with students. Data from the interviews was analyzed using an open-coding technique to identify themes and patterns. Although the students had positive resettlement experiences, some of them experienced difficulties with their learning. Based on the findings, we propose recommendations for educators and schools welcoming Syrian refugee students.

Syrian Newcomer Students’ Feelings and Attitudes Regarding Their Education in Canada

The purpose of this paper is to share and discuss our research findings on the experiences of Syrian refugee students in elementary public schools in a southwestern region of Ontario, Canada. We used Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a frame to guide this study. Data collection involved an anonymous questionnaire completed by the students. The majority of the students experienced interruptions to their education prior to resettlement in Canada. The students reported positive resettlement and socio-cultural experiences in Canada, however, some of them faced difficulties with their learning.
 Key words: Syrian refugee students; resettlement; school experiences in Canada

Community experiences and aspirations of young Syrian newcomers in a neighborhood in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

ABSTRACT In the Netherlands, several housing projects have housed local young adults and refugees together, attracting media and academic attention. Along with praise for complementing the integration process of newcomers, criticism has also been leveled that such projects are often located far from residential areas. Meanwhile, the SET project located in a residential area in Amsterdam attempt to extend the active participation of locals in facilitating the integration of newcomers. This qualitative study investigated the community experiences of Syrian newcomers, the elements which stimulate or hinder newcomers’ participation in community activities and care programs in their everyday lives.

Adult newcomers’ perceptions of access to care and differences in health systems after relocation from Syria

BackgroundIn Canada, approximately 13% of the population lives with multiple chronic conditions. Newcomers, including refugees, have the same or higher risk of developing chronic diseases as their host population. In 2015–2016, Canada welcomed almost 40, 000 newcomers from Syria. This study aimed to (1) understand adult newcomer health needs for self-management of non-infectious chronic conditions; and (2) identify strategies to improve access to health care services to meet these needs.MethodsThis study used a qualitative descriptive design. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with consenting newcomers, service providers and community agency administrators. Interview guides were developed with input from community partners and snowball sampling was used.ResultsParticipants included 22 Syrian newcomers and 8 service providers/administrators. Findings revealed the initial year of arrival as one of multiple adjustments, often rendering chronic disease management to a lower priority. Self-care and self-management were not routinely incorporated into newcomer lives though community health agencies were proactive in creating opportunities to learn self-management practices. Gaps in access to care were prevalent, including mental health services which typically were not well developed for trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), particularly for men. Newcomers expressed frustration with lengthy wait times and not being able to access specialists directly. Youth frequently played a key role in translation and disseminating information about services to their families.ConclusionChronic disease management was a low priority for newcomers who were focussed on resettlement issues such as learning English or finding work. Provision of practical supports such as bus tickets, translation, and information about the healthcare system were identified as means of improving access to care.

Foreclosed futures and entangled timelines: conceptualization of the ‘future’ among Syrian newcomer mothers in Canada

ABSTRACT Scholars have focused significant attention on geographic aspects of forced migration, as well as the economic, psychological, and cognitive outcomes of refugees’ movement across space. Less attention has been paid to temporal aspects of forced migration, particularly after refugees’ resettlement in a host society. Using semi-structured interviews with 41 Syrian mothers who recently arrived in Canada, I contribute to building theory on temporal dimensions of forced migration through an analysis of how refugee mothers conceptualise both their children’s and their own futures. First, I show how mothers’ perceptions of the future are heavily shaped by cultural and religious orientations of divine control, which may be out of sync with norms in their host society. I also identify two patterns demonstrating how space and time intersect. Displaced mothers deliberately ‘foreclose’ their own timeline in order to focus on their children’s future in Canada, feeling like their ‘selves’ could only grow in the former geographic space. Moreover, mothers do not separate their future projections from the present in Canada or from the past in Syria, leading to ‘entangled timelines.’ These findings suggest that scholarship on forced migration may continue to benefit from attention to how time and temporal experiences shape outcomes.

On Critical Localism and the Privatisation of Refuge: The Resettlement of Syrian Newcomers in Canada

Abstract Increases in displacement and forced migration is an enduring feature of many countries. Resettlement is a policy response to displacement, that relocates refugees from a country of asylum to a safe third country. Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program is noteworthy. It allows non-profit organizations and volunteer groups to support newcomers during their first year in Canada and has especially aided resettlement of Syrian refugees on an international scale. We take a critical look at this programme by focusing on the social implications of private sponsorship and Syrian newcomers’ experiences of resettlement. We view private sponsorship initiatives as furthering processes that privatise decision-making, identify specific sponsorship groups as objects of policy, and transfer public authority to private citizens and non-profit organizations to encourage refugee resettlement. We argue that the privatising processes defining private sponsorship are further complicated within localised settings. Based on scholarly, policy, and programme documents, and extensive semi-structured interviews with Syrian newcomers in southern Ontario, Canada, we illuminate what we call “localising the privatisation of refuge,” which calls attention to the various networks, activities and relations of power that define and shape the local, and the processes and experiences of refuge that take place within.

Examining Trends of Cigarette Smoking Amongst Syrian Refugees During Their First Two Years in Canada.

This brief report explored trends of cigarette smoking among Syrian newcomers in the first two years of resettlement in Canada. 1794 adult Syrian refugees were surveyed about their physical and mental health, and smoking behaviours. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and logistic regressions. Almost 27% of the sample reported cigarette smoking (50% light smokers and 50% moderate/heavy smokers). Light smokers increased and moderate/heavy smokers decreased in the number of cigarettes smoked from year 1 to year 2. Moderate/heavy smokers were more likely to be male and reported higher post-traumatic stress scores, while light smokers reported higher depression scores. Only 14.3% of smokers recalled receiving advice from health care providers in Canada regarding their smoking habits. Healthcare providers should provide tailored advice to everyone who is an active smoker with a specific emphasis on those who have concurrent health issues.

Does Community Size Matter in the Settlement Process? The Experience of Syrian Refugees in Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.

The article documents refugee experience in the first year of their settlement in a small city in Canada and then explores whether the size of the community matters in the settlement processes. This is based on an extensive study of Syrian refugee settlement experiences in one large Canadian city (Edmonton) and one small Canadian city (Lethbridge). The findings argue that contrary to existing scholarly literature, small municipalities such as Lethbridge were more creative, nimble, and efficient in settling Syrian newcomers. In small cities, however, lack of denominational and non-denominational organizations to complement government assistance, the onset of compassionate fatigue among the city dwellers, and limited retention of newcomers due to limited employment opportunity are real threats to the settlement process immediately after newcomers’ arrival and in the long term. A more substantial role of municipal governments in the refugee resettlement process is recommended to offset the disproportionate burden settlement sector carries.

Making Canada Home: Snapshots of Syrian and Iraqi Newcomer Cultural Production in the Waterloo Region, 2016-2019

Since the beginning of the Syrian Crisis in 2011, millions of refugees from Syria and Iraq have been displaced. Over 25,000 Syrian newcomers settled in Canada between 2015 and 2016.1 The Region of Waterloo, home to a population of approximately 535,000 by 2016,2 was where about 2,000 of these newcomers settled.3 This article argues that these newcomers have used arts and culture to navigate the difficulties of settlement and acculturation. Evidence from newspaper articles, interviews, and participant observation indicates that refugees from Syria and Iraq in this region have utilized dance and theatre to develop community that retains cultural connections and identity linked with Syria and the greater Levantine region. Professional and community arts initiatives spearheaded by refugees showcase how culture and identity are caught up in continuous circulations of culture that are geographically situated in the Canadian context. For Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the Waterloo Region, acculturation, nostalgia, and assimilation are complex and powerful sites of community.

Syrian Refugees in Canada and Transculturalism: Relationship between Media, Integration and Identity

AbstractThe process of integration of Syrian newcomers into Canada is multifaceted. The Canadian government, in its efforts to welcome refugees, has provided services that smooth this process over on many fronts. While financial and support services are essential to feelings of comfort, safety and security, feelings of identity and belonging constitute a never-ending process. In a globalized world, country of residence can easily change, but attachment to issues in the country of origin enlists a much more complex relationship. This article seeks to explore Syrian newcomers’ pre-migration and post-migration experiences and the influence of such experiences on their sense of belonging and identification. This article also seeks to understand their media-consumption habits. In doing so, the level of involvement of Syrian refugees in issues of host society versus issues in Syria or the Arab world becomes apparent. Through highlighting their level of involvement, this research hopes to uncover the feelings of responsibility to democratic change and the revolutionary process in Syria.

Political and economic gamble: why two jurisdictions in Canada and Germany made the right decisions in welcoming Syrian newcomers, 2015-present

ABSTRACT In this analysis, we overlay two lenses, politics and economics, onto the work of educators involved in welcoming and integrating newcomers into two School Boards in Ontario, Canada and in schools across the State of North Rhine, Westphalia, Germany. Although the settings are on two distant continents, for many newcomers, Canada and Germany are where they see preferable futures for themselves and their children. We will highlight both the similarities and differences in these two settings. While Canada and Germany provide a global and national context, we ask readers to pay close attention to local, subnational jurisdictions, arguing that local jurisdictions can be more flexible and adaptable to human needs. As such, we attribute high levels of educator autonomy in Germany and professional discretion and influences in Canada as successful practices. Both nations and specifically these local jurisdictions have staked their reputations as healthy democracies and economies in their educational policies and practices with respect to newcomers. While most of the world’s nations have closed their borders, and use sovereignty and economics to support their decisions, Ontario and North Rhine, Westphalia have chosen a different pathway. Will they, through the work and knowledge of educators, demonstrate that education matters locally and globally?

Listening in Arabic

Abstract This article reflects upon three developments emergent from a feminist approach in research with Syrian newcomer mothers in Toronto, Canada. First, a feminist approach shapes how the authors build their research team and facilitate internal meetings as a diverse, multigenerational group open to learning from others. Second, a feminist approach requires that the authors center mothers’ words through the critical practice of ensuring shared Arabic language and local knowledge in the research process. The authors offer excerpts in Arabic and English from participants’ narratives to describe how giving nuance to multiple forms of expression is key to a feminist practice of translation. Third, the authors describe how this approach opens their project to involve a range of participatory-action activities driven by the voices and desires of participants. The authors end by summarizing their ethical and methodological practices in light of inequalities at the intersection of citizenship status, class, nation, race, and other categories of asymmetrical power. These inequalities shape the authors’ attempts to reorganize conventional participant-researcher and student-faculty dynamics in their work together.

Syrian refugee resettlement: A case study of local response in Hamilton, Ontario

This paper examines the response by local government and stakeholders to the arrival and resettlement of Syrian newcomers in Hamilton, Ontario in 2015 and 2016—the first major wave of refugee arrivals since two significant changes in Hamilton's settlement organizational landscape. The creation of a local immigration partnership called the Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council (HIPC) is an example of place‐based policymaking within local immigration and settlement in Canada. Place‐based approaches emerged to bypass top‐down policy ineffectiveness, and the shift to empower civic participation in the local decision‐making process is seen as one solution to public policy innovations. Examination of HIPC's role in this context is thus critical to understand the challenges and learnings encountered in one place‐based setting. Our findings suggest that the lack of power (in terms of information, communication, resources, and funding) led to a missed opportunity for HIPC to lead a significant resettlement initiative. HIPC's inability to bring together key partners across the sector prior to and during the event is symptomatic of systemic barriers the Council had faced, including competing interpretations of HIPC and its role by its members. This study suggests the effectiveness of place‐based policy is not without its nuances, and iterative challenges and learnings.

Healthcare needs and health service utilization by Syrian refugee women in Toronto

ObjectiveAccess to healthcare is an important part of the (re)settlement process for Syrian refugees in Canada. There is growing concern about the healthcare needs of the 54,560 Syrian refugees who were admitted to Canada by May 2018, 80% of whom are women and children. We explored the healthcare needs of newcomer Syrian women, their experiences in accessing and using health services, and the factors and conditions that shape whether and how they access and utilize health services in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).MethodThis community-based qualitative descriptive interpretive study was informed by Yang & Hwang (2016) health service utilization framework. Focus group discussions were held with 58 Syrian newcomer women in the GTA. These discussions were conducted in Arabic, audio-recorded with participants’ consent, translated into English and transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsParticipants’ health concerns included chronic, long-term conditions as well as new and emerging issues. Initial health insurance and coverage were enabling factors to access to services, while language and social disconnection were barriers. Other factors, such as beliefs about naturopathic medicine, settlement in suburban areas with limited public transportation, and lack of linguistically, culturally, and gender-appropriate services negatively affected access to and use of healthcare services.ConclusionResponding to the healthcare needs of Syrian newcomer women in a timely and comprehensive manner requires coordinated, multi-sector initiatives that can address the financial, social, and structural barriers to their access and use of services.

Transportation barriers to Syrian newcomer participation and settlement in Durham Region

This paper reports on the effects of inaccessibility on Syrian refugees in Durham Region, a municipality abutting the City of Toronto. The transport and social exclusion framework is applied to determine whether transport poverty leads to inaccessibility, and how this impacts participation in daily activities and the wellbeing of recently landed refugees. A mixed methodological approach consisting of focus groups, survey data collection, and accessibility analysis provides a thorough and valid depiction of the topics investigated. The findings clearly depict evidence of subjective inaccessibility and its negative impact on participation in social and discretionary activities. At the same time, inaccessibility was not determined to be effecting participation rates in many mandatory activities such as daily English language classes or childcare-related tasks. Most of the respondents overwhelmingly felt that their transportation situation was having a strong negative impact on several dimensions of wellbeing, including loneliness and sadness. Despite the strong subjective and emotional responses to perceived inaccessibility, GIS-based accessibility scores show that the survey respondents had higher levels of objectively-measured access to destinations when compared to the broader population of Durham Region, indicating the importance of qualitative assessments of perceived access. Overall, the research confirms the validity of the transport and social exclusion framework and its usefulness in understanding participation and settlement outcomes among refugee migrants within a suburban, North American context.

The Settlement Experiences of Syrian Newcomers in Alberta: Social Connections and Interactions

Syrian refugees resettling in Alberta face complex integration challenges. Social connections are a key foundation to successful integration. The goal of this exploratory study was to better understand the nature of social networks, social support and social capital among Syrian refugees arriving in Alberta in 2015 and in 2016. The study also focused on comparing the resettlement experience of refugees from larger centers and small centers in Alberta, differentiating the experience of government assisted refugees (GARs), privately sponsored refugees (PSRs) and blended visa office referred (BVOR) refugees. The data are drawn from a larger study that sought to understand the resettlement experience and the challenges faced by incoming refugees. A mixed method approach including surveys, community forums and interviews was used to collect data from five cities in Alberta. The study found that social relationships are crucial to settlement and integration. The importance of ethno-cultural communities, sponsors and community organizations in settlement and integration is discussed. Overall, the study found that while newcomers were making friends and building ties, these were still nebulous and largely focused on settlement needs or linking to socio-cultural community. GARs had stronger links to settlement agencies as compared to PSRs who were more closely linked to community networks. Refugees in smaller centers reported a higher level of belonging and reported more engagement with settlement or community organizations, but had lower rates of participation in recreation or religious activities. While most participants experienced a certain sense of belonging to Canada, they simultaneously felt challenged while managing settlement concerns and combatting racism and social exclusion.