Refugee women & housing insecurity in Canada

This paper provides an analysis of the existing literature on refugee women’s experiences of housing insecurity in Canada. The objective of this paper is to determine how intersections of gender, migration status, racialization and class influence refugee women’s access to secure housing. The unique barriers both refugees’ and women face to secure housing are addressed in the context of neoliberal policies. This paper will connect the individual level variables of refugee women’s experiences of housing insecurity to larger structural issues, including Canadian immigration policy, housing policy and private rental markets. It will demonstrate how the existing framework of Canadian immigration policy and housing policy create barriers which negatively impact refugee women’s ability to build secure and sustainable housing trajectories. It will stress the importance of cross-sector collaboration to construct policies and service models that support refugee women’s access to secure housing and successful (re)settlement in Canada.

Key words:

gender; refugee; women; housing insecurity; homelessness; housing policy; neoliberalism.