Toronto’s sanctuary city policy is often cited as a model of inclusive access to municipal services, including arts and cultural programming, regardless of immigration status of newcomers. Yet, for refugee newcomer artists, this access is frequently symbolic and uneven. Arts and music initiatives targeting refugee communities are typically framed through narratives of integration, empowerment, and healing. These rhetorical framings, however, can obscure the structural barriers embedded in status-based eligibility criteria, output-driven funding models, and entrenched Western institutional norms that determine who benefits and under what conditions.This presentation draws on a longitudinal, multi-sited narrative ethnography conducted in Toronto, Canada, including interviews with cultural workers and over two years of qualitative fieldwork. We examine how sanctuary city policy and arts sector mechanisms include—or exclude—refugee newcomer artists. Our findings reveal a persistent disjuncture between policy promise and lived practice. Key barriers include: (1) grant eligibility tied to permanent residency status, which systematically disqualifies refugee newcomers; (2) a preference for tangible artistic outputs over educational or process-based programming; (3) episodic institutional engagement, such as the surge in initiatives during the 2015 Syrian refugee period followed by diminished momentum; and (4) the marginalization of grassroots, diasporic networks that remain under-resourced and excluded from formal funding structures.Further complicating this landscape is the legal distinction between refugees and asylum seekers, which creates a privilege gap. States often resist granting refugee status due to obligations under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, and those who reach liberal democracies like Canada are already among the more privileged migrants globally. Consequently, North American music education discourse tends to center those who have successfully migrated, reinforcing privilege within the field and limiting engagement with more precarious populations. We also identify systemic disconnects between settlement services and the arts and culture sector, where artistic engagement is often viewed as secondary or non-essential. Funding instability and isomorphic pressures push arts organizations to adopt social economy business models, leading to unsustainable practices and competition over collaboration. The sector itself is fragmented, with sub-communities operating in isolation and lacking centralized leadership or shared values around the role of arts in identity formation and social inclusion.We conclude by advocating a shift from solution-focused interventions to a cause-oriented framework, offering theoretical and methodological recommendations for reimagining inclusive arts and cultural policy and practice that centres equity, sustainability, and implications for sustainable arts access in cities like Toronto.