This proposal extends the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration’s (NSOI) funding support for the CYRRC grant that aims to understand challenges youths with refugee experience (YRE) face in accessing services for workforce attachment. The initial CYRRC grant targets 10 YRE who are between 18 and 25 years and landed in Nova Scotia between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2016 and living within Halifax. The project interacts with participants’ experiences across their diverse mode of entry into Canada as: Government-assisted Refugees (GAR), Privately Sponsored Refugees (PSR).

Our current proposal aims to extend the research focus by recruiting additional 10 youths (bringing participants to 20) fitting the same profile but living outside Halifax, provide additional hours to a YRE project advisor and Research Assistant. We contend that richer data will be generated by looking at youths’ experiences with services as residents within and outside Halifax. The ongoing budget has to be extended to support youths travel to Halifax.

The project will adopt an intersectional framework (Collins, 2016) to understand the impact of structural and personal factors peculiar to individual youths, on their resettlement, access to services and long-term economic goals; while recognising their voice and experiential contribution to policymaking.

Objectives

• Understand the experience of participants with available services, particularly those leading to employment
• Understand the link between pre-migration experiences of participants and access to services
• Identify the link between programs and accessibility across GAR and PSR

Methodology

The research builds from a profile of YRE that informed the target of 10, GAR and PSRs between the ages of 18 and 25 years. A purposive sampling strategy will be used to allow for a representative sample of respondents across gender, age, locality, education that highlight gaps to service provision and obstacles to service use across GAR and PSRs.

The research will be adopt participatory, qualitative research tools involving personal interviews and focus groups discussions. The focus group discussions will have a maximum of 6 participants. The personal interviews and focus group discussions will range between thirty minutes to one hour. The questions will be open-ended and flexible as directed by participants needs and comfort with sharing their experiences. Considering that research may constitute difficult conversations/memories for participating youths, the Principal Applicant will incorporate art-based trauma supported tools or media that allow for gradual interaction and sharing by participants. Participants safety will be paramount and the PA will apply her expertise with at-risk populations to stop research interactions or provide support when needed.

Participation will be remunerated $50 for participation including reimbursements of travel and meals related expenses.

Research Questions

1. What is the experience of participants with available services, particularly those leading to employment?
   a) What factors are likely to increase positive long-term economic goals across participants?
2. How do the pre-migration experiences of participants affect their resettlement/access to services?
3. Are their differences in access to programs/services across GAR and PSR?