Assessing the barriers and facilitators to food security that influence dietary changes among refugees

Abstract

Objective: Refugees experience food challenges upon resettling in their host country. However, there is currently limited Canadian literature that reviews food security among refugees who resettle in Canada. This thesis will assess the barriers and facilitators to food security that influence the dietary changes of refugees who resettle in Hamilton, Ontario, from the perspective of the service providers as well as the refugees. Methods: A qualitative method was applied. Nine individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with service providers in Hamilton. Twelve refugees participated in one of three focus group interviews conducted in the languages of Arabic, Somali, or Spanish. Interviews were transcribed. The data was coded using a qualitative analysis software, NVivo 10. A social ecological model was used to analyse how facilitators and barriers at various levels of influence affect food security among refugees. Levels of influence included: intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy. Findings: While several diet-related health concerns were mentioned by refugees, it is difficult to attribute these to diet-related causes since the psychological stress of resettlement was also cited as a causal factor of refugees. While both service providers and refugees agree upon certain facilitators and barriers to food security among refugees at each level of influence in the social ecological model, there were also differences between the two perspectives identified. Different issues were also identified between refugee claimants and government assisted refugees (GARs) who came from refugee camps. Conclusion: The complex relationship between various factors identified at different levels of the social ecological model demonstrate a need for a collaborative, multi-level intervention approach to optimize changes required to improve food security among refugees living in Hamilton.