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Social Science Emigration & Immigration

Strangers at the Gate

The 'Boat People's' First Ten Years in Canada

by (author) Morton Beiser

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Aug 1999
Category
Emigration & Immigration, General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802081179
    Publish Date
    Aug 1999
    List Price
    $45.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802042828
    Publish Date
    Aug 1999
    List Price
    $68.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442680234
    Publish Date
    Jul 1999
    List Price
    $84.00

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Description

Twenty-seven million people in the world are refugees. In this book, Morton Beiser puts readers in touch, emotionally and intellectually, with the reality of refugees in Canada. In the process, he dispels key misconceptions about immigrants in this country and reframes central debates on refugee policy.

The book describes Beiser's ten-year study of 1,300 Boat People admitted to Canada between 1979 and 1981. It chronicles the former refugees' struggles to learn English, and to establish themselves economically in their new environment and shows that, contrary to popular opinion, they use fewer health and social services than indigenous Canadians.

Beiser finds that, although most refugees in most resettlement situations succeed remarkably well, no country, Canada included, offers newcomers the welcome they need and deserve. This remarkable study, with its profoundly human dimension, should be read by all policy-makers in the fields of immigration and social and health services.

About the author

Morton Beiser is the professor of Cultural Pluralism and Health, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, and Director of the Toronto Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement.

Morton Beiser's profile page