Notes
Integration timeline: not defined
Community organizations: Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWA)
Key populations: refugee mothers in the Multicultural Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program in Calgary
Key findings:
1) Mothers emphasized social wellbeing as a critical dimension of health, characterized by access to safe environments and availability of formal and informal social supports.
2) Mothers conceptualized and experienced health as interconnected with that of family members. Children’s wellbeing constituted a leading motivating factor for resettlement in Canada and a key source of resilience for parents.
3) Agency, self-efficacy, and resilience were highlighted as integral to health, particularly in relation to their importance in one’s ability to fulfill parental responsibilities and self-expectations.
4) Other key social determinants of health during resettlement that participants identified were language, education, employment, physical environment, and social support.
Key recommendations:
1) Implement policies that lessen the burden of women’s care work, and specifically childcare responsibilities, to ensure women have the time and resources necessary to explore and situate themselves in their new communities.
2) Expand and promote participation in community-based social programming with the dual and interconnected objectives of fostering mothers’ social networks and promoting structural, social, and cultural familiarity with their new environments.
Future research / gaps identified:
1) Better understand how the dynamic nature of gender roles, norms, and expectations during resettlement in Canada impact the mental health and access to services of various members of refugee households
2) Illuminate the pathways through which men experience gender and health during resettlement, and the implications on household wellbeing via their role as partners and fathers.
