Alienate Refugees Essay

There are many oppressive factors that exist in contemporary Canadian society that disadvantages and often alienates refugees. These oppressive factors exist in social, religious, cultural, political, and economic spheres within society. There are many political barriers that exist that oppress and limit the amount of refugees that can safely flee to Canada. An example of political and social barriers that inhibit the admission of refugees is increased border security. Border security has reached a point where it is too difficult for some refugees to safely flee a harmful environment, and this violates international law which outlines that each state has to respect an individual’s right to seek refuge in any nation. Implementing more restrictive

This has caused a decrease in refugees since 2009 (textbook). This impacts the practice of social work with refugees, because social workers cannot help refugees if they are discouraged from being admitted into Canada, and if the refugee does make it to Canada, political and social barriers exist from the very start that alienate refugees from the larger Canadian society. Furthermore, another political and social form of oppression is that some members of the Canadian public, specifically politicians and the media, have represented some refugees as “safer” to the Canadian public. Specifically, that refugees who come to Canada straight away out of fear, are inferior and abuse Canada’s refugee system (textbook). This is a form of social oppression that alienates refugees from mainstream Canadian society, and labels them as “bad”. This is another oppressive factor surrounding refugee’s access to claim refuge in Canada, because certain refugees are deemed “acceptable” while others are not, all based on how they seek refuge and leave dangerous

For a large portion of history, Canadian legislation on refugees banned certain individuals from finding asylum in Canada. Specifically, individuals who were previously seen as a burden on social welfare were refused access into Canada. This proves that national policies, as well as social welfare legislations, saw refugees as a burden on social welfare (textbook). To clarify, refugees were being seen as a waste of social welfare resources, and policies were put into place that legitimized this negative viewpoint of refugees. This shows that the discrimination and oppression of refugees was present even in a system that was set up to help all members of Canadian society, including those that come to Canada seeking asylum. Therefore, the development of social welfare with refugees in Canada started off as labelling refugees as a “burden”, and there are still examples of this mindset in current policies and practices of social work with refugees. Such as the fact that refugees face extreme barriers in accessing health and social services (voices article). This is due to many factors, including the individual and systematic discrimination refugees face that might deter them from wanting to receive help, as well as prejudicial behaviors by health and social service organizations (textbook). Furthermore, there are political barriers that exist that