“Canada accepts many refugees and many of them remain here. The more effectively the system takes care of [their] health and availability of services at the beginning, the healthier residents [Canada] will have.”
— Yevheniia Ternova, member of the Refugee Health YYC Patient Advisory Committee
We are two scholars with personal experience in refugee communities. Although we represent different generations, cultures, continents, languages and customs, we discovered that as former refugees, we shared many similarities.
We were both refugee children in rural Alberta: One from Syria, the other born to Uruguayan refugees. Both our families were displaced by war and violence. One from the ongoing Syrian civil war and the other, South America’s infamous “dirty wars” and Operation Condor. We were both raised in exile and navigated the challenges of poverty. We have both experienced racism’s bitter sting, one as an Arab girl, the other as a South American boy.
However, as we arrived in Canada, we also received many opportunities refugees everywhere desperately seek: A chance to contribute to society, to thrive, to live in peace.
We have both achieved some success. We are a practising internal medicine physician and academic who teaches, studies and cares for resettled refugees and a first-year Canadian medical student. We recognize our privilege and it fuels our desire to pay forward opportunities to displaced peoples in Canada.
As the academic arm of one of Canada’s largest continuously operating refugee clinics, we at Refugee Health YYC,
strive to integrate refugees’ perspectives in our work.
To identify refugees’ health issues, and develop a research agenda that addresses their health concerns, we conducted preliminary research with forcibly displaced newcomers within a new community-engaged project in Calgary, the western hub of refugee settlement in Canada.
Research shows that health-care approaches that are collaborative and include the community members they serve work. Community-based-participatory research can improve health-care communication, and tailor program design, acceptability and effectiveness among vulnerable communities. Ultimately this promotes long-term healthy resettlement and integration.
Read more:
Healing through witnessing: Documenting the stories of Yazidi refugees in Canada
Table of Contents
Refugees are a growing population
According to the latest United Nations Refugee Agency report, the global number of forcibly displaced people is at 117.3 million. And the number keeps growing: we are in the 12th consecutive year of increase, with further increases projected due to climate change and other global issues.
Nearly 437,000 of those displaced people, including 53,800 refugees arrived in Canada last year. Canada led all refugee resettlement countries from 2018-2022. Therefore refugees represent a crucial population of future Canadians.
Refugees should help set the agenda
For our preliminary research, we worked with a culturally diverse Patient Advisory Committee (PAC) in Calgary. The PAC represented forcibly displaced refugees, asylum claimants and evacuees from various countries. Through a rigorous four-step process the PAC identified and ranked their own health and research priorities across different phases of resettlement.
Our preliminary findings from this proof-of-concept study suggest that refugees alone (without experts’ involvement) can successfully set their own health priorities and a research agenda to address them. To our knowledge, our study is unique.
Our latest findings not only reinforce this practice but also provide concrete evidence that inclusive, community-driven approaches are both feasible and effective. Without inclusion, we cannot address existing health inequities that plague Canada.
Our research demonstrates that refugees can set their own priorities and leverage their diverse knowledge to propose innovative solutions to existing health barriers. This can help guide leaders in health care to develop low-cost, refugee-informed strategies that create more inclusive health-care systems and services across Canada.
Making a country stronger with stronger refugees
Supporting refugees fosters a stronger Canada. Once here, according to a recent report by the United Nations Refugee Agency, refugees say they feel deep belonging to Canada. Many of them become citizens, start businesses and research shows that their children complete high school, college, university and graduate degrees at high rates, thus contributing to our economy.
When Canadian institutions meaningfully include refugees and provide opportunities they thrive and eagerly give back — creating a virtuous cycle of support and contribution that benefits everyone.
Health care is a human right
As the number of forcibly displaced people skyrockets, community health organizations, governments and everyday Canadians must explore ways to actively integrate refugees and newcomers into workplaces, schools, communities and daily lives. With support, most refugees can move from places of trauma and loss to thriving and opportunity.
Refugees need supportive communities with good public schools, libraries — and health care. These are critical ingredients that can lead to success. Health care is a human right.
When we meaningfully support and include refugees in our communities they thrive and eagerly give back. This creates a cycle of support and contribution that not only benefits refugees, but benefits the country as a whole.
Gabriel Fabreau receives research funding from CIHR, IRCC, O’Brien Institute for Public Health and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute.
Deyana Altahsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
