Under the Neoliberal Blanket: Maternal Strategies in the Resettlement of Yazidi Refugees in Calgary

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, 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

Resettling Yazidi Refugee Families in Calgary by Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS): A Home Assessment Qualitative Report 2020-21

The following report is a summary of the results of a larger research project on the resettlement of Yazidi refugees in Calgary as part of Canada’s humanitarian response to the ISIS-led genocide in Iraq. This study is in collaboration with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society’s (CCIS) home assessment initiative. CCIS is the main agency responsible for the resettlement of Yazidi refugees in Canada. Alongside covering the main areas of Yazidi resettlement in Canada, each section of this report combines perspectives of Yazidi refugees and perspectives of CCIS practitioners with sociological insights of the research team led by Dr. Pallavi Banerjee. The overarching goal is to provide a coherent and well-rounded understanding of nuanced challenges and successes accompanying the resettlement of this group, followed by key recommendations for CCIS and Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC

Gender and the Resettlement of Yazidis in Calgary: A Deep Dive in the Resettlement, Health, Carework and Education Processes

Feminist scholars of refugee and immigration studies have shown gender to be the organizing principle for resettlement experiences of newcomers. This chapter, co-authored by researchers and practitioners, focuses on how the gendered needs of the Yazidi refugee families in Calgary shaped their resettlement services and experiences. Based on keen observations by staff at the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society and the physicians and healthcare providers at the Mosaic Refugee Clinic in Calgary, combined with in-depth interviews conducted by University of Calgary researchers with nearly all Yazidi families in Calgary (45 families that include 241 family members) we focus on four key aspects: 1. Restructuring of the resettlement program by CCIS to meet the needs of Yazidi women and men, but mainly women; 2. Readjusting healthcare services by gender at the refugee clinic; 3. Care provisions in the families of the Yazidis that was fulfilled by women (internal and external to the families) care providers; and 4. Gendered and un-gendered educational outcomes for the children in Yazidi families. We argue that centring gender-based needs of the Yazidi community in the resettlement services have resulted in a feminist reorientation of the resettlement services and experiences of the Yazidis in Calgary.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC