In Parc-Extension, most rents are beyond the means of refugees like Semran, who are looking for a better life or fleeing persecution in their country. So they just rent a room.
Semran shares hers with her husband, Gagandeep, in a 7 1/2, on the ground floor of a triplex on avenue du Parc, north of rue Beaubien.
On the floor, between the loveseat and the mattress, a few cardboard boxes: this is the pantry.
Four other couples each occupy a room in the apartment, where everything is clean and tidy. Four other Indians sublet the last bedroom, and two Indians sleep in the living room. Number of occupants: 16.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Semran and her husband, Gagandeep, in their room paid $1,000 a month. This is where they also take their meals.
“That’s all we found,” confides the 33-year-old woman, who requested asylum when she set foot in Montreal on January 23, after obtaining a visitor visa to enter Canada.
Room price: $900 per month. This does not include using the oven, microwave, or washer or dryer, Semran says. “It’s $100 more per month. »
These living conditions are increasingly common in Parc-Extension as the number of Indian asylum seekers increases, and the housing crisis forces more and more people to crowd into housing.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
In a corner of the room, Semran and Gagandeep have set up a place for prayer. She is Hindu, but her husband is Sikh.
Worse in two years
“The situation has deteriorated since the pandemic,” notes Sohnia Karamat, community organizer at the Parc-Extension Action Center (CAPE), which occupies space in the basement of the Barthélemy-Vimont school, rue Saint- Roch.
“But it’s really gotten worse in the last two years. »
According to federal government data, the number of asylum seekers from India increased from 640 in 2021 to 1,800 in 2022, then to 4,675 in 2023, in Quebec.
And it’s accelerating. In January, 675 requests were recorded for a single month. In February, 940, a record. (Data for March are not yet available.)
Many of these applicants come from Punjab, where 58% of the population is Sikh.
“These people are unfortunately marginalized in their country and often targeted, especially with the government in power which advocates Hinduism,” explains Me Marie-Josée Blain, who represents many Indian asylum seekers, in Montreal.
Many came on a visitor visa and then applied for asylum. Others arrived with a study permit.
Me Marie-Josée Blain, lawyer
And it is mainly in Parc-Extension that they are driven when leaving the plane.
Bounded to the north by the Metropolitan Autoroute and to the west by Boulevard de l’Acadie, this neighborhood is the most densely populated in Montreal, and the one with the highest immigrant population, i.e. 57%.
Faced with the increase in demand, apartments converted into rooming houses appeared.
“What’s happening is people are renting multiple apartments and signing multiple leases. These people, Indians who arrived here several years ago, are able to find apartments,” explains Sohnia Karamat, from CAPE.
“Then what they do is they rent the rooms in these apartments to several families, at $700 or more per room, without ever putting their name on the lease. Basically the whole apartment is overcrowded. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
The living room of this Parc-Extension apartment accommodates two tenants.
Identity verification fees
Upon arrival, Semran looked for an apartment on Marketplace. “Studios, 3 1/2s, 4 1/2s,” she said. Each time we were asked for a credit history. We’ve only been here two and a half months, how can we get a credit history? »
To find something, she was advised to hire a Punjabi-speaking real estate agent.
“We consulted two or three agents, all of whom asked us for $300 per person and an additional $75 per person for government identity verification fees,” she says.
The agents scared us. They told us: “You are new here, you have no credit, if you do not accept the fees we ask you, you will never be able to find a place.”
Semran, asylum seeker
Finally, they said yes.
The next evening, an agent gave them the address of an apartment to rent. They went there, thinking they were alone, but 15 people were already there and outbidding each other. They therefore had to resort to renting a room in an apartment with 14 roommates, including 2 pregnant women, for $1,000 per month.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Balwinder in the kitchen of his apartment
The bright side
Balwinder was luckier.
When he arrived in Quebec in 2019, the situation was much easier, assures the man, a 50-year-old Indian asylum seeker, who until recently worked night shifts in a Dollarama. He shares an apartment with three other men and pays $400 a month for his room.
“I got my documents and my work permit in less than a month,” he says. It was easier to find housing and a job. These days, I receive between 15 and 20 calls a day from people looking for housing and work. It’s really difficult. I try to help them as best I can. »
Why don’t they go to another neighborhood?
There are two reasons, explains Sohnia Karamat, from CAPE. “The first is that there is a strong Indian community here. But it is above all because they are able to live in their own language. »
Language is the main barrier. Otherwise, they would go elsewhere. They would never accept these inhumane conditions. I tell you, these conditions are more and more inhumane.
Sohnia Karamat, community organizer at CAPE
Kuku and her husband also arrived in Montreal in 2019 on visitor visas before seeking asylum.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Kuku and her husband in their apartment
Their three children were unable to accompany them because Canadian officials in India refused to grant them visas. They were then 11, 13 and 16 years old. Today they are 15, 18 and 22.
Finding accommodation in Montreal was not easy, confides the 48-year-old woman, who lives in a small apartment in the basement of a duplex. After renting rooms in apartments in Parc-Extension, often infested with mice and cockroaches, where she was asked for an “extra” of $20 per month for sheets and an additional $50 for blankets, she finally found this accommodation, whose front door does not lock, for $1000 per month.
Kuku strives to see the bright side of things.
“At least the owner is good,” she said. And we have a lease in our name. »
In numbers
27%
India leads the ranking of countries of birth of recent immigration to Canada. In 2022, 118,085 of the 431,645 immigrants received were from this country, or 27%.
11
In Quebec, India occupies 11e rank of countries of birth of immigrants. In 2022, 1,714 new permanent residents out of 68,700 came from this country.
1.35 million
In total, Canada is home to 1.35 million people of Indian ancestry.
66,000
In Quebec, nearly 66,000 people are from India, or 0.8% of the population.
50%
The Canadian Sikh community is the largest outside of India. There are more Sikhs in Canada than in England and Australia combined. Sikhs represent nearly 50% of the population of Indian origin in Canada, compared to 1.7% in India.
4%
Indians admitted to Quebec between 2016 and 2021 represent 4% of immigrants. In Ontario, this proportion is 24%, and in British Columbia, 20%.
Source: Government of Canada