Both the youth and the adult refugees were asked to rate a number of issues with regard to settling in Canada on a scale of 1-5 where ‘1’ meant ‘not at all important’ and ‘5’ meant ‘very important’ (see Tables 6-9 and 6-8, Chapter 6). The youth responses are very similar to those of their parents; the only differences involve two items, namely, "having your own place of worship" and "having friends from the same cultural background." First, the Middle Eastern and Central/South American youth value the importance of having their own place of worship less than do their parents (74% vs. 89% and 74% vs. 84%, respectively). The other difference is that youth are less concerned about having friends of the same cultural background than are their parents.
By far the most important issue rated by all refugees for succeeding in Canada is learning English, followed closely by finding a good job. Although African respondents were significantly less concerned about finding a good job than refugees from other regions of origin, 85% saw it as an important issue nonetheless (see Table 6-8, Chapter 6). Nearly all refugees agreed that successful settlement necessitated being welcomed by local residents. When adult refugees were asked how important it was to be able to go to a settlement agency, the overwhelming majority stated that it was important or very important (91%). There was one significant difference here, however, in that East Asians were less likely than were members of other groups to view the accessibility of a settlement agency as being vital. Being able to find an interpreter was considered to be important or very important by the majority of respondents, but Central/South Americans, East Asians and former Yugoslavians saw this as significantly more important to successful settlement than did Africans and people from the Middle East.
Making Canadian friends and having access to a good bus system were both seen as important by all groups. There were some differences in responses to the importance of having relatives close by: only 68% of former Yugoslavians saw their relatives’ proximity as important or very important, in contrast to the Middle Eastern respondents, 90% of whom viewed this as a crucial condition for successful settlement. Considerations such as being able to buy preferred foods at a nearby store and having one’s own place of worship were not as important as the issues discussed above, but nonetheless, a majority of respondents overall valued these neighbourhood amenities as contributing to successful settlement. Significant differences did emerge across ethnic groups, however; East Asians were the least concerned with accessible foodstuffs, and Central/South Americans and people from the Middle East were most anxious to have their own place of worship.
Another indicator of successful settlement in Canada is personal income (for a comparison of refugees’ incomes with those of other host city residents, see Chapter 3). We asked refugees to comment on the adequacy of their current incomes, and we also asked them to compare their situation now to what it was a year ago. Finally we asked them to predict how their financial situation would change over the course of the next year to get a sense of their degree of optimism (see Table 7-13). When the refugees’ responses are compared by city of residence, there are no statistically significant differences. Nevertheless, there are some notable trends. Sixty-seven percent of respondents in Fort McMurray and 65% of refugees in Medicine Hat report having enough income to cover their living costs, while roughly half of the refugees in the other cities feel they have enough money to live on. While the average percentage of refugees who state they often have problems getting by is 17%, no one fits into this category in Fort McMurray. Roughly two thirds of all respondents declare that their financial situation has improved over the last year, while a quarter state that their income has remained the same. On average, 12% state that they are worse off than a year ago; however; no one in Fort McMurray falls into this category. Overall, 72% of adult refugees are optimistic that their financial situation will improve in the next year; 20% think that their position will be unchanged, and an average of 3% worry that they will be worse off.
Some significant differences across refugees groups are apparent when responses regarding income adequacy are grouped according to region of origin (see Table 7-14). More East Asians and Poles report having enough income to cover living costs (81% and 78% respectively) than do the other adult respondents, most notably the people from the Middle East (24%) and from Africa (30%). In addition, a minority of Central/South Americans (41%) think they have enough income to live on. Looking back over the past year, African, East Asian, and former Yugoslavians are significantly more positive about their financial situation (Table 7-14).
Significant differences were found in terms of the respondents’ optimism for the future as well. Eighty-five percent of Africans predicted that their financial situation would improve, compared with only 49% of Central/South Americans, 53% of East Asians, and 56% of Middle Easterners. Three quarters of former Yugoslavians are optimistic that their incomes will improve; this is no doubt tied, in part, to the fact that they are the most recent arrivals.
To determine whether refugees’ opinions about their current city of residence were parallel to those of the general public, we compared their responses on the following statements: (City) is a good place to live; (City) has good job opportunities; (City) is a good place to raise a family; and (City) people are friendly and welcoming (see Table 7-15). Interestingly, the refugees in Red Deer were as positive as and sometimes more positive about the community than were the local respondents to the public opinion survey (note especially that 92% of refugee adults feel that Red Deer residents are friendly and welcoming, while only 77% of the general public feel that way).
There was a noticeable difference between refugee adults and the public in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in terms of whether those cities are perceived to be good places to live. Refugees’ responses, although positive at 75% and 76% respectively, were considerably lower than those of the public. As for job opportunities, there was a clear difference between the refugees’ and the public’s perceptions. With the exception of those in Edmonton, the adult refugees in every community felt that their city had fewer good job opportunities than did the public. The youth responses differed from those of their parents in that the Edmonton and Calgary youth were very optimistic (86% and 84% thought that job opportunities were good), whereas the youth in the smaller cities were much more pessimistic (35% overall agreed that there were good job opportunities in their city).
Some intriguing differences appeared when people were asked whether their city of residence was a good place to raise a family. Refugees in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat were less enthusiastic about those cities than were members of the general public, but the situation was reversed in Fort McMurray, where refugees were more likely to agree that that city is a good place to raise a family.
Finally, when asked whether people are friendly and welcoming, the opinions diverged strongly in Medicine Hat: 84% of the public agreed that they are, whereas only 70% of refugee adults did so. It should be noted, too, that this percentage was the lowest of all the cities. There is an interesting anomaly in the responses of the youth in Edmonton, where only 59% agreed that people are friendly and welcoming, yet this is the city where 100% of youth reported that they had experienced no discrimination.