Are residency and type of refugee settlement program associated with food (in)security among Syrian refugees who have resettled in Canada since 2015?

This study aims to determine (1) food security (FS) status of Syrian refugees who arrived in Canada under the Government’s 2015 initiative, and (2) whether the province of residence and type of refugee resettlement program are associated with refugees’ FS. In a cross-sectional design, 282 Syrian refugee households resettled in Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan were recruited. The status of FS was determined using the validated Household Food Security Survey Module used by Statistics Canada. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine sociodemographic and geographic predictors of food insecurity (FI). Overall, the rate of household food insecurity (HFI) was high (77.0%) compared to that of Canadian households (18.4%) and recent immigrants (17.1%) in in 2021. Households in Saskatchewan and Ontario experienced a significantly higher rates of HFI (87.5%, P < 0.001, 79.2%, P = 0.001, respectively) compared to Quebec (52.1%). The rate of HFI was significantly higher among government-assisted refugees compared to privately-sponsored refugees (79.5% vs 62.2%, P = 0.039). Households living in Saskatchewan and Ontario were almost three and a half times and over two times, respectively, more likely to experience HFI compared to those in Quebec (OR = 3.43, 95% CI [1.070–11.010]), (OR = 2.30, 95% CI [0.860–6.120], respectively). Recent Syrian refugees in Canada are at high risk of experiencing HFI, with the province of residence and income level, but not the type of refugee resettlement program, being significant predictors of HFI. The link between refugees’ FS and provincial variations in the resettlement program policies and practices should be examined to better understand how they shape refugees’ FS.