Summer camp is a quintessential Canadian experience, whether you find yourself sleeping in a log cabin deep in the woods or roaming around the city visiting different museums and monuments. Camp allows individuals to build lifelong friendships and create lasting memories, all while immersing themselves in Canada’s natural and man-made wonders.
It is no surprise, then, that summer camps provide an excellent means of cultural and social integration for newcomers to Canada. For asylum seekers, summer camps offer a low-stress environment to learn about and adapt to a new place, incorporating fun and community bonding throughout the process.
In a recent study published in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Hend Alqawasma, a PhD student in McGill’s School of Social Work, explored how newly arrived Syrian and Palestinian refugee children experienced a sense of belonging at Camp Cosmos, a summer day camp in Montreal.
“Belonging is an important component of social integration,” Majorie Aude Rabiau, assistant professor in McGill’s School of Social Work and co-author of the study, said in an interview with The Tribune. “I see belonging as the connection to others, the story we tell ourselves about who we are in the community, and how we fit into the community.”
The overarching goal of the study was to discern what facilitated feelings of belonging among refugee children and families in a recreational context. Throughout their interviews with the children, their families, and the camp counsellors, the researchers found that three primary concepts were involved in fostering a sense of belonging: Inclusion, relationships, and environmental mastery.
Refugee children worked together to improve their language abilities, which ultimately increased community bonding and their sense of inclusion. The camp staff and campers formed meaningful relationships, as the staff ensured the children’s voices were acknowledged. Additionally, the camp included many activities that explored Montreal’s cultural offerings and its transportation systems. Consequently, the campers felt they had a better handle on the city by the time the camp had ended.
Camp Cosmos gave the researchers a unique opportunity to observe how positive experiences in a recreational setting affect social behaviours, namely because of the ethos on which the camp is built: It was specifically designed to ensure these children feel welcomed.
“By default, there was an anti-oppressive philosophy or approach to the way the camp was set up [….] The counsellors also have similar lived experiences, they are also refugees,” Rabiau said. “This aspect of shared experiences or shared languages, I feel like it really gives a secure base for the kids to have an initial feeling of belonging and inclusion, where they can then explore and grow more language skills and mastery.”
Another crucial component is that these programs are accessible regardless of economic status. Camp Cosmos uses a sliding scale payment system, adjusting the costs based on family financial capacity, thereby reducing economic barriers.
The camp sets itself apart from other settings—such as school—in that it teaches the campers about Montreal’s cultural norms while celebrating their own cultural backgrounds. The environment is explicitly designed to be conducive to both learning and having fun.
“Their own cultural background is celebrated in that space, which I don’t think is necessarily felt all the time in other spaces [….] It offers a place where they do feel, from the beginning, accepted, respected, and valued, and then they can grow their confidence and their mastery of different skills, including language and making friends and understanding how the city works, for example,” Rabiau noted.
PhD Student Alqawasma, who led the study, drew motivation from her personal experience to study how refugee children experience belonging.
“As a Palestinian woman whose parents were exiled and who was always worried to lose my Palestinian status, I always wondered what helps us feel like we belong to a certain place or a community, and what would support my sense of belonging to Montreal,” Alqawasma wrote in an email to The Tribune.
Ultimately, this study underscores the need for culturally sensitive recreational programs such as Camp Cosmos for facilitating social integration and belonging among newcomers.
