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Comparing Canadian Born and Foreign Born Respondents. The Panel Study on Homelessness in Ottawa F. Klodawsky, T. Aubry, B. Behnia, C. Nicholson, M. Young. Outline of the Presentation. Foreign Born Respondents Design and Methods Results: Profile of Foreign Born Respondents
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Comparing Canadian Born and Foreign Born Respondents The Panel Study on Homelessness in Ottawa F. Klodawsky, T. Aubry, B. Behnia, C. Nicholson, M. Young
Outline of the Presentation • Foreign Born Respondents • Design and Methods • Results: • Profile of Foreign Born Respondents • Comparison with Canadian Born Respondents • Findings • Recommendations National Housing Day Ottawa
Design • Panel Study sampling goals: 25% of adult women and 40% of adults in families should not be Canadian citizens • Cultural interpreters were utilized whenever appropriate. • One Panel Study interviewer, trained as cultural interpreter, spoke Somali as his mother tongue and Arabic • Ninety-nine of 412 respondents were not born in Canada National Housing Day Ottawa
Methods • The original question on citizenship was not linked to reasons for arrival • But further discussion and research indicated that we should re-categorize respondents as immigrants (IMM) or as refugees (REF) • When comparing the situations of Canadian Born Respondents (CBR) and Foreign Born Respondents (FBR), and IMM and REF, we used matched samples based on sex and age National Housing Day Ottawa
Results • Profiles of Respondents • Distribution of Refugee and Immigrant Respondents • Sex • Age • Year of Arrival in Canada • Country of Origin • Comparisons Among Matched Samples • Number of Children • Reasons for Homelessness • Number of Time Homeless • Educational Attainment • Health Status • Health and Social Service Utilization National Housing Day Ottawa
Immigrant and Refugee Origins and Citizenship Status • REFUGEES • 52/99 respondents came to Canada as refugees; • 25% were Canadian citizens and 40% were refugee claimants • IMMIGRANTS • 47/99 respondents came to Canada as immigrants; • 60% were Canadian citizens National Housing Day Ottawa
Citizenship Status by Subgroup (#) National Housing Day Ottawa
Sex • PREPONDERANCE OF WOMEN AMONG FOREIGN BORN RESPONDENTS • 79% of foreign born respondents • 84% of refugees were female • 74% of immigrants were female • 87% of adults in families were female • AMONG CANADIAN BORN… • 48% were female National Housing Day Ottawa
Age • MAJORITY WERE WORKING AGE ADULTS • Smaller clusters of: • Immigrant youth • Refugees over 50 years of age National Housing Day Ottawa
Year of Arrival (%) National Housing Day Ottawa
Country of Origin • Somalia 22 Colombia 3 • United States 8 Kenya 2 • Haiti 6 Ukraine 2 • Unknown/Missing 7 Palestine 2 • Rwanda 5 Italy 2 • Djibouti 4 Burundi 2 • Zaire 3 Philippines 2 • Ethiopia 3 • D.R. Congo 3 • And one person each from: • Africa (Unspecified) Costa Rica Poland • The Gambia Angola England Saudi Arabia • Trinidad Armenia Eritrea Scotland • Vietnam Burk. Faso Guatemala Singapore • Yemen China India South Korea • Kuwait Sudan Lebanon National Housing Day Ottawa
Matched Comparisons FBR v. CBR IMM v. REF
Number of Children (%) National Housing Day Ottawa
Reasons for Current Episode of Homelessness (%) National Housing Day Ottawa
Number of Times Homelessness (%) National Housing Day Ottawa
Level of Education Attained (%) National Housing Day Ottawa
Norm-based Mental and Physical Health Component Scores (SF-36) National Housing Day Ottawa
One or more social or health service contacts in last 12 months (%) National Housing Day Ottawa
Overview • Overall, FBR in Ottawa have significantly different demographic characteristics and patterns of service usage than do CBN; differences between IMM and REF are less pronounced but noteworthy where they exist • Their reasons for being homeless are more likely to be explained by structural barriers, such as lack of access to: a) jobs, b) housing, c) child care and d) appropriate health and social services. National Housing Day Ottawa
Findings • Financial reasons, family violence and conflict, and reasons tied to being a refugee claimant dominate among the reasons for being homeless among FBR. • Higher family conflict possibly linked to FBRs’ greater propensity to extended family living, and to initial informal housing arrangements • Health and substance abuse problems are less significant among FBR overall. Probably due to citizenship screening but also resiliency among refugees. Needs more research. National Housing Day Ottawa
Recommendations • Pressing need for coordinated involvement by all levels of government (ie. federal government immigration policies are not well-coordinated with municipal level settlement services. • State programs and policies need to be focused, yet to recognize ways that different issues overlap (ie. Family violence, inadequate housing, stress, poverty) National Housing Day Ottawa
Recommendations (continued) • There is a clear need for greatly enhanced availability of permanently affordable, safe and appropriate housing • There is a clear need for greatly enhanced appropriate health and social services for newcomers National Housing Day Ottawa