Housing Discrimination of New Immigrants in Toronto and Ontario - Coursework Example

Briefing Paper Minister of Housing RE: Housing discrimination of new immigrants in Toronto and Ontario Housing discrimination of new immigrants Immigrants tend to experience a lot of discrimination on a number of issues that vary from social, political, and economic issues. In essence, immigrants moving in Canada specifically in Toronto and Ontario have documented much discrimination from Canadians in terms of settlement issues. Some of these immigrant communities include Africans, Arabs, and those of Asian descent who move to Canada in search of the perceived good pastures. As many immigrants would say, racial discrimination is a fact that ills many societies and is not only a problem in Canada. In essence, minorities attract ratings according to their racial origin, religious background, ethnic language, and their sources of income influenced their living conditions (Patrias, Savage & CCLH, 2012). This tends to be a matter that is of exceptional human concern as discrimination of any kind is against the human rights provisions (OHRC, 2007). Often, immigrants tend to be last in the consideration list for possible occupancy in residential areas resided by those who are economically able in society. However, the grimiest housing blocks play host to immigrants who have poor economic background in Toronto and Ontario. This happens irrespective of the education level of an immigrant but because of their skin tones that make them appear unable. Is discrimination according to ones race justifiable in determining whether one can have decent living conditions? Therefore, this essay will delve on the housing challenges that new immigrants encounter in Ontario and Toronto. Background and current status Ideally, racial prejudice arose mainly because of international slavery that saw millions of minority racial groupings move to the western nations. In essence, slave trade in the early centuries was a trade that many viewed as contravening to human nature principles. Subsequently, slaves increased in numbers making their descendants remain in the foreign lands. However, immigrants find themselves working for minimal pay as it happened in the past where slaves worked for lesser pay packages. In addition, housing conditions for many immigrants are demeaning as they cannot afford to house themselves decent housing because of their jobs (Reitz, Phan & Banerjee, 2009). In the past, slaves lived in poorly ventilated rooms as per the wishes of their masters. This aspect of inferiority has existed to date as Canadians do not opportunity to immigrants from other continents the opportunity to live in their expensive houses. Ironically, even for immigrants that have better income levels still find it hard to occupy houses in the up market as many Canadians are prejudicial to race and ethnicity (Anisef & Lanphier, 2003). This attribute creates an avenue for inequality as no one has more entitlement to living than immigrants residing in Canada. As per the view of many house owners in Canada, immigrants tend to have low education levels meaning that they may not be able to access quality work opportunities (Reitz, Phan & Banerjee, 2009). These landlords turn them away despite the availability of a vacant room in their premises as they view as unemployed and troublesome. In many instances, this may not be the actual case as these immigrants have made intense strides in ensuring that they acquire education that is the required quality. Therefore, immigrants may not necessarily suffer from unemployment but tend to work in deplorable workstations. Arguably, slavery seems to have set the standard to which immigrants could not surpass in terms of wages or salary levels. This means that no matter how hard immigrants in Toronto and Ontario try to access better housing conditions, their past will forever drag them in to misery (OHRC, 2007). On the contrary, visible discrimination against immigrants of minority descent is a contravention of the Human Rights Code existing in Ontario. Key considerations Over the years, landlords have managed to hike house rent levels to levels that would not allow immigrants to develop interest in staying in their establishments. In this regard, immigrants remain with the option of occupying shabby houses in the deplorable parts of Ontario City. Additionally, landlords make it hard for immigrants to find accommodation as they tend to present long waiting lists that may never come to fruition for them (Hulchanski, 2009). On the other hand, poor immigrants in Toronto find themselves in disadvantaged conditions as they live in concentrated buildings that tends to accommodate the poor (Whitzman, 2009). In essence, immigrants find vacant living space in buildings that have many tenants and the rent is at an affordable margin (UN, 2005). However, Europeans and other superior groups live in spacious, well- ventilated, and less concentrated houses as landlords have assurance that they would afford to pay rent contrary to immigrants (Patrias, Savage & CCLH, 2012). Ideally, this clustering of housing tier creates layering of the rental market in to upper, middle-white, middle, middle class from other races, and lastly the lower class for immigrants. For instance, immigrant dwellings have pathetic looking buildings that have no sign of landscaping and characterized by thick unmanned lawns. Additionally, the front door may have dysfunctional security locks that serve as a mockery to security options in these building. This goes to show how immigrants disregard additional provisions such as security and beauty of the landscape but only prioritize shelter. Moreover, it is not surprising that there are no English-sounding names for tenants living in these buildings, as there is no sign of their presence there. In contrast, apartment buildings in the same neighborhood may be extremely different from those inhabited by immigrants as the walls have marbles as compared to the white bleached walls in the other building. Moreover, those occupying the building may be white, as the names in the front door directory tend to bring out this aspect. Most commonly, tenants seeking accommodation in such apartments encounter many challenges to which some landlords go the extent of asking them for a letter from their employer to facilitate their qualification as possible tenants. Additionally, payable monthly rent in these two buildings are not similar as that of a shabby looking two-bed roomed apartment is lower than of the adjacent building block. Immigrants under welfare miss housing opportunities in fancy apartments despite them having letters from their guarantors. This serves as outright discrimination for immigrants that are contrary to human right laws present in Ontario. Ideally, housing discrimination suffered by immigrants living in overcrowded housing facilities has a tremendous attachment to poor health and stress (Whitzman, 2009). For instance, many women immigrants may develop stress especially because they have awareness on the fact that cannot accord stable housing options for their families (Hobbs & Rice, 2012). Health wise, immigrants tend to develop cancer, asthma, cardiovascular diseases among a number of many other diseases due to inadequate housing options. Additionally, the housing options available for these immigrants have poor maintenance capabilities as many tend to have leaking pipes, pests, and accumulated pesticides that serve as contributors to ill health (Whitzman, 2009). These buildings hardly receive any maintenance and repair as the money generated from them as rent is not sufficient to facilitate the repairs. In essence, tenants who are largely immigrants in these buildings only get what their income is worth in term of housing despite the health problems in the offing. In this regard, many are not aware of the provisions stipulated in the Ontario Human Rights code that allows for every individual to have decent housing (Callard et al, 2012). The code also [provides protection from rental discrimination for immigrants by their landlords. Notably, new families that would opt to settle in Canada may have their housing options cut out for them as many landlords require massive deposits before they can occupy these houses. This makes them vulnerable to housing discrimination that will in turn make them unable to access other community services available to them. Additionally, these harsh conditions presented by landlords make it hard for the new Canadians to settle quickly in to their new found home with relative ease and swiftness. On the other hand, having an accent that is of a different dialect other than English disqualifies one from gaining valued housing options long after the era of whites-only enclaves in Toronto. On a scale of one to five, immigrants from Africa have housing discrimination ratings of at least four while natives from other regions take up the remaining positions. On the contrary, those from Arab descent have high likelihoods of suffering from housing discrimination as many landlords in Toronto and Ontario are of the view that a majority of them are terrorists (Patrias, Savage & CCLH, 2012). Over the last two decades, studies have shown that nearly a quarter of immigrants that arrived in Canada have started acquiring settlements in the urban areas. In essence, visible immigrants are now tipping the housing scale, as they have become the new face of well-maintained housing as their inhabitants. Appropriate next steps Over time, housing discrimination has formed the basis for lawsuits against landlords especially towards new immigrants to Canada. In the past, immigrants had no laws protecting them against such contravenes of human rights. However, the Human Rights Code of Ontario gave provisions into desirable and conducive habitats for all irrespective of their gender, age, ethnic origin, race, disability, among a list of many others (Callard et al, 2012). Subsequently, immigrants have become quite aware of their rental and housing rights as compared to their previous arrogance and ignorance. For instance, they are now more aware that they have an entitlement to the signing of a rental agreement that may use against their landlords in court when they receive unfair housing treatment. This means that immigrant tenants have protection against exorbitant house deposits and harassment during the tenancy tenure. Additionally, new Canadians have realized the need to have equal entitlement to affordable and accommodative rental housing as entitled by the code (UN, 2005). Decency in living standards is another key component that immigrants have embraced rather than residing in areas that may present health challenges. This means that decent housing does not necessarily mean living single unit houses with manicure lawns but rather a place that has healthy living standards. On the contrary, housing discrimination continues to dwindle as many landlords are becoming open and interactive with other races. Further, many landlords have had no choice but to conform to the Ontario code of conduct for fear of having human rights cases filed against them. In essence, immigrants could also experience housing discriminations in terms of viewing a possible house for living. This means that landlords could deny them access to a house that may be up for occupancy because of their racial attribute. To the Canadian landlords, race may form the basis for the screening procedure that tenants may have to follow making the superior races to by pass them on the waiting list. In essence, a landlord may inform an immigrant from the inferior minorities that a house already has an occupant only for a white to ask then the slot immediately opens up for occupancy. In recent years, courts in Ontario have experienced an overflow in housing discrimination cases as many cases tend to have substantive arguments to support the claims. Remarkably, these cases end up being in favor of the complainants provided that the evidence presented overrides the statement given by the respondent in such a case. Arguably, immigrants have entitlement to all housing related services as stipulated by the Ontario Code such as constant water flow, sewerage facilities, and other amenities. This would be visible if these services are available to other tenants but not to a new immigrant. Therefore, emphasis should be on the fact that new immigrants in Canada should seek a wide range of relative information concerning their privileges and rights for desired living standards. As per the code, discrimination to tenants as per food odors coming from their houses is also another form that the code protects immigrants against. This is common to immigrants with Asian origin to which there is no justification for this ill treatment by landlords. They may use this as a basis for complaints in a court case especially if evicted from their places of residence by landlords. In turn, equal treatment and opportunity to housing options for all races would be unavoidable because the world is gradually shrinking to a global village. Conclusion Housing discrimination according to race in Ontario and Toronto is an occurrence that many new immigrants have either experienced or continue to experience. However, prejudices against these racial minorities continue to drop gradually as per the existing policy frameworks that protect them. Additionally, immigrants have entitlement to accommodative housing privileges as others despite their marital status, income level or accent (Hobbs & Rice, 2012). Additionally, priority should be on the reinforcement of policies that allow for protection of living standards for all. In essence, immigrants have formed an integral part of the Canadian society as they also contribute towards the growth of the economy. Therefore, a landlord within these two regions should welcome immigrants in to their premises if they intend to live there simply because they are human beings. Additionally, landlords should provide all the essential requirements to their tenants to prevent them from acquiring health complications because they deserve such treatment. Failure to this, would translate into heavy human rights complaints from the aboriginals, as their health is as weighty as that of other Canadian natives. Lastly, being homeless because of housing discrimination is a matter that human rights activists should not downplay as it may create animosity among the various people that exist in Canada. References Anisef, P., & Lanphier, M. (2003). The world in a city. Toronto [u.a.: Univ. of Toronto Press. Callard, F., Sartorius, N., Arboleda-Fl?rez, J., Bartlett, P., Helmchen, H., Stuart, H., Taborda, J. ., ... Thornicroft, G. (2012). Mental illness, discrimination, and the law: Fighting for social justice. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Hobbs, M., & Rice, C. (2012). Gender and womens studies in Canada: Critical terrain. Toronto: Womens Press. Hulchanski, J. D., Homeless Hub (Online service), Canadian Homelessness Research Network., & University of Toronto. (2009). Finding home: Policy options for addressing homelessness in Canada. Toronto, Ont.: Cities Centre Press. Ontario Human Rights Commission. (March 28,2007). Human Rights and Rental Housing in Ontario. Retrieved from http://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/Human_Rights_and_Rental_Housing_in_Ontario%3A_Background_Paper.pdf Patrias, C., Savage, L., & Canadian Committee on Labour History. (2012). Union power: Solidarity and struggle in Niagara. Edmonton: AU Press. Reitz, J. G., Phan, M. B., & Banerjee, R. (2009). Multiculturalism and social cohesion: Potentials and challenges of diversity. Dordrecht: Springer. UN-HABITAT., UN. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights., & UN Housing Rights Programme. (2005). Indigenous peoples right to adequate housing: A global overview. Nairobi: UN Human Settlements Programme. Whitzman, C. (2009). Suburb, slum, urban village: Transformations in Torontos Parkdale neighbourhood, 1875-2002. Vancouver: UBC Press. Read More