Refugee Settlement Challenges
The journey of a refugee is one that is both time-consuming and frustrating. Refugees have unimaginably difficult lives: being forced out of their country and being forced to live in an unknown place. The unknown is frightening for us all, but to a refugee, life itself is one big mystery. Why? Because the settlement challenges of a refugee are undeniably endless. With the mystery of whether the place they live now will be the same as tomorrow, the mystery of whether they will see their beloved family again, and overall, the mystery of whether their life will ever be stable.
What is a refugee?
“Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country.”
82.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes.
Of those 82.4 million, 26.4 million are refugees, 42% are under the age of 18.
The Language Barrier
Fleeing to a new country is complicated; but, going to a new country where you don’t speak the language is truly arduous. One of the main challenges a refugee can experience is low language skills or misunderstandings. The wait for a translator or language instructor is an excruciatingly long one and it makes simple tasks 10x harder than they should be.
With mistranslations and miscommunication, jobs for refugees are tough to get.
With mental health illnesses being common for refugee’s, the language barrier makes the process of receiving treatment much harder — even for those who need it the most.
Employment Challenges
Refugees usually have already low levels of education — making it much more difficult to find suitable jobs. Even with lower education, the process of getting foreign education credited for is a long and exhausting task that may not be accounted for. Furthermore, the jobs that refugees get are usually labor jobs with gruesome hours.
The ten most common jobs for refugees:
- Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products
- Personal Appearance Workers
- Plasterers and Stucco Masons
- Sewing Machine Operators
- Drywall Installers, Ceiling Tile Installers, and Tapers
- Agricultural Workers
- Tailors, Dressmakers, and Sewers
- Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners
- Pressers, Textile, Germanet, and Related Materials
- Taxi Drivers and Chauffeurs
As you can see, jobs given to refugees rarely involve math or science due to their low education levels.
Mental Health
Refugees are prone to mental health problems due to the trauma gained from war (the main reason a refugee becomes a refugee). There are also many other reasons for a refugee’s mental health issue such as the journey of a refugee’s preflight, flight, and resettlement. Many refugees suffer from mental health disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, etc. In fact, the depression rates for only child refugees range from 50%-90%!
Housing
Shelter is a human right. Shelter is a human necessity — or at least it should be.
In 2015 the Canadian government promised the resettlement of over 25 000 Syrian refugees in four months; this was shown to be a great challenge. Cities such as Toronto and Vancouver were in desperate need of an increase of shelter homes for refugees as the shortage was severe. This affects refugees greatly because with no home, how will they be able to create the life they wish to have?
Another issue that came to eye was the issue of keeping large families together. With already low amounts of shelter homes, the spaces available to keep large families together were nearly transparent — creating reasonable issues for refugees.
Not to mention, the freedom to choose. It is apparent that most refugees are forced into a home displacement instead of being able to choose where, and with who.
Overall, there are evident struggles for refugees in finding a secure home and even a secure place to just spend the night.
Concluding Remarks
It is important to be mindful of those around us, you never know the struggles a person may have took to get to where they are today. Refugees unquestionably go through many unimaginably difficult challenges, and go through much more unfair struggles to create a dependable life. With these challenges in mind, this sentence has been linked to a Toronto refugee charity, anything is greatly appreciated.
The Matthew House charity of Toronto acknowledges the struggles that refugees face when coming to Canada. Some find sponsorship; however, many do not. In Canada, there are no formal services to help support refugees and this issue. With your help, they can ensure that refugees have a safe place to lay their head everyday.
CHARITY: https://www.matthewhouse.ca/
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