The adult refugees were asked to evaluate the degree to which their hopes and expectations had been realized since their arrival in Canada (See Table 7-16). Twenty-three percent of Africans felt that none or hardly any of their expectations had been met, compared with only 8% of East Asians. On the positive side, 56% of Central /South Americans and nearly half (49%) of former Yugoslavians felt that their hopes had been fulfilled completely or to a large extent.
When comparisons of the same responses were made by current city of residence, there were no significant differences. Nevertheless, Fort McMurray residents stood apart from other refugees, in that no one in that city felt that none or hardly any of their expectations had been realized, and fully 73% reported that their hopes have been met completely or to a large extent. Finally, we compared respondents’ answers according to gender, and here there was a significant difference. Fifty-one percent of men stated that their expectations had been met completely or to a large extent, in contrast with women, only 39% of whom felt the same way. This gender difference many be due to the more difficult employment situations encountered by women (see Chapter 3).
We asked the adult refugees to indicate what the best and worst things were about living in their current city (see Table 7-12). The rank ordering of responses for the top five "best things about living in (City)" were: location (parks, climate, cleanliness); employment; freedom (democracy, safety); community (family friends, compatriots); services and educational opportunities. Interestingly, the "worst thing about living in (City)" also included location; followed by unemployment (economy, costs); isolation, culture shock; services and education; and finally racism, discrimination and crime. It is here that we see an accurate reflection of the perceptions of the service providers in Calgary and Edmonton regarding the importance of a compatriot community. Not only is the existence of a group of friends/family from the same background an indicator of satisfaction within a given community, as evidenced by the "best thing about (City)" classification, but the isolation/culture shock factor also demonstrates the importance of having compatriot connections.
When we analysed the responses to the same question by city of residence, some notable differences appeared, although none were significant (see Table 7-17). The number one response to both the "best thing about living here" and "worst thing about living here" questions involved location/climate. Residents of Fort McMurray had the most responses in both the positive and negative categories. Jobs and the economy was the second highest ranking category under "best thing": refugees in Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray and Medicine Hat were far happier with this factor than the people in the other cities. Under the "worst thing" category, unemployment/the economy/costs was mentioned most often by residents of Medicine Hat, followed by people in Fort McMurray. Isolation was felt most strongly by people in Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Calgary, while residents of Grande Prairie and Red Deer thought the best thing about their community was having family, friends and compatriots nearby. The people in Edmonton, Calgary and Fort McMurray were happiest about the services and educational opportunities available to them; in contrast, 67% of refugees in Grande Prairie, 30% in Medicine Hat and 29% in Red Deer were dissatisfied with the services and education opportunities in their communities.