A new report offers recommendations on how Hamilton, which has fought against hate crimes, can become a more welcoming community to immigrants, racialized people and Indigenous peoples.

On Tuesday, December 7, the federally funded Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council released an 86-page report titled “Discrimination Against Immigrants, Visible Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in Hamilton.” It was conducted earlier this year with a “relatively representative” sample of three groups, including white non-immigrants. The report collected data on experiences of discrimination, while sorting them according to the form of discrimination and how each group was likely to face it.

The report’s release comes a day before the City of Hamilton’s General Questions Committee (GIC) meeting on Wednesday. The ICG agenda includes a discussion of Hamilton’s action plan for hate prevention, mitigation and community initiatives.

Hamilton’s focus on discrimination has also come to the fore after the Hamilton Police Department’s recent arrests of six housing activists, five of whom are black, protesting the city’s policy of dismantling the city’s camps. Respected leaders of black-led advocacy groups are calling for charges to be dropped and a judicial inquiry into police conduct.

The HIPC report said 83 percent of indigenous peoples had experienced some form of discrimination in the past three years, and were more likely to have experienced it at work or while applying for a job. However, he notes that Hamilton police “found that no hate incidents and crimes against Indigenous peoples were reported in 2020.”

Fifty-nine percent of respondents who are racialized immigrants have experienced discrimination. Among white non-immigrants, who were included as a comparison group, 48.5% reported experiencing discrimination.

Experiences of discrimination among Indigenous peoples and racialized immigrants in #HamOnt – the results of our survey are published today! We’ll share more details here – and take action, too. https://t.co/s6rgefzg2x pic.twitter.com/F9TFDkHGLl

– HIPC (@HipcHamilton) December 7, 2021

In the first two groups, 2 to 4% more women have been victims of discrimination. In all three cases, those with full-time jobs reported a higher rate of discrimination than those without. The differences were 6.8 percent among the immigrant and visible minority group, 3.8 percent among Aboriginal peoples, and 14.7 percent among white non-immigrants.

Responses also revealed that discriminators were more likely to be men than women and were more likely to be middle-aged.

Hamilton’s cultural makeup has changed dramatically in recent years. Census data from Statistics Canada (StatCan) shows that immigration to the city from Asia and Africa has increased in recent years, while immigration from Europe has declined. The growing South Asian and Black communities each number more than 20,000 people.

Coping mechanisms

The HIPC report also looked at adjustment gaps among discriminated Hamiltonians and feelings

Immigrants and visible minorities were more likely to use passive coping strategies. But Indigenous people reported feelings of discouragement, exclusion, helplessness and shame at higher rates than the other two groups.

Main recommendations

In the end, three main recommendations to make Hamilton more welcoming are offered:

• “Promote an environment that encourages victims of discrimination to report their experiences.The juxtaposition between the experiences of Indigenous peoples and the lack of reported hate crimes was an example of a lack of clarity on “to whom to report incidents of discrimination”. Examples of remedies that might encourage people to seek help include the Coalition of Muslim Women Kitchener-Waterloo’s online reporting tool for people who experience or witness hate.
• “Help victims of discrimination to use effective coping strategies. “This section calls for more mental health supports that are “evidence-based and delivered in a culturally appropriate manner”.
• “Engage in effective, evidence-based initiatives to prevent and reduce discrimination. “For each group, the report details the contexts and environments people found themselves in when they experienced discrimination. As such, anti-discrimination initiatives should focus more on these specifics rather than on generalities.

The HIPC study was conducted by Drs. Alina Sutter and Victoria M. Esses of the Network for Economic and Social Trends at Western University.

Their sample included 315 immigrants and visible minorities, 176 Aboriginals and 293 white non-immigrants.

“This ensured a relatively representative sample of participants within each of the three groups,” the report says. “The survey took about 10 minutes to complete and was available in English and French. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Research Ethics Board at Western University.

The report can be read at hamiltonimmigration.ca. The HIPC is funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Insauga editorial standards and policies The advertisement