Strangers at the Gate: The 'Boat People's' First Ten Years in Canada

Morton Beiser

ISBN 10: 0802081177 / ISBN 13: 9780802081179

Published by University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division, 1999

About this Item

Describes Beiser's ten-year study of 1,300 Boat People admitted to Canada between 1979 and 1981 and chronicles the former refugees' struggles to establish themselves in their new environment. A remarkable study with profoundly human dimensions. Num Pages: 224 pages, 3figs.6tabs.1M. BIC Classification: 1KBC; JFFN; JFSL; JHMP. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 228 x 152 x 16. Weight in Grams: 340. . 1999. 1st Edition. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780802081179

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Strangers at the Gate: The 'Boat People's' First Ten Years in Canada
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802081177
• ISBN 13: 9780802081179
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.