Building Refuge: Private Refugee Sponsorship in Lethbridge

Since the creation of the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program in 1978, Canadians have sponsored the settlement of more than 370,000 refugees across the nation. Groups in Lethbridge have participated in the sponsorship of 610 refugees, with larger groups of Indo-Chinese refugees arriving in the late 1970s and early 1980s and Syrian refugees in the 2010s. Mariah Besplug shares the stories of refugees and sponsors who have participated in this program in the Lethbridge area over the past several decades. These stories were collected through interviews conducted by Mariah Besplug for her MA research at the University of Lethbridge.

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