Senior Immigrants from the Former Yugoslavia in Toronto: Access to Services and Community Connection

This paper concerns the availability and accessibility of support services for senior immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, and the nature of their social networks and community capacity. Interviews were held with 10 seniors from the former Yugoslavia looking into their experiences of accessing services, community involvement and social connectedness. Seniors from the former Yugoslavia belong to a community that is dispersed, small and lacking coordination and organized leadership. For these reasons, seniors face challenges accessing linguistically and culturally appropriate community support services due to a lack of information and limited English language skills. Politics and religion appear more salient to earlier waves of immigrants from this region than to those who arrived in the 1990s.