Most Somali-speaking Torontonians live in Etobicoke, census shows
Many Somali neighbourhoods are some of city's poorest.
Somali community activist Sarah Ali works out of an office at Kingsview Village Junior School
The overwhelming majority of 2016 Census respondents in Toronto who said they speak Somali live in central Etobicoke in the Kingsview-Village-The Westway neighbourhood south of Highway 401 and north of The Westway and St. Phillips Road.
In fact, Census respondents who live in Toronto who identified as Somali-speaking are the highest in number in five Etobicoke neighbourhoods, including Mount Olive-Silverstone-Jamestown, Islington-City Centre West, Elms-Old Rexdale, and Willowridge-Martingrove-Richview.
Canadians of Somali descent, mostly of second and now third generations, who live in the Kingsview Village-The Westway neighbourhood face challenges: insufficient youth programs, no community centre, with many college and university graduates unable to find secure, full-time jobs in their field.
Without sufficient youth support and activities, and full-time, career-related employment for newly graduated twentysomethings, some turn to the streets and violence, while others experience depression, even suicide, said
Sarah Ali, a mid-thirties, third-generation Canadian of Somali descent and area resident, who works with the Somali Workers Network.
“Everything is the need,” the mother of three said recently at Kingsview Village Junior School, a community and model school she called an exception for its strong after-school math and basketball programs for its students, largely of Somali descent.
“Agencies need more funding and support to sustain their programs. There are no locations for new programs. It causes many children and youth to roam around because they have no place to go. We’re an educated, entrepreneurial community with nowhere to go.”
The Somali Workers Network is one of several diversity networks of the Toronto and Region Labour Council, Canada’s oldest and largest labour union with 205,000 members.
In 2014, unionized workers concerned with social justice issues formed the network to build bridges between the labour movement and Canadians of Somali descent, and to advocate and address social issues, including mental illness and violence.
Also that year, the City of Toronto identified Kingsview Village-The Westway as one of 31 neighbourhoods known as Neighbourhood Improvement Areas because they fall behind the Neighbourhood Equity Score.
Low income is a reality for 25 per cent of the area’s population of 22,000 residents, higher than the 20 per cent rate of low income across all of Toronto, 2016 Census data shows.
Data indicates 42.5 per cent of children younger than six and 39.6 per cent of children and youth younger than 18 are considered low income. Among adults, 22.9 per cent of those aged 18 to 64 and 11 per cent of seniors 65 and older are low income, the data indicates.
The low-income measure after tax is $22,133 for singles and $44,266 for four-person families.
Ali makes the point that Somalis who fled the country’s civil war in the 1990s to immigrate to Canada were largely well-educated, but weren’t successful in having their foreign qualifications and credentials recognized in their new home.
“You had highly-educated people – engineers, mathematicians, doctors, teachers – fleeing the war without their papers, which led them to minimum-wage jobs in Canada, which led to depression and being unable to support their families,” Ali said.
That phenomenon of well-educated people unable to find work in their chosen country is now also a reality for second- and third-generation Canadians of Somali descent, whom Ali calls “the lost generations.”
“The media portrays us as violent,” Ali said. “But people who live in other areas of the city and outside Toronto,
hy are they successful; because we had the resources like everyone else.
“Our Somali brothers and sisters do not have the resources and have fallen through the cracks.”
Those seeking jobs or even enrolment in programs face discrimination, Ali said.
“(Discrimination because of) postal code is a fact; it’s not a joke or a myth,” she said.
Mental illness among young Canadians of Somali descent is an “epidemic,” said Abdi Hagi Yusuf, Somali Workers Network co-chair.
“Stress and mental illness is high among our children when they can’t get jobs,” he said. “We choose to be Canadian. Our children are Canadian. It’s a Canadian problem.”
Ali agreed.
What is the answer?
“Youth need to see there is possibility, there is hope,” she said. “They need to see even one or two children hired by city parks and recreation, one police officer, one teacher,” of Canadian Somali descent.
“When they see not even one person, there is a belief this is pure targeting (against the community).”
The Canadian and Ontario governments’ support of Syrian refugees is worlds apart from the experience of Somali refugees when they fled civil war in the 1990s for a new life in Canada, Ali said.
“With the new Syrian refugees, the government is supporting the whole family, and the men are upgrading their skills,” she said. “If Somali refugees had had the same opportunities, resources and funding the government is giving Syrian refugees, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
https://www.toronto.com/community-s...-torontonians-live-in-etobicoke-census-shows/
2nd or third generation Canadians Somalis and still living in the gutter and begging for more welfare. Mental illness is rampant among the youth and no wonder then, they mostly congregate the FKD sessions in the political room.
Many Somali neighbourhoods are some of city's poorest.
Somali community activist Sarah Ali works out of an office at Kingsview Village Junior School
The overwhelming majority of 2016 Census respondents in Toronto who said they speak Somali live in central Etobicoke in the Kingsview-Village-The Westway neighbourhood south of Highway 401 and north of The Westway and St. Phillips Road.
In fact, Census respondents who live in Toronto who identified as Somali-speaking are the highest in number in five Etobicoke neighbourhoods, including Mount Olive-Silverstone-Jamestown, Islington-City Centre West, Elms-Old Rexdale, and Willowridge-Martingrove-Richview.
Canadians of Somali descent, mostly of second and now third generations, who live in the Kingsview Village-The Westway neighbourhood face challenges: insufficient youth programs, no community centre, with many college and university graduates unable to find secure, full-time jobs in their field.
Without sufficient youth support and activities, and full-time, career-related employment for newly graduated twentysomethings, some turn to the streets and violence, while others experience depression, even suicide, said
Sarah Ali, a mid-thirties, third-generation Canadian of Somali descent and area resident, who works with the Somali Workers Network.
“Everything is the need,” the mother of three said recently at Kingsview Village Junior School, a community and model school she called an exception for its strong after-school math and basketball programs for its students, largely of Somali descent.
“Agencies need more funding and support to sustain their programs. There are no locations for new programs. It causes many children and youth to roam around because they have no place to go. We’re an educated, entrepreneurial community with nowhere to go.”
The Somali Workers Network is one of several diversity networks of the Toronto and Region Labour Council, Canada’s oldest and largest labour union with 205,000 members.
In 2014, unionized workers concerned with social justice issues formed the network to build bridges between the labour movement and Canadians of Somali descent, and to advocate and address social issues, including mental illness and violence.
Also that year, the City of Toronto identified Kingsview Village-The Westway as one of 31 neighbourhoods known as Neighbourhood Improvement Areas because they fall behind the Neighbourhood Equity Score.
Low income is a reality for 25 per cent of the area’s population of 22,000 residents, higher than the 20 per cent rate of low income across all of Toronto, 2016 Census data shows.
Data indicates 42.5 per cent of children younger than six and 39.6 per cent of children and youth younger than 18 are considered low income. Among adults, 22.9 per cent of those aged 18 to 64 and 11 per cent of seniors 65 and older are low income, the data indicates.
The low-income measure after tax is $22,133 for singles and $44,266 for four-person families.
Ali makes the point that Somalis who fled the country’s civil war in the 1990s to immigrate to Canada were largely well-educated, but weren’t successful in having their foreign qualifications and credentials recognized in their new home.
“You had highly-educated people – engineers, mathematicians, doctors, teachers – fleeing the war without their papers, which led them to minimum-wage jobs in Canada, which led to depression and being unable to support their families,” Ali said.
That phenomenon of well-educated people unable to find work in their chosen country is now also a reality for second- and third-generation Canadians of Somali descent, whom Ali calls “the lost generations.”
“The media portrays us as violent,” Ali said. “But people who live in other areas of the city and outside Toronto,
hy are they successful; because we had the resources like everyone else.
“Our Somali brothers and sisters do not have the resources and have fallen through the cracks.”
Those seeking jobs or even enrolment in programs face discrimination, Ali said.
“(Discrimination because of) postal code is a fact; it’s not a joke or a myth,” she said.
Mental illness among young Canadians of Somali descent is an “epidemic,” said Abdi Hagi Yusuf, Somali Workers Network co-chair.
“Stress and mental illness is high among our children when they can’t get jobs,” he said. “We choose to be Canadian. Our children are Canadian. It’s a Canadian problem.”
Ali agreed.
What is the answer?
“Youth need to see there is possibility, there is hope,” she said. “They need to see even one or two children hired by city parks and recreation, one police officer, one teacher,” of Canadian Somali descent.
“When they see not even one person, there is a belief this is pure targeting (against the community).”
The Canadian and Ontario governments’ support of Syrian refugees is worlds apart from the experience of Somali refugees when they fled civil war in the 1990s for a new life in Canada, Ali said.
“With the new Syrian refugees, the government is supporting the whole family, and the men are upgrading their skills,” she said. “If Somali refugees had had the same opportunities, resources and funding the government is giving Syrian refugees, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
https://www.toronto.com/community-s...-torontonians-live-in-etobicoke-census-shows/
2nd or third generation Canadians Somalis and still living in the gutter and begging for more welfare. Mental illness is rampant among the youth and no wonder then, they mostly congregate the FKD sessions in the political room.
I guess not 
I hate when somalis say " I did somali soccer/sports for da youf"
I'm not trying to be mean, but I never seen a somali homework club that got a Somali kid an academic scholarship is all lol.
