Canada has a long history of resettling refugees escaping from war, as well as an unique private sponsorship program that dates back to 1970s. This, combined with a sustained public interest in the humanitarian assistance of refugees and the attention placed by the media on the well-being of resettled refugees, has resulted the flourishing of literature regarding the assimilation and economic integration of refugees into Canadian society over the past few decades (Madokoro, 2016: 236).
Drawing from government data and statistics, many researchers emphasises the role of language acquisition, the achievement of working proficiency in one of Canada’s official languages, as one of the most important determining factors of a refugee’s ability to…show more content… The inadequacy of the programs provided by the Canadian government, such as the one-year long Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program, has been well documented. For example, Krahn et al. (2000) reported that 15% of survey participants indicated that they felt the one-year English language program provided by the government is inadequate and/or are not directly relatable to their jobs (73). Yu et. al. (2007) found that refugees with low levels of formal schooling tends to perform very poorly in these classroom-style instruction-based courses, and thus finding it more difficult to obtain necessary language skills (25). Beiser and Hou (2000) also found that many refugees found the need to combine these courses with other methods, such as “pursuing formal education, using the dominant culture media, and studying with a private language tutor” to obtain required language skills (314). The same issues seem to remain today. While the LINC program is still in place, the difficulties in enrolling in these courses due to the reduced classroom capacities after years of Conservative spending cuts has been reported anecdotally in major newspapers (Zilio 2016). Long waitlists as well as logistical and psychological…show more content… Among these concerns is how conflicting priorities across both federal and provincial governments can further hinder the integration of these refugees into Canadian society. For example, Sherrell et. al. (2005) documented the unsuccessful attempts of the Albertan government of settling Yugoslavian refugees in second and third tier cities as a method to replenishment declining populations. However, many of these communities’ lacks appropriate government services, employment opportunities, and support networks, compelling over two-thirds of refugees to eventually move to larger urban centers (882, 886). Meanwhile, the significant disparity between the adaptation and integration experiences of government-assisted and privately sponsored refugees is also well documented. Media interviews with refugee families suggests that privately sponsored refugees adapt to Canadian society with more ease, due to the strong support networks that private sponsors provide compared to government assisted refugees, who rely on oft understaffed government agencies. This difference is especially obvious one year after settlement, when government assistance ends completely for government assisted refugees (Carreiro, 2016). The quantitative analysis
