At a professional development seminar at the University of Calgary, an Indigenous Professor pointed out to a group of refugee resettlement workers that the issues facing urban Indigenous populations were not all that different than those faced by new refugees. Refugee and Indigenous histories, while different, often share stories of social and individual trauma, transitions to urban settings (whether from a reserve or a home nation), lack of familiarity with new contexts, and barriers to social capital make for two vulnerable populations of urban newcomers.