PREFACE i

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY iv

I. RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH 1

Rationale for Research on Youth 1

Research Objectives of the Six Partnering Agencies 2

II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 6

Health and Mental Health 6

Educational Attainment 11

Access To Employment And Economic Mobility 18

Social Services 21

III. METHODOLOGY 26

Individual Methods 27

Composition of Focus Groups 30

IV. DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 31

Language Proficiency Difficulties 33

Factors Relating to the Integration of Newcomer Youth 36

Factors Facilitating Successful Integration 43

Immigration Experience and the Transition to Employment 50

Summary 51

VIII. APPENDICES

1. Report: Centre for Research and Education for Human Services
2. Report: Coalition of Visible Minority Women
3. Report: Council of Agencies Serving South Asians
4. Report: Family Service Association of Toronto
5. Report: Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement-Toronto
6. Report: Pinecrest-Queensway Health and Community Services
7. Report: Pinecrest-Queensway Health and Community Services
8. Report: Centre for Refugee Studies

The Ontario Region Settlement Directorate of Citizen and Immigration Canada issued a call for proposals on immigrant youth needs to explore the different aspects of the youth immigrant settlement process in terms of "best practices" for youth. Six organisations were awarded the commission. They are: the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement – Toronto (CERIS), the Family Service Association of Toronto (FSA), the Centre for Research and Education in Health Services in Kitchener/Waterloo (CREHS), the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), working as a partner agency to the South Asian Women’s Centre (SAWC), Pinecrest-Queensway Health and Community Services – Ottawa/Carleton (PQCHS) and the Coalition of Visible Minority Women (CVMW).

The six organisations conducting this research into the needs of immigrant youth have all had extensive previous experience dealing with issues of settlement, immigration and youth concerns. Moreover, based on their previous experience and work, each brings a unique perspective to the project by focusing on different contexts and aspects of the youth experience and settlement process.

A non-profit organisation specialized in community-based research, CREHS is located in Kitchener. Its research approach – participatory, action-oriented, ecological and non-experimental – is based on an eighteen-year history of doing research in a way that reflects the voices of groups and individuals who as active participants have a stake in the research subjects and process. Participants involved in this type of research take ownership of the knowledge generated by identifying the nature, goals and objectives of the research, developing research questions and instruments, collecting information, and taking part in the decision-making process. The organisation’s excellent track record in using this research approach has facilitated the building of partnerships among professionals, family members, community members, policy makers, academic researchers and service providers.

The Council of Agencies Serving South Asians working as a partner agency to the South Asian Women’s Centre (CASSA/SAWC)

CASSA, an umbrella organisation, founded in 1988 and incorporated in 1991, brings together several member agencies serving the South Asian community. It advocates and supports South Asian issues through research, community development, training, volunteer development, information, and referral, as well as through its support to the settlement sector. SAWC, a settlement and service provider, has been working with Toronto’s South Asian community for the past fifteen years. It provides numerous settlement programs and services to the diverse South Asian community, which is composed of over 28 language groups, and almost as many cultural and religious groups. Together, the partnering agencies possess a solid research background that brings a vast amount of professional knowledge and experience to dealing with issues pertaining to immigration in general, and to South Asian newcomers in particular.

Helping more than 20,000 families and individuals per year, FSA is a non-profit social service agency that has been working with communities in Toronto for over 85 years. FSA’s work has benefited many individuals through its provision of education, counseling, and intervention and community support programs. Its focus since 1994 on research and programs for refugees and immigrants has helped many newcomers confront multifaceted settlement challenges and facilitated their adaptation process to Canadian life. FSA’s previous experience of dealing with newcomer youth and their families, and in particular its focus on the interpersonal and intra-personal dimensions of settlement, bring a unique and insightful perspective to the organisation’s research.

As a community health centre, PQCHS has been working to provide social and health services to communities in west-end Ottawa since 1979. Its newcomer-based programs include an immigrant women’s program, LINC, and employment orientation. The organisation’s involvement and collaboration with a number of social agencies (Children’s Aid society of Ottawa/Carleton, Home Management Services, Program Against Abuse) and its work with a variety of health service components (primary health, mental health, health promotion, crisis intake, community health), give it an in-depth perspective on the issues faced by immigrant youth.

Since its founding in 1983 as a non-profit organisation, CVMW has been providing settlement services to visible minority women, newcomer families, refugees and youth. Engaged in advocacy, lobbying, orientation, education, settlement, and support services for those it works with, it also places an emphasis on newcomer youth issues.

From its inception in 1996, CERIS has engaged in interdisciplinary research that focuses on the impact of immigration in the GTA. In recognizing the "contribution of different methodologies including archival study, ethnographic investigation, statistical analysis of existing data sets, case studies, epidemiology and community surveys," CERIS attempts to "foster research collaboration among universities, between universities and community agencies, and across disciplinary boundaries," (CERIS web site) In this way, as one of its objectives, it emphasizes issues pertaining to the needs of youth who immigrate to Canada and the needs of the children of immigrants. Previous work conducted by CERIS identifies a significant gap between the needs of immigrant youth and the existing services available to them.

Six organizations conducted research on the needs of immigrant youth in Ontario and the ways those needs were being met. Funded by the Ontario Administration for Settlement and Integration Services, the research was intended to be collaborative in its common focus, its selection of youth who had entered Canada after their sixth birthday, the division of the variety of immigrant groups among the researchers, linked to their location, and the inclusion of qualitative methods that would allow the voices of youth to be clearly reflected in the findings. The six research teams were the Centre for Research and Education in Human Services in Kitchener (CREHS), the Coalition of Visible Minority Women in Toronto (CVMW), the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (with the South Asian Women=s Centre) in Toronto (CASSA), the Family Service Association of Toronto (FSA), the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement - Toronto (CERIS), and Pinecrest-Queensway Health and Community Services, in Ottawa (PQHCS).

Methods included extensive literature reviews, key informant interviews, focus groups of youth, family members, and service providers, psychological tests, and surveys.

Findings of the six projects, amalgamated by the CERIS team into this report, show that language difficulties are one of the most pervasive sources of challenges for these youth in all the spheres of their lives: education, employment, health, and well-being. Moreover, difficulties faced by all adolescents in moving to adulthood become compounded by the immigration experience, and render the youth more vulnerable to outcomes of failure in a number of ways, linked to their age at migration, personal factors, the nature of their uprooting and migration experience, and tensions between them and their families and friends based on challenges posed by cultural differences. These are different across gender, religion and ethno-racial lines, but all can be painful for the youth and seriously impede the successful integration they desire. Facilitating this successful integration are supportive friends, extended family, and community institutions that offer well-designed, appropriate programs; militating against it are discrimination, harassment, and even violence in their communities and its institutions.

Recommendations for public policy emerging from the research focus on ways to support not only the youth as individuals but also the families in which they are members, the peer groups to which they want to belong, and the larger community and its critical institutions.

I. RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH

One of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, Toronto has received international recognition for its multicultural diversity, inviting business environment and excellent quality of life. Its ability to integrate cultural and racial diversity into the very fabric of life makes the city one of the world’s best places to live. As a result, many people seeking to create better opportunities for themselves and for their families choose to live in Toronto; others fleeing persecution as refugees come to Toronto either alone or to join family members. In recognizing the diverse needs of particular ethnic groups, Toronto brings together people from different cultures and backgrounds into a haven that has long been celebrated for its multiculturalism and diversity. Data from the 1996 Census show that 77.2 percent of all immigrants to Canada between 1991 and 1996 came from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America and the Caribbean (Statistics Canada, 1996).

It is estimated that of the approximately 200,000 individuals – both immigrants and refugees – who settle in Canada each year, more than half relocate somewhere in Ontario. Over 70,000 of these arrive in Toronto every year. For example, 42 percent of all arrivals to Canada finally settled in Toronto between 1991 and 1996 (Doucet 1999:4). Today, the immigrant population in Toronto constitutes 48 percent of the population of the entire city and it is likely that this influx will continue to escalate as the annual target rate for immigrants and refugees has been set at over 225,000. With this in mind, it becomes crucial that service providers and policy makers improve settlement service practices for the growing number of immigrant and refugee clients. Such improvements must be initiated, not only to accommodate the needs of the sheer magnitude of newcomers to the GTA but also to facilitate their adaptation in ways that will help preserve their languages, cultural traditions and lifestyles.

A significant area of concern for service providers and policy makers is the country’s newcomer youth population. As today’s growth in immigrant settlement continues to rise, a large proportion of youth under the age of 24 also settles in the Toronto area with their families. According to a 1998 report by the Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) on the progress of Canada’s children, there is a notable growth in the number of newcomer youth residing in Canada, especially in urban centres (CCSD, 1998). For example, between 1991 and 1996, the number of immigrant youth in Canada escalated by 26 percent. In addition, 30 percent of the youth population in Toronto is composed of immigrants.

With the size of this population group becoming larger and with the federal government’s commitment to increasing its current level of immigrant intake, it is important to find ways of ensuring that the needs and concerns of newcomer youth are addressed effectively. To do this requires obtaining relevant and current information about immigrant youth issues, conducting research that specifically targets newcomer youth and providing adequate settlement services that can meet the diverse needs of this group. Finding ways both to integrate cultural diversity and to help individuals retain and express their own uniqueness is one of the major challenges faced by service providers and policy makers. Consequently, a more holistic perspective to understanding the unique experiences of newcomer youth is needed (McDonnel and Hill, 1993:101-111). In the past, research has focused predominantly on the general needs and concerns of immigrant adults and children of elementary school ages. There is, however, an apparent lack of such research that could illuminate the unique needs of newcomer adolescents. In order to determine the types of programs and services that are beneficial to the settlement and integration of immigrant youth, it is important to identify and catalogue the diverse needs among youth of different ethno-cultural backgrounds.

In view of the paucity of existing information about the issues of immigrant youth and of the growing need to respond to them effectively, this project’s objectives were to identify the needs, experiences, and concerns of immigrant youth from different cultural and racial backgrounds and to ascertain the gaps between their perceived needs and existing services. To facilitate such an endeavour, the six organisations involved in this collaborative project focused on different ethnic groups and on issues that pertained to specific aspects of the youth settlement process. Emphasis was also placed on integrating the concerns of parents, community members and service providers, as these concerns tend to describe more clearly the issues that immigrant families as a whole confront, as well as youth. The specific objectives of the organisations reflect these aims, while they also focus on areas that concern the particular work of each organization.

CREHS’s work has functioned both to understand and examine the challenges faced by immigrant youth and their families in the Kitchener/Waterloo area throughout the settlement process and to identify gaps between youth’s expectations and the existing service programs and facilities. It has also sought to identify concrete strategies and practices for supporting the integration of newcomer youth from diverse cultural and racial backgrounds into their region. Indirectly, the process of carrying out research in this manner became a way to enhance services for immigrant youth immediately, as it focused on the lives of youth as entities nested within broader systems composed of family, school, and community and it allowed youth to voice their concerns and problems so that they could take ownership of the knowledge created and act on it.

The focus CASSA/SAWC has taken reflects both organisations’ long commitment to "exploring, deciphering and decoding the lived realities of South Asian youth living in Toronto." In terms of their collaborative study, the partnering agencies hoped to understand how cultural and racial differences affect youth identity formation, how coping mechanisms are utilized to facilitate settlement, and how dual needs of both conforming to and resisting the host culture impact on youth settlement. The research identified the issues faced by South Asian youth and their families, themselves a very diverse group, in settling into life in the GTA.

FSA’s approach has been to explore some of the psychological factors that have an effect on the settlement, adaptation and integration process of youth. Their research sought to uncover the knowledge and skills required for better adjustment and integration. The study targeted external factors that affect the settlement process of youth groups in general, such as interpersonal demands (e.g., new school, teachers, peers), and also factors influencing the settlement process that are specific to individual personality traits, such as personality determinants (individual adaptation responses to different experiences), personal satisfaction (with oneself, parents, guardians, classmates, school and teachers) and attitude toward Canadian society (how one conceptualizes mainstream culture and values). In this way, it addressed the adaptation mechanisms individual youth utilise in their settlement process. These factors, according to the FSA, not only affect youth settlement but also play a large role in their future in Canada in terms of their mental health, academic success, and integration into Canadian society.

4) Pinecrest-Queensway Health and Community Services – Ottawa/Carleton (PQCHS) PQCHS has identified, through a series of initiatives producing anecdotal evidence, that barriers to employment are a key component in the issues facing newcomer youth in the Ottawa/Carleton Region. Its objective, therefore, has been to explore youth settlement issues in terms of employment in particular, and in terms of overall integration and adaptation in general. By defining some of the issues faced by immigrant youth in the labour force, PQCHS hopes that existing services and programs may become more sensitive to the needs of youth in the community and new strategies may be implemented to help youth acquire and maintain good employment.

CVMW’s approach was based on the observation that existing services, such as English as a Second Language (ESL), do not successfully address issues arising from language and communication barriers that hinder the settlement process of English-speaking African and Caribbean immigrants in Canada. By singling out these two groups for particular, much needed attention, the organisation identified relationships among level of language proficiency and barriers in education, training, the law, and career attainment. To identify these obstacles more clearly, one of the agency’s objectives was to identify gaps in services for youth seeking employment and to explore some of the chronic unemployment issues facing newcomer youth because of language, communication and other related barriers to integration.

CERIS’s research has focused on the needs and concerns of newcomer youth and the "emerging best practices" employed by service providers who attempt to meet those needs and thus support the integration of immigrant youth into Canadian society. To identify "best practices" for providing and maintaining effective settlement programs and service delivery, CERIS examined the effects of settlement on newcomer youth from different cultural and racial backgrounds by identifying the needs of immigrant youth as they and their parents see them, and surveying 145 service providers who provide education, employment, health, and social services to newcomer youth. Research conducted by CERIS indicates strong agreement among service providers across all sectors that newcomer youth needs vary by cultural and racial background, and by gender, and that there is not nearly enough support for these youth, particularly in the educational settings where they can most easily be reached.

The information gathered by all the researchers is very useful in identifying issues, needs and problems confronted by a wide range of newcomer youth and their families. Individually and collectively, the six studies will no doubt prove useful to a variety of settlement-linked institutions and organisations and provide them with information about effective programs and gaps in the existing service delivery infrastructure. The information will moreover, help funders to understand the benefits of the programs they support, and further to strengthen their presence in the lives of immigrant youth and their families. The findings, recommendations, and conclusions also offer practical suggestions and insights to assist government officials and service providers in creating and enhancing programs and facilities to meet the settlement needs of immigrant youth.

At the outset of the project, extensive literature searches were carried out by each of the six organisations in order to determine the extent of existing research about immigrant youth issues in their areas of interest and to carry out current research in ways that did not overlap with what had already been conducted.

The review of the literature confirmed the prior experience of the researchers: there is no real attention being paid to this age group. Their needs, whether they came as very young children or as adolescents, have not been systematically documented, nor have services for them been systematically identified anywhere. What the review did contribute was a sense of the major issues confronting this age group:

• identity development confounded by dual sources of identity, when home and peer groups come from different cultures;

• language issues that arise particularly in school;

• lack of recognition, for older youth, of prior learning experience;

• conflicts in values beyond those characteristic of many adolescents, namely those between home and peer group, as these conflicts are between values of institutions: those of the family and those of the school as representative of the larger community; and

• differences in issues for male and female youth that are not necessarily found in all youth's experiences but are characteristic of some cultures in particular.

The review of the literature also identified some programs that are being offered to youth in various locations in Canada. For the purposes of this report, however, we shall limit ourselves to those discussed in depth in the two series of interviews, those with key informants and those in telephone surveys.

Health and Mental Health

The literature review found a number of significant sources in this area. A federal-provincial study, Toward a Healthy Future, reports that "Canadians are among the healthiest people in the world; however this good health is not enjoyed equally by everyone". The country's youth population is suffering from stress which is evident in the increased rates of unhealthy practices, such as heavy smoking, having unprotected sex and dropping out of school, as well as feeling depressed and suicidal. It is argued that stress-related problems among young people are linked to high unemployment and pressure to perform well in school. The same source quotes Shaun Peck, a doctor at the British Columbia Health Department, that dropping out of school early is very damaging to a youngster's future well being: because their chances for secure employment are lower, they will probably be less healthy in the future, given the link shown between income and health. The report is cited as pointing out that the persistent gap in health status between people of high income and low income is most apparent among youth and aboriginal groups.

The healthy development and integration of newcomer youth into all spheres of Canadian society is dependent on numerous and often interrelated factors. A primary determinant of physical, social and emotional well-being is the family, but several other components characteristic of the newcomer experience can influence the future health status of immigrant youth. The literature review revealed the fundamental importance of these youth being part of a strong and loving family. In addition, studies reveal that a stable family income improves the likelihood of living in safe neighbourhoods and attending good schools. The absence of some or all of these elements in newcomer households often makes it difficult for parents to create a supportive environment that enhances the future well being of their children.

The settlement, adaptation and integration process of newcomer immigrant and refugee youth is a multifaceted experience involving numerous different factors and making psychological (individual) factors an important source for both successful and unsuccessful settlement, adaptation and integration into Canadian society. Also, the process itself, in many cases, can be seen as an event of extraordinary intensity and stress. A number of recent studies with immigrant and refugee youth samples have revealed significant adaptive and integration problems previously eclipsed by the stereotype that these youth are problem-free and have perpetual academic success (Seat, 1997, Chiu and Ring, 1998, Rivera-Sinclair, 1997, Rousseau, 1997, Goodenow and Espin, 1993, Hunang, 1989, Pawiluk et. al. 1996).

For immigrant and refuge youth the experience of migration presents significant life changes in their environment, community and interpersonal affiliations. Reviews of literature on this topic point to long lists of variables to consider such as the language fluency, age, sex, degree of identification with the host culture, amount of social interactions with the host society, etc. (Berry et. al. 1987, Furnham and Bochner, 1986, Church, 1982). In Canada, in addition to facing the usual and highly intensive developmental issues specific for adolescence, as a time typically associated with difficult process of growth and independence, immigrant and refugee newcomer youth must start a new socialization process; they must meet new academic challenges, learn new school, teacher and parent expectations, gain acceptance into new peer groups, and develop new kinds of social competence (Seat, 1998).

A recent analysis of data obtained from a longitudinal study of children and youth indicates that "30 percent of all immigrant children live in families whose total income fall below the official poverty line" (Beiser et al., 1999). The researchers note that immigrant children with unstable families are Aless likely to prosper scholastically and are more likely to become delinquent@ (Ibid.). Family stability and ethnic resilience have a considerable impact on the behaviour of immigrant and refugee children. This form of social capital is an essential component of well being and may help foster personal achievement; however data obtained from community-based samples, according to Beiser, suggest that some newcomer children experience greater risk for alcohol abuse, drug addiction, delinquency, depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The socioeconomic environment of newcomer children and adolescents is a determinant of their health and well-being. In his book, Strangers at the Gate: The 'Boat People's' First Ten Years in Canada, Beiser (1999) evaluates the existence of a link between employment and mental health through the analysis of community surveys of refugees and Canadian residents in Vancouver. Beiser found that newcomer youth were twice as likely to suffer from depression than individuals aged thirty-five and older, adding that "statistics on suicide are also consistent in portraying the young as highly distressed and vulnerable" (pp.81-82). He argues that it is essential that job discrimination and economic disparity be alleviated in order to curb increasing rates of depression among newcomer youth and facilitate their successful integration into Canadian life (p.162).

It is apparent from this review of the literature on newcomer youth that socioeconomic status has a serious impact on the healthy emotional and social development of children and adolescents. Most researchers agree that very little is known about the psychosocial and mental health problems of immigrant children. Both the Canadian Ethnocultural Council (CEC) and the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) agree that the mental health of immigrants and refugees remains an important priority for service providers (Beiser 1999: 162).

The problems facing newcomer children and youth are numerous and threatening to both their physical and social development. The risk associated with maladaptive experiences is high among children from disadvantaged populations. Most researchers consider the socioeconomic disparity between mainstream and newcomer groups as the primary determinant of negative development (Beiser et al., 1999; Bertrand, 1998; Fralick & Hyndman, 1998; James, 1997; Steinhauer, 1998). Newcomer youth must adjust to a new culture and language, as well as new surroundings and peer expectations. This is difficult to achieve without family stability and economic security. The inability to adapt successfully to the norms of society often results in problems at school and creates a greater risk for substance abuse, delinquency, and depression.

By way of illustration, Wadhwani's study focuses on the specific issue of suicide ideation amongst South Asian youth in Canada and was prompted by the recent notable increase in suicides amongst South Asian youth (Wadhwani, 1999:4). The study reveals a number of disturbing and distressing trends amongst South Asian youth:

• 30 percent of the 104 participants indicated that they had considered suicide
• Of those who considered suicide, 50 percent thought that "family pressures" were the number one cause or reason for thinking about suicide as an option
• 60 percent of participants cited school as the main source of stress
• 80 percent of those who had admitted to having engaged in suicidal thoughts were females;
• 60 percent of the participants who indicated that they were "always depressed" had considered suicide (Wadhwani, 1999: 77).

Much of the literature on the health and well being of newcomer youth is informed by the theory of ethnic resiliency. Paul D. Steinhauer (1998) defines resiliency as the ability to achieve "unusually good adaptation in the face of severe stress and/or the ability of the stressed person to rebound to the pre-stress level of adaptation" (1998: 51). The ability to identify with and respect one's cultural origin can help foster personal resilience and improve the likelihood for healthy development and integration (Beiser et al., 1999).

Delores James (1997) reports that newcomer children and adolescents in the United States experience a variety of cognitive and emotional changes through the absence of their familiar language, culture and community. The subsequent adjustments to life in a new country often result in the increased risk of trauma or psychosocial problems, school failure and drug abuse, as well as other delinquent behaviour. James suggests that "the early identification of immigrant children at risk for these problems can help school personnel and health care providers plan culturally appropriate and effective interventions" (1997: 98). It is believed that many newcomers suffer from anxiety over the loss of all things familiar and experience a culture shock that can cause emotional maladjustment (Ibid: 99). Difficulties with language acquisition and the lack of acceptance by peers can impede the academic performance of a newcomer and be a source of stress.

The support of family, friends and the community can provide a healthy intervention into negative behaviour by allowing children and adolescents to develop ethnic resilience and foster strong social networks (Fralick & Hyndman 1998: 319). Other researchers also cite the need for intervention programs in order to curtail the risk associated with newcomer adaptation (Beiser et al., 1999; Bertrand, 1998; James, 1997; Steinhauer, 1998). Both James and Bertrand stress that children Aat risk@ must be identified early in order to help service providers plan effective interventions that are culturally appropriate to the unique social and emotional needs of newcomer youth. It is important to note, however, that some researchers consider "at risk" approaches to health to be inadequate because they serve further to isolate and label children.

Early intervention in the education of children is critical for the successful integration of newcomer youth. The experiences of early childhood tend to define one's social and behavioural patterns. Jane Bertrand (1998) considers ways to enrich the pre-school experiences of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and evaluates several initiatives designed to improve their physical, social and mental health. AA child's socioeconomic status, determined by family income, parental occupations and parental education levels, strongly influences the development of the child@ (Bertrand, 1998: 8). Bertrand suggests that programs be put in place that focus on children at increased risk for negative social and emotional development. It is essential that children identified as "at risk" be provided with tools to improve their chances at successful adaptation.

James makes several recommendations aimed at improving the delivery of services to immigrant children and adolescents with psychosocial problems. She is careful to point out that school children have unique social and emotional needs. It is important that course work and in-service training programs be developed in order to equip counselors, nurses, teachers and health educators with the knowledge and experience to deal with children suffering from psychosocial problems. She suggests that culturally appropriate counseling and social services in schools be developed and made widely accessible. James also proposes that suitable diagnostic and assessment tools be tailored to immigrant children and their families, and that a preventative or early intervention program be created in order to identify initial "culture shock" (Ibid: 102).

The literature confirms that social, economic and demographic changes taking place in Canadian society have placed a tremendous amount of pressure on educational systems to respond to the accompanying growth in the diversity of student enrolment. The public school system in Toronto serves an extraordinarily diverse student body. Close to half of the students within the jurisdiction of the Toronto District Board of Education (TDBE) are from non-English speaking families and represent over 76 language groups (Cheng & Yau, 1997). Between 1992 and 1996, one-third of students attending schools in Toronto came from over 170 countries, and 59 percent of recent arrivals were considered to be "high need". With such a large number of culturally diverse youth, there is a greater demand for services on the local board of education, as well as settlement and ethnocultural organizations. Some of the needs identified by researchers include academic support, parental involvement in the education of children, the recognition of the unique circumstances and experiences of newcomer youth, as well as training for teachers, school staff and settlement workers.

In the introduction to Learning and Sociological Profiles of Canadian High School Students, Paul Anisef and Mary Bunch (1994) report that visible minority youth encounter significant challenges coping with the school system. They perform poorly in class, suffer from behavioural problems or drop out of school altogether. Some of the principal factors underlying these problems include school policies, the discriminatory attitudes of teachers, and the organizational structure of schools where achievement or success among minority youth is not encouraged (Anisef & Bunch 1994: 8-10). This environment has proven to be a negative one for newcomer students. It has led to poor attendance, fostered feelings of hostility towards school and produced an increase in delinquent behaviour. Although many schools now recognize ethnocultural diversity and make efforts to prevent discrimination, Anisef and Bunch assert that visible minority youth "will continue to be at risk unless the system as a whole is actively working to accommodate their differences and needs" (Ibid: 9).

Larry Lam (1994) maintains that education is considered to be a liberating force towards the equalization of opportunities in an ethnically stratified society; however, many studies have found that equal educational opportunities in Canada are limited for some ethnic groups (Anisef & Okihiro, 1982; Li, 1999). A student=s ethnocultural background and socioeconomic status are considered important factors influencing his or her educational progress. Numerous elements, such as teacher biases, economic inequality, and institutional or systemic discrimination, act as barriers for immigrant youth in the attainment of equal educational opportunities. Anisef and Bunch also note the high correlation between socioeconomic status and academic performance. Low-income households often cannot provide an environment conducive to learning since many of these children consume less nutritional foods, have less access to private space for homework, are less likely to own computers, and have parents with lower educational levels. Students from low-income backgrounds also face discriminatory treatment and lower teacher expectations. These elements work together to produce low self-esteem and poor motivation to learn among minority students (Ibid: 10).

Lam believes that the negative employment experiences of parents may have an adverse effect on their children=s decision to leave the school system (1994: 124). The marginalized position of parents may pressure youth to drop out of school in order to work and help support their families. These individuals feel it is more important to enter the labour market and contribute to the family income than to continue studying. They may also learn from their parents= experience that educational success cannot provide them with the means to achieve social status in a high-profile occupational category (Ibid: 125). A study carried out by the Canadian Youth Foundation (CYF) indicates that youth in Canada are generally losing confidence in the public school system and post-secondary education. It reports that most youngsters have serious doubts about the value of their education and the ability of schools to prepare them for the job market (CYF 1995: 20). They remain concerned that schools cannot provide adequate skills or direction to help them in the transition from school to work.

While various programs have been created to assist children with their educational progress, such as special education classes and ESL courses, Lam stresses that the school system needs to clarify its objectives: "Are we concerned primarily with ways to assist immigrant youth >fit in= to the existing educational system or are we concerned with why and how the education system fails to meet their needs?" (1994: 130). The problems facing youth are rooted in socioeconomic inequality and different forms of institutional and systemic discrimination. ESL programs may only temporarily deal with limitations to educational progress and special education classes may only serve to further stigmatize newcomer students in society.

Laura Johnson and Suzanne Peters (1994) report that the diverse needs of Ontario students are often overlooked. Accordingly, they are convinced that there is a need for a more student-based, participatory educational program aimed at accommodating diversity and change. Four principal themes are underscored in their report:

• the need to address and eliminate race, ethnic, gender and class bias from the school system;

• the need for a fully integrated educational system to accommodate the diverse needs of all young adult learners;

• the need to build strong linkages between schools and various sectors of the community; and

• the need for greater parental involvement (Johnson & Peters, 1994: 441-455).

Like Lam, Johnson and Peters believe that programs such as Heritage Language (HL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) are not sufficient to cope with the problem of alienation causing some immigrant or visible minority students to perform poorly or to leave the education system prematurely. Johnson and Peters state that the problems facing marginalized youth are rooted in institutional and systemic discrimination. An understanding of such issues may be gained by examining Caribbean youth. Caribbean youth face pressure in school from their parents, teachers and their peers. Teacher expectations significantly affect the progress of students in school. In the case of Caribbean students they are often stereotyped as having poor language and communication skills, low levels of participation, and in the case of the males are seen as aggressive (Anderson & Grant, 1987; Foster, 1996). Furthermore, Caribbean youth are confused by the Canadian education system when they are assessed as not speaking English. A disproportionate number are put back several grades, are assigned to special education classes, or placed in English as a second language programmes. The teachers' low expectations of students and misunderstanding of their culture all compound communication problems for Caribbean youth (Edwards, 1986).

Parents assume that school operates the same way in Canada as in the Caribbean. They do not always understand the dilemmas that their children face in school. Caribbean parents are more likely to be concerned with the discipline problems in school, and the limited amount of homework. They have high confidence that the school as an institution is meeting the needs of their children (James and Brathwaite, 1995).

Caribbean youth may find themselves failing in school, isolated and frustrated. Their parents do not understand their dilemma and are more likely to blame the children for their failing, their teachers expect little from them, and there is little in the curriculum with which they can identify. In addition, the Caribbean way of socializing is seen as negative. All of these factors contribute to the underachievement and a high dropout rate for Caribbean students (Dei, 1995).

The school system must accommodate the growing diversity of the student population and offer curricula and programs that are relevant to their experiences, learning needs and aspirations (Anisef & Bunch, 1994: 7). It is essential that an effort be made to understand the traditions, learning aptitudes, family structures and moral values of immigrant and refugee youth in order to develop programs designed to meet their educational needs (Lam, 1994: 127). Such an approach could provide much needed support to newcomer youth as they attempt to adapt to the new society.

Min Zhou and Carl L. Bankston (1996) explore how aspects of an immigrant culture work as social capital to affect the adaptation experiences of immigrant youth. Their argument is based upon a case study of Vietnamese youth in the United States. They assert that Vietnamese students who possess a stronger association with traditional values, including a commitment to a work ethic, and are significantly involved in the ethnic community tend to perform remarkably well in school. These values are consistent with the expectations of the ethnic community and reflect a "high level of social integration among Vietnamese youth" (Zhou & Bankston 1996: 821). Zhou and Bankston also report that some studies of Indo-Chinese refugees (Caplan et al., 1989; Gold, 1992) show that culture, family and the sense of belonging to an ethnic community have promoted the need for academic attainment and excellence among Indo-Chinese students. Their research and conclusions, and those of others, indicate that ethnic resources, seen as social capital, can provide disadvantaged offspring with an adaptive advantage (Ibid: 821; Kilbride, 1999).

In a recent literature review on newcomer children and youth in Canada, Morton Beiser, Angela Shik and Monika Curyk similarly note that immigrant children of parents who "demonstrate 'ethnic resilience' perform better [in school] than children whose parents assimilate fully" (Beiser et al., 1999). They report that researchers have underscored "the respect for education embedded in some cultural traditions, parental ambition and enterprise, and the insecurity over minority status" as important factors contributing to the academic success achieved by some newcomer students (Beiser et al., 1999). Donna Deyhle also reports that students who achieve academic success are those who feel securely embedded in their traditional culture, while those at highest risk for failure in school are those "who feel disenfranchised from their own culture and at the same time experience racial conflict" (Deyhle, 1995: 419-420).

Margaret Gibson writes that "minority youth do better in school when they feel strongly anchored in the identities of their families, communities and peers, and when they feel supported in pursuing a strategy of selective or additive acculturation" (Gibson, 1997: 445-446). Jim Cummins (1997) is similarly concerned with newcomer students' ability to negotiate their cultural identities in a new society. He believes that a more flexible and inclusive framework is needed to account for the variability of academic outcomes and to plan educational interventions to school failure.

The focus group statements of mainly Asian immigrants in Vancouver led Daniel Hiebert (1998) to note that immigrant families often equate their hope for the future with the education of their children. The standard of education and opportunities for children were cited by many as the main reasons for choosing to come to Canada; however, "the disjunction between hopes and actual experiences in schooling and employment often meant a fragile sense of the future and of family settlement in Canada" (Hiebert, 1998: 18-19). When questioned about the adjustment of young people to Canadian society, many participants suggested that while immigrant parents struggle in adapting, "[immigrant] children adjust quickly". Children learn new languages and adapt to cultural expectations more easily than adults, and their locally attained educational qualifications are more readily accepted by Canadian employers (Ibid.: 15).

It is important to note that not all researchers agree that children adapt easily. A study conducted by the Canadian Youth Foundation (CYF) focuses on the problems experienced by immigrant youth who possess educational qualifications from outside Canada. They face a serious amount of difficulty getting recognition for their educational qualifications. The report provides insight into the discontent of newcomer youth, and how systemic problems and economic difficulties may prevent individuals from reaching their goals (CYF, 1995: 21).

The problems facing newcomer youth may be more complex than first imagined. More research is needed not only to examine how newcomer youth fare in school, but also to register their views, feelings and sentiments in order to identify the reasons visible minority youth in particular show poor academic performance or drop out of school. An American study by Lorraine McDonnell and Paul Hill (1993) indicates that older students experience difficulty adapting because they are unprepared for the level of instruction offered in school. The researchers also point out that pressure from family often forces older students out of school in order to find work and provide for the family. A study of newcomer youth on a community college campus in Toronto showed that educational and financial concerns affected the majority of immigrant students, yet the college provided very little assistance in meeting those needs (Kilbride & D'Arcangelo, 2000). In the United States McDonnell and Hill blame local governments for not taking seriously the responsibility for the welfare of immigrant students and for not assisting parents to adjust to economic and civil life (McDonnell & Hill, 1993: 85-86)

New research by Bernard Schissel is underway. The Voices of Immigrant Children in Canadian Schools is an interview-based survey project designed to study the behaviours and attitudes of immigrant youth and children in Saskatchewan=s elementary and high schools. It will compare immigrant students= experiences in the school system on the basis of socioeconomic-economic status, gender, geography and country of origin. The researchers claim that the "results will provide a significant contribution to the study of immigration, education and integration because of the focus on the 'voices of students' (Schissel, 1997/98 Funded Research Project)

It is evident from this review of the literature on newcomer youth that academic progress is a significant component of healthy integration. Schools can act as agents of academic and social growth if they adopt appropriate practices designed to help children at risk. Newcomer youth need academic support, parental and community involvement, and cross-cultural understanding of their unique circumstances and experiences. Many of the researchers cited in this paper believe that intervention measures are necessary when a student's ethnocultural background and socioeconomic status risks his or her educational progress.

Lam, like Johnson and Peters, suggests a number of specific programs that they believe will foster a positive school environment and help facilitate the integration process for immigrant youth. The research findings indicate that "a more responsive and flexible approach to classroom instruction, to the school as a community institution with open boundaries, and to the diversity of learning needs, backgrounds and expectations in our changing population" (Anisef & Bunch, 1994: 13). The recommendations made by Lam and Johnson and Peters appear to consider the importance of accommodating ethnocultural diversity in the school system, but fail to appreciate the immediate and unique needs of newcomer youth. The proposed programs understand poor academic performance and school absenteeism to be mainly the result of school-related problems, such as teacher biases, inadequate testing methods or the lack of a diverse perspective in the curriculum. Anisef is concerned that they fail to address adequately other factors, such as economic insecurity, unemployment, poor mental health, stress or depression (Anisef, 1998: 279). It is important to note, therefore, that the underlying reasons behind dropping out of school may involve more than those factors that have a direct association with the operation of the school system (Ibid: 286). Anisef stresses that dropping out of school is not a single act or an event that happens independently of any other factors. It is a process in which different but interrelated factors, ranging from the individual and family to school, community, the job market and government policy, are involved (Ibid: 289-303). Treating the matter as a process rather than an independent event makes better sense from both a research and "best practice" perspective, but only if an analysis of all those interrelated factors is made vis-à-vis the aspirations, goals, choices, opportunities and constraints of the individual actors. A process analysis approach may provide researchers with better analytical tools to examine problems associated with why visible minority youth of certain ethnocultural backgrounds perform poorly in school or choose to drop out.

It is essential that more research be conducted on the relation between educational attainment and the positive adaptation experiences of newcomer youth. The conclusions and recommendations made by several researchers clearly point to the important role played by the school system in promoting settlement and integration. It is apparent that a collaborative and integrative effort must be made in order to meet the needs of newcomer youth most effectively.

The literature indicates that the youth unemployment rate in Canada is reaching critical proportions and the greatest casualties appear to be newcomer youth. The ability to obtain gainful employment is hampered by their aptitude for learning in the host society. There are numerous factors working together to inhibit academic progress for newcomer children. Their socioeconomic experiences and ethnocultural background make them particularly susceptible to negative influences and discrimination. This has made it increasingly difficult for children and adolescents to acquire the level of skills and training needed to compete in the labour market. The Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) reports that there are about two million youth between the ages of 15 and 19 living in Canada. The high unemployment rate is something that affects all youth living in Canada, but an analysis of statistical data reveals that newcomer youth face greater obstacles to employment and are far less likely than Canadian-born youth to have had any kind of work experience. In 1996, there were twice as many immigrants between the ages of 17 and 19 with no previous work-related experience. A correlation was found between socioeconomic background and access to employment opportunities. Youth from low-income families face greater challenges in acquiring job experience than do those living in high- or middle-income families. The same pattern holds true for immigrant youth compared to Canadian-born youth. "Immigrant youth may be at a disadvantage in finding work due to their lack of family contacts in business, their efforts to learn one of Canada=s official languages, their responsibilities at home or their families= expectations that they focus solely on school work" (CCSD, 1998b: 8).

The report conducted by the CCSD exposes some of the realities facing newcomer youth when searching for employment. It is obvious that the barriers adolescents cross warrant further attention, but the report does not provide enough data on the needs and concerns specific to immigrant youth, such as family expectations, responsibilities at home or a negative school environment. Although it does not provide any particular information on the physical and mental well being of immigrant youth, the study does examine the impact of work opportunities on the health habits of students, such as alcohol use, smoking, stress and aggressive behaviour.

Not to be underestimated in importance among some groups of newcomer youth groups is the role of language with regard to employment and employability. Thus, in a study conducted by Kasozi (1986), some 60 per cent of the research subjects stated that their accent was unfavourable in terms of integrating into the society and in finding employment. Some 28 per cent lost or left their former employment due to language problems.

In Youth Unemployment: Canada's Rite of Passage, the Canadian Youth Foundation (CYF) used focus groups to document the experiences of Canadian youth between the ages of 15 and 29. The study sample was a cross-section of middle class, aboriginal, immigrant and street youth. The report reveals that most youth see themselves as "occupationally challenged despite their best efforts to the contrary…. they characterize themselves as demoralized job seekers with rapidly diminishing expectations" (CYF 1995b: 1, 7). Many feel dependent on their parents and are forced to delay leading independent lives and starting their own families.

Although the CYF's investigation has primarily explored the attitudinal trends of middle-class youth, it has provided some information on immigrant youth through comparisons with the other cohorts. Researchers for the CYF note that both immigrant and street youth lack the personal networks and support systems to assist them in their search for employment. Middle-class youth have devised individual coping strategies through self-employment and contract work, while immigrant and street youth are found to be completely reliant on government agencies to prepare them for the job market. Participants cited the need for more apprenticeships and practicums and claimed that schools do not provide youth with enough information and counseling at ages early enough to move them to the labour market effectively. In the case of immigrant youth, the report shows that the participants feel "completely vulnerable to the government's policies and regulations" (CYF, 1995: 34). Furthermore, as many immigrant participants are reported to have no family to turn to, "they often rely almost exclusively on counseling" (Ibid.) that they receive through community organizations. The study by the CYF does not, however, explore the nature of such counseling in order to assess its efficacy in assisting newcomer and immigrant youth. It does succeed in identifying a set of factors underlying the joblessness of immigrant, aboriginal and street youth, which include "the lack of socioeconomic-economic opportunities, social and cultural barriers or an unwillingness to accept low paying work" (Ibid.).

Paul Anisef (1998) investigates the important transition from school to employment as a primary determinant of socioeconomic advancement or stagnation for newcomer youth. He argues that Canadian schools are failing to prepare adequately adolescents for the job market. His research warns of the particular vulnerability to marginalisation experienced by minority and disadvantaged youth during the transition to adulthood (Anisef, 1998: 275). Anisef examines two intervention programs, Change Your Future (CYF) and the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program, which were designed to facilitate the transition from school to work for Canadian youth. CYF targets visible minority youth considered to be at risk for dropping out of school and features individual and group counseling, mentoring, and alternative schooling. The program has been moderately successful in its attempt to understand the transition from school to work as a process that requires support and follow-up (Ibid.: 294-296). OYAP is similar to cooperative education. It helps students obtain job placements to ease the school-to-work transition. The student who participates in OYAP is allowed to develop work-related skills, earn wages, class credits and apprenticeship hours simultaneously. Despite the well-strategized intentions of OYAP, Anisef is critical of the program because it has not succeeded in overcoming employers’ reluctance to hire "at-risk" adolescents (Ibid: 297-300).

Laura Johnson and Suzanne Peters also consider the correlation between positive employment experiences and the healthy social and economic development of newcomer youth. The nature of employment obtained can have an impact on the chances for economic mobility. Johnson and Peters therefore argue for a strengthened relationship between education and employment (1994: 444-445). They see opportunities for learning and socioeconomic growth for students outside the school and accordingly stress the importance of building links between the school and community. A community initiative, Community-Based Education for Work, Career and Life (CWCL), is discussed because it involves a coordination of efforts among schools, labour, industry and government. Cooperative education, training and apprenticeship programs, and community mentoring are also mentioned by the authors as programs that promote learning opportunities for students outside the school (Ibid: 445).

In addition to the research discussed above, a new study by James Frideres, Economic Integration: Young Immigrants and Native Born Canadians, is under way. It will focus on immigrant youth and native-born young Canadians between 18 and 25 years of age who are entering the labour force as full time workers. The sample will be taken in Calgary and the research will explore the process by which young Canadians enter the work force, the nature and type of jobs they obtain or do not obtain, and the issues that confront them as they enter the job market. The sample will be further divided into visible minority and other youth. The research plan indicates that the first set of interviews has already been completed, and the second set will be carried out in the year 2000 (Frideres, 1996/97 Funded Research Project).

The relationship between educational attainment and access to employment is accepted by most researchers. Johnson and Peters suggest that schools need to flexible and adaptable in order to accommodate the unique needs of immigrant youth. Researchers examining the economic opportunities for immigrant youth clearly point to the need for more flexibility in the system in order to respond to the needs, concerns and experiences specific to newcomer youth. It is evident from this review of the literature that newcomer youth need assistance with the transition from school to work. A strong correlation was found between socioeconomic background and access to employment opportunities. The research revealed that immigrant youth may be at a disadvantage in finding work as a result of their ethnic background, family responsibilities, economic insecurity and difficulties with school. It is essential that more research be conducted aimed at finding ways to facilitate newcomer youth in their transition to adulthood and the search for suitable employment.

With regard to social services, the dramatic social, economic and demographic changes taking place in Canada have created serious challenges to the delivery of social services. The process of acclimatization, adaptation and integration requires a significant commitment to assistance from the various organizations serving immigrants and newcomers. The early stages of acclimatization and adaptation can also be referred to as the period of settlement when newcomers make initial adjustments to life in a new country as they find suitable and affordable housing, learn the language, and search for employment. Integration is the longer-term process that newcomers experience as they endeavour to become full and equal participants in all the various dimensions of society (CCR, 1998: 14). A greater proportion of the programs offered by service providers has tended to focus on adult newcomers; however it has become increasingly important for these organizations to respond to the needs and concerns of newcomer children and youth as well. Younger immigrants need assistance in order to adjust successfully and to participate fully in Canadian economic, social and political life.

There have been very few research studies or needs assessments targeted specifically to newcomer youth, but those that have been conducted recognize the value of refugee and immigrant serving organizations. The strength of these organizations lies both in the potential they carry for the adoption of a diversity of approaches to program development and in their roots in the community. They are committed to cost-effective programs that work, are accountable to the community they serve, and take a holistic approach to meeting the needs of their clients (CCR, 1998: 33). The CCR identifies four spheres of settlement and integration where service providers should focus their efforts:

• Economic integration: includes acquiring skills, entering the job market, and achieving financial independence;

• Social integration: includes establishing social networks and accessing institutions;

• Cultural integration: includes adapting various aspects of lifestyle and engaging in efforts to redefine cultural identity; and

• Political Integration: includes citizenship, voting, and civic participation (CCR 1998, 18).

It is essential that service providers direct their program delivery to these areas of integration. Newcomer youth need assistance with language acquisition, cultural orientation and acceptance, building community networks and accessing employment in order to achieve full participation in Canadian society (CCR, 1998: 10).

A study of socioeconomic and demographic trends in Ottawa-Carleton reveals that the level of education achieved remains the general barrier to employment and socioeconomic advancement (Social Planning Council of Ottawa-Carleton and United-Way/Centraide Ottawa-Carleton, 1999: 12). Beiser, Shik and Curyk (1999) propose a model for the adoption of an integrated approach to service provision that relates migration stresses to a variety of outcomes. They emphasize the importance of self-esteem as a component of well being and as a predictor of achievement. Other researchers have also noted the importance of supporting the culture and first language of newcomer youth groups in order to facilitate their cognitive development and self-esteem (North York Board of Education, 1988; Toronto Board of Education, 1997).

It is commonly accepted that the ability to speak and understand the language of the host society is the key to participation in the economic, social, cultural and political spheres of that society (CCR, 1998: 23). The most prevalent of services provided is language classes; however upon completion youth typically acquire only a superficial oral fluency (North York Board of Education, 1988). This may not be adequate for their academic achievement or for their social and emotional integration into Canadian society. Several suggestions have been made by researchers to improve services and assist with the integration of newcomer youth. They include peer mentoring, social groups for youth, after-school recreational and academic assistance programs, better monitoring of students once they leave ESL classes, better access to services, and greater sensitivity from mainstream society to the needs and experiences of newcomers. The increase in poverty and the need for emergency social support has come at a time when the voluntary sector has been struggling to maintain its standard of operations in the face of federal government cutbacks to the social safety net. Several programs have been developed as a response to the needs of children from disadvantaged populations. Research into child nutrition indicates that malnutrition can alter intellectual development by interfering with a child=s overall health, energy level, rate of motor development and rate of growth. In October 1998, the Ministry of Education provided a $500,000 grant to schools in Ottawa=s Carleton School Board for programs that would provide students with breakfast before classes. The school breakfast program has spread to 38 elementary schools in Ottawa-Carleton with extra funding from organizations and local businesses (Clifford, 1999).

Meneses (1999) suggests that, in addition to the collective efforts of community agencies, schools and government departments, an attempt must be made to provide innovative ways to meet newcomer needs and provide services. The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) and the Centre for Studies of Children at Risk (CSCR) describe one such method in their 1995 report. A west-end Toronto shopping mall was experiencing a decrease in business as a result of loitering youth and a subsequent increase in criminal activity. The mall management recognized the extent of the problems and challenges confronting youth. In collaboration with these youth, as well as with parents, local schools, police and other community resources, a Youth Services Office was opened in the mall. It provided many services, including culturally sensitive counseling and community support services to youth and their families; the municipal government hired a youth counselor, and the local board of education offered alternative educational opportunities on site.

Lack of information is a serious problem for many newcomers. The majority of respondents to a survey in Halton (Meneses, 1999) had little or no knowledge about the critical issues that they would have to deal with in their settlement process. Other than receiving the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) and making an appointment with a doctor, few knew how to access other health care services (e.g., for mental health, drug and alcohol problems, and nutrition). Respondents to the Halton survey (Meneses, 1999) indicated that one of their concerns was the lack of information. It is clear from the literature that it is essential that the newcomer understand more than just how to access services. Respondents in this study requested information about a multitude of topics, such as Canadian culture, parental roles, the expectations of the education system and the roles of teachers, as well as acceptable behaviour and mainstream values.

A report by Yau (1995) proposed the development of a Public Information Office in schools in collaboration with community, government and ethnocultural groups. The offices would provide comprehensive packages in a variety of languages which could include legal, health care, housing, and citizenship information, as well as information about the school system, community services and other pertinent information. In addition, the office could act as a referral service for students and families. It is apparent that a collaborative effort must be made in order to meet the needs of newcomer youth most effectively. The recommendations made by several researchers allude to the important role played by the school system in promoting settlement and integration. It can be used as a forum for disseminating information, gaining access to families and consequently inviting greater participation in their children=s education, referring newcomers to services, and assisting mainstream society to become more culturally sensitive to the needs and experiences of newcomers.

The literature reviewed remarks on the lack of understanding about the specific needs and cultural backgrounds of newcomer youth. These individuals are struggling to reconcile two separate cultural existences as they attempt to adjust to the social norms of the host society while maintaining their own heritage. They also face linguistic and cultural barriers when accessing services, as well as racism and discrimination in daily life (Spigelblatt, 1999).

Research also shows how essential it is that services be developed to help newcomer youth develop the skills and knowledge they need to participate in society. Some of the recommendations made by researchers include orientation sessions, providing information and referrals, language assessment, family counseling and support groups, and mental health services and health programs (CCR, 1998: 37). There must also be services to help the host community in its process of adaptation to newcomers, such as public education, and cross-cultural and anti-racism training (CCR, 1998: 40).

The CCR identify several best practices for offering services to newcomer youth. The researchers stress that accessibility must be assured by offering culturally appropriate services in the client=s language and undertaking outreach in the community. It is evident that collaboration and flexibility in program development is needed in order to best facilitate the process of integration for newcomer youth. A holistic approach would recognize the diversity of needs of ethnocultural groups, provide a range of social services, and build linkages between the community, family, youth and mainstream institutions (CCR: 1998: 45).

The methodology used in this project reflects both the common goals of accurately reflecting the lives of immigrant youth, and the unique perspectives adopted by each organisation. Thus, while the organisations all conducted their work in ways that included the actual stories newcomer youth shared about their experiences, each also applied methodologies that were consistent with and informed by their different research assumptions. Some organisations designed methods simply as techniques for gathering information, while others designed methods specifically related to their purpose as organisations. For example, while CERIS and FSA designed their research methods simply to acquire information for analysis, CREHS, used an action-oriented, participatory approach, and CASSA/SAWC, employed a theoretical framework of marginalization to inform the methods they employed. In this way, when the different studies comprising this collaborative project are amalgamated, they present a deeper perspective that takes into account the multifaceted nature of youth immigration, adaptation and settlement. They provide a better understanding of the many challenges faced by newcomer youth today, and yield insight into ways to overcome the barriers to their successful integration into Canadian society.

In order to gather this information and arrive at a more complete understanding of the issues, qualitative research methods were predominantly used and quantitative methods supplemented the process. Several methodological tools were employed including focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, surveys, and psychological tests. The ages of the newcomer youth ranged from 16 to 24 in order to bring to light the issues faced by adolescents who are not yet adults, but are no longer children. To highlight the challenges confronted by newcomer youth as a result of immigration and to involve participants who could adequately reflect on their settlement experiences, the youth had to have arrived in Canada after the age of six. Youth and parents held either immigrant or refugee status and came from the following countries and geographical areas: Africa (Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, Zambia, Nigeria, Kenya); Europe (former USSR and Russia, Bosnia/Croatia, Serbia, Finland, Hungary, Portugal); Caribbean (Jamaica, Trinidad, Grenada, Tobago, and Barbados); Asia (Afghanistan, China and Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Philippines, Korea, Iran); and Latin America (Chile, Nicaragua). Since the researchers believed that two of the most important factors that affect youth settlement are their gender and ethnicity, most of the organisations set up their research in ways that could reflect these factors. For example, the majority consistently divided focus group sessions along gender and ethnic lines, however some included culturally heterogeneous and mixed gender groups. Finally, since large immigrant populations are concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the Kitchener/Waterloo area and the Ottawa/Carleton area , these three areas were targeted as research sites, i.e., CVMW, CERIS, FSA, and CASSA/SAWC focused on the GTA; CREHS focused on the Kitchener/Waterloo area; and PQCHS focused on the Ottawa/Carleton area.

The following section outlines the methods utilized by each organisation and concludes with an amalgamated chart that summarizes the composition of the focus groups and interviews, the requirements each organisation specified, and the geographical regions involved in the research.

1. The Centre for Research and Education in Health Services – Kitchener/Waterloo (CREHS)

CREHS’s predominantly qualitative approach, based on facilitated focus group interviews, has been directed by a stakeholder steering committee composed of immigrant youth, family members and service providers. The steering committee guided the research in all its five stages. The first stage, "Understanding the context", involved gathering demographic information about immigrants who reside in the Waterloo Region and contacting service providers in the area. The second stage, "Conducting focus group interviews", involved carrying out eleven focus group interviews: six were composed of youth participants; three of parents; and two of service providers. The third stage, "Holding a community forum" was a facilitated gathering where all focus group participants and all interested community were able to share, discuss and prioritise research findings. The fourth stage, "Developing action steps", involved the development and implementation of recommendations to enhance youth services. The final stage, "Dissemination of products", was accomplished through a variety of mediums including a community forum, the media, workshop presentations, meetings with government officials and the Fifth International Metropolis Conference held in Vancouver in November 2000.

2. The Council of Agencies Serving South Asians working as a partner to the South Asian Women’s Centre (CASSA/SAWC)

CASSA/ SAWC engaged in a qualitative study that used focus group discussions to facilitate an exploration of the relationship between the culture of South Asian youth and the dominant mainstream culture. The partners created an advisory committee to provide guidance and direction to all stages of the research process. The advisory committee attended committee meetings, identified outreach strategies for recruiting participants, helped with organising focus groups, acted as interpreters, and provided feedback on the draft report. The focus groups were divided primarily across gender lines and then in terms of particular factors like their pre-immigration situation and religion. Tamils were placed in a separate group because of their unique pre-immigration experience of civil war. Muslims and Sikhs were placed in separate groups because religion plays a major role in their settlement process. A few multi-ethnic focus groups were held to reflect Toronto’s cultural and ethno-linguist diversity.

3. Family Service Association of Toronto (FSA)

The FSA study utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods. For its highly psychological quantitative portion, FSA used several research instruments including a Demographic Questionnaire, Adaptation Response Scale, Personal Satisfaction Scale, Satisfaction with Parents/Guardians Scale, Satisfaction with Classmates Scale, Satisfaction with School/Teachers Scale, Attitude Toward Canadian Society Scale, Settlement and Adaptation Outcome Scale, Youth Self Report, and "Draw a Human Figure" Test (for description of tests, see appendix). For its qualitative portion, FSA held focus group interviews with both youth and parents to ascertain the thoughts, experiences and concerns of those involved.

PQCHS used both qualitative and quantitative methods. The former were used in the interviews and focus group interviews, while the latter were used to provide a profile of the population that participated in the study. The organisation also engaged in a study of the available resources and information about immigrant youth in the Ottawa/Carleton Region. In the early stages of the research PQCH set up an Advisory Committee to provide input and resources into the design of the study and to identify research materials and possible participants and locations for the focus groups. The PQCH study included two major components. In the first component an innovative youth-oriented newspaper entitled DYG (Diverse Youth Workers) was created, which allowed youth to engage in innovative leadership training methods in order to identify barriers to their integration. The second component, entitled Work for Youth Research Project, explored issues of unemployment in terms of immigrant youth opportunities. The interviews and focus groups provided insights into the challenges confronted by youth in accessing the labour force in the Ottawa/Carleton Region and in the West-End of Ottawa.

To obtain a more accurate understanding of the issues facing immigrant youth, CVMW conducted focus group interviews with newcomer youth and parents from Africa and the Caribbean. The interviews were divided into two components. In the first part, youth were asked to comment on general issues such as differences in values, beliefs, behaviour between Canada and back home, and available services in Toronto. In the second part of the interviews youth commented on issues of language and communication. Additional information about place of birth, level of education completed, occupation and languages spoken at home was gathered through a questionnaire completed by each participant. In addition to language and communication issues, the focus group yielded a richness of data covering the social, psychological and cultural aspects of youth migration and settlement.

To identify best practices for supporting the integration and adaptation of newcomer youth into Canadian society, CERIS conducted an in-depth exploration of newcomer youth issues using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The research included an extensive literature review on the needs of newcomer youth and the services available to them, in-depth personal interviews with fifteen key informants representing a cross-section of agencies in education, employment, mental health, social and health services areas, a telephone survey of 145 service providers, and focus group interviews with newcomer youth and mothers. The research focused on five sectors of society: education, health, social services, employment, and mental health.

Composition of Focus Groups

Adolescence, a challenging period in the identity formation of most individuals, is often compounded by settlement difficulty that immigrants generally encounter. When newcomer youth leave what is familiar, including their old schools and friends, family members who remain in the home country, and their cultural surroundings, they must learn to find ways to cope with and adapt to life in an unfamiliar country. As newcomer youth negotiate with the new society and culture they now call home, they are confronted with a number of tensions that play themselves out in different spheres - school, family, friends and peers, and labour market. These tensions are a reflection of the process all adolescents face as they mature from childhood to adulthood, and of the unique experiences newcomer youth undergo as immigrants, particularly when they have difficulty making themselves understood. For newcomer youth, problems associated with English language proficiency, for example, can play a major role in their adaptation.

At other times, the tensions are a reflection of what youth often feel when they are pulled in opposite directions, between seemingly irreconcilable cultural standards or value systems, and a desire to fit in. Exacerbating these issues is the discrimination that newcomer youth often perceive is being directed toward them, which can function further to complicate and challenge their integration into Canada. The issues of settlement and adaptation become even more complex when one takes into consideration that newcomer youth from different ethnic groups, religions, genders and cultural background have diverse experiences and hence, different concerns and needs. As a result, already complex difficulties facing adolescents such as doing well in school, forging healthy relationships with family members and friends, developing a sense of belonging and acquiring rewarding employment opportunities, become even more challenging when coupled with the settlement issues that are experienced by immigrants.

In order to understand the complexity of the youth settlement process, the researchers involved in this immigrant youth needs project have attempted to identify and explore the multi-faceted dimensions of the issues facing immigrant youth and their families. As mentioned earlier, the holistic approach this project has taken is reflected both by involving youth as active participants, as well as by including in the research the voices of family members, service providers, community members and other concerned parties. This section will therefore present a dialogue among all the organisations’ research data. The findings have been organised under four headings or themes, one generally dealing with settlement issues arising from language proficiency, a second addressing issues of acculturation or "fitting in", a third dealing with factors that support the settlement process and exacerbate it, and a fourth exploring some of the maturation-related transitions adolescents undergo in the context of the immigration experience.

Before engaging in a discussion on the perspectives given by youth, family members, service providers, key informants, and community members, three observations must be made about the theme headings. First, they are not mutually exclusive and cannot be treated as such. Second, the themes therefore overlap. Third, while some aspects of the themes are consistently reported by all six organisations, others do not receive unanimous support and these will be noted. Since each organisation focused on particular ethnic groups and research contexts, the issues that emerged from each study sometimes illuminated concerns and issues that were particular and unique to the ethnic groups studied (and possibly to the particular individuals interviewed), while at other times the raised concerns were more universal.

What follows is a synthesis of all the findings which is a reflection of the work from all sources employed by the six research partners. These include: extensive reviews of literature, surveys, focus group discussions with youth and parents, interviews with community members, teachers and service providers, pre-existing findings and interviews with key informants.

The ability to communicate, to express one’s intentions, and to be understood are all integral components of forging new meaning. In order to negotiate the complex territory of a new language, one must be able not only to understand its many nuances and variations, but also to make oneself understood by others. Since language itself tends to be embedded in the traditions, values and cultural understandings of a society, it is therefore not sufficient merely to know the language’s syntax. The process of learning a new language involves the ability to comprehend and engage in both the formal syntax and pragmatic usage of language. Newcomer families arriving from areas that use standard English may have adequate language proficiency, but they may experience difficulties in understanding jargon and dialect. Those who originate from countries with first languages other than English, must begin language training anew in order to function comfortably in English. The findings of all the organisations unanimously identified problems associated with language proficiency as playing a significant role in the settlement process of immigrant youth. Language barriers can, among other things, exacerbate educational difficulties, create family difficulties, reduce employment opportunities, produce low self-esteem and increase discrimination. To ameliorate these problems, newcomer youth are generally placed in ESL programs, which are intended to help them learn the intricacies of English and to provide them with ways to cope with settlement issues. While these can affect youth positively, they can at times be seen in adverse ways by immigrant youth and the general student population.

In the studies conducted, language proficiency difficulties were often voiced as the major reason for youths’ struggles in adapting and integrating into the Canadian society. In the educational endeavour, CREHS highlighted language barriers as being one of the key reasons for youth to feel lost, stupid and judged in the classroom. FSA also noted that the lack of language competency plays a large role in causing youth to become withdrawn, confused, alienated and fearful. Moreover, it pointed out that youth perceptions about their own language incompetence may prevent them from approaching and forming friendships outside their ethnic groups. According to the CVMW, which focused on identifying the nature of the language barriers faced by Caribbean and African youth in Canada, language barriers are erected because of the youths’ unfamiliarity with standard Canadian English and also because of their accents. While some African youth speak English well, they often encounter difficulties in the use of jargon and colloquialisms. When they do pick up the jargon and use it in their homes, they are often not understood by their parents, who find this foreign use of language a form of disrespect. Many Caribbean youth, on the other hand, face difficulties in terms of their non-standard use of English. Both CERIS and CREHS studies support these findings. Most of the interviewed youth reported language barriers (because of poor English skills, non-standard English or English spoken with an accent) as playing a detrimental role in their settlement process, causing both stress and social/academic difficulties. Furthermore, CREHS added that communication barriers in the classroom can cause students to have comprehension difficulties in both class and homework material, and thus do poorly, and CASSA/SAWC suggested that aptitude and skills tests are often inappropriate because they do not reflect the knowledge base acquired by youth who have previously attended school under different educational systems.

Youth with English language difficulties, whether stemming from unfamiliarity with the English language, or accents other than standard Canadian English, are often placed in ESL classes for extra help. Intended as a supportive, acculturative and basic language learning system, ESL can have an impact on the youth settlement process in both a positive and negative manner. While this help is sometimes appreciated by youth, it often functions as a sorting mechanism that isolates and alienates them. CASSA/SAWC noted that often youth who have language competency problems are not only put into ESL for English subjects, but for other subjects as well. Both PQCHS and CVMW agreed that the complexity of this issue is not being adequately dealt with through ESL programs. PQCHS reported that youth often feel that they are being held back by such school programs. According to the research the organisation conducted through its DYG (Diverse Youth Growing) Project, it found that many newcomer youth feel both isolated from the rest of their peers and disparaged by the general student population. CVMW observed that while some African and Caribbean youth view ESL classes as beneficial, many express a desire for classes that deal specifically with ways to help them work on their accents. FSA reported that while ESL classes may function in positive ways, they usually act as a barrier that separates those who take them from the rest of the student population. FSA further commented that "It is possible to assume that when newcomer students are relegated to ESL programs, it is not cool to go there." Moreover, FSA suggested that inadequate and insufficient help is being offered to newcomer students in ESL programs. "Often, many teachers, health professionals, settlement workers, counsellors, and other relevant persons, [through] inexperience or/and ignorance of psychological distress and changes experienced by newcomer youth, grossly underestimate or minimize suffering, conditions and the personal and behavioural problems of these youth." CREHS also noted that while immigrant youth generally view ESL classes in positive terms, they often find the teaching approaches that are used to be non-supportive of integration. In the in-depth interviews that CERIS conducted, several young people mentioned that ESL classes should be available to both non-English speakers and youth speaking English with a foreign dialect and that these classes should be set up in ways that reflect the abilities of youth taking them, to avoid harassment based on stereotyping according to language.

Language barriers often create problems within the family setting. As CREHS noted, parents often become frustrated because their inability to speak English limits their employment opportunities. The resulting reduced ability to provide for their children can strain familial relations. According to the study conducted by CERIS, tensions can also arise because parents often do not grasp language intricacies as quickly as their children and may be forced to depend on them to act as translators. CASSA/SAWC added that without the assistance of youth to act as intermediaries to negotiate on behalf of their parents, parents often are at risk of becoming isolated. The shifting of familial roles can create overwhelming tensions between parents and their children. On the one hand, as CERIS and CASSA/SAWC observed, parents often perceive a loss of control and power in relation to their children, while youth, on the other hand, are encumbered with the burden of becoming translators and cultural brokers, responsibilities which may further complicate their already challenging settlement process.

Language proficiency plays a significant role in accessibility to employment. According to CVMW, most of the youth and parents interviewed alluded to a vicious circle that both prevents them and their parents from seeking social services and attaining good employment. First, many cannot speak English enough to know how to look for social services that could assist them. Second, while some recognise that they need to speak standard English in order to obtain a better education, employment opportunities and social mobility, many are discouraged from even aspiring to such goals because of their limited English capacities. PQCHS also explored the relationship between language competency and employment. It found that youth in the Ottawa area often encounter limited employment opportunities because many of the available jobs require bilingual speakers. Youth who only speak French, for example, are unable to procure employment. Others who have difficulty writing in English face barriers to employment as well. CREHS mentioned that language barriers play a role in causing parents to become frustrated and disappointed because of their inability to provide for their children.

Language difficulties can be exacerbated by perceived discrimination and may lead immigrant youth to develop low self-esteem. It is especially difficult when young people consider themselves to be native English speakers, as Caribbean youth do. CVMW identified teacher stereotypes, based on youth language usage, as a major factor that affects how the youth view themselves. Teachers convey perceptions that can often lead to demoralisation and low self-esteem among youth. In many cases, youth are ‘put back’ a few grades or placed in special education or ESL classes, because they are assumed to have a minimal or basic understanding of English. These experiences can be demeaning and traumatic especially to Caribbean youth who define themselves as uni-lingual English speakers. The CERIS findings also identified practices that often resulted in placing many newcomer youth in lower grade levels than what they consider themselves capable of, even when their first language is English. CASSA/SAWC pointed out that often newcomer youth are prevented from taking advanced level courses even when they do well on aptitude tests. The partnering agencies suggested that this failure may be due either to the ways in which ESL programs work or because of stereotyped practices. As CREHS suggested, teachers often base their expectations of newcomer youth abilities on pre-determined assumptions about immigrants and thus relay the message that immigrant youth should be satisfied with lower marks. These discriminatory practices tend to perpetuate a self fulfilling cycle beginning with placing newcomer students in inappropriate levels or expecting less of them, which can often lead them to performing poorly because of factors such as minimal stimulus, low self-esteem, and embarrassment at being demoted. The youths’ poor performance then justifies their being placed in lower grades or being treated unfairly.

2. In struggling to fit in, newcomer youth are confronted with a number of challenges.

Issues of acculturation or fitting in occupy a large portion of the youth settlement process. Immigration to a new country is sufficiently difficult in terms of finding a home and proper schooling for children, learning about the rules and regulations, and establishing a network of support. When immigrants come to a country that espouses very different customs, values, religious practices, and traditions, they often encounter difficulties coping with and understanding their new experiences. In addition to language proficiency problems, as explored above, other issues can complicate the settlement process. Some of these issues result from individual factors, such as the age of arrival in Canada and personal characteristics. Others can be identified as environmental issues, including pre-immigration experiences, culture shock and familial expectations. The magnitude of these issues is reflected both generally, in the ways newcomer youth negotiate with a new culture in terms of school, peers and family dynamics, and particularly in the ways youth from different ethnic backgrounds, religions, and genders experience integration.

The age of arrival in Canada plays a major role in how easily immigrant youth learn to adapt and are integrated into Canadian society. When they arrive in Canada at a young age, they generally have more opportunities to learn about the Canadian system. They have a longer time in the school system to adjust to cultural differences and are less entrenched in their original culture. Many of those who arrive in Canada during their adolescence must learn to cope with immigration struggles as well as with the difficulties associated with their age. As FSA noted, adolescents who have recently immigrated to Canada often feel more isolated, passive, and uncertain. They enter into the school system at an age when most of their peers are situated within well-established friendship circles. Thus their relationships with Canadian peers tend to be uncomfortable. Moreover, they find it difficult to adapt to the new curriculum because they are accustomed to a different educational system. In short, the FSA findings suggest that younger children tend to acculturate faster than those who migrate at an older age. CREHS added that, in general, immigrant youth who have been residing in Canada for a number of years feel less disillusioned and isolated, not only because they have become accustomed to Canadian life, but also because their earlier arrival has given them the opportunity to develop long-term friendship bonds.

Personal factors also play a role in the integration of newcomer youth. While for some youth, coming to a new country may be exciting and a source of adventure, for others it may be a source of ambivalence or even resentment. FSA found that factors such as personal satisfaction and attitudes toward Canadian society can play a major role in the adaptation of youth because it informs their identity development process. In order to learn about a society’s values and traditions and reduce feelings of isolation, it is helpful to form friendships and good relationships with indigenous members of the society. Conversely, lack of satisfaction and negative societal attitudes can seriously prevent youth from reaching out to forge bonds with peers and others in the community. As mentioned earlier, many newcomer youth feel isolated in Canada and their lack of satisfaction and negative societal attitudes prevent them from seeking friendships. They may then feel justified in experiencing Canadian life as isolating and alienating. The key informants whom CERIS interviewed said that the mental health of youth can also significantly affect their adaptation to Canada. They observed that low self-esteem and potentially more dangerous behaviour such as self-inflicted violence and violence toward others must be dealt with adequately in order to help immigrant youth adapt. Accessibility to adequate housing, counselling services for youth and their families, and specialised psychiatric facilities can help address both the sense of isolation and alienation experienced by many sensitive youth.

From the many discussions with youth, parents, community and service providers, the researchers found that newcomer youth must also learn to cope with experiences that occurred before immigration. Settlement issues become even more complicated when coupled with traumatic pre-immigration situations and refugee issues. Many youth arrive in Canada from war-torn countries, with social, political, and economic unrest. These youth often have experienced horrific events and incidents that can be traumatic to the fragile identity of the developing adolescent and which often cannot be adequately met by services designed to cater to ordinary settlement needs. According to the FSA study which explored the issues faced by youth coming from Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, and Somalia, many of those interviewed experienced "consequences of ethnic cleansing, extremely dangerous situations, cruelty, combat, killing, pain, extreme threat, constant artillery and gunfire, separation [and] forced isolation." As a result of such experiences, FSA identified in some immigrant youth post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms including concentration problems, nightmares, and sleep disturbances.

Many of these youth come to Canada as refugees, often having come from war torn countries. Feeling that they ‘fit in’ nowhere and are persecuted everywhere they go, refugees encounter several additional settlement problems, including those concerning identity papers. Refugees must await a hearing to be admitted as convention refugees. As convention refugees, however, they do not automatically receive work papers. While it is possible to apply for these papers, employers can discover their refugee status from social insurance numbers, and they are often hesitant to hire individuals who may soon be forced to leave the country. Another factor PQCHS identified is refugees’ low socio-economic status arising from lack of employment opportunities. Often refugee families must rely on public housing arrangements because they lack the funds to reside elsewhere, resulting in refugee youth who are seeking employment, sometimes being rejected because of the neighbourhood they live in. As one participant commented, "because the neighbourhood has a bad name, all the individuals living there automatically have a bad name." The difficulties refugees face are sometimes compounded by racial and systemic discrimination, which can have tremendous adverse effects on the sense of self-worth of refugee youth. Thus, many youth attempt to distance themselves from being labelled as refugees. CASSA/SAWC, who interviewed Tamil youth in their study, found that many of these adolescents did not discuss their pre-immigration situations. The researchers surmised that, although it is possible to assume that these Tamil youth do not perceive of themselves as convention refugees because they arrived in Canada directly from Sri Lanka, it is also conceivable that they may want to distance themselves from the stereotypes of refugees.

As youth negotiate their way within a new society, struggling to cope with the many acculturative challenges they confront, they often experience a number of settlement problems which arise in large part because of cultural differences among themselves, their families, their peer groups and the host society. Two forces appear to be at work: one directing newcomer youth to form an attachment to the mainstream culture and the other to resist it. This tension between the old and new cultures places newcomer youth in a difficult ‘tug-of-war’, pulled in one direction by the desire to ‘fit in’ with their peer group, while simultaneously being drawn to behave in other ways because of parental expectations. Newcomer youth are often torn between adhering to the values and expectations of their families and to those of their peer group, especially their Canadian born peer groups. CASSA/SAWC described newcomer youth as straddled by two cultures. They often behave in ways that stem both from a desire to conform to the mainstream society, while simultaneously rejecting its values, norms and cultural practices.

Both CASSA/SAWC and FSA noted that many aspects of the newcomer youth experience can be identified as a form of resistance to conforming to the culture, values and established norms of the mainstream society. This resistance can be viewed as a way to cope with the immigration struggles, including racism, that they encounter. According to the study conducted by CREHS, youth often feel caught between two cultures – old and new. In both the major spheres of their experience – school and family life – they confront a cultural schism that may lead to confusion and disillusionment. For example, it reported that youth are often confused about how they should treat elders. CVMW pointed out that many youth are astonished and disappointed with the lack of respect given to elders such as teachers in Canada in comparison to how they are treated in their home countries. CERIS also noted that immigrant youth are often encouraged to be disrespectful and talk back to school authorities, a form of behaviour that is generally deemed inappropriate by newcomer youth and parents of more traditional backgrounds.

To compound the difficulties faced as a result of having to negotiate between two cultures, newcomer youth often find themselves in a difficult position because of the expectations placed on them by their families. These expectations can function both to confuse newcomer youth and further to disrupt traditional family dynamics. Unlike family dynamics in some home countries which tend to be characterized by more time spent with family members, (including extended family), and community members, in Canada, parents who have to work longer hours and for less pay, may often have little time to give moral support to their children. CERIS pointed out that when parents, who are already frustrated because of their decreased socio-economic status, are forced to work under unfavourable conditions because of a devaluation in their foreign work credentials, they may place new expectations of their children. Children who have been used to having more parental supervision and guidance are often expected to stay home alone, tend for younger siblings, do grocery shopping and cooking, and find a job. Such changes in the family dynamic can create a burden on newcomer youth for which they are unprepared. According to the community members interviewed by PQCHS, parents are an essential component in the acculturation of their children. Yet when parents are confronted with such difficulties as not finding employment, a devalued education, limited financial resources and a large family to provide for, youth are often left to fend for themselves.

While giving their children more responsibilities, parents often expect to retain the same degree of authority over their children. Newcomer youth sometimes have to negotiate situations that in their former country they may not have had to deal with until an older age and they may begin to resent their parents’ exercise of authority over them. As CASSA/SAWC observed, youth tend to adapt and learn English more quickly than their parents and consequently often act as brokers or liaisons between their parents and the host society. CREHS and CERIS also noted that this sometimes results in a role reversal between parents and their children, as youth become the interpreters, problem-solvers and financial resources in the family. While acquiring such added responsibilities can be a source of stress for youth, parents may experience a consequent loss of authority as children turn to other individuals as role models. This loss of authority is often exacerbated by lengthy family separations. As CERIS observed, long family separations, such as when youth come to Canada before or after one or both their parents, are another cause of adjustment tension in families. Tension stems from a developing lack of trust among family members, as well as from youth having to adjust to new household rules and discipline measures when they are re-united with their parents. Another source of tension arises from intergenerational conflict. PQCHS found in its DYG (Diverse Youth Growing) Project, that youth and their families are often torn between conflicting desires to assimilate to the mainstream values and norms and maintain traditional beliefs. Parents, especially older ones, tend to want to maintain their culture, while youth often see assimilation as a way of integration into Canadian society. All these issues can lead to tense or broken relations among family members.

While some integrative struggles arise because of the process of immigration itself, other tensions result from factors that are specific to ethnicity, gender and religious affiliations.

a) Ethnicity and Religious Affiliation:

Ethnicity and religious background play a larger acculturative role for some groups than for others. A source of ethnic tension among newcomer family members is the issue of westernisation. While many immigrant parents encourage their children to understand and adopt modern ways of doing things because these skills may help them acquire a good education and employment opportunities, they are often concerned that their children will become too western in their thinking and practices. According to CASSA/SAWC, South Asian parents view their children’s westernization as a threat to their old cultural beliefs and values. These beliefs and expectations often causes conflict between children and their parents around issues such as dating, curfews, dress styles, discipline measures, and choice of friendships.

The issue of discipline is another source of friction among newcomer youth and their parents. It is especially relevant in family situations where discipline measures in the home country differ greatly from those in Canada. For example, according to CVMW, corporal punishment is an accepted way of disciplining children in many African and Caribbean families. Once in Canada, however, parents and youth learn that such forms of discipline are negatively regarded by the mainstream culture. Unaccustomed to other forms of discipline, parents feel a loss of control and power. Youth, on the other hand, are sometimes confused by their parents’ change of behaviour.

Religious factors can also affect the settlement process, especially in families whose cultural background differs significantly from the mainstream cultural values. CASSA/SAWC discussed cultural tension in terms of its effects on family relationships. According to the partnering organisations, youth coming from Muslim families tend to confront more stringent parental expectations in terms of dress and the types of friends with whom they are permitted to associate.

b) Gender-Related Issues:

While some issues are relevant to both male and female newcomer youth, others are more gender specific. For example, although issues of dating and fraternising with peers come into play for both females and males, parents tend to be stricter with their daughters. However, parents generally have difficulty accepting dating practices for both their sons and daughters. CASSA/SAWC observed that parents can feel threatened by their children’s growing sexuality or view such fraternising as representing all that is ‘bad and wild’, about the West, including "drinking, smoking, drugs, sex and rock n’ roll." However, both CERIS and CASSA/SAWC reported, that females commonly encounter more difficulties than males within the home because of the clash between old and new cultures. Girls are generally seen as custodians of family values and are expected to behave in ways that reflect this role. This double standard therefore causes females to face more restrictions in dress styles, socialising with males, and going out with peers. Often, females experience restrictions that cause them to react in adverse ways. As CASSA/SAWC noted, "One of the coping mechanisms that girls seem to develop to survive this schizophrenic kind of existence is to start leading dual lives." For this they pay a high price in terms of stress and conflict in identity development.

3. Successful integration into Canadian society is facilitated by supportive friends, family and institutions, while isolation and alienation are linked to cultural differences and discrimination.

When immigrant families and their children arrive in Canada, with few financial resources, language barriers and different cultural backgrounds, they need to develop ways to cope with their surroundings. While access to services and networks of support are important for parents, they are especially crucial for adolescents who are often torn between the two cultures. Parents usually begin their settlement process in Canada by relying more heavily on traditional ways of negotiating with their surroundings, but immigrant youth, because of their age, are often less cemented in their culture. They are particularly susceptible to becoming confused and frustrated as they straddle two cultures on a daily basis. Consequently, they are in acute need of helpful friends and institutions to assist them in developing coping strategies to meet their settlement needs.

As newcomer youth and their families struggle to understand and cope with the many immigration challenges they confront, several forces can act to facilitate their settlement process, while others may act to obstruct or hinder it. Some of the positive factors include: a network of supportive friends, extended family, community members, and institutions that can play a crucial role in helping newcomer youth and their families deal with the difficulties they confront. Other factors such as unresolved cultural differences and discrimination act to intensify newcomers’ feeling of isolation and alienation and exacerbate the settlement process.

The need to belong manifests itself strongly in the desire to form friendships. Youth who leave behind old friends need to form new friendships which can help them learn about the Canadian system, understand the codes of appropriate behaviour, and develop coping strategies. In the study conducted by PQCHS, youth reported that friends commonly are a major source of information about services, jobs and activities. CERIS observed that across all groups, youth and mothers mentioned that friends and family represented a major source of support in their struggle to adjust to life in Canada. Many of those interviewed also noted that extended family already settled in Canada assisted in finding them accommodation and employment, connected them to appropriate mainstream and community organisations, and provided all the necessary translation for them in the early years in Canada. Most of the youth identified friends they met at school as most helpful to them in adjusting. These school friends told them what to do in school and after school, what to watch on T.V., how to dress, and what subjects to choose at school. CREHS noted that, while some newcomer youth try to become integrated into the host culture by making friends with youth who are born in Canada or have been there for a long time, many turn to those from their country of origin or those who share their ethnic background. As PQCHS stated, "Knowing that a person has the same culture or religion automatically creates a bond of trust for the youth." FSA’s findings also showed that the interviewed youth preferred associating with peers from their own racial and ethnic background because they shared a common heritage, they could sympathize with newcomer situations, and they helped them feel valued and accepted. According to CASSA/SAWC, some schools recognize the need for youth to engage with other youth from similar backgrounds and have therefore initiated buddy systems which allow newcomer youth to be paired up with other students as cultural brokers. CVMW added that by pairing up newcomer youth with more established immigrant youth, the buddy system can also reduce the gap between the needs of newcomer youth and the services currently available.

The research from all the organisations confirmed that when a network of support composed of friends and institutions surrounds newcomer youth and their families, they can more easily adapt to life in Canada. Often, however, newcomer youth do not turn to formal services and facilities for help; instead, they turn to informal sources of support. One reason is that although agencies do exist to cater to the needs of youth, many do not focus exclusively on particular immigrant needs; nor do they adequately meet the settlement needs of newcomer youth. Among the barriers to effective service provision are the variability of needs by different ethnic groups, the lack of necessary inter-agency co-ordination, and the inadequacy of funding.

CREHS identified the lack of resources as being one of the major problems in the provision of services, particularly in terms of school services. Many of these services existed in the past but recently lost their funding (e.g., ESL summer school programs). PQCHS, which explored the nature of services and support in terms of employment programs, reported that while immigrant youth find that services are available, they often do not seem to respond to their needs. Most of these services are designed for mainstream youth or youth who are already job-ready, while many newcomers are in need of services that can train them for employment. In the case of migrants to the Kitchener /Waterloo Region, CREHS observed that this area is significantly populated by immigrant families that landed in other parts of Canada (mainly Quebec) and then migrated to the region. These families were attracted to the increased employment opportunities available in the area, to the attractive and affordable housing, and to the diverse educational opportunities provided in English in the area. However, insufficient formal services exist to help these migrants. According to the research that CREHS conducted, ESL registration increased from 1,437 in 1994 to 3,107 in 1998. Thus while the number of children in the Kitchener/ Waterloo region has increased significantly, as indicated by the rise in ESL registration, the diverse needs of such groups are often not met because their presence and secondary migration behaviour is not formally noted in government records. While the settlement needs of these groups are generally similar to those of other immigrant children and youth, the number of services and programs available to address these needs are insufficient because the true number of immigrants is not reflected in government initiatives. Therefore, many in the Kitchener/Waterloo/region have resorted to informal sources of support for help. CVMW pointed out that it is not sufficient that these services exist; they must become known and accessible to youth who need them. The organisation found that many youth do not know what services are available to them, and others may know about the availability of services, but feel they are not accessible because of language barriers and cultural differences.

Instead of turning to formal agencies for help, many newcomer youth and their families turn to informal sources of support. CERIS’s study reported a number of helpful religious institutions that have alleviated some of the difficulties encountered by newcomer youth and their families. Korean, Jamaican, Filipino and Portuguese mothers mentioned that they received the greatest help and comfort from their church. Their church also gave them an opportunity to meet and make friends with other people of similar backgrounds and offered a variety of programs including social events for adults and youth. These youth also identified their church as offering them assistance and support in their settlement process. Jamaican youth mentioned a youth program in their church that functioned as a support group, where they were able to talk about daily experiences and ways to deal with difficulties. Somali and Iranian mothers and youth discussed the religious meetings they attended and the spiritual and moral support they derived from these meetings; and Russian-Jewish youth stated that their rabbi helped their families adjust to life in Canada.

CVMW discussed the role of helpful institutions in assisting Caribbean youth. It stated that as in many other cultures, people originating from the Caribbean often feel that their problems are private and cannot adequately be dealt with by strangers. As a result, many turn to an informal support network of friends, family members and sometimes church to help them solve problems. FSA also noted that while youth often reported that their parents had problems, the parents did not take advantage of counseling services partly both they were over-worked and had no free time, and partly because they viewed the idea of counseling "strange and unusual." Instead, many youth and their families turned to existing family members or to churches and culturally sensitive settlement service providers.

Prejudice and discrimination are detrimental factors affecting the successful settlement of immigrants. Stereotypes of any kind tend to label individuals as a sort or kind, without allowing individuals an opportunity to be themselves. Negative stereotypes are especially injurious because they can be demeaning and hurtful. Discrimination can occur on many levels and in many ways. Often it results from the intentional exclusion and singling out of certain groups from the mainstream society; at other times it can be caused by a basic lack of understanding and ignorance on the part of those who are prejudiced. All forms of discrimination, intentional or otherwise, can negatively affect the settlement, and integration of youth into Canadian society.

a) Discrimination in Schools:

One of the first places youth may encounter discrimination is in school. There, immigrant youth perceive they are discriminated against because of language limitations, the colour of their skin, racial origins, ethnic background or cultural practices. According to the CERIS findings, females tend to experience fewer incidents of discrimination in school than males do. They are often more easily accepted by teachers and perform better academically. Males, on the other hand, report more racial incidents in terms of bullying and violence. In the study conducted by CASSA/SAWC, issues of prejudice were identified as highly significant in the youth settlement process. The report noted that, "Any attempt at understanding the adaptation and settlement challenges and concerns of South Asian youth must be contextualized within the realities of their everyday experiences in Canada where cultural imperialism and White supremacy are exercised through Eurocentric institutions that reinforce a racialized society."

Discrimination in the form of ethnic jokes, racial slurs, threats, harassment and physical assault are often encountered by youth. CASSA/SAWC also pointed out that the curriculum is often set up in ways that exclude the lived realities of immigrant youth. For example, schools do not usually offer sports options such cricket or soccer, which South Asian youth are good at, while they also perpetuate stereotypes – e.g., "Muslims as terrorists, violent and evil" – which are demeaning. In turn, many immigrant youth lose faith in the school system’s ability to help them combat discrimination. As a result, many learn to cope by seeking peer groups from their own cultural background as a way to create a sense of belonging and cultural identity.

b) Teachers/Counsellors and Discrimination

In the school setting, which occupies a significant portion of the lives of immigrant youth, teachers act as major facilitators of youths’ primary socialisation to Canada. Thus, a teacher’s experiences, attitudes, knowledge and compassion become crucial to the settlement and adaptation of youth. Many of the interviewed youth, however, expressed ambiguous feelings toward teachers and other school authorities. While they related that some teachers have been very helpful, on many occasions, youth found that teachers did not understand their problems. They did not make an effort to engage them as unique individuals on issues that affected their personal experiences, and instead imposed on them already formed assumptions and expectations. More significantly, they did not have the same expectations of immigrant youth as they did of other students. CASSA/SAWC pointed out that when teachers engage in discriminatory behaviour, intentionally or otherwise, they give out the message that such attitudes are acceptable. FSA suggested that educational practices need to become more "flexible and responsive, ensuring the development of innovative and comprehensive programs and interventions which balance the need for settlement, adaptation and integration of newcomer youth with [a] deep respect for a variety of their personal experiences, interests, and personality/identity development."

Guidance counsellors, who represent another major source of support, are in a special position to help immigrant youth in their socialisation and adaptation process. Yet they hinder rather than facilitate youth settlement when they engage in discriminatory behaviour. Youth in both the CVMW and the CERIS studies found counsellors not to be generally helpful; rather they sometimes contributed to the problems they encountered. Most newcomer youth who went to counsellors for help reported that they were discouraged by their counsellors’ disparaging attitudes towards their aspirations for post-secondary education. Others were wholly unaware that there were guidance counsellors toward whom they could turn. These sentiments were also echoed by the findings of FSA and CASSA/SAWC.

c) Peers and Discrimination:

While peers can be a major source of support for newcomer youth, they can also exacerbate settlement challenges. As discussed above, peer groups often have a considerable influence over newcomer youth and when they are tormented and rejected by their peer groups, they become depressed and dejected. Prejudicial attitudes and behaviour, which tend to make immigrant youth feel even more isolated, can evoke anti-social behaviour. FSA noted that "It is possible to anticipate that both youth who have demonstrated the hatred and discriminatory acts toward their peers and those who have been targets of various forms of hate and discrimination, etc., are at increased risk, respectively, for incarceration, depression, behaviour problems, violent behaviour and many other negative developmental outcomes." CERIS explored the role of gender in terms of discrimination. It found that males encountered prejudice more overtly, in the form of bullying, extortion and fights and other modes of violence. Females, on the other hand, reported being teased about being immigrants, about not speaking English well, or being new to a school.

CASSA/SAWC considered the effects of racism on the friendship choices that immigrant youth make. In many cases, males are drawn to gangs that are respected or feared by Canadian students. Immigrant females, however, reported being ostracised not only by members of the dominant race but also by their own ethno-racial group, perhaps because those who have been in Canada longer feel that they cannot afford to support newcomers for fear of also being singled out. Reasons for discriminatory behaviour stem from many areas ranging from ignorance of another individual’s situation to an intentional desire to inflict harm on others.

d) The Media and Its Role:

The media can play both a positive and negative role in the youth settlement process. Sometimes it can be a source of information and present positive role models for youth. Often, however, the media can affect youth settlement in an adverse way. CREHS examined the role of the media in creating pressures on youth to conform to Canadian cultural expectations. Although this form of influence is felt by most adolescents, it is often more acutely experienced by newcomer youth who feel that they must fit in. CASSA/SAWC described the media’s perpetuation of existing negative stereotypes with respect to minority groups. The researchers noted that "negative stories about the [immigrant] community seem to get a lot more space and coverage in the media as compared to similar events in other communities and positive achievements are either completely ignored or reported as a form of tokenism."

e) Violence, Police Harassment, and Discrimination:

Issues of violence and police harassment were reported by a number of research partners. Such incidents are seen as discrimination that is often part of the ethnic minority group’s lived experience. For example, PQCHS found that youth from visible minorities, especially Black males, often encounter harassment by police who regularly go into their neighbourhoods and routinely check their identity and car registration papers. CERIS found that Portuguese and Jamaican males had similar experiences of "over-policing". They also commented that youth often blamed negative stereotypes, for example that Jamaican youth are drug dealers, a major cause in their being harassed.

Issues of violence and police harassment, however, cannot completely be attributed to discrimination by the dominant mainstream society. CVMW acknowledged that discriminatory practices are often at the root of police harassment, but it also pointed to youth behaviour as being partly to blame. As mentioned above, immigrant youth who arrive in Canada from areas where discipline measures are much stricter often become more ‘wayward’ when the type of disciplining that they had been accustomed to all their lives is abandoned. Some of the parents CVMW interviewed blamed the lax discipline measures condoned in Canada as being one of the major factors causing youth to run into trouble with the police. This type of behaviour can cause police to become more stringent and perhaps lead to a self-perpetuating cycle of more general

discrimination by police toward certain youth groups. While violence and police harassment ought not to be condoned under any circumstance, it is important to recognise that there are many factors at work in such situations and it is necessary to break the vicious cycle that perpetuates all forms of discrimination.

4. The complexity of adolescent transitions to new adult identities, especially as it relates to employment, can be hindered by the immigration experience.

Employment factors play a major role in the immigrant youth settlement process. Through meaningful employment opportunities, youth learn to understand and cope with a number of adaptation and integration issues. Acquiring a job allows youth to learn about the Canadian economic system, to develop mechanisms for coping with people of different backgrounds, and to gain Canadian experience, which is often a prerequisite for better employment. Programs that focus on helping youth find employment can facilitate youth settlement by providing information, resources and linkages between prospective employers and youth. All the organizations noted, however, that few services exist that are specifically targeted toward helping immigrant youth find employment. Several factors impede newcomer youth from finding employment. These include: language barriers, acculturative issues and discrimination.

Fitting In and Employment

According to PQCHS’s study, which engaged specifically in employment issues, immigrant youth have a strong motivation to work. By working, they hope to acquire the same opportunities afforded to Canadian born adolescents, including the purchase of material goods, going out, and saving funds for university or college. In acquiring employment, they also hope to gain Canadian experience, build up their resume references, and achieve a measure of independence, which as PQCHS observed, was very important to the participants in its study. CERIS found that the youth settlement process can be further facilitated by information about labour market standards in Canada.

Employment opportunities, however, are often limited by prejudice. According to CVMW, immigrant youth and parents often attempt not to stand out in order not to draw attention to themselves, and for this reason may have difficulty acquiring a job. The study conducted by PQCHS examined this aspect of the settlement process extensively. It identified several factors at work. First, when youth are not hired because they do not have Canadian experience, they are often uncertain whether they are being discriminated against or whether they lack the required skills. This ambiguity can often lead newcomer youth to lose confidence and doubt their abilities. Second, when they are hired, they often perceive that they are being treated differently from other employees or not given the same respect. As PQCHS noted, "These youth are…ill equipped to deal with situations of discrimination, which they react to the only way they know how: by lashing out [in] their anger, which then perpetuates the stigma that they are violent and untrustworthy" or by withdrawing, thus fuelling the impression that they are lazy or lackadaisical at work. This behaviour then validates many of the stereotypes that are held about them.

Summary

Newcomer youth encounter many obstacles in their attempts to become integrated into Canadian society. The severity of their struggles is often dependent on their age of arrival in Canada. The findings suggest that the older newcomer youth are when they arrive in Canada and the shorter the length of time in the Canadian school system, the more difficult it is to integrate into the school system and into society. The level of proficiency in both the English language and its (Canadian) pronunciation has a strong impact on the settlement process of immigrant youth. Among the many language proficiency challenges confronted by newcomer youth and their parents are problems faced in schools, within the family, in the employment setting, and as a result of ESL classes themselves.

Another source of difficulty is the attitude that newcomer youth have towards Canada and Canadian society. If their level of satisfaction is low, they may refuse to form the friendship bonds that can facilitate their understanding of the new culture and decrease their sense of isolation. Pre-immigration experiences also affect the integrative process. Not surprisingly, when newcomer youth arrive in Canada carrying painful baggage from their previous experiences, their settlement process is impeded. Culture shock is another factor newcomer youth and their parents must contend with, especially when the cultural values and norms they grew up with differ greatly from those of other Canadians. In addition, newcomer youth experience the tension or clash between the old and new culture, as they are simultaneously pulled by the desire to maintain their cultural heritage and their need to fit in to mainstream society. Another issue immigrant families must deal with is changes that occur in family interaction patterns. These, coupled with the struggles mentioned above, can cause serious tensions in family relationships. While some issues are generally experienced as a result of immigrating to a new country, others are more specific to ethnic background, religion, and gender. These include issues of discipline, westernization, and dating.

The research findings strongly suggest that while helpful friendships and institutions can facilitate the immigration process, factors such as discrimination can exacerbate it. In terms of a network of support, most newcomers – both youth and parents – find that formal services are often not accessible to them; hence many turn to informal sources of support. These sources included extended families, close friends, community members and religious institutions. While support can ease some of the challenges faced by newcomer youth, discrimination – in all its forms – acts to make them more complicated and difficult. The research shows that an effort must be made to widen the network of support that newcomer youth and their families have, both in terms of facilities and in terms of cultural sensitivity. It also shows that there is an immediate need to engage in anti-discriminatory education in many spheres – schooling, employment, the legal system, and the media.

As newcomer youth begin to make the transition from childhood and adulthood, the subject of employment becomes increasingly important. Through employment, youth are afforded the opportunity to gain a measure of independence, increase their level of confidence, and help support their families. Employment can help facilitate their settlement process by giving them access to the ways in which the Canadian economic system works, by providing them with more Canadian experience and by helping them save up for university or college. Discriminatory attitudes and practices on the part of employers and those in positions of power, on the other hand, can seriously hinder their opportunities and their abilities to integrate. Prejudice and discrimination, moreover, can function to affect adversely newcomer youths’ self-confidence and identity formation.

Efforts to mitigate these problems must take into account ways to decrease the prejudicial attitudes that surround newcomers. Both policy-making measures and educational strategies are needed to help newcomer youth deal with the various settlement difficulties and the discrimination they often encounter.

A theoretical framework that lends itself well to the task of examining the experiences of children and youth is the human ecological model of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979). Children and youth are seen as members of families, which are nested in communities with their own institutions, which in turn are part of a larger society, with its worldview and ideologies, and the policies that reflect them. This systemic approach does far more to illuminate not only the experiences of children and youth but also the sources of much of the environmental support for them and their families, as it examines surrounding institutions and the ideologies or belief systems that shape them.

In examining the findings and recommendations of the six partners in the OASIS-funded projects, we found that there was a consensus on the part of the youth (and their mothers, where they were interviewed) that they be viewed as a part of a larger whole. They and their families wanted to be seen not only as parts of an immigrant community, but also as part of the larger society to which they had immigrated. In other words, the youth whose voices are heard in these interviews were rarely part of the marginalized, to use John Berry’s (1996) typology. They were not alienated from their own cultural group and those of "mainstream" groups, nor were they assimilationist in their attitudes, wanting merely to blend in with the larger group of Canadian-born peers, or segregationist, wanting to stay aloof from those peers and mix only with their own ethnic groups. Rather these youth seemed to be identifying with both their home and new cultures, or to continue Berry’s terminology, to be integrationist. The needs that emerged from these studies are clearly needs that are linked to help them succeed in the process of that selective integration.

The newcomer youth aged 16 to 20 experienced challenges within themselves, to identify and articulate how they wish to be young men and women in the tradition of their ancestors, and also of Canada, with a mixture of values selected by them. Their freedom to do this without the demeaning pressures of external prejudice or what they see as the expected but difficult pressures of parental expectations is discussed in later sections.

Following Bronfenbrenner’s framework of seeing youth in the context of their families, we read the testimony of the youth as themselves supporting that analysis. First, they object to the Canadian immigration policies that result in, or seem to make necessary, family separation in the migration process. Where children have been separated from a parent for years they experience a destruction of the kind of trust they had previously enjoyed. Building new relationships with family members at a time when the family members are supposed to be their chief source of support is one of the difficulties they find hardest to overcome and with which need assistance.

Another source of distancing from their families stems from the economic hardships that their parents often experience, as a consequence of the lack of recognition of their prior training and job experience. This results in both parents working long hours and being absent from their children at the precise time in their lives when they most need parental assistance in the adjustment to a new and often perplexing society. Policies to provide appropriate recognition for credentials, good training for adjustment to the specifics of Canadian occupations and professions, and job placement would help the youth retain the family life they had been accustomed to, with parents who have time to help them.

The newcomer youth seek to maintain family unity yet do not want to pay too high a price for it. They believe that there should be programs to assist and support families in integrating into Canadian society, so that their own integration will be smoother as well. They seek these in their community of residence as well as within their ethnic community, and believe both programs should be in place. These family-centered programs should offer assistance to help families decide together where adjustments in traditional culture can be made at the request of youth, and where youth can be assisted to bridge the two cultures successfully in other ways. Intergenerational or family counseling is a very necessary component, according to the youth interviewed.

They also look for the types of programs that will eliminate the specific causes of their families’ poverty. There are few challenges so devastating for them as this poverty, particularly one that seems utterly unjust, given the educational levels and experience of their parents. Addressing this seems to indicate employing an empowering inclusive community development approach rather than one based on assumptions of deficit in the newcomers, and it would surely be more effective than merely deficit-based models. This should also apply to some extent to the schools where the youth need the integration of their parents into the workings of the local individual school in particular and an intelligent introduction into the workings of Canadian educational systems and their underlying philosophy in general. The Family Service Association strongly argued for flexible funding for community service providers:

Family-centered, needs-based, flexible, well-managed and multi-faceted community-based initiatives and programs for newcomer youth and their families [are what is needed]. The basic assumption of these initiatives and programs is that by improving early assistance for newcomer families there would be more positive relationships and [a healthy] climate within these families.

The early provision of "a community-based approach that will engage newcomer youth and their families to reduce the duration and extremity of their confusion, crises, [and] problems" in their settlement period will result in the strengthening of the family unit that the youth rightly believe should be there to support them.

Their families at this stage of their lives are not the only source of support for newcomer youth, but they should be able to provide a continuing presence in their children’s lives both when they first arrive in Canada and as they pass through the challenges of adolescence. Ideally Canada’s settlement programs both in school and in the broader community will enable families to be that source of support rather than either an acutely felt absence in their lives, a drain on their own resources, or a source of further tension and strife.

Newcomer youth prized social cohesion among all youth, and asked for opportunities for Canadian-born and newcomer youth to interact in regularly scheduled, well-designed programs in social settings. Yet they wanted to retain the ties to their own peer groups too, to combat the isolation and psychological alienation of being newcomers, through programs designed to connect them regularly with other youth of their own background, as well as with Canadian-born youth.

The young people spoke of specific programs that addressed the need to help each other to excel. Mentoring programs, in which older Canadian youth who had been here much longer or were born here could partner with newcomers and assume responsibility for helping them adjust, or buddy programs, in which youth of their own age who spoke their language could be paired with them for friendship’s sake, were seen as particularly useful. Regular and summer recreational programs and camps were praised as opportunities for such structured and unstructured interaction.

They also spoke of the need for programs that would explain their culture to Canadians, and Canadian ways to them. Without this genuine knowledge of each other, without a genuine knowledge of the depth of diversity in their communities, they did not see much prospect of what we would call social cohesion.

Beyond this, they spoke of the need to combat racism among themselves. They encountered incidents of one group bullying another, of one group racializing another, and of violence as the inevitable but inexcusable outcome. Children and youth should be safe at school and on playgrounds, on streets and in malls, they said. But they felt that they often were not safe, and that this lack of safety was linked to the failure of the adult world to provide opportunities for young newcomers to become part of an inclusive whole. Instead this exacerbated the divisions that already existed among them some inherited from parents, some newly acquired as they learned the pecking order of the schoolyard.

They indicated that integrative programs among youth are important, as are traditional ones. Sports such as soccer as well as football, cricket, baseball, field hockey and ice hockey may be a source of increasing interaction among all youth, as will chess, music, and dance, in the recreational sphere. Drop-in centres and other meeting places offering homework clubs and other after-school activities are loci of integration when they are well designed, culturally sensitive and age appropriate in their programming.

Respectful inclusion begins with a proper assessment of students’ level of achievement, independent of their level of expertise in English. The researchers heard immigrant youth saying that courses in academic subjects are too easily watered down when they are designed for newcomer youth who are speakers of other languages. Schools need to meet the challenge of academically appropriate education for students whose language skills need improvement. Where linguistic differences are those of dialect rather than of language, speakers of other dialects should be welcomed into programs well designed for them. It is not only speakers of other than standard English who need support in the structure of traditional English grammar and syntax: many Canadian-born students would also profit from such instruction. If assignment to specific types of English classes were based on good placement tests, as assignment to particular French classes in universities commonly is, the classes would likely be far more mixed in student background than they currently are.

Further to the issue of language, where numbers warrant it, students’ first languages should be taught so that they may continue to increase in their level of analysis, the sophistication of which is linked to their ability to manipulate language. As long as we are a nation of immigrants, heritage language classes are a necessity, not a luxury, if we want to make the most of the brainpower of new Canadian youth.

Inclusion also means assisting all students and staff to value the diversity that newcomers add to Canadian society. Partly this can be done through curriculum; but it can also be achieved when interaction takes place on an equal footing among students, staff, and parents. The best schools are the ones that can accomplish this, rather than relegating services to newcomers to the fringes, where they are offered "as time, money, and space permit".

While education was just one of the service domains targeted by the researchers, for the youth being interviewed it was the only real focus. Education is the institution that enables them to integrate successfully or not into the Canadian mainstream that was their parents’ dream for them. Again and again we heard them argue for ESL as a respected academic approach, with rich content to support students’ development and gifted teachers who will expect much of them. As the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians worded it:

ESL classes need to be flexible, graduated in level, and...of a high quality to integrate students into their subject areas at the level of sophistication they need for their academic work rather than the "same size fits all" structure that currently exists.

And while the ESL and Heritage language teachers are often the ones to be recruited from among newer communities, it is not only these teachers who should represent the diversity in their school communities, --and certainly not just the maintenance or custodial staff. Teachers in all disciplines and staff at all levels should together reflect the community, for the newcomers to believe it is their school too.

Boards should have policies requiring schools to offer opportunities for immigrant parents to learn about the educational content and methods of their children’s teachers, and to hear explicit discussions of Canadian understandings of the role of teachers, the types of relationships between teachers and students, and the types of relationships that are fostered among students themselves. This will be easier for schools to undertake if they have close working relationships with professionals from the communities they serve, as well as, ideally, teachers recruited from those groups. In addition, every school should have a place where family members are genuinely welcomed and assisted to fit in; just as newcomer youth need to be taught about Canadian culture and Canadian youth, so do their parents, which will then ease the school’s task of assisting their children’s integration

The schools and their teachers need to know the experiences of their students, including their educational traditions, migration and educational experiences. Students who have suffered family separation, who have witnessed or experienced traumatic events, who have had their education interrupted for protracted periods, need to be known as youth with unusual challenges. They may have done a superb job of overcoming many of them, but the usefulness of the school to their continued growth may well be linked to the understanding it has of them.

The curriculum received special attention far beyond the issues of language instruction, and ESL streaming. Students wanted the curriculum to be more broadly inclusive in two ways:

• First, they want their classmates to learn more about the world beyond Canada, so that they will understand that global diversity is the source of their local community’s diversity. In this vein, they want to have their particular countries of origin presented in an accurate and contemporary way to their fellow students, including the ways in which daily life is experienced there. Historical representations that are no longer true or summaries of foreign wars are the opposite of what they consider helpful.

• Second, they want fair inclusion into Canadian historical accounts and their compatriots’ given appropriate places in Canadian history. They would like to have their contributions and those of others from their homelands presented in educational media so that all students may have a better picture of the way in which the nation was built. They are keen to have dispelled any lingering notions of Canada as the work of two groups only, with others tolerated in later years.

Beyond the curriculum, other services that schools can provide received much attention. The current Settlement Education Partnership in Toronto (the SEPT program) was the envy of many students from other places, as they realized that some newcomers had the advantage of settlement workers in the schools. It seemed to them such a very logical approach that they only wondered why it was not used everywhere, and for all newcomers. Settlement workers as catalysts for improvement in their education, as bridges between them and the mainstream youth and teachers, and as integrators of their parents into the school system was a goal for the educational system to consider worth striving for. When high schools, colleges, and universities have foreign exchange students, or foreign visa students, they usually have a special program to welcome and assist them throughout their stay. But new students arriving from those same countries as immigrants usually have no such welcome or supportive services available to them, although the only difference in most but not all cases is that they have come with their families –who similarly have, in most cases, no welcoming and supporting programs available.

Reaching out from the schools to the other services that communities provide their members, youth in these studies noted that both schools and community centres serving youth should partner to ensure that no community or neighbourhood is without a place for youth to seek formal and informal assistance. Drop-in centres with activities for youth should exist as well as centres with after-school programs that provide both homework clubs and recreational opportunities under the guidance of an integrated community family council.

The community centres serve newcomer youth best when they provide information to all the members of the family, particularly around access to all of the services in the community; how, when, and why to utilize them; and information on their rights as new Canadians to services that longer established Canadians take for granted. In addition, community centres need to become community action centres, with information and advocacy around housing, health, employment, and legal services, including information on where they can be found in a variety of languages or with adequate translation.

In particular, given the economic stress that so many families new to Canada experience, there is a need to provide youth with information about the services and opportunities available for obtaining appropriate employment. Youth who need to work and support or supplement the family income need information and support for learning how they can continue with their education while they are employed, and the ways to gauge the best combinations of work and study. As the CERIS report indicated:

Many male youth and some females requested greater assistance to attain meaningful employment; like other young Canadians, they need jobs they can thrive in, employers who teach them skills, and wages that are fair.

Given that young newcomer males reported greater difficulty in finding employment than their female cohorts, it seems that particular emphasis needs to be placed on assisting them with both training skills and employment opportunities.

Mainstream service providers, like the schools discussed before, need to plan for the integration of culturally appropriate practices into their organizations and institutions, including the integration of staff of culturally diverse backgrounds at many levels, not just the lowest, thus making the health and social service agencies genuinely representative of the communities they serve, and also more insightful about their communities. Youth argued persuasively for the provision of services such as information on health, family planning, and substance abuse in the community centres where youth hang out.

They also want their own ethno-specific communities to have youth support programs, especially ones that enable them to work constructively together around cultural activities and events. This has desirable consequences for strengthening their identities, their ties with their own compatriot youth, and their self-confidence in showing the larger society what they can do.

The newcomer youth were concerned about the worldview they discovered, which they perceived as racist. As many newcomers to Canada now arrive from countries that are viewed here as populated by "visible minorities", they find their skin colour an issue, usually for the first time in their lives. Being "seen as a member of a different race" is not a pleasant experience, and they argued strongly for more and better public education at all levels to eliminate such racialization, and for zero tolerance for violence based on skin colour.

To combat stereotypes, racial and otherwise, that are hurtful, the youth discussed the media as institutions of great power. They were well aware of some good efforts being made in print and broadcast media and wanted more of them. More precisely, they wanted a focus on youth of all backgrounds in the positive stories being circulated. They were aware of stories and images that seemed to them unfair and likely to perpetuate the stereotypes they thought should have been buried long ago.

The police were identified by a number of groups as likely to "over-police" males of certain ethno-racial groups, thus reinforcing among themselves the impression that these groups are indeed the trouble makers in the community. While this was seen by the youth as racist, it is interesting that it was not linked to any one skin colour, as various groups of black-, white-, and brown-skinned youth believed they were victimized by this racism, while other groups of similarly black-, white-, and brown-skinned youth did not. Clearly the link is with a combination of colour and ethnicity, and reinforced by gender.

VI. CONCLUSION

Issues of settlement for newcomer youth are highly multidimensional. Interviewers noted the differences occasioned by ethnicity, gender, colour, and class. In their own discussions with the interviewers, youth commented on factors influencing their experiences in Ontario such as the age at which they came to Canada, the extent to which they were part of the planning for migration, or were brought afterwards, or in some cases sent before their parents. They mentioned such factors as the ease or the trauma of leaving their countries of origin, the existence of support services for them in Canada, the difficulty with which their families found good, affordable housing, and the extent to which they thought the colour of their skin or their accent contributed to make others dislike them. But the multi-dimensionality of their settlement experiences did not prevent them from offering insightful analyses on how a well-integrated ecological schema of programs at the individual, family, and community levels could all contribute significantly to their well-being. This in turn will enhance the likelihood that the contributions they themselves make to Canadian society will not only be of great benefit to Canada, but will also be full and satisfying ones, reflective of the integration they seek, not the marginalization they neither want nor deserve.

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