It’s hard to believe that one year ago, the world turned upside down (if you know, you know). How could we forget those weeks of peak pandemic panic when finding toilet paper was considered a grand achievement and when the baking aisle was rid of flour, yeast and trays. (Are people still making their own bread?) These flashbacks usually make me laugh, but there are other images that give me more mixed feelings. In March 2020, NSLC sales spiked by 22% as people began drinking more at home and some began stockpiling alcohol. I remember seeing long lines of customers at usually off-peak periods of the week. Memes about drinking in quarantine also became very popular. For example, popular late-night host Conan O’Brien tweeted in April 2020: “Can we all agree to temporarily raise the bar for what’s considered ‘alcoholic*’?”. While these memes might offer some comic relief to a stressful situation, as an alcohol researcher I am sensitive to the fact that some people rely on dangerous amounts of alcohol to cope with their emotions and are particularly vulnerable in isolation. As plenty of social gatherings and extracurricular activities have either been cancelled or moved online, many have used alcohol as a way to cope with boredom and loneliness. While the pandemic has been stressful for everyone for different reasons, I’d like to use my platform to give voice to a group of people that may not be at the top of your mind in terms of alcohol use: immigrants.
Immigrating to a new country is challenging in the best of times. Needing to build a new life and develop new social relationships and a sense of home, while maintaining connections to a beloved culture is stressful and requires resilience and community. Despite COVID-19, Canada was still able to welcome over 184,000 new immigrants in 2020. It’s easy to think immigration-related stress may put immigrants at an increased risk for problematic alcohol use, but the research suggests it’s more complicated than that and how long the individual has lived in the new country must be considered. My dissertation research is on the effect of immigration status on alcohol use, and I look forward to sharing my work in future blogs. I hope my research can help alcohol use researchers, policy makers and other relevant groups pay greater attention to immigrants in their work moving forward.
Nova Scotians looking for addictions support can go online or call 1-855-922-1122.
*Be sure to check out Karen Tang’s blog on why words matter in talking about addiction
