The Housing Problem

Now, here is an example we can all discuss. According to a 2012 Vancouver study, published in the Province, involving researchers from UBC, York University in Toronto and the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique in Montreal, the high cost of city housing has become a serious hardship for new B.C. immigrants. That study was part of a larger effort to understand homelessness and housing challenges among immigrants and refugees. And it showed beyond any reasonable doubt that “overcrowded apartments, broken plumbing, poor heat, insects and rats, leaks and mould were just some of the hazards immigrants to Canada must put up with to find affordable housing”.

A UBC geography professor who led the study, Mr. Daniel Hiebert admitted at Metropolis B.C. that housing remains a critical issue for a very long time on new immigrants and particularly tough on people with a language issue or large families. According to that report, only in Metro Vancouver, where “average house prices [are] nearing one million dollars, many immigrants and refugees, along with low and medium income Canadians, are concentrated in the rental market. Many new immigrants were taken advantage of in Craigslist scams or tied to leases by unscrupulous landlords.” These people are facing more substandard situations, living in places that may not be roomy or in houses where the sanitary conditions aren’t really good” (Sherman Chan, director of Settlement Services for Vancouver’s MOSAIC).

Expensive housing can influence our lives
Most of the new immigrants and refugees –and not international students sent by their families to study in BC- come here with a limited budget and after paying for housing, according to the same report, “they have to work on a really tight budget and compromise on food or education or other expenses.” As a result, increasingly new immigrants, like refugees from Myanmar and Spanish people, Chinese and South Koreans are moving eastwards –especially Langley- for cheaper rents, but according to the article, the trade-off is more time and money spent on buses getting to jobs that are mostly in Vancouver.
According to the Province, almost three-quarters of immigrants to Metro Vancouver were from Asia, seven per cent from Africa, some three per cent from the Americas and about 15 per cent from the U.S. and Europe. In 2009, there were 35,000 permanent residents and 57,000 temporary residents who settled in the region, and about 1,000 refugees a year. Canada admitted about 280,000 permanent residents in 2010.

(eoconnor@theprovince.com /twitter.com/elainereporting)

If you want to comment on this story, write to us and tell us your own story.

Preface

The fundamental purpose of this blog is to discuss Vancouver’s new cultural landscape through the personal stories of its new immigrants. Essential part of this landscape, however, are also the old Vancouverites themselves, so their own views and opinions on the subject are equally important. Now, this is a delicate subject and usually, people don’t like to share their personal experiences, feelings and interactions. However, it is my opinion that to know what motivated this new flux of immigrants to come to Canada and especially to Vancouver as well as to what kind of problems they faced upon their arrival, will help all of us communicate in a better way and will make us more tolerant towards each other. And that’s what Canada is all about. A new synthesis and a better social compromise.

In addition, as an anthropologist and a journalist I felt compelled to start this blog, primarily because when I left this country in 1996, it was a very different place and the cultural shock that struck me on the 7th of August 2013, the day I returned to Vancouver, was colossal. This place has changed. And it’s been only 17 years even though it feels that I was gone for a century. For starters, it has become more affluent with all the good and bad things that trail such a trend. And it’s understandable to a certain degree. For the last fifteen years this city has been voted, continuously, as the best place to raise a family in the whole world. So, it seems only natural for affluent people from all over the globe to invest money and time in such a place. Their voices, opinions and personal stories are also welcome in this blog.

Nonetheless, the people that I am really interested to listen from, are the least affluent. The real immigrants. Not those ones who can jump on their Lear-jet and return to their other significant house in an hour, on the other side of the world. I would like to hear the stories of those immigrants who burned their bridges and left their countries because they were in dire straits. I want to hear their own hardships and joys, I want to learn about their personal dramas and experiences in this new cultural landscape. So, feel free to share your experiences and try to be tolerant to everybody else. Communication can make us better citizens.