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Refugee Children In Canada: Searching For Identity The authors of the article analyze the broad variety of stresses and hardships facing refugee children in Canada, as a result of their past. As defined by the UN, refugees are persons (children or adults), who are residing outside of their countries and cannot return due to a well-founded fear of persecution, because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Canada, as one of the few countries in the world with an active and permanent immigration policy, has a longstanding humanitarian tradition towards refugees. Persons, who were not born in Canada, make up more than 17% of the Canadian population (this is much higher than approximately 10% in the U.S., which is traditionally perceived as an immigrant country), with more than 11% belonging to a visible minority groups. In the years 1995-1999, more than 300,000 immigrant children were resettled in Canada, with approximately 15% refugees. Children of immigrants and refugees share some similar characteristics. For both group migration and settlement in a new country are major disruptions of their lives. Children in both groups very often find themselves torn between the new world of school and the old world of home.
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