Abstract
This article is a practice reflection of a social worker working with recent older refugees in Vancouver, Canada. Using an intersectionality lens, she will refer to four service areas to explain how recent older refugees can fall through the cracks. She will propose recommendations on practice at different levels.
Introduction
Due to different reasons, such as wars and political persecution, people in different parts of the world leave their countries of origin, seek international protection and become refugees. According to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the ‘Geneva Convention’) (UNHCR, 1951), refugees refer to people who face threats to their lives and freedom due to their race, religion, political opinions and other reasons and cannot stay in their countries of origin. Asylum-seeking refers to the process of seeking international protection from other countries.
Refugees in Canada
Since 1980, Canada has received 1,088,015 refugees (UN Refugee Agency Canada, 2021). From 2010 to 2020, the primary sources of refugees in Canada are Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey (Mir et al., 2020). The main reason refugees flee to Canada is political unrest in their countries of origin. From 2011 to 2016, about half of all refugees settled in large cities, and the main large city settlement destinations were Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver (Rose, 2019). The average age of refugees in 2016 was 29.9 (UN Refugee Agency Canada, 2021).
When refugees arrive in Canada, they receive assistance, such as temporary accommodation, food, clothes, and a monthly income sponsored by the Canadian government, private sponsors or both (Rose, 2019). The length of assistance is 1 year.
Recent older refugees in literature
There is limited literature on the recent older refugees. The literature often mixes immigrant older adults and older adult refugees (Johnson et al., 2019). Even when the literature focuses on older adult refugees, it mainly prioritizes settled older adult refugees rather than recent older refugees (Wang et al., 2017). There is some literature on recent refugees, but it focuses on recent refugees in other age groups, such as working-age groups (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, 2006), rather than older adults.
This article is my practice reflection as a social worker based on my 7 years of experience working with and observing recent older refugees in different settings (senior community services, geriatric hospital) in Vancouver, Canada. Using an intersectionality lens, I will refer to four service areas to explain that recent older refugees can fall through the cracks because of their multiple and intersecting identities. I will propose recommendations for social work practice.
Although this article is about Vancouver, Canada, it has international implications for social work practice. For example, in Australia, service providers expressed interest to learn more about working with recent elder refugees (NSW Refugee Support Network, 2017). Given that Canada and Australia share similar welfare states, service providers in Australia may be interested to learn more about the Canadian experience.
Definitions of terms
Intersectionality
The concept of intersectionality argues that a person has multiple identities (Crenshaw, 1989). Attached to these identities is power embedded in the structures. These identities put people in different social positionings. Some identities put them in a position of privilege, while some put them at a disadvantage. These identities do not separate but intersect. They reinforce/reduce people’s privileges/disadvantages, influencing their access to resources. The concept challenges the dominant discourse by focusing on one but ignoring other identities of a person, which hinders us from seeing some marginalized people being in a situation of multiple intersecting disadvantages.
Recent older refugees
Some groups of older adults are more vulnerable than others. Some of these vulnerable groups are newcomers and refugees who need to integrate into the new society.
This article will focus on three identities of recent older refugees: newcomer, refugee and older adult. Recent older refugees have far more than these three identities. However, due to the word limit, it is impossible to consider all identities. This article will focus on these three identities as, from my practice experience, the intersection of these three is the main reason why recent older refugees find it challenging to navigate the service systems and access to resources.
According to the Government of Canada (2010, 2021), ‘newcomers’ refer to people recently coming to Canada within the last 5 years, and ‘older adults’ refer to people aged 65 or above.
Recent older refugees fall through the cracks of the service systems
The following will explain how recent older refugees fall through the cracks by referring to four service areas and the intersectionality lens. The broad challenges which the recent refugee older adults face may be similar to other populations. However, how they are challenged is different due to the complex intersection of their identities as newcomers, refugees, and older adults.
Interpretation services
The language used in healthcare and social services in Vancouver is English. However, many refugees have no or limited English capacity. Service providers have access to immediate phone or pre-booked in-person interpreter services. However, by applying the intersectionality lens, we can see that it is highly challenging for recent older refugees to access the interpretation services. As newcomers, it is challenging to know they can request interpretation services. Due to aging-related degenerations, it can be challenging to use phone interpretation services as older adults. For instance, it is hard for an older adult with a hearing impairment to listen clearly to what the interpreter says on the phone. Furthermore, in-person interpreters need to be booked well in advance. Some service providers are reluctant to book an in-person interpreter because they consider booking troublesome.
Benefits
There are limited benefits to recent refugees after 1 year of assistance because they are expected to enter the Canadian labour market. However, it is challenging for recent older refugees to do so due to aging-related degenerations. There are pensions for older adults in Canada. Still, using an intersectionality lens, we can see that it is difficult for recent older refugees to access these pensions. Pensions consist of a contributory portion, which depends on the length and amount of participation in the Canadian labour market, and a non-contributory portion, which depends on the length of stay in Canada. As newcomers who have recently come to Canada, recent older refugees can hardly be qualified for either portion. They, therefore, rely on income assistance. The maximum income assistance is 700 CAD per month, which is limited if we consider the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver to be $1038 (Office of the Seniors Advocate, 2015).
Housing services
When refugees arrive in Canada, they are provided with temporary housing. After 1 year, the housing system expects them to look for housing in the private market. There are limited housing subsidies for newcomers or refugees, who are expected to enter the labour market and earn an income. However, as noted above, recent older refugees may be unable to work due to aging-related degenerations. There are housing subsidies for older adults in Vancouver but these are not open to people receiving income assistance. As discussed, recent older refugees have to rely on income assistance. By applying the intersectionality lens, we can see that recent older refugees do not have enough money to pay rent.
Healthcare services
Recent older refugees have complex physical and mental healthcare needs. As older adults, they have aging-related degenerations. As refugees, they have physical and mental issues due to the experience of violence and torture. As newcomers, they need healthcare support but are unfamiliar with the Canadian healthcare system. They would particularly benefit from a regular family practitioner; however, family practitioners hesitate to take on recent older refugees because they fear that their healthcare needs will be too complex to handle.
Reflection and recommendations on social work practice
I will propose recommendations for social work practice referring to the Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). According to the theory, a person is influenced by different levels of systems surrounding them. The benefit of referring to this theory is that it guides me to consider practices of systems at different (micro, meso and macro) levels. Yet, the limitation is that I could be overwhelmed because a person could be influenced by many systems (Wakefield, 1996). To avoid being overwhelmed, I limit my suggestions to one or two recommendations at each level.
Micro-level
Social workers can introduce resources to recent older adult refugees, explain the potential advantages and disadvantages of them and let them decide to use them or not. If they decline the resource, social workers should respect that, honouring self-determination. For instance, they may decline interpretation services because they fear the interpreter will break confidentiality.
Social workers should understand the strengths and resources of recent older refugee clients, honouring a strength-based approach. Although they may not have a support network, being new in Canada, they may have one in their places of origin that can be connected to via technology (e.g. smartphone) to provide them emotional and interpretation support (UNHCR, 2021). However, potential barriers for them to access technology include not being able to afford the device or not having the skills to use it.
Meso-level
Some professionals may hesitate to take recent older refugees considering their needs to be too complex and heavy. Social workers may write a letter to present the clients’ strengths. However, that may take away clients’ power to express themselves. Yet, clients may be unable to write the letter by themselves, because they may have different challenges such as language barriers and unfamiliarity with the systems. One possible solution is that social workers and clients co-write the letter. The social workers draft the letter, go through it with the clients and the clients give input and suggest revisions.
More regular professional training should be provided to social workers working with recent older refugees, considering the challenges and vulnerability of this population. In Canada, an example where professional training resources can be found is the Practice Resources section of the Canadian Association of Social Workers (2022) website.
Macro-level
Social workers can advocate with recent older refugees for more resources, such as adequate benefits and subsidized housing, and let the government see that the current service systems do not meet the needs of recent older adults.
This article used Vancouver, Canada, as a case example to explain how recent older refugees fall through the cracks of the service systems. It also suggested recommendations at micro, meso and macro levels. In the future, it will be beneficial to collect experiences of social workers working with recent older refugees from places other than Vancouver or practising in different settings.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
