Geo‐scripts and refugee resettlement in Canada: Designations and destinations.

Most immigrants to Canada who are not refugees contribute to decisions about where they settle; resettled refugees do not. This paper illustrates how one's designated category of resettlement decisively shapes the place one begins life in Canada, and how each has a specific geographical trajectory—or geo‐script. The geo‐scripts are distinct for each category of resettlement: privately‐sponsored refugees live in the same community as the volunteers who finance and support them; government‐assisted refugees are "destined" to one of more than two dozen cities with federally‐funded refugee‐specific services; and blended visa office‐referred refugees are supported through a shared funding model between government and sponsors near whom they co‐locate. Geo‐scripts are derived from refugee categories that effectively govern the spatial settlement patterns of refugees and, in turn, shape the opportunities and outcomes of the resettlement process. Government data show that 70% of resettled refugees do not move after they arrive in Canada. The geo‐scripts of resettlement thus shape people's lives and livelihoods in Canada in fundamental ways. Drawing on interviews conducted between 2017 and 2021 with formerly resettled refugees living in four provinces who have lived in Canada for more than 20 years, locational decisions to stay or leave one's initial destination are elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]