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A house divided cannot stand

10 Aug 2009

Finding a safe and suitable place to live is perhaps the most important thing that a refugee claimant in Canada needs as soon as they arrive. Immediately after receiving permission to enter the country, they need to find a safe and clean place to lay their heads; a space in which they can settle into and plot their course. The immediacy of this need has resulted in many refugee claimants spending their first nights in settings that are not appropriate in the long term hotels, emergency shelters and for the fortunate who have contacts in Canada, on the couches of friends and/or family. The immediate need for shelter quickly transforms into the crucial need for a place that a person may one day call home. Without a home, claimants will find it extremely difficult to integrate in other ways, such as finding employment, going to school or sending their children to school, meeting new friends and establishing a support network, and so forth. These difficulties may be compounded by the health risks associated with homelessness and houselessness (Access Alliance 2002, Paradis 2008, Hulchanski 2004). Despite the importance of prioritizing housing in the refugee integration process, many claimants have an incredibly difficult time finding a place to call home. One of the reasons for their difficulties in this sector is that refugee claimants continue to suffer discrimination at both the structural level of Toronto's housing market as well as at the inter-personal level in their dealings with the housing gatekeepers- landlords and housing agencies.
human rights government education politics refugees discrimination copyright culture economic, social and cultural rights equal opportunity eviction government policy immigration law right to housing loan homelessness inclusion further education society fundamental rights landlord housing discrimination (united states) anti-discrimination houselessness housing discrimination landlady

Authors

Reid, Claire P

Pages
117
Published in
Canada

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