COVID-19 compounds housing instability for Canada’s Syrian refugees: study

New research from Western University shows the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the struggles Syrian refugees in Canada face in finding adequate housing, and highlights the need for policies to keep up with reality Nursing PhD candidate Fawziah Rabiah-Mohammed led the study, alongside Western graduate, Leah Hamilton , PhD-11, asking government-assisted Syrian refugees how the pandemic has affected their efforts to find housing and settle in Canada. Their findings come from a subgroup analysis as part of a five-year longitudinal study (2018-2023), led by Rabiah-Mohammed's supervisor, nursing professor Abe Oudshoorn. The study, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council , is investigating the barriers and facilitators influencing Syrian government-assisted refugees- ability to achieve housing stability. -When the pandemic hit in 2020, we were already collecting data,- Rabiah-Mohammed said. -We were interested in seeing how the pandemic affected the process. The analysis involved in-depth interviews with 38 government-assisted refugee families living in Calgary, Fredericton, and London. Ont.