Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The Emotional City: Refugee Settlement and Neoliberal Urbanism in Calgary

  • Published:
Journal of International Migration and Integration Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Based on a case study in Calgary, we frame refugee (re)settlement through literature in emotional geography and argue that the logistics of settlements are emotional as well as pragmatic. Social agencies play a crucial role in the settlement of refugees, especially the government-sponsored class. Personal connections with a settlement worker make the negotiation of the city emotional from the outset. In addition, accessible public spaces and institutions help create positive emotional attachments. Other aspects, such as limited mobility and dispersed settlement, construct obstacles and intensify a sense of isolation. Neoliberal urban policy has made the settlement process in Canada more difficult.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We use the term “(re)settlement” in the first instance to acknowledge and emphasize the upheaval of the migration process. Our use of “settlement” thereafter refers only to settlement in Canada, and is not intended to imply refugees who were never “settled” elsewhere or any similar negative connotation. Refugees selected abroad and “resettled” in Canada receive support through the federally funded Resettlement Assistance Program, while people who arrive at or in Canadian territory and make a claim for refugee status do not receive federal support for settlement services until they are granted refugee status. Refugee claimants do have limited access to provincial health care systems through the Interim Federal Health Plan, which is funded by the federal government and covers emergency or acute care.

  2. In Toronto, a youth-led, community-based research project is underway that explores the experiences of Sudanese, Afghan, and Karen refugee youth in the first 5 years after migration. Research questions focus on the roles and responsibilities refugee youths take on in their families and communities and on the challenges they face in the school system. For further information on the project, see: http://accessalliance.ca/research/activities/refugeeyouthhealth.

  3. All figures are drawn from Statistics Canada 2006, unless otherwise indicated.

  4. The Census Metropolitan Area extends well beyond the city limits, encompassing more than 5,000 km2.

  5. In 2000, Banff canceled its library fees, the first major library board in the province to do so; a few others have followed.

References

  • Abu-Laban, B., Derwing, T., Krahn, H., Mulder, M., & Wilkinson, L. (1999). The Settlement Experiences of Refugees in Alberta. A study prepared for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration and Population Research Laboratory (Revised Edition, November 15, 1999).

  • Anderson, K., & Smith, S. J. (2001). Editorial: Emotional geographies. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 26(1), 7–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basu, R. (2007). Negotiating acts of citizenship in an era of neoliberal reform: the game of school closures. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 31(1), 109–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beiser, M., Johnson, P. J., & Turner, R. J. (1993). Unemployment, underemployment and depressive effect among Southeast Asian refugees. Psychological Medicine, 23, 731–743.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernhard, J. K., & Freire, M. (1997). Caring for and teaching the children of refugee families. In K. M. Kilbride (Ed.), Include me too: human diversity in early childhood education (pp. 177–196). Toronto: Harcourt Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bondi, L., Davidson, J., & Smith, M. (2005). Introduction: Geography’s ‘emotional turn’. In J. Davidson, L. Bondi, & M. Smith (Eds.), Emotional geographies (pp. 1–16). Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunting, T., & Filion, P. (Eds.). (2000). Canadian cities in transition (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caidi, N., & Allard, D. (2005). Social inclusion of newcomers to Canada: an information problem? Library and Information Science Research, 27(3), 302–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Calgary Public Library. (2010). Calgary public library. http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/. Accessed 30 June 2010.

  • Calgary Public Library Foundation (CPLF). (2010). About the foundation. http://blog.calgarypubliclibrary.com/blogs/cpl_foundation/archive/2009/05/06/2765.aspx. Accessed 30 June 2010

  • Chambon, A., McGrath, S., Shapiro, B., Abai, M., Dudziak, S., & Dremetsikas, T. (2001). From interpersonal links to webs of relations: creating befriending relationships with survivors of torture and war. Journal of Social Work Research and Evaluation, 2(2), 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Community Social Planning Council of Toronto & Family Service Association of Toronto. (2006). On the front lines of Toronto’s immigrant- and refugee-serving sector. http://www.fsatoronto.com/programs/social/front%20linesimmigrrefugeesector2006.pdf. Accessed 22 July 2009.

  • Creese, G. (2010). Erasing English language competency: African migrants in Vancouver, British Columbia. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 11(3), 295–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Addario, S., Hiebert, D., & Sherrell, K. (2007). Restricted access: the role of social capital in mitigating absolute homelessness among immigrants and refugees in the GVRD. Refuge, 24(1), 107–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, J., & Milligan, C. (2004). Editorial: embodying emotion sensing space: introducing emotional geographies. Social & Cultural Geography, 5(4), 523–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devoretz, D., Pivnenko, S., & Beiser, M. (2004). The economic experience of refugees in Canada. RIIM Working Paper no. 04–04. Vancouver: Vancouver Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fanelli, C., and Paulson, J. (2010). Municipal malaise: neoliberal urbanism and the future of our cities. Centre for Research on Globalization website. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19246. Accessed 15 January 2011.

  • Fantino, A. M., & Colak, A. (2001). Refugee children in Canada: searching for identity. Child Welfare, 80(5), 587–596.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, J. (2009). ‘You cannot settle like this’: the housing situation of African refugees in Metro Vancouver. RIIM Working Paper no. 09–02. Vancouver: Vancouver Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis.

    Google Scholar 

  • George, U., & Chaze, F. (2009). ‘Tell me what I need to know’: South Asian women, social capital and settlement. Journal of International Migration and integration, 10(3), 265–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gough, J. (2002). Neoliberalism and socialisation in the contemporary city: opposites, complements and instabilities. Antipode, 34(3), 405–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, D., & Schmitt, N. (2001). Do birds of a feather flock together? The role of cultural clustering in attracting new immigrants. RIIM working paper no. 01–11. Vancouver: Vancouver Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, T. W. (Ed.). (2005). The return of the Trojan horse: Alberta in the new world (dis)order. Montreal: Black Rose Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, K. D., Lowe, G. S., & McKinnon, A. L. (1996). Public attitudes towards budget cuts in Alberta: biting the bullet or feeling the pain? Canadian Public Policy - Analyse de Politiques, 22(3), 268–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyndman, J., & McLean, J. (2006). Settling like a state: Acehnese refugees in Vancouver. Journal of Refugee Studies, 19(3), 345–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isin, E. F. (2007). City.state: critique of scalar thought. Citizenship Studies, 11(2), 211–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kazemipur, A. (2008). Social capital profiles: immigrants and the native-born in Canada. Prairie Metropolis Centre, Working Paper No. WP02-08.

  • Krahn, H., Derwing, T., Mulder, M., & Wilkinson, L. (2000). Educated and underemployed: refugee integration into the Canadian labour market. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 1(1), 59–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lacroix, M. (2004). Canadian refugee policy and the social construction of the refugee claimant subjectivity: understanding refugeeness. Journal of Refugee Studies, 17(2), 147–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamba, N. K. (2003). Social capital and refugee resettlement: the social networks of refugees in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 3, 335–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewchuk, W., DeWolff, A., King, A., & Polanyi, M. (2003). From job strain to employment strain: health effects of precarious employment. Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society, 3, 23–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ley, D., & Smith, H. (2000). Relations between deprivation and immigrant groups in large Canadian cities. Urban Studies, 37(1), 37–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowey, M. (2002). Cities shortchanged: cutbacks and “downloading” force cities into a tight spot. Alberta Views, 5(1), 27–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mardiros, S. (2001). Banff’s very public library. Alberta Views, 4(1), 37–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLafferty, S., & Preston, V. (1996). Spatial mismatch and employment in a decade of restructuring. Professional Geographer, 48, 420–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, B. (2006). Modes of governance, modes of resistance: Contesting neoliberalism in Calgary. In H. Leitner, J. Peck, & E. S. Sheppard (Eds.), Contesting neoliberalism: urban Frontiers (pp. 223–249). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miraftab, F. (2000). Sheltering refugees: the housing experience of refugees in Metropolitan Vancouver, Canada. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 9(1), 42–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murdie, R. A. (2008). Pathways to housing: The experiences of sponsored refugees and refugee claimants in accessing permanent housing in Toronto. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 9(1), 81–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murdie, R. A., & Teixeira, C. (2003). Towards a comfortable neighbourhood and appropriate housing: immigrant experiences in Toronto. In P. Anisef & M. Lanphier (Eds.), The world in a city (pp. 132–191). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble, G., & Poynting, S. (2008). Neither relaxed nor comfortable: The affective regulation of migrant belonging in Australia. In R. Pain & S. Smith (Eds.), Fear: Critical geopolitics and everyday life (pp. 129–138). Aldershot: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pain, R. (2001). Gender, race, age and fear in the city. Urban Studies, 38(5/6), 899–913.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peck, J., & Tickell, A. (2003). Neoliberalizing space. In N. Brenner & N. Theodore (Eds.), Spaces of neoliberalism: urban restructuring in North America and Western Europe (pp. 33–57). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preston, V., & McLafferty, S. (1999). Spatial mismatch research in the 1990s: progress and potential. Papers in Regional Science, 78, 387–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Purcell, M. (2009). Resisting neoliberalization: communicative planning or counter-hegemonic movements? Planning Theory, 8(2), 140–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rahder, B., & Milgrom, R. (2004). The uncertain city: making space(s) for difference. Canadian Planning and Policy—Amenagement et politique de Canada, CJUR Supplement, 13(1), 27–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richmond, T., & Shields, J. (2005). NGO-government relations and immigrant services: contradictions and challenges. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 6(3–4), 513–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1996). The death of the social? Refiguring the territory of government. Economy and Society, 25(3), 327–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, D., & Chicoine, N. (1991). Access to school daycare services: class, family, ethnicity and space in Montreal’s old and new inner city. Geoforum, 22(2), 185–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruppert, E. (2006). The moral economy of cities: shaping good citizens. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salaff, J., Grieve, A., Wong, S., & Ping, L. (2003). Ethnic entrepreneurship, social networks, and the enclave. In B. Yeoh, C. K. Tong, & M. W. Charney (Eds.), Approaching transnationalism: transnational societies, multicultural contacts, and imaginings of home (pp. 61–82). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandercock, L. (1998). Towards cosmopolis: planning for multicultural cities. Toronto: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schellenberg, G. (2004). Immigrants in Canada’s census metropolitan areas. Statistics Canada catalogue no. 89-613-MIE, No. 003. Ottawa: Minister of Industry.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherrell, K., D’Addario, S., & Hiebert, D. (2007). On the outside looking in: the precarious housing situations of successful refugee claimants in the GVRD. Refuge, 24(2), 64–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simich, L., Hamilton, H., & Baya, B. K. (2006). Mental distress, economic hardship and expectations of life in Canada among Sudanese newcomers. Transcultural Psychiatry, 43(3), 419–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Statistics Canada. (2006). Census 2006, Community profile of Calgary. http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-591/index.cfm?lang=e. Accessed 11 May 2010.

  • Statistics Canada. (2008). Population and dwelling counts, for Canada and census subdivisions (municipalities), 2006 and 2001 censuses. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/popdwell/table.cfm?t=301&s=3&o=d. Accessed 11 May 2010.

  • Truelove, M. (2000). Services for immigrant women: an evaluation of locations. Canadian Geographer, 44, 135–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vander Ploeg, C. (2008). Dollars and sense II: city finances in Western Canada 1990–2007. Canada West Foundation report. http://www.cwf.ca/V2/files/DOLLARS%20AND%20SENSE%20II.pdf. Accessed 19 May 2010.

  • Walks, R. A. (2009). The urban in fragile, uncertain, neoliberal times: towards new geographies of social justice? Canadian Geographer, 53(3), 345–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, M., & Milroy, B. (1999). Intersecting claims: possibilities for planning in Canada’s multicultural cities. In T. Fenster (Ed.), Gender, planning and human rights (pp. 55–73). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, S., & Truelove, M. (2003). Evaluation of settlement service programs for newcomers in Ontario: a geographical perspective. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 4(4), 577–606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, P. K. (2002). Nationalism from the margins: Italians in Alberta and British Columbia. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, P. K., & Gilbert, L. (2005). Multiculturalism in Canada: accidental discourse, alternative vision, urban practice. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29(3), 679–691.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yau, M. (1995). Refugee students in Toronto schools: an exploratory study. Toronto: Toronto Board of Education, Research Department.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yu, S., Ouellet, E., & Warmington, A. (2007). Refugee integration in Canada: a survey of empirical evidence and existing services. Refuge, 24(2), 17–34.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Support for the research by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is gratefully acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Patricia Burke Wood, Susan McGrath & Julie Young

Authors
  1. Patricia Burke Wood
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Susan McGrath
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Julie Young
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patricia Burke Wood.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wood, P.B., McGrath, S. & Young, J. The Emotional City: Refugee Settlement and Neoliberal Urbanism in Calgary. Int. Migration & Integration 13, 21–37 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-011-0191-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-011-0191-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation