Under the neoliberal blanket: Maternal strategies in the resettlement of Yazidi refugees in Calgary
Abstract
The Islamic State or Daesh led genocide against the Yazidi people – a religious cultural minority population in Northern Iraq- left thousands of Yazidis fleeing and in need of refuge. The majority of those forcefully displaced vanished in-between borders far from the “developed world”. About 1200 of the displaced refugees were initially selected to be resettled in Canada under the Survivors of Daesh program, out of whom about 265 were settled in Calgary, Canada. As they arrived in a cold foreign land, they found themselves wrapped around by services that although warming, surfaced a structure that pushed them to quickly become “economic” and “independent”. The scarcity of services provided and the expiration date on Yazidi refugee families’ federal income assistance, and most importantly the unfulfilled promise of family
reunification put mental burdens on the already traumatized Yazidi community in Calgary. My thesis is based on qualitative analysis of in-depth interview data with 66 adult Yazidi women and 7 key resettlement agency women staff from CCIS, and observational and indirect data on women as Family Host volunteers (83% of all Family Hosts) who closely work with the Yazidi families. My analysis shows that what fills the gaps created due to insufficient budgets, delayed child support benefits, unfamiliar “mental support,” and confusing Canadian laws are what I call maternal strategies that Yazidi mothers, the service provider staff, and Family Host volunteers utilize to enable resettlement. The pressures from the Canadian neoliberal approach towards social services have been absorbed by Yazidi refugee women/mothers who have regularly been trying to smoothen the resettlement process for their families. The resettlement agency’s staff as well as the Family Host volunteers who are by majority women, also employ their own set of maternal strategies. By going above and beyond their duty descriptions and forming personal relationships that resemble familial connections and caregiving, these actors have played a significant role in moving the resettlement wheel for the Yazidi refugee families. Maternal strategies get woven into the larger Canadian institutional resettlement practice and discourse and are often overlooked. Nonetheless, these efforts are what have made the resettlement of Yazidi refugees possible in Calgary, Canada.
Notes
Community organizations: CCIS
Integration timeline: The first 2 years of their resettlement in Canada.
Open access: Yes
Future research / gaps identified:
Compare the efforts that key parties (e.g. refugees, resettlement workers, Family Hosts) make based on their gender and age to allow for a more nuanced understanding of resettlement experiences of high needs refugee groups like the Yazidis.
Key findings:
1) Maternal strategies are everyday acts of survival that adapt to circumstances on a daily basis to make resettlement under the Canadian neoliberal framework possible.
2) Maternal strategies encompass caregivers’ ability to maneuver and manage the gaps in service provision and programming within the resettlement field and can, therefore, take many shapes.
3) Findings showed 2 categories of maternal strategies that facilitated the resettlement of Yazidi refugees:
i) Yazidi refugee mothers navigate through everyday challenges and do mothering work under financial constraints, make Canada home for their children, and manage the absence of key figures and emotional/mental need.
ii) Extended female caregivers that took on maternal roles (e.g. CCIS staff, Family Hosts), acting as additional support, community networks and ‘family’ outside of the home.
Key populations: Yazidi women refugees who now live in Calgary
Key recommendations:
1) Reevaluate resettlement practices and the impact of gender and/or age in resettlement work across different parties (e.g. settlement workers, Family Hosts).
2) Gain a deeper understanding of the role and impact of Family Hosts on the resettlement process.
3) Emphasize in resettlement programs and policies that personal relationships and social networks as a key part of the process, and should be invested in.
Location: Calgary, AB