Systematic barriers to refugee women

Abstract

The Canadian refugee policy is comprised of the overseas selection and in­land determination processes. In this document, these processes are examined for barriers arising from systemic discrimination and impacting significantly on refugee women. Systemic discrimination, referring to discrimination occurring in the practice of policy implementation, is explored \vithin the context of racism, sexism and dassism \vithin Canadian society. Using a variety of sources, it is conduded that the primary barriers exist \vithin the Convention definition, in access to the refugee processes and in the selection criteria. The document condudes \vith consideration of mechanisms acting to continue existing discrimination and means of effecting change, which is unlikely to occur \vithout long-term societal change.