Food insecurity among newcomer refugees in Canada

Abstract

In Canada, grocery stores and supermarket shelves display a wide variety of food for consumers. However, newcomer refugees face different challenges in terms of the availability and accessibility of sufficient, nutritionally adequate and culturally familiar foods for consumption upon arrival to Canada that interrupt their integration process in a new society. This study will provide a review of the literature on food insecurity among newcomer refugees in Canada from 2009-2019. This review, demonstrates that refugees in Canada suffer higher incidents of food insecurity than immigrants and Canadians. Existing research also indicate that food security in the case of refugees need to be perceived more than availability and accessibility of safe and nutritious foods, require provision of culturally acceptable foods. Access to culturally familiar foods may not be possible in many instances, but the negative effects of such challenges put refugees in situations of stress and anxiety in their new home. Key Words: Newcomer; Refugees; Settlement; food insecurity; food security; food availability; accessibility; culturally acceptability.