Making Familiar: Perceptions of Belonging of Syrian Newcomer Youth in Toronto

Abstract

During Canada’s Syrian Refugee Resettlement Initiative, over 40 000 Syrian refugees settled in Canada, over half of whom were children and youth. Given the barriers newcomer youth in Canada experience and lack of power they have in decision-making processes that affect their lives, research emphasizing the voices of Syrian newcomer youth is needed to better support youth well-being in Canada. A collaboration with the Arab Community Centre of Toronto and partnership with Charles Street Video, Making Familiar is a participatory photography project with four Syrian newcomer youth that took place from June to August 2017. With point-and-shoot cameras, the youth took photographs of meaningful spaces in their lives according to the themes “What is important to you?” and “Where do you belong?” Using the Capabilities Approach, this study identifies the capabilities youth value and discusses them using an intersectional framework. Differently affected by gender, youth prioritize education and learning, career and paid work, mental well-being, physical well-being, relationships, mobility, time-autonomy, respect, decision-making power, and self-expression. Their relationships to place are experienced differently according to time spent in Canada. The study argues that youth enact these capabilities as strategies of “reterritorialization” to negotiate identity and develop belonging in Toronto. This project also discusses the significance of participatory arts-based methods in social science research and importance of collaborating with non-traditional partners for settlement work.