Aboriginal youth are facing a queue of challenges when moving
from rural communities to the city, and reserves need to do more to prepare
them, a study by the Vancouver Native Health Society (VNHS) has found.
The 26-page report, titled Success in the City: Examining
Aboriginal Youth Moving from Rural to Urban Communities, got its information
from literature reviews and discussions with aboriginal people in rural and
urban communities throughout British Columbia. The report was released to the
public through NationTalk, a national newswire covering stories about First
Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.
Research for the study began when the VNHS noticed that
aboriginal youth were having trouble adjusting to city life.
Cole Rheaume, director of sales for NationTalk in B.C.,
coordinated the study for VNHS. “It was undertaken by Vancouver Native Health
because they had anecdotally understood… that there was youth that were finding
themselves perhaps getting into trouble and having a difficult time in the
transition,” he said.
Among several findings, the report states that factors such as
high unemployment, isolation and lack of educational or other opportunities are
driving youths from reserves and into cities. Other factors include a low
standard of living and abuse and neglect within families, according to the
report’s executive summary.
“These shortcomings leave youth unprepared for the demands of
city life and predisposed to anti-social behaviour when they migrate,” the
report reads.
The report identified culture shock as one of the biggest challenges
that aboriginal youth experience when they move to the city.
Though the report has several recommendations for improvements
to
be made on reserves, it nevertheless says that those communities provide a
safety net for youth with factors such as housing, family, food and a sense of
identity.
The report reads that youth find themselves in a situation of
“cultural dislocation, loneliness and poverty” when moving to the city and that
some individuals are left “completely adrift.”
“Unable to integrate quickly, the individual feels isolated and
disconnected,” the report says. “This interferes with normal socializing, and
indeed many youth expressed difficultly integrating socially to their new
environment.”
Consultations with youth found that their experiences in the
city were closely tied to the amount of exposure they had to urban areas. The
report notes that those who had little first-hand experience with the city had
their views shaped by verbal accounts and story-telling mixed with media
representations from television the Internet and print material.
“Many of these views were at odds with reality to such a degree
that they caused serious problems for youth once they got to their
destination,” the report says.
This is a situation that the Xaxli’p First Nation, located near
Lillooet, has tried to avoid.
Bobby Watkinson, a band councillor in charge of the youth
portfolio, told
Pique
that the band
organizes summer programs that send youth on trips into Vancouver and Kamloops.
“When I was a kid I rarely went to the city,” he said. “But the
kids these days, in the youth programs, they go on trips, go to the city, they
get to go out there a lot more than we ever did.
“They take them on trips all the time, keeps the kids busy all
summer.”
Watkinson said the effect of those trips is that youth from the
Xaxli’p band are becoming “a lot more aware” of the city.
He added that there aren’t enough youth moving from the Xaxli’p
reserve to the cities, but he said that a lack of job opportunities near the
community is driving more youth to urban areas than a decade ago.
“Culture shock… if you asked me 10 years ago, it would have
been a major factor,” he said. “It’s not actually as much of a shock (today)
because a lot more youth are getting to the city these days than they ever did
before.
“There’s a little more awareness that they have to stay in
school if they want to get a decent job these days. It’s not like it used to
be, where you could just go find a job anywhere.”
Most youth in the study said they always intended to move to
the city, citing factors such as dysfunctional families and difficult living
conditions in reserve communities. The report says that youth see moving to the
city as the “only way of escaping.”
The report also cites “nepotism” in the governance system on
First Nation communities as a reason for leaving reserves. It says that those
who have family members in powerful positions can benefit when economic
resources are distributed, but families outside of the governance circle can
suffer.
The study provides a series of recommendations to help
aboriginal youth adjust more smoothly to city life. Those recommendations
include programs to build skills in areas such as bill payment, budgeting,
personal hygiene and banking, as well as courses on public speaking to overcome
shyness.
It also recommends that emergency shelter be made available
with “low or no” barriers to youth in their early adaptation phases.
The study concludes saying that relocation is a “wise choice at the level of personal survival,” but that preparation and guidance are crucial for the transition.