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RCIS Digital Series, Session 3 – Refugee Resettlement and Integration in Canada: Lived Experience, Lessons Learned, and Promising Practices
- Date
- November 19, 2020
- Time
- 5:00 PM EST - 7:00 PM EST
- Open To
- Students, Faculty, Public
- Contact
- rcis@torontomu.ca
Refugee Resettlement & Integration Series – Session 3
Between October 2020 and February 2021, the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement (RCIS) hosted a six-part digital series focused on Canada’s approach to refugee resettlement and integration. The series aimed to engage stakeholders to consider Canada’s approach to refugee resettlement and identify changes to policy and practice that will make Canada more inclusive and responsive to refugees’ needs. Over the course of the six sessions, refugees, settlement workers and service providers, policymakers, researchers, and students were brought together to share insights and lessons learned from lived experience, settlement practice, and research.
The third session of the series took place on November 19th, 2020 and featured three speakers – Mohamad al Chebli, Wael Wahba, and Hasan al Shebli – discussing their lived experiences of refugee resettlement in Canada. The speakers responded to questions in Arabic and English interpretation was subsequently provided by Mounir Nasri, a Social Entrepreneur and Advisor in the field of Community Development. The session was moderated by Genevieve Ritchie, a Doctoral candidate in Adult Education and Community Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto.
- 0:03 (external link) – Welcome by Dr. Usha George, Director of the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement
- 6:18 (external link) – Introduction to moderator, Genevieve Ritchie
- 8:50 (external link) – Introduction to first speaker, Mohamad al Chebli
- 9:17 (external link) – Introduction to second speaker, Wael Wahba
- 20:09 (external link) – Introduction to third speaker, Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 20:46 (external link) )
Initial settlement experience
- 13:52 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 14:30 (external link) )
- 14:59 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 15:47 (external link) )
- 16:08 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 16:41 (external link) )
- 17:18 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 17:26 (external link) )
- 17:52 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 18:27 (external link) )
- 18:52 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 19:27 (external link) )
Organizations accessed and barriers faced
- 22:17 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 23:12 (external link) )
- 24:06 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 25:03 (external link) )
- 26:43 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 28:29 (external link) )
- 30:14 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 31:32 (external link) )
Importance of Arabic speaking community to initial settlement
- 33:06 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 33:48 (external link) )
- 34:15 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 34:52 (external link) )
- 35:20 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 35:58 (external link) )
Gaps in settlement services
- 37:06 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 37:35 (external link) )
- 38:05 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 38:37 (external link) )
- 39:02 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 39:55 (external link) )
Access to housing
- 40:46 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 41:40 (external link) )
- 42:30 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 42:40 (external link) )
- 43:17 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 44:17 (external link) )
Access to employment
- 46:32 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli
- 47:05 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 47:38 (external link) )
- 48:24 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 49:03 (external link) )
- 49:40 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 50:13 (external link) )
Employment strategies
- 51:26 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 51:48 (external link) )
- 52:11 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 52:50 (external link) )
- 53:49 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 54:37 (external link) )
The Canadian education system
- 56:29 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 56:49 (external link) )
- 57:18 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 57:43 (external link) )
- 58:20 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 59:11 (external link) )
- 1:00:03 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 1:01:02 (external link) )
Perception of Canada before arrival and how perception has shifted
- 1:02:23 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 1:04:01 (external link) )
- 1:05:35 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 1:07:00 (external link) )
- 1:08:57 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 1:09:45 (external link) )
- 1:10:33 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 1:12:11 (external link) )
- 1:13:13 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 1:13:33 (external link) )
- 1:14:46 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 1:15:10 (external link) )
- 1:16:05 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 1:17:13 (external link) )
Government assistance to refugees and how to improve the settlement system
- 1:19:17 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 1:20:07 (external link) )
- 1:20:55 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 1:22:05 (external link) )
- 1:24:02 (external link) – Hasan al Shebli (English interpretation at 1:24:39 (external link) )
- 1:25:59 (external link) – Mohamad al Chebli (English interpretation at 1:28:09 (external link) )
- 1:31:37 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 1:33:30 (external link) )
- 1:35:03 (external link) – Wael Wahba (English interpretation at 1:36:26 (external link) )
- 1:38:11 (external link) – Discussion
This series was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Series coordinators: Saad El Hakmi and Sohail Shahidnia
Series director: Dr. Usha George
Series producer: Tearney McDermott
TMCIS occupies space in the traditional and unceded territory of nations including the Anishnaabeg, the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, and territory which is also now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. This territory is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, as well as the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas.