Understanding Gendered Islamophobia and Housing Insecurity Among Muslim Refugee Women in Canada - a Community-Based Project with Nisa Homes

Intersectional statuses and experiences, such as culture, class, immigration status, and language, complicate the experiences of Muslim women in both disclosing gender-based violence and navigating resettlement. Furthermore, stereotypes, racism, and Islamophobia from both fellow residents and service providers continue to form additional barriers to Muslim women trying to access mainstream shelters.

Nisa Homes is the first and largest network of transitional shelters for Muslim women and children in Canada, with the majority of its residents being racialized newcomers, refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented individuals. Building on a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant (PEG), our team—comprising researchers, policy analysts, and service providers—will present early learnings and recommendations from an ongoing research partnership aimed at documenting and evaluating Nisa Homes' culturally responsive shelter model for Muslim women who are experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV), housing precarity and often legal status precarity.

The presentation will highlight the intersectional pathways to homelessness for migrant, refugee, and undocumented Muslim women in Canada, tying it to the compounding impact of precarious immigration status, racialization, and religious identity on those women's increased risk of violence, housing insecurity, and culturally responsive settlement. We will conclude by sharing best practices and strategies for scaling such models nationwide, laying the groundwork for addressing systemic gaps in services for gendered and racialized refugees facing homelessness in Canada.