Syrian Refugee Lived Experience Project

Canada is a place populated mostly of people who have been arriving from elsewhere for almost 400 years, coming for economic opportunity, to join family or as refugees. In 2015, through an unprecedented national mobilization of government, the settlement sector and Canadian citizens, the country opened its doors to accept refugees fleeing the humanitarian crisis in Syria, resettling close to 40,000 refugees within the space of a year. How have these refugees fared in their new country and lives, and what can be learned from their experience that might benefit future refugees? These questions were addressed through a national research study conducted in 2020-21, consisting of in-depth interviews with a representative sample of 305 Syrian refugees who arrived in the 2015-16 period.

The research reveals that this cohort of Syrian refugees, as a whole, has successfully resettled in Canada in just a few years following their arrival in the country. Many encountered early challenges – as any such group of refugees would – in terms of navigating a foreign language, finding employment, dealing with the practicalities of finding a place to live and setting up a household, finding schools for children, and making sense of an unfamiliar culture. Most overcame or made significant progress in meeting these and other challenges, and – the diversity of this cohort in terms of background and circumstances notwithstanding – the predominant picture is one of people who have established new lives in a country they now consider their home. These findings largely confirm and expand upon previous research conducted in the initial years of this cohort’s time in Canada.

Survey Details

The research consisted of in-depth interviews with a representative sample of 305 Syrian refugees, conducted between September 2020 and March 2021. The survey sample was national. The original plan was for interviews to be conducted in-person, but this methodology was changed due to restrictions on in-person meetings resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviews were conducted by telephone or webchat, in participants’ preferred language (with most choosing Arabic).

Funder

The project was funded through Contribution Agreements provided by the federal department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The findings and conclusions are those of the Environics Institute, and do not represent the position of the Government of Canada.