Resettling Refugees' Social Housing Stories

May 30, 2019
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This paper is a companion piece to the report, Making Social Housing Friendly for Resettling Refugees. The intention with the present paper is to build on our assessment in the previous work. Ultimately, we are interested in understanding the relationships between cost of housing, suitability of housing, and the resettlement process. In many respects, the parameters and conditions of resettlement vary from family to family and individual to individual. However, for many former refugees, resettlement trajectories will involve important considerations like employment, social supports, acculturation, family reunification, language acquisition, education and employment training, establishing new forms of community, and providing care for self and family (including family that remains overseas). These commonalities are what make refugee resettlement a matter for social policy: we as a society can do better to welcome former refugees into our communities and provide the supports needed to help them get their lives in Canada off to the best possible start. Obtaining adequate and affordable housing is central to this undertaking. This paper includes the accounts of nine interviewees who have desired to have, applied for, or attained social housing.

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ISBN: 
978-1-77125-454-0