Chapter 4 Resisting Dehumanization Through Resettlement Based on Full Refugee Experiences

The Decision to Escape

Individuals and families are forced to flee their home countries for many reasons. In most cases, people are at risk of persecution for their religious beliefs, political affiliations, gender identities, or sexual orientations. This persecution can take the form of restrictions imposed by authorities (such as taking away an individual’s access to education, employment, ownership, or the right to vote), or it can take more even perilous forms, including the threat of arrest, imprisonment, torture, and execution. When individuals are identified as undesirable by authorities, their friends and relatives often distance themselves to avoid being seen as guilty by association. For many individuals, this period of ostracization and abandonment is when they begin to lose their faith in other human beings. For most people, the decision to flee comes when their lives in their home countries have changed irreparably and conditions have become unbearable.

My family and I were members of the Baha’i faith, a minority group in Iran. When we refused to convert, we lost our rights as citizens, our employment, and our properties. We were forced to forfeit our passports and were no longer allowed to enroll our children in the school system. Like many others, we did everything possible to live within the restrictions imposed upon us, but ultimately, the pressure became intolerable, and we chose to take the risk of becoming refugees, opting for an uncertain future in an unknown country over the ongoing threat of persecution.

The Initial Departure

For many refugees, the initial departure from their homes marks a moment of rupture in their lives. Between the decision to flee and the initial departure, there is a period of fear and extreme uncertainty. There are decisions to be made about who to leave behind, how to cover the cost of an illegal departure, where to go, and who to rely on for help. There is also the threat of discovery and punishment at the hands of the authorities for attempting to leave.

In my own case, I knew I had to take my elderly mother, my wife, and our two sons, who were six and four years old at the time. We had to come up with the money to pay smugglers by selling whatever we could, and we had to identify a route and a destination. During this period, I was confronted with so many fearful questions: How will I get the money? How can I entrust the lives of my loved ones to traffickers? What will happen if we get caught? How can I keep this secret from my own children and from my other family members?

In order to make our escape, I had to find a smuggler through a friend. I met this stranger on the street for ten minutes, handed him an envelope filled with cash, and listened carefully to his instructions, trying to remember every detail. Telling my wife and mother about the plan and seeing the fear in their eyes was an experience that has never left me. We had no contact with the smuggler again. We followed his instructions to leave Tehran and go to Isfahan, and from there to Zahedan, a border city with Pakistan. This journey was more than two thousand kilometres by bus. Every few hundred kilometres, revolutionary guards would come on board and question every passenger, especially the children, about their purpose in travelling to a border city.

At every checkstop, we listened as the guards questioned our boys and hoped they would repeat the same story we had asked them to memorize. Any wrong answer or suspicious move could have easily led to our arrest. When we finally reached the border town of Zahedan, a stranger approached us and asked a question. I gave the answer provided earlier by the smuggler and then put the lives of my loved ones in the hands of a total stranger. For the next three weeks, we stayed in dark and shabby places, walked through the desert, endured the cold at night, and were passed off between different groups of traffickers until we reached our final destination of Lahore, Pakistan.

Although I was a highly trained naval officer who had commanded ships during the Iran-Iraq War, I had never before experienced the fear that I felt during this journey with my family. After thirty-three years, I still experience sleeplessness every October, as I remember and relive our flight from Iran.

For many refugees, the trauma of the migratory experience has a lasting impact on their mental health and, without proper intervention and support, can impede their ability to move forward with their new lives.

The Waiting Period in the Country of Asylum

The experience of waiting in the asylum country is different for every refugee. For many, the initial arrival brings a sense of joy at having escaped unharmed; however, I’ve also witnessed people losing loved ones on their journey, leaving elders behind, or being mistreated by traffickers. In these cases, the relief of arriving in the country of asylum is tempered by the traumatic experiences of the journey it took to get there.

During this waiting period, new fears and uncertainties also arise. Refugees must secure essentials such as food and shelter for themselves and their families. To do so, they often have to rely on the generosity of strangers or, on rare occasion, find temporary employment. In camps, refugees often meet other individuals and families who arrived before them and can see the emotional and physical toll the waiting has taken on them. In the asylum country, many refugees also witness abuse on the part of locals, police, and other authorities. Again, seeing this type of mistreatment and lack of compassion is transformative for many refugees and can forever change their trust and faith in other human beings.

I was fortunate during this stage of my journey. I had lived in Pakistan for two years as a naval officer, so I felt comfortable with the environment and had connections to rely on. We also had the Pakistani Baha’i community, which, although small, was welcoming and supportive. Because of my experience living in Pakistan and my ability to speak English, I managed to secure a job as a teacher in an educational institution, with the help of a refugee advocate in Lahore. Two months after my arrival, I was invited to work for a joint initiative between the UNHCR and a Baha’i refugee support group to help the 1,800 Iranian refugees living in the area. This was the best thing that could have happened for me and my family. I could direct my anger and fear into something positive and productive, and this experience marked the beginning of my lifelong career assisting and advocating for refugees.

My experience during this waiting period was rare and fortunate. While I had the opportunity to work and my family received a great deal of kindness and generosity from the locals, I observed thousands of Afghani and Iranian refugees in the refugee camps in Lahore whose realities were much harsher.

The Arrival in the New Country and the Resettlement and Integration Process

I was also fortunate because my family eventually left Lahore and came to Canada to begin our new lives. As mentioned, close to ninety million people around the world have been displaced from their homes, but only a fraction (approximately fifteen out of every ten thousand refugees) will have a chance to resettle in a new country.

Although the numbers are small, the impacts of resettlement are significant. Here in Canada, we have had the opportunity to witness first-hand the profound effects of resettlement on refugees, host communities, and Canadian society at large.

Before the border closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada allocated 10 percent of its total annual immigration target of 350,000 to humanitarian purposes. This meant approximately twenty to thirty thousand refugees were welcomed to Canada each year. (Approximately eight thousand of these individuals were government-assisted refugees, ten to twelve thousand were privately sponsored refugees, and the remaining number were refugee claimants or asylum seekers.)

Canada also has an impressive track record of resettling large numbers of refugees in response to global crises. Canada, for instance, played an important role in welcoming and resettling Vietnamese, Lebanese, Sudanese, former Yugoslavian, Kosovar, and more recently, Syrian and Yazidi refugees.

Overall, Canada has been highly successful in its resettlement efforts, and I believe that refugees who are selected to come to Canada are among the most fortunate. The government has demonstrated a long-term commitment to and investment in refugee resettlement; as such, Canadian settlement agencies have acquired many years of experience and expertise when it comes to supporting refugees and are able to deliver a spectrum of services to help these individuals and families as they progress on their resettlement and integration journeys. These services begin with airport reception and temporary accommodations for refugees immediately upon their arrival and extend to orientation to Canadian culture and society, long-term language learning, employment training, and support with labour market integration.

In Canada, we also see more community support for refugees than in any other country. We see this on an individual level (with scores of Canadians waiting at airports to welcome Syrian refugees, for example, and many more seeking volunteer opportunities with local settlement agencies) as well as on an institutional level (with, for instance, schools welcoming refugee children and designing customized programs to support their integration and meet their learning needs). Increasingly, there are also programs to facilitate better knowledge of Indigenous peoples through welcome events and the sharing of information, such as about treaties.

Although first-generation refugees often struggle with the trauma of their experiences, most refugees in Canada show great resilience and go on to learn one of the official languages if they do not have it already, secure rewarding employment, and become active and vital contributors within their communities. In turn, most Canadians have gained an appreciation of the challenges that refugees have overcome and the wealth of experiences and diversity they bring to Canadian culture and society.

Although my wife and I had many advantages (including education, professional backgrounds, and experience working and living in other countries), our initial settlement in Calgary was not without its challenges. We still had to learn about and adapt to life in Canada and make every effort to uncover opportunities and build our social capital. My first job, two months after our arrival, was at a pizza shop. Although I later secured employment as a settlement counsellor with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS), I needed to balance both jobs, working fifteen hours a day for two years, to maintain a reasonable standard of living. Again, however, I consider myself to be a fortunate refugee.

As noted, I had the honor of serving recently arrived refugees as a settlement counsellor with CCIS. In this role, I saw first-hand the multiple barriers that many refugees face upon their arrival. Many come to Canada with little formal education, limited work experience, little to no official language skills, and few financial resources, and as mentioned, many are facing and processing a great deal of trauma. Through this work, however, I also saw that Canada’s resettlement program is on the right track, and many refugees are able to become contributing members of society.

Understanding and Addressing the Full Refugee Experience

By sharing my own story, I have tried to show that generally when refugees arrive in their destination country, they are typically midway through a challenging and transformative experience. They have completed the unsettling journey from their old lives to their new homes and are about to embark on the long pathway toward resettlement and integration. At this middle point, many refugees are at their most vulnerable. They have left behind everything that was familiar and are facing an unknown future in a country and culture where everything is strange and new. Many have also witnessed or experienced traumatic events that may have shaken their beliefs and values, impacted their mental and emotional health, and left them feeling very alone.

To date, resettlement and integration policies and processes in Canada have largely focused on addressing the immediate and basic needs of refugees upon their arrival. To fully support and expedite the resettlement and integration of refugees, however, I believe that policy-makers, practitioners, and host communities need to take into account what refugees have lived through and the impacts of these experiences. To improve resettlement outcomes, international, national, and local efforts should provide refugees with the customized resources and support they need to variously overcome past traumas, establish a sense of belonging in their new communities, rebuild their faith in humanity, and find and foster new hope for the future.

My journey led me from fleeing Iran as a refugee to ultimately becoming the chief executive officer of CCIS, a leading settlement organization in Calgary, Alberta. In this role, I’ve become an advocate for the development of policies and practices that recognize and address the full spectrum of refugee experiences. Within my own organization, my staff and I continuously work to design and deliver programs and services that not only address the immediate and basic needs of recently arrived refugees but recognize and respond to the emotional and psychological challenges many may face at the critical midpoint of their refugee journeys.

A key element of CCIS’s work is helping refugees acknowledge and process their traumatic experiences. In 2017, CCIS opened the Centre for Refugee Resilience (CRR). To date, the CRR is the only initiative in southern Alberta that has been designed to address the unique needs of refugees who have experienced violence, torture, and trauma. The CRR provides accessible, culturally sensitive services, including individual therapy for children and youth, individual therapy for adults, parent support, psycho-education workshops for individuals and their families, and social support groups. CRR case managers also bridge the gap between refugees and the mainstream health care system by assessing the specific needs of refugee clients, developing customized care plans, and working with local health service providers to ensure that refugees access available mental health support.

It is also important to note that refugees process their experiences differently depending on their age, among other factors. At CCIS, we provide customized interventions to support refugee children and youth as they cope with issues related to experiences of trauma, migration, resettlement, acculturation, socio-economic barriers, and isolation. Recognizing that the best mental health intervention for children is play, we offer summer camps, recreational activities, and art therapy workshops. Moving forward, I believe the ideal to support the resettlement and integration of refugees of all ages is to develop customized policies, programs, and practices that can address the causes, impacts, and manifestations of trauma in each unique individual.

While these individual interventions are essential, it is also important that we address refugee trauma on a larger scale. Policies and practices must work to ensure that public institutions and the broader community are aware, compassionate, and responsive to the mental health challenges that many refugees face upon their arrival, throughout their resettlement and integration, and even at different life junctures. Here at CCIS, we work in close partnership with school boards, the health care sector, and other service providers to ensure a collaborative approach to fostering the mental, physical, emotional, and social well-being of refugees; this includes sharing information on how to recognize trauma, how to create trauma-sensitive environments, and how to provide trauma-informed services and care.

This leads to another key element in the successful resettlement and integration of refugees, which is the involvement of the greater community. In 2015, at the outset of the Syrian refugee crisis, CCIS (in partnership with many other organizations) began actively mobilizing the community, including the public and private sectors, to prepare for the resettlement of over four thousand Syrian refugees in a very short period of time. To achieve this daunting task, CCIS (as the lead organization) established a community-wide approach wherein a steering committee (and subcommittees dedicated to housing, community, education, language support, employment, initial settlement, and the law) was developed to identify the needs of incoming refugees and the best practices for supporting their resettlement. This close partnership among the settlement sector, school boards, the health care sector, the private sector, and other service providers and community services helped create a collaborative and holistic approach to facilitating the successful integration of Syrian refugees into schools, workplaces, and the community at large.

More importantly, it signalled to Syrian refugees that the community was coming together to welcome and support them. As I have mentioned, upon their arrival, many refugees feel disheartened and alone. Because of their experiences in their countries and throughout the migratory process, many have lost faith in human kindness. Policies and practices that call upon the engagement of the community are therefore fundamental to ensuring that all refugees feel strengthened and supported by others and are able to move into their futures with renewed optimism and hope.

At CCIS, like many other resettlement agencies across Canada, we design and deliver programs and services that focus on this key element of fostering welcoming, supportive, and engaged communities. On this note, I would like to share one more unique initiative that CCIS has developed to foster a sense of belonging among newly arrived refugees. CCIS was formed in the late 1970s when a small group of church volunteers came together to support Vietnamese refugees arriving in Calgary. Since then, we have recognized the powerful impact that local volunteers can have on the lives of newcomers, and for close to forty years, we have offered a host program through which community volunteers have welcomed refugees into their lives and homes and provided them with practical guidance for daily life in Canada, community orientation, social and emotional support, access to social and community events, and opportunities to practice their English skills.

Recently, CCIS introduced an additional, innovative concept to connect refugees with their new communities and homes. The Land of Dreams farm is located on eight hectares of farmland just outside of Calgary, for which we’ve secured a multi-year lease. The farm provides farming plots to refugee families, matches them with local farming mentors who teach them regenerative farming practices, and connects them with the Indigenous community to learn about the history of the land. At the farm, refugees are able to spend time in nature with their hands in the soil while gaining a sense of belonging, building self-sustainability, and connecting with their new homes. Visiting the farm and seeing refugees and Alberta farmers sharing stories, watching children playing, and seeing people from such diverse backgrounds and experiences coming together to plant and grow something new has been very healing for me personally. It has also shown me the profound role that community plays in fostering resilience among refugees and restoring their hope for the future.

Conclusion

As you can see from my personal story and my work, I firmly believe that the only way to completely and successfully support the resettlement and integration of refugees is to understand and address refugee experiences through a fuller spectrum that includes resisting dehumanization as well as ways to find or rediscover faith in humanity. This means that policy-makers and practitioners must take into consideration not only the physical journey that refugees undertake but also the emotional, psychological, and spiritual impacts of this journey. It means that we have to develop client-centered policies that not only address refugees’ immediate and basic needs but also help them overcome their traumatic experiences and move forward with hope and optimism. It also means that we need to pay far more attention to the initial intervention for all categories of refugees to ensure that we are not adding to or prolonging the suffering and traumas they have experienced. Finally, we must collectively remember that resettlement is not only the responsibility of governments, policy-makers, or service providers. In fact, the successful resettlement and integration of refugees is only possible when the community comes together to create conditions where all refugees can heal and thrive.

A Note on COVID-19

Since I first agreed to write this chapter and share my thoughts on the refugee experience, the world has been profoundly shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic. Inevitably, questions have been raised about the impacts of this crisis on the resettlement and integration of refugees and how to support this vulnerable population through these unprecedented times. I would therefore like to share how my organization responded to the pandemic and what COVID-19 meant in the context of refugee experiences.

Like settlement agencies around the world, the primary concern for CCIS throughout the pandemic was mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 on the newcomer population, especially those who are most vulnerable. As I mentioned earlier, newly arrived refugees are typically at a critical midpoint in their journeys. They have transitioned from their old lives and are facing an unknown future. During this stage, many refugees feel fearful, disconnected, and very alone. The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant repercussions for most recently arrived immigrants and refugees. Hiring freezes, layoffs, school and daycare closures, and restrictions on in-person services at financial institutions and government and registry offices, for example, have stalled and disrupted many newcomers’ settlement and integration processes. But for those refugees who have limited supportive networks, who are coping with trauma, and who are trying to transition into their new lives, COVID-19 has posed a myriad of critical challenges.

At the outset of the pandemic, CCIS questioned how our refugee clients with significant cultural and linguistic barriers would access and understand up-to-date pandemic information and directives for protecting their health and safety. We were concerned about their ability to advocate for themselves in unsafe workplaces; access relevant resources, benefits, and services; and acquire food and medication. We also knew the devastating effects that quarantine procedures and social distancing would have on refugees who were already processing experiences of ostracization and feelings of loneliness and disconnection, as well as those whose traumatic experiences were rooted in imprisonment and isolation.

In response to these concerns, CCIS compiled a list of close to five hundred families that we considered to be at risk. In collaboration with other agencies and community partners, CCIS developed a detailed protocol and the Crisis Response Team to identify and address the needs of these families on a case-by-case basis, ensuring that they had access to vital information, resources, and culturally sensitive support. Through a centralized intake, the Crisis Response Team conducted individual assessments and created coordinated service plans to address newcomers’ immediate needs through direct resources, community referrals, and logistical support in the areas of family violence, mental wellness, health, housing, and food security.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only underscored the extreme vulnerability that typifies refugee experiences and the stages of their refugee journeys. In countries where refugees are resettled, I believe that one of the most important achievements is unquestionably the work done to ensure that, despite social distancing and isolation measures, refugees maintain a sense of community and connection and know that they are not alone.