Opinion: What does it mean to be Albertan in Canada? Lessons from refugee resettlement

Calgary Herald

09-06-2025

In uncertain times, it's easy to become consumed by anxiety, anger and division. But these moments are precisely when we must reflect on our core values and ask: What does it mean to be Albertan or Canadian? For us, as physicians at the Calgary Refugee Health Clinic, the answers lie not in the loudest voices but in our patients' quiet resilience. Since 2011, our clinic has cared for over 15,000 refugees. Their stories and Alberta's welcome reveal the best of who we are.
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Calgary serves as Canada's western hub for refugee resettlement thanks to effective settlement and clinical programs developed over decades of inter-jurisdictional collaboration. Since the 2021 Afghan Resettlement Initiative, thousands of Afghan and other displaced families have arrived. Working with settlement agencies like CCIS, we often received only 24 to 48 hours' notice. We would meet at the airport with urgent medical care, warmth, and services. This reflects a rare but effective partnership between federally funded settlement agencies and provincially funded health services.
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This partnership isn't just functional, it's exemplary. Alberta leads Canada in refugee resettlement. And no municipality in Canada – among the 55 we examined – resettles more refugees per capita than Brook, a prairie town an hour from Medicine Hat.
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When we share these stories in academic and international circles through our work with the World Health Organization and UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), we're often met with disbelief. Canada's 'most conservative province' is also its most welcoming? We've just returned from Geneva, co-organizing a high-level side event for the WHO's 78th World Health Assembly. From this global perspective, we've learned what sounds like a most un-Canadian boast: Canada is exceptionally good at refugee resettlement and multicultural integration. Few Canadians know we are the only nation awarded the UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award, for our response to the 1970s and 80s Indochinese refugee crisis, when Canada invented the Private Refugee Sponsorship Program, now emulated worldwide. Canada has since pioneered multiple resettlement programs, including Ugandan Ismailis, Central and South Americans, South Sudanese, Kosovars, Syrians, Afghans and Ukrainians.