A new report by University of Manitoba researchers suggests some refugees and newcomers to the province have received vastly different levels of government support depending on their circumstances, including country of origin.
“Realizing potential: Reflections on policy responses to displaced persons in Manitoba,” published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on Wednesday, asked people who work in the resettlement sector about special immigration initiatives — both federally and provincially — for three displaced groups: Syrians, Afghans and Ukrainians.
Overall, respondents told report co-authors Jesse Hajer and Mona Malik that, in general, settlement supports given to refugees were “too low to adequately meet the needs of refugees and support their successful integration,” regardless of the country they came from.
However, the study found participants viewed some supports introduced or enhanced for Syrian refugees and Ukrainian newcomers as positive “innovations” that could be applied to all refugees and displaced people.
Manitoba took in more than 18,000 refugees between January 2015 and October 2024, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data included in the report.
In 2015, the Canadian government said it would quickly resettle more than 25,000 refugees from Syria amid a civil war. According to IRCC numbers included in the report, more than 44,000 Syrian refugees were welcomed to Canada by the end of 2016.
The report said the response to Syria’s crisis was “unique” in scale and collaboration between the provincial and federal governments.
While refugees from Syria were processed under Canada’s existing resettlement programs, the report said, increased funding and staff meant processing happened much faster than usual. The federal government waived transportation loans and covered dozens of chartered flights, setting up reception sites at points of entry.
Housing options opened up for those who settled in Manitoba, with the government working with private landlords while repurposing public-housing units and introducing some rent subsidies.
The report found many services Syrian refugees received were expanded within the existing settlement support framework. One participant told the authors that refugees coming from other countries received similar support at this time.
But refugees coming in from Afghanistan several years later didn’t experience the same level of support from each level of government, the report found.
In 2021, the federal government promised to welcome Afghan nationals affected by decades of conflict in the country. Between August 2021 and November 2024, Canada took in 55,195 people from Afghanistan through various measures and programs, including more than 15,000 through a special measures program for Afghan nationals who helped the Canadian government, the report said.
Chartered flights were made available, the report said, and some electronic devices were provided so refugees could attend online language online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the report found provincial supports in Manitoba to be slim. Study participants were largely unaware of specific programs to support Afghan refugees once in Canada, while some noted an “absence of Manitoba government support.”
Many report participants lauded the federal and provincial supports that were made available to people displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Between March 2022 and March 2024, nearly 300,000 people arrived in Canada under Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) measures. By April 2024, Manitoba alone accepted more than 27,000 displaced Ukrainians — the highest per capita number for any Canadian province, the report said.
People line up for services at the Ukrainian Refugee Reception Centre at a hotel near the Winnipeg airport in May 2022. (CTV Pool)
Unlike resettled refugees, who are granted permanent resident status when they get to Canada, Ukrainian newcomers under CUAET special measures hold temporary resident visas.
One participant told the report authors that the support provided to Ukrainian newcomers represent a “best practices model” that could be applied to all refugees and displaced people.
A welcoming centre set up near the Winnipeg airport offered different kinds of help to newcomers, including housing, employment and language resources, alongside on-site government services like access to health cards. Meanwhile, Manitoba Public Insurance simplified its driver’s licence exchange process for eligible Ukrainians arriving in Manitoba.
On a federal level, visas were issued faster, the report notes. Free chartered flights and waived fees were also viewed positively by study participants.
“The supports … provided to Ukrainians is superb. It’s an amazing concept … from labour market to settlement services to reception and housing. It is a model for what should be done for refugees,” one participant told the report authors.
Another participant said the approach is “quite inequitable,” because other groups of refugees and displaced people have experienced long wait times for processing.
However, some participants noted that people in Canada under CUAET measures also experience uncertainty and insecurity because of their temporary resident status.
But overall, study participants said there should be an equal framework for all refugees and displaced people, pointing to some successes from the Syrian and Ukrainian responses.
Report co-authors Hajer and Malik made 18 policy recommendations for federal and provincial governments to change how they welcome refugees and displaced people, regardless of where they’re fleeing from.
They called on the federal government to: create rapid-response immigration pathways, establish dedicated emergency visa programs modelled after CUAET measures, offer government-funded charter flights and remove repayment requirements, and reverse resettlement cuts in the recent federal immigration levels plan, among other recommendations.
Among other suggestions, the province is asked to fund reception centres alongside the federal government, provide higher income support in line with the cost of living, and offer more employment-focused training to displaced people.