Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

Supervisor

Magalhaes, Lilian

2nd Supervisor

Evans, Marilyn

Co-Supervisor

Abstract

This environmental scan presents an overview of the settlement services and programs provided to refugee youth in Ontario for their integration and well-being. The settlement experiences of refugee youth, their needs and challenges, represent a burgeoning aspect of refugee integration studies. However, little attention has been paid to available settlement services within refugee integration studies. Since the facilitators and barriers pertaining to the integration of refugee youth are relatively well-documented, this environmental scan gathers and interprets information on the range of available settlement services and programs in respect to the indicators of integration for refugee youth in the cities of Toronto, Ottawa, London, and Hamilton, Ontario. Their needs were categorized into four key indicators of integration—education, employment, social context, and health and wellness—and then these indicators were used to analyze the available settlement services. Key findings revealed that the most common programs were settlement information and referrals as well as counselling and support programs, whereas LGBTQ+ programs were the least common. Furthermore, the need for more disaggregate data on this demographic was a challenge encountered during the scan. The significance of this environmental scan and its implications for future research, including practice and policy, are also discussed.

Keywords: Refugee youth, (re)settlement services and programs, integration, newcomer.

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