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Exploring the Experiences of Newcomer Women with Insecure Housing in Montréal Canada

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to explore housing insecurity among women newcomers to Montreal, Canada. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 newcomer women who had experienced housing insecurity and five women’s shelter service providers. The primary cause of housing insecurity for newcomer women was inadequate income in the face of rapidly rising housing costs, coupled with unfamiliarity with the dominant culture and the local housing system. Specific events often served as tipping points for immigrant women—incidents that forced women into less secure housing. To avoid absolute homelessness, most women stayed with family, couch surfed, used women’s or educational residences, shared a room or an apartment, lived in hotels, single rented rooms, or transitional housing. These arrangements were often problematic, as crowded conditions, financial dependency, differing expectations and interpersonal conflicts made for stressful or exploitive relationships, which sometimes ended abruptly. Only two of the 26 women interviewed described their current living situation as stable. Based on the findings on the study, we recommend training for housing and immigration service providers, wrap-around services in terms of health, housing and immigration settlement programs that take into account a broad range of immigration statuses and transitional housing that caters to the specific needs of migrant women.

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Notes

  1. Women participants contacted us directly after either seeing a poster or flyer about the study in a public place (drop-in centre, shelter, grocery store) or after being encouraged by a community worker to take part in the study. More than half of our respondents contacted us after seeing an announcement, although our impression is that the presence of these announcements in trusted locations encouraged their participation. We also believe that our sample leans towards women with more difficult housing experiences who would more easily self-identify as having experienced housing insecurity or homelessness.

  2. Of course, the fact that our materials were available only in English and French would have limited the recruitment of people who do not speak one of three languages to referrals by a community group. We believe that people unable to speak French or English would have faced even greater housing risk that those we encountered.

  3. Please refer to Hordyk et al. 2014; Ben Soltane et al. 2012 and Sjollema et al. 2012 for a fulsome discussion of how this project applied an arts-based approach.

  4. New arrivals to Quebec, whether from elsewhere in Canada or from overseas, must wait 3 months before becoming eligible for Medicare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Christine A. Walsh

  2. McGill School of Social Work, McGill University, 3506 University Street, Suite 413, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2A7, Canada

    Jill Hanley, Nicole Ives & Shawn Renee Hordyk

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  1. Christine A. Walsh
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Correspondence to Christine A. Walsh.

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Walsh, C.A., Hanley, J., Ives, N. et al. Exploring the Experiences of Newcomer Women with Insecure Housing in Montréal Canada. Int. Migration & Integration 17, 887–904 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-015-0444-y

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