In less than a decade, from 1988 to 1996, more than 55,000 Somali refugees had arrived in Canada of which more than 7,000 thousand resettled in Canada's capital, Ottawa. The Somali migration represents the largest black immigrant group ever to come to Canada in such a short time. The push and pull factors of this Somali refugee influx included the bloody and prolonged civil war that has plagued Somalia since 1988, the repressive policies of the military regime of late President Siad Barre (1969--1991), the colonial dismemberment of Somalia into three different parts and the economic hardships characteristic of postcolonial Africa. Unlike many other refugee groups such as the Vietnamese, most Somalis made it to Canada on their own without the assistance of the Canadian government or other humanitarian organizations. The overwhelming majority of Somalis entered Canada as refugees under the Refugee Class of the Immigration Act. As they began the process of resettling in Canada, Somali refugees encountered enormous difficulties in adjusting to Canada's socio-economic and political environment. Findings of this thesis indicated that Cultural, technological and linguistic differences between Somali refugees and the host society seem to have had profound impact on the integration pace of Somali refugees. This study dealt with the background factors of Somali immigrants to Canada and the challenges they faced in resettling in a country that shares little with Somalia in terms of culture, language and religion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/8831 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Abdulle, Mohamoud H. |
| Contributors | Stolarik, Mark, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 166 p. |
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