Safe, But Worried About Food: The Case of Syrian Refugees in Canada
Safe, But Worried About Food: The Case of Syrian Refugees in Canada

Author(s): Ginny Lane, Hassan Vatanparast
Subject(s): Health and medicine and law, Migration Studies
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Safe; Worried About Food; Case; Syrian Refugees; Canada;
Summary/Abstract: Food insecurity is a persistent problem in Canada, especially among vulnerable population groups, such as ethnic minorities, immigrants, and refugees. In Canada, 12.7% of households were food insecure in 2017-2018; however, newcomers (immigrants and refugees) within their first five years in Canada more commonly experienced food insecurity (17.1%), as compared to longer-term newcomers (13.8%), and the Canadian-born (12.2%) (Tarasuk & Mitchell, 2020). Arab or West Asian households (immigrants and Canadian-born) were at particularly high risk of food insecurity (20.4%) (Tarasuk & Mitchell, 2020). The Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) does not present information on distinct immigration categories so refugee food security status distinct from that of economic immigrants cannot be determined. Other Canadian studies using the CCHS food security module have documented high rates of food insecurity among refugees, varying from 55% in Saskatchewan to 57% in Ontario (Lane et al., 2019; Tarraf et al., 2018). These two studies may have reached more vulnerable refugees that were excluded from the CCHS due to not speaking one of Canada’s two official languages (Tarasuk & Mitchell, 2020).

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