PART II PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATION

A. Inter-University Collaborations

CERIS benefits from its rich university environment as well as from increasing collaboration among Toronto-area researchers and their local, regional, national and international partners. The University of Toronto is the largest Medical-Doctoral institution of higher learning in Canada; York University is Canada’s largest comprehensive university, and Ryerson University is the largest primarily undergraduate university in the country. The synergy resulting from the tri-university partnership has created an unprecedented opportunity for research linkages among universities within and across Domains, to which senior researchers are increasingly attracted. From its inception, CERIS has developed partnerships with policy makers at national, regional, and local levels.

As detailed in Part VI, each of the three founding universities is equally represented on the CERIS Management Board, and among its three Directors. Research Domain Leaders also come from each of the three universities. Although the adjudication process is based solely on the quality of applications, the fact that each of the founding institutions is represented among the Principal Investigators for the RFP and MRI projects funded to date, and that the projects themselves often involve inter-university collaboration attests to the complementarity of expertise and scholarship that these three universities provide.

Structure is no guarantee of function. One of the reasons that CERIS functions well is because it enjoys the support of three exceptional university vice-presidents who feel a sense of personal commitment to the centre, and who work very well together on its behalf. CERIS also benefits from its location: the quotidian evidence of the importance of immigration and settlement for Canada as a whole and for Toronto in particular overrides traditional academic rivalries, and helps to create a spirit of commitment to a common enterprise.

B. Partnerships with Policy Makers

Policy relevance is a major goal of CERIS-funded research and is one of the criteria for which all proposals are evaluated. From its beginnings, CERIS has actively encouraged partnerships with policy makers. Policy makers from the City of Toronto[1] were involved in a number of different key activities including: the Partnership Advisory Council, CERIS’ meetings in Ottawa hosted by the Metropolis Secretariat and subsequent invitations to and dialogue with representatives from federal, provincial, and local governments. While the first research retreat in June of 1997 included a small number of federal and local policy makers, by the second retreat in September of 1998, a full morning was dedicated to formal presentations by national policy makers and their representatives, and the afternoon saw similar presentations by regional and local policy makers and community organizations. The retreats continue to be held on an annual basis.

Linkages to policy makers were also furthered when Dr. Paul Anisef and the York office of CERIS designed a one-day conference in 1998 to introduce CERIS and its goal of policy relevant research to graduate students and junior faculty. Mr. John Biles, representing both Canadian Heritage and the Metropolis Project, also spoke and offered to facilitate their participation. Another CERIS dialogue with policy makers developed with an invitation to representatives of Canadian Heritage and the Metropolis Project Team to participate in a discussion with CERIS researchers, facilitated by Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride, on issues related to social justice in order to increase the focus on justice within the research agenda of CERIS, with a view to expanding the discussion to the other centres.

Other important partnerships have been developed with local policy makers in Toronto: CERIS has been an active participant in the Advisory Committee on Immigration and Refugee Issues in the City of Toronto, chaired by Toronto Councillor David Miller. CERIS Director Dr. Morton Beiser provided expert advice to the city in their consultations on settlement policy, as did CERIS Housing and Neighbourhoods Domain Leader Dr. Robert Murdie and his research assistant Priya Kissoon.

CERIS worked with the Metropolis team to address the research/policy gap by participating in the Metropolis “discussions” involving federal policy workers by encouraging researchers funded by CERIS to include policy implications in their research reports and by facilitating ongoing interchange between federal policy makers and CERIS affiliates, particularly at the regional level.

CERIS members have participated in the Metropolis Conversation Series. In November 1999, Tim Owen and Dr. Jeffrey Reitz attended the first Conversation on Absorptive Capacity. In the same month, Dr. Morton Beiser and Dr. Carl James attended Conversation Two on Second Generation Immigrants. Dr. Valerie Preston and Dr. Jeffrey Reitz participated in Conversation Four entitled “Brain Gain, Brain Waste, Brain Drain: Using the Diversity Model to Attract and Keep Talent in Canada” in January 2001.

Federal policy makers regularly participate in workshops with CERIS researchers at national meetings. For example, representatives of Citizenship and Immigration Canada participated in a CERIS workshop on refugee sponsorship in Ottawa in 2001 and representatives of CIC and Statistics Canada have participated each year in workshops organized by CERIS to discuss the NCCYS. CERIS members Mr. Khan Rahi and Dr. John Shields facilitated two focus groups organized by York Region Members of Parliament. In March 1998, the topic was the Report of the Citizenship and Immigration Legislative Review Advisory Group and in February 1999 the topic was the Federal Government’s White Paper “Building a Strong Foundation for the 21^st Century: New Directions for Immigration and Refugee Policy”.

C. Inter-Centre Collaboration

The Centre has not only provided an impetus to focused research on immigration and settlement to the benefit of Toronto but has also developed new partnerships with the other three Metropolis Centres resulting in a number of joint initiatives. One of the first partnerships was developed through the Education Domain and focused on citizenship and civic education. In 1999 CERIS researchers, with colleagues from the other Centres helped form a new network, the Citizenship Education Research Network (CERN), dedicated to this topic. The NCCYS, already mentioned, is another important example of inter-centre collaboration.

Other inter-centre partnerships cross various Domains such as: the special issue of the Canadian Journal of Regional Science (1997) with articles fostered by CERIS Board Chair Dean Carl Amrhein, the submission of letters of intent to SSHRC, and the workshops designed for the International Metropolis Conferences in Israel and Washington. As part of CERIS collaboration within the Metropolis network the Centre has provided financial support to the Journal of Immigration and Integration (JIMI) since its inception.

CERIS has had large and active delegations to all five Canadian Metropolis conferences during the first cycle, as well as representation in all the international Metropolis conferences. CERIS itself was responsible for organizing and hosting the very successful Fourth National Metropolis Conference (March, 2000).

D. Community Partnerships

The egalitarian model that CERIS designed for creating partnerships among participating universities and community groups had as its purpose the facilitation of wholly respectful interactions among the participants, despite the obvious inequalities of resources among the three universities, between the universities and other partners, and among the various community partners. The model attempts to integrate knowledge based on academic research with that based on the experience of immigrants and the groups, both community and governmental, that work with them and plan services for them.

1. Internal Structural Partnerships

CERIS’ community partnerships began with the three major organizations participating in the proposal’s design. They are the United Way of Greater Toronto (funding 200 agencies last year), the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto[2], and the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (representing 149 settlement agencies, over 50% of them in Toronto). These community partners made significant contributions to the development of CERIS’ mandate and to the collaborative working model that has been instituted. Each of these three groups has maintained one seat on the Management Board of CERIS and they offer their strengths to its deliberations in spite of the increasingly heavy workloads, diminishing resources and staff changes they face in their primary workplace.

In addition to the seats on the Management Board held by the founding community partners, CERIS facilitated broad-based participation in the organization through creation of the Partnership Advisory Council (PAC) during the first year of activities. The mandate of PAC is to enhance community participation in setting CERIS research priorities and developing relevant plans for dissemination, through active consultation with groups involved in the provision and/or planning of services for immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area.

Original membership categories on the Council were: local and regional government representatives; planning councils and interagency networks; multiethnic or settlement service agencies; health; and education. To respond to the burgeoning interests of academic, community, and policy-making bodies, representatives were added from: housing, youth, and employment, training, and labour. The Partnership Advisory Council is described more fully in Part IV and the Appendices.

Most of the partnerships with community groups form around specific research projects. However, as academics and community partners succeed in having their proposals accepted in the annual research competition, the result is collaboration not just in the research itself but also in the dissemination of that research through the monthly CERIS seminars, joint presentations of papers at conferences, and co-authorship of articles for publication in various journals and newsletters.

2. Partnerships for Special Projects

CERIS-PAC Training Project

This project entitled "Knowledge for Action ‑ Action for Knowledge@ was completed in 1999; it was carried out with the collaboration of the CERIS Partnership Advisory Council (PAC) and with funding support from the Citizenship and Immigration, Ontario Administration of Settlement and Integration Services

(OASIS).

The purpose of this project was to strengthen the capacity of agencies serving immigrants and refugees in the Greater Toronto Area to use relevant research on immigration and settlement issues to improve their program planning and delivery. The training curricula produced by the CERIS‑PAC Training Project was made available on CD-ROM and also through the CERIS website.

Other GTA-based partnerships

· Collaboration with Open College at CJRT Radio for the purpose of creating and broadcasting Dr. Morton Beiser’s Strangers Becoming Us: Immigration in Canada, a series of radio programs on history, economics, public policy, education, health, the arts, and other topics as they relate to the lives and contributions of immigrants to Canada.

· CERIS was frequently called upon to supply data and information for The Toronto Star’s ground-breaking series “Beyond 2000”.

· In May 2000, CERIS contributed to the funding of the Hogg=s Hollow Memorial, ABreaking the Ground@, in honour of five immigrant workers who were killed during the 1960s in a tragic construction accident. CERIS was pleased to contribute to this initiative towards public education and citizenry by the COSTI immigrant services agency in recognition of the contributions of immigrants to the building of Toronto.

· In February 2001, CERIS hosted a well-attended workshop entitled AOpening Closed Doors: Helping Newcomers Find a Place to Live in Ontario@. The workshop was funded by Ontario Administration of Settlement and Integration Services (OASIS) and organized by M.S. Mwarigha of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA). Mwarigha is a CERIS affiliate and former member of the Management Board.

· In 2000, Administrative Coordinator Ted Richmond chaired the Steering Committee for the settlement website <settlement.org> funded by Ontario Administration of Settlement and Integration Services (OASIS). As well, he was part of the advisory group for a training project on outcomes measurements for community organizations, funded by Canadian Heritage and implemented by the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI).

· CERIS Director Dr. Morton Beiser is Chair of Citizenship and Immigration Canada=s Immigration Medical Advisory Committee; a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee, Citizenship and Immigration Canada; Statistics Canada’s Longitudinal Study of Immigrants in Canada; and National Scientific Coordinator for Reducing Health Disparities, a cross-cutting initiative involving the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the National Secretariat on Homelessness and Health Canada, as well as a number of private foundations.

See Appendix III-B for a more complete list of CERIS activities with community partners.

E. Collaboration beyond Canada

At the outset, CERIS researchers were already collaborating with over thirty colleagues from eleven different countries. After six years of Metropolis meetings abroad, of hosting at CERIS a number of Visiting Scholars from abroad, as well as formal and informal site visits by representatives of at least a dozen different countries, the linkages have expanded to the point where listing them is not easily done.

Examples of key linkages formed during the first six-year cycle are:

· Dr. Morton Beiser’s work with the UNESCO Models of Sustainable Transformation(MOST) Project;

· Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride’s contribution as an external advisor to CENSIS in Rome on the CHIP project;

· Dr. Judith Bernhard’s (Ryerson University) collaboration with Dr. Ron Shor (Hebrew University in Jerusalem) on immigrant families’ challenges in dealing with the school systems in Canada and Israel;

· Dr. Valerie Preston (York University) and Dr. Myer Siemiatycki (Ryerson University) collaborated on a large project with Dr. Audrey Kobayashi (Queens University) and Dr. Zig Layton-Henry (Warwick University, UK) on transnational citizenship in Germany, the UK and Canada.

Academic Visitors during the past six years include: Dr. Vijay Kumar Sharma, a specialist in Canadian Studies and Literature, who came on an extended visit from India and Dr. Chandra Mohan, also a specialist in Canadian Studies and Literature, who has visited a number of times.

PART III RESEARCH AND RESEARCH OUTPUTS

CERIS has been a source of funding for research; an academic home for university faculty, community partners and policy makers with shared interests and concerns centred on immigration and settlement; and a catalyst for research and for attracting funding external to the Metropolis budget. The research agenda was initially defined by three research Domains. By the end of the initial funding cycle, these had been expanded to six, including Community, Economics, Education, Health, Housing and Neighbourhoods, and Justice and Law.

In its first year of activities, CERIS elaborated its basic research agenda and consolidated the administrative mechanisms required for effective governance. For CERIS the second year saw an expansion of the research program, a consolidation of effective working relationships with community and government partners, and an expansion of the infrastructure required to support large-scale dissemination of the research findings. The third year of activities was marked by successful efforts to secure additional funds and a subsequent, as well as a dramatic increase in the scope and diversity of CERIS research and dissemination activities. Years four through six were marked by a further expansion of activities, increasing the scope of CERIS’ research agenda, concretizing and deepening inter-centre collaboration within the Metropolis project, and implementing plans for international comparative research.

A. Adjudicated Research and Major Research Initiatives (MRI) Projects

During the first six-year cycle of the Metropolis research project, CERIS used SSHRC research funds to support two types of research. The first was RFP (Request for Proposal) research projects, which were awarded through an annual adjudicated research competition based on themes and priorities determined by the Management Board and shaped by the annual research retreat. The second was Major Research Initiatives (MRI) projects, which received Board approval based on recommendations from a MRI committee. These projects were funded on the basis of several criteria, including:

• addressing a major question, often of national significance;

• having the potential to attract a great many participants not only from CERIS but often from other Metropolis centres;

• having the potential to generate external funding; and, most importantly,

• addressing an issue which policy makers, practitioners, or community partners articulated as a high priority concern, but which had not been addressed by the RFP competitions.

Since the centre’s inception in the fall of 1996, CERIS has provided $910,537.25 in funding to 47 RFPs selected from the annual funding competition and peer-reviewed adjudication process and 4 Major Research Initiatives. The number of projects and total funds awarded in each year were as follows:

· 1996: 12 RFPs amounting to $145,250.00;

· 1997: 11 RFPs amounting to $147,651.00;

· 1998: 9 RFPs and 2 MRIs amounting to $259,282.75;

· 1999: 5 RFPs and 2 MRIs amounting to $170,158.50;

· 2000: 10 RFPs amounting to $188,195.00.

Together these projects involved:

• 135 academics (faculty)

• more than 100 post‑graduate, graduate and undergraduate students working as research assistants
• 47 community‑based researchers and research assistants and

• 96 partnerships with community organizations.

See Appendix I for an overview of CERIS’ entire RFP research portfolio.

B. Major Research Initiatives (MRI)

Thanks to CERIS’ regular consultations with community, municipal, provincial and federal government partners, the centre identified major issues that were not being covered by the RFP process. To address some of these research questions, CERIS evolved a mechanism called Major Research Initiatives (MRI). An MRI working committee co-chaired by CERIS Director, Dr. Morton Beiser and Khan Rahi, current Chair of the PAC, identified projects and topics which called for a greater commitment of time and of resources than the typical RFP. Criteria for recommending a project for MRI funding from CERIS research funds included a) that a project involved a number of centre affiliates in at least one of the CERIS research Domains, b) that it provided an opportunity for comparative research involving other Metropolis centres as well as international partners, c) that it engaged the centre as a whole over an extended period of time, and d) that it had significant potential to attract external funding. After an MRI was approved by the CERIS Board, the Lead Researcher(s) worked in collaboration with the MRI Working Group and CERIS Executive to seek appropriate additional outside funding, and to provide periodic progress reports.

The CERIS Board approved funding for four projects recommended by the MRI committee:

· Integrating Diversity

· The New Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS)

· Immigration and the Toronto Francophone Community

· Changes in the Demographic Composition and Health Status of Immigrant Populations in Toronto’s Inner City: Time Trend Analysis and Innovative Mapping

1. Integrating Diversity

Integrating Diversity, aimed at documenting the Toronto experience, was led by Dr. Michael Lanphier and Dr. Paul Anisef and involved the five CERIS research Domains in existence when the project began. The project received CERIS MRI funding at the beginning as well as additional support from Canadian Heritage, and had significant involvement from CERIS Domain Leaders and other affiliated researchers. This project assesses the process of integration as determined by the type and level of participation in various Domains or areas of activity in the Greater Toronto metropolitan area (GTA). The subject areas or Domains include economy, housing and neighbourhoods, education, health, and community.

This project, further described in Part V, has resulted in a book, World in a City, to be published in 2003 by University of Toronto Press.

2. Newcomer Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS)

The New Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS) began as a CERIS-funded MRI project and has since developed as the first pan-Canadian, collaborative Metropolis research project involving all four centres. Dr. Morton Beiser, Director of the Toronto Centre (CERIS) initiated the project, and is the NCCYS principal investigator. The site co-investigators include Dr. Jacqueline Oxman-Martinez (Montreal); Dr. Linda Ogilvie (Prairies) and Dr. Robert Armstrong (Vancouver). Dr. Laura Simich replaced Dr. Nazilla Khanlou as NCCYS Coordinator.

With new funding resulting from a successful application to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the four Metropolis centres are carrying out the NCCYS, an investigation of the adaptation of more than 4,000 children who came to Canada as immigrants and refugees, or who were born into immigrant or refugee families already living in Canada. The project is described in greater detail in Section III, Part C.

3. Immigration and the Toronto Francophone community

The CERIS MRI project, AImmigration and the Toronto Francophone community,@ was designed to improve our understanding of the situation of recently-arrived Francophones as minorities in Toronto, and of their impact on Francophone support services. Data from the 1991 Census show that these immigrants head towards the eastern half of the province and in particular the municipalities of Ottawa and Carleton, as well as the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). In this research project the focus of attention was on Toronto as a predominantly anglophone urban milieu in which the Francophone sector is witnessing the arrival of increasing numbers of immigrants and refugees (currently 15.6 % of Toronto‑area Francophones).

The ethnographic project had two main components. One aspect focussed on the impact of new Francophone arrivals on community support structures as well as the ways in which these organizations defined themselves as Franco-Ontarian agencies. The research also focussed on the new arrivals and their experiences with the Francophone networks and support services in Toronto (education, health, religion, employment, politics, leisure activities and arts and culture). This second research thrust concentrated on community and health organizations and on the Haitian and Mauritian communities.

The following persons were involved in the research team: the three principal investigators Dr. Adrienne Chambon (Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto) and Dr. Monica Heller and Dr. Normand Labrie (OISE/UT); the postdoctoral researcher Fasal Kanouté; and the research assistants Amal Madibbo (doctoral student and recipient of a 2000-2001 Graduate Assistantship Award, Department of Sociology and Studies in Equity in Education, OISE/UT), John Maury (doctoral student, Department of French Studies, University of Toronto), and Mueni Malubungi (doctoral student and recipient of a 1999-2000 Graduate Assistantship Award, Department of Sociology and Studies in Equity in Education, OISE/UT).

4. Changes in the Demographic Composition and Health Status of Immigrant Populations in Toronto's Inner City: Time Trend Analysis and Innovative Mapping

This research was motivated by a number of concerns. Immigrants often face language, cultural, and discriminatory barriers when accessing heath care and these problems may have been exacerbated by shifts in social and health policy in the mid and late 1990's. Reduced resources for immigrants on welfare, reduced access to social service agencies, reduced availability of public health services, a moratorium on new construction of public housing, and hospital closures and takeovers could have resulted in adverse impacts on access to and appropriate use of health care services.

This study explored the risk of hospitalization in high recent-immigration areas in Toronto compared to other Toronto neighbourhoods. The study used 1996 hospitalization and census data. Regression was used to examine the effects of recent immigration on hospitalization. Average household income was almost 60% lower ($36,122) in the highest versus the lowest immigration areas ($82,641). Most hospitalization categories showed significantly higher rates of admission as the proportion of recent immigrants increased. Income was significantly associated with all categories of hospitalization except surgical admissions. Higher recent-immigration areas exhibited higher risks for hospitalizations in contrast to the “healthy migrant effect.” These findings have important implications for health care planning, delivery, and policy.

This project was carried out as part of the work of the Inner City Toronto Time Trends Working Group. Group members include: Mohammad M. Agha, Eleanor Boyle, Maria I. Creatore, Yu Ding, Richard H. Glazier, Piotr Gozdyra, Stephen Hwang, Flora Matheson, Anne Rhodes, and Leah S. Steele (Inner City Health Research Unit, St. Michael’s Hospital); Elizabeth M. Badley (Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto); Rahim Moineddin (Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto); Dianne Patychuk (Toronto Public Health); and Lorraine Purdon (Southeast Toronto Project).

In addition to the Major Research Initiative Grant the project was supported by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, and by St. Michael’s Hospital Inner City Health Research Unit.

C. Externally Funded Research Projects

As CERIS activities developed over the past years, so has the scope of externally-funded research and dissemination projects. Researchers affiliated with CERIS attracted more than 12 million dollars in external research funding between 19926 and 2002. Below are some key projects. Please see Appendix II for a complete list.

1. The New Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS): A National Multi-Centre Metropolis Study

We Canadians find our multiculturalism a source of pride: we were, after all, the first nation in the world to enact a multiculturalism law, and internal national struggles to achieve equity have not erupted into the violence and chaos that have troubled many other countries. Achievement has, however, failed to keep pace with nationalist rhetoric, a fact that is nowhere more apparent than in health research. The National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth (NLSCY), conceived and carried out by the federal Department of Human Resources, together with Statistics Canada, is one example. The NLSCY inception cohort -- 25,000 children aged 11 and younger -- is purportedly a representative sample of Canadian children. However, despite its many excellences, despite its scientific and policy importance, despite its innovativeness in both scope and method, the NLSCY sample’s under-representation of immigrant and refugee children compromises the validity of any claims to representativeness. Almost 20 percent of children currently living in Canada were either born outside the country or were born to immigrant families; however, the NLSCY sample of 25,000 contains only about 600 immigrant or refugee children, or 2.4% rather than 20%.

If it were the case that whatever is found about the health and development of native-born children also applies to their immigrant and refugee counterparts, the latter’s under-representation might be justifiable. There are, of course, difficulties in identifying and recruiting immigrant samples as well as the not-inconsiderable expense of translating study instruments, all of which militate against including them in surveys. However, a recent publication (Beiser and Hou, 2001) using NLSCY data reveals the perils of extrapolating results based on native-born children to other populations. The analyses focussed on comparisons in mental health between children living with native-born parents and their counterparts living in foreign-born families as well as on the mental health effects of poverty in both NLSCY sub-samples.

The NLSCY data revealed some grim facts. At the time the NLSCY began, 13 per cent of all families in Canada were living in severe poverty. For immigrant families resident in Canada less than 10 years, the situation was even worse: 33 percent were living well below the officially defined poverty line. Since poverty is one of the most powerful risk factors for children’s mental health, it would be logical to predict higher rates of mental and behavioural problems among immigrant children than in the national comparative sample. The results, however, reveal a curious and potentially important paradox: although immigrant children were almost three times more likely to live in poverty than their non-immigrant counterparts, they had fewer mental health and/or behavioural problems. These and other investigative threads emanating from the NLSCY data set pointed to the need for a study focussed on the health and developmental effects of uprooting and resettlement.

Initiated at CERIS under the leadership of CERIS Director, Dr. Morton Beiser, the NCCYS focusses on immigrant and refugee children living in 16 different immigrant and refugee communities in 6 Canadian cities: Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. It unites 40 academic researchers associated with the Health Domains of the four Metropolis Centres in a study of the strengths of immigrant and refugee families and communities as well as the developmental challenges that may be more or less specific to immigrant and refugee children (for example, the experience of discrimination), as well as those which affect all youth but which are amplified as a result of the resettlement experience (for example, identity formation, which is complicated by the competing pulls of the heritage and the majority Canadian culture). The NCCYS team, which is drawn from all four Metropolis Centres, received preliminary funding from the respective Metropolis centres as well as additional funding from Health Canada, Canadian Heritage, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the FRSQ in Quebec, the Alberta Foundation for Mental Health Research, and the BC Government, which provided support for preliminary studies. Following on the preliminary studies, the Metropolis team of health researchers submitted a successful proposal to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for 2.4 million dollars for a two-wave study. Dr. Morton Beiser is the over-all project Principal Investigator.

The project would not have been possible had there been no Health Domains in the four Metropolis centres. Data gathering is currently underway for the first wave of the NCCYS study. Workshop presentations at the Metropolis meeting in Edmonton in March of 2003 dealt with a number of issues, including: managing publication and data ownership in a multi-site, multi-disciplinary project; methodologies to ensure appropriate questionnaire translations; and sampling in “hard to find” communities. At CERIS, the project has not only been a magnet for participation, but it has stimulated the careers of junior scholars and students who might not otherwise have become involved in immigration-related research. The existence of a Health Domain at CERIS stimulated some or all of these people to become involved in immigration-related research, and the existence of a community of researchers with shared interests, and modest resources from CERIS in support of activities related to these interests, continues to nurture their interest in the field.

2. Settlement Needs of Newcomer Youth and Families

CERIS Associate Directors Dr. Paul Anisef (York University) and Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride (Ryerson University) have been involved in several research projects related to the settlement needs of immigrant families and youth. All of these projects were funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ontario Administration for the Settlement and Integration Services (OASIS), with reports available online at <settlement.org>.

The project Newcomer Youth Needs in Ontario (NYNO) became a collaboration of six settlement service and research groups in Ontario, resulting in the report “Between Two Worlds: The Experiences and Concerns of Immigrant Youth in Ontario” and will shortly be released as Managing Two Worlds by Canadian Scholars Press. The study on Newcomer Youth at Risk (NYAR) included the following partners: COSTI, the Centre of Quality Service Research at Ryerson University, the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, and the Toronto District School Board.

The Parenting Issues of Newcomer Families in Ontario study examined the issues and concerns of new immigrant families in a large, medium-sized, and small urban areas in Ontario: Toronto, Ottawa, and Kitchener-Waterloo. This was a collaborative project by the Centre for Research and Education in Human Services (CREHS) in Kitchener and CERIS, with Joanna Ochocka and Rich Janzen (CREHS) as well as Drs. Anisef and Kilbride (CERIS) as the researchers. Community partners on the project were the Multicultural History Society of Ontario, who conducted the key informant interviews, and OCASI, who recruited, organized, and facilitated focus groups and individual interviews.

3. Experience of Sponsors of Kosovar Refugees in Ontario

Early in 2001, a group of researchers from CERIS and the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) at York University, including Dr. Morton Beiser and Dr. Paul Anisef (CERIS) and Dr. Larry Lam (CRS), began work on a project analyzing the responses of sponsors of Kosovar refugees to a questionnaire administered by CIC-OASIS. The goal of this study was to collate data collected in the questionnaires and provide a written analysis of the findings. The results will assist CIC to determine how well the Kosovar refugees are settling in Ontario, their participation in various aspects of Canadian society, how well the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) worked for them, and what program lessons have been learned. The project is now complete and the report available at <settlement.org>.

4. “Multicultural Meanings of Social Support”

“Multicultural Meanings of Social Support” is an ongoing pan-Canadian, tri-city project located in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver. The principal investigator is Professor Miriam Stewart from the University of Alberta; Dr. Morton Beiser, CERIS, and Professor Joan Anderson, UBC are co‑investigators. The funder is Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Global migration, the search for refugee, and resettlement are phenomena of this century, and will continue into the next. Social support is a key determinant of health, health behaviour, use of health-related services, and a resource for coping with stress (e.g., immigration, resettlement). Although there is emerging evidence that types, sources, and appraisal of social support may differ cross-culturally, and that social support has benefits for immigrants and refugees in Canada, the complexity of social support, support-seeking behaviours, appraisal of support received, and mechanisms by which support works for different individuals/groups of immigrants and refugees, have been overlooked until now. Furthermore, immigrants' and refugees' perceptions of their support needs, and of programs and policies that strengthen support have not been solicited. There is a gap in our understanding of the specific meanings of social support for immigrants and refugees in Canada; the perceived impact of support on their health, health behaviour, and use of health services; their use of support seeking as a coping strategy; and their preferred mechanisms for strengthening support through programs and policies. Moreover, the perspectives of service deliverers and policy makers regarding the types of formal supports offered to immigrants and refugees and requisite changes to programs and policies is critical.

In Toronto, the CERIS PAC and many others working in community-based organizations have been extremely helpful in this project. The data collected are essential to ensure the relevance and appropriateness of programs, services and policies for recent immigrants/refugees and those with longer-term residence. Accordingly, these research results of this project will be significant for consumer organizations, multicultural groups, non-government organizations, government-supported services and policy makers, and service providers in health and health-related sectors (e.g., social services, education, justice, and employment). A research report is currently in preparation.

5. Communities in Distress

The Communities in Distress study, an epidemiological investigation of mental health among the Tamil community in Toronto is headed by Dr. Morton Beiser, CERIS Director, and principal investigator. This is a joint project involving the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Family Services Association of Toronto (FSA), and the Tamil Advisory Council as well as CERIS.

The aim of the present project includes:

· conducting a survey of the prevalence of mental health problems among adult Tamils in Toronto, with a focus on depression, suicidal ideas and impulses, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder;

· Identifying determinants of disorder as well as of positive mental health;

· Identifying patterns of help-care seeking, perceptions of the formal health care system and barriers both to access and to equitable care;

· Documenting the use of settlement programs and the possible role of these programs in promoting mental well-being.

The insights gained through research will be used to initiate action to develop and promote accessible and culturally sensitive services and also to create a better informed community.

Dr. Morton Beiser is the Prinicipal Investigator of the project. Dr. Laura Simich and Dr. Joanna (Anneke) Rummens are the Research Scientists associated with the project. Nalini Pandalangat is the Research Coordinator and Abimanyu Singam is the Research Analyst with the project.

Dr. Beiser is also the principal investigator for a study of resettlement stress as a potential risk factor for the occurrence of tuberculosis among immigrants and refugees. Both the Tamil and the tuberculosis studies are funded by Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).

6. Canadian Identities Database

The Canadian Identities Database (CID) is an interdisciplinary electronic reference database of English-language Canadian research on identity. It focuses on the major socio-cultural identities deemed relevant in the Canadian context, and includes aboriginal, ethnic, national, linguistic, regional, racial and religious identifications. The database contains complete references and abstracts for journal articles, books, reports, theses, videos, governmental documents, web-site materials, unpublished manuscripts, recent graduate work and research project reports from a wide array of disciplines and fields of study including anthropology, education, geography, history, literature, psychology, sociology, political science, as well as ethnic, native and women’s studies. The CID was developed to facilitate access to a highly specialized research literature to guide policy decisions and support future research initiatives.

The Canadian Identities Database is a designated University of Toronto Invention. In April 2001 it was made available in electronic format to the Department of Canadian Heritage where it is used by policy makers and analysts. The Principal Investigator for the CID project is Dr. Joanna (Anneke) Rummens.

7. Health Access and Equity

Under the direction of Dr. Morton Beiser, CERIS Director, and Ms. Wendy Kwong, CERIS PAC Executive member, Ms. Doris Rajan completed a report on access and equity in health care in the GTA. The project included a review of access and equity as reported in a study conducted by the Social Planning Council of Toronto a decade ago, two case studies of programs which seem to illustrate significant attempts to ensure access and equity in health care, and conducting focus groups with consumers, main-stream health care providers and providers from ethnocultural agencies. The project was carried out on a contractual basis with the regional office of Health Canada.

8. Review of the Health of Immigrant and Refugee Children in Canada.

Under the direction of Dr. Morton Beiser, CERIS Director, Ms. Angela Shik and Ms. Monica Curyk completed a review of the health status and the determinants of health among immigrant and refugee children in Canada. This valuable review, contracted by the federal office of Health Canada, supplies background framework for the New Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS).

D. Research Publications

An initial list of research publications resulting in whole or in part as a result of the existence of CERIS has been appended (see Appendix III-A). For a more complete overview of the various forms and means of research dissemination employed by CERIS to communicate its researchers' research results please refer to Communication, Outreach and Dissemination section of Part IV ‑ Research Management and Communications. For a complete list of dissemination activities see Appendix III A & B.

PART IV TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS

Training the next generation of researchers (through opportunities for students) is integral to CERIS mandate. Projects funded through the RFP process have involved undergraduate, graduate or post-graduate students as team members or research assistants. In its original proposal, CERIS committed itself to provide at least seventy percent of its funding to student research assistants and ten percent to community research assistants. These targets have been met or exceeded for all three years of adjudicated (RFP) research projects and will continue to be respected in future awards. The specific roles of students in RFP projects, and the training opportunities presented to them, are discussed in the project reports (posted on the CERIS Website).

With the continuing expansion of the scope and variety of CERIS’ research program and dissemination activities, other training opportunities have developed at CERIS. Throughout the past six years, students have also been involved in CERIS as volunteers, interns and part-time staff working on dissemination activities. This involvement promotes skill development in diverse areas such as project management, media relations, fundraising, conference logistics, seminar organizing and much more. Several students involved with CERIS as interns and contract workers have already gone on to full-time employment in areas involving immigration research.

Some examples of student involvement include:

· a number of doctoral fellows, postgraduate and graduate students wrote literature reviews to help prepare the CERIS submission to the first stage of the Immigration Legislative Review;

· placement students from the Department of Urban Studies at York University worked on the CERIS Resource Centre, MetaDatabase project and Website development along with two masters students and a doctoral student from the three partner universities;

· the CERIS-PAC Training Project was coordinated by an OISE / University of Toronto doctoral student, and the pilot stage research of the NCCYS was carried out by a post-doctoral student from the University of Toronto;

· each year, one graduate students has been assigned to CERIS-York. These students have participated in various projects.

Facilitating access to Metropolis license immigration data has also provided opportunities for researchers to learn and to share skills. The University of Toronto data librarian has provided training to the data librarian at Ryerson and York, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada has provided training on the Metadatabase to Dr. Shuguang Wang of Ryerson University, Chair of the CERIS Data Committee, who has provided several well-attended workshops to pass these skills on to other CERIS researchers.

Considerable outreach to graduate students has been undertaken at both the University of Toronto and York University through seminars and brown bag discussions. About 85 per cent of the users of the Resource Centre are graduate students -- approximately 100 students each year.

During the last year of the first six-year cycle we engaged two graduate students to assist us with evaluating CERIS’ work and preparing for the future: Denise Tom-Kun prepared the report ANew Directions: Graduate Student Involvement at CERIS@ and Elke Winter the report AAcademic Research and Public Policy Impact: The Programme and Policy Relevance of CERIS Products@. During this last year as well two CERIS-affiliated graduate students, Elke Winter and Amal Madibbo, entered into an exchange program hosted by Immigration et Métropoles in Montreal.

Affiliation with CERIS is open to students and community partners as well as academic researchers specialising in immigration issues. See Appendix III for the categories of affiliation and the list of affiliates.

Master of Arts in Immigration and Settlement Studies at Ryerson University

Another initiative that has flowed directly out of the work of CERIS and the research arising in its various Domains, which will not only enhance immigration and settlement research but particularly graduate student development, is a Master of Arts Degree in Immigration and Settlement Studies at Ryerson University. Led by Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride, CERIS Associate Director, and subsequently by Dr. Myer Siemiatycki, CERIS Community Research Domain Leader, this program is currently in its final stages of the approval process at the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies. This M.A. is set to begin in the 2004-2005 academic year and will accept 25 to 30 full- and part-time graduate students annually.

This program will focus on the consequences and opportunities arising from transnational human mobility as it relates to Canada. Given the importance of immigration to Canada, it is surprising that there is no single or multi-disciplinary graduate program in the country that centres on the socio-demographic, historical, cultural, political, economic, and public policy (or legislative) issues that arise from this aspect of demographic change.

This degree in immigration and settlement is, in the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies terms, a single-field program. The field involves: research and public policy analysis about the challenges and opportunities arising from immigration in Canada, as well as those related to successful settlement, particularly as these occur in metropolitan areas, and comparative studies of the ways in which the consequences of transnational human mobility are addressed in public and private sectors around the world. The program will be offered to students who may be interested in research and perhaps contemplating doctoral activity in the field as well as those likely to engage directly in professional work with immigrants, refugees, and ethnic communities settling in Canada.

Among the innovative features of the proposed MA program in Immigration and Settlement Studies are: 1) as stated above, it will be the only graduate program in the country that focuses solely on the consequences and opportunities arising from transnational human mobility as it relates to Canada; 2) students will undertake a practicum in policy or service-oriented field placements; and 3) graduate students will have an opportunity to interact with other researchers in the Metropolis Project through CERIS.

The multi-disciplinary nature of the field is reflected in the wide range of disciplinary ‘homes’ of the participants in the program. The twenty-five faculty members represent twelve departments in four faculties – the Faculty of Communication and Design, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Business, and the Faculty of Community Services. Of these faculty members, over half have held CERIS research awards or have been otherwise formally attached to the Centre. It is fair to say that the immigration-based research agenda at Ryerson University was very much a product of the establishment of CERIS. Prior to the existence of CERIS most of the Ryerson-based researchers associated with this degree had limited experience in immigration research questions. Immigration and settlement has in fact become one of the central research themes of Ryerson University, as it has moved from polytechnic to university status at the same time as the Metropolis Project was encouraging university-based research. The pan-Canadian orientation of the degree matches well with the research focus of Phase II of Metropolis and will open up significant opportunities for pan-Canadian immigration research and graduate student training.

PART V DISSEMINATION

The methods of dissemination at CERIS have grown steadily in scope and sophistication over the past six years, and provided wide accessibility to the Centre’s research products. Considerable effort as well has been devoted to publicizing the research initiatives and research results of academic, government and community colleagues both inside and outside of the Metropolis network, and to developing active external liaison. This diversity of modes of communication reflects the Centre’s commitment to reach beyond the traditional scholarly community to encompass the interests and involvement of other relevant groups.

CERIS has had several guiding principles for dissemination:

1) Research findings will be circulated as broadly as possible, to the multiple audiences who may benefit from and contribute to them. Dissemination methods have been designed to include immigrant communities, ethno-specific agencies, multi-service organizations, policy-makers and policy networks, practitioners, other interested groups and concerned citizens, in addition to researchers and students both within and outside of Canadian universities

2) Dissemination strategies were designed in consultation with researchers, community partners and other interested parties to ensure that they are appropriate for effectively communicating research findings to the varied audiences mentioned above.

3) CERIS has ensured reciprocity between dissemination of research findings and community input. Reaction from the community to the initial dissemination of findings, particularly through the annual conferences and PAC have been used to help shape subsequent rounds of research activities and the way they were circulated. This approach necessitates that research and its communication be interactive processes: research is not something that is conducted and then communicated downward by “experts,” but rather involves an engagement in which all research activities are informed by, and shaped through the researchers’ interaction with practitioners and communities on an on-going basis. Similarly, dissemination itself must be interactive, eliciting wide-ranging reaction and response to research findings.

4) Given that the research agenda of CERIS is of an applied nature, the presentation of research findings emphasizes their practical utility and policy relevance.

5) The dissemination of findings in all forms acknowledges the contribution of all those involved in the research: academics, community partners and practitioners.

These guiding principles are reflected in Strangers Becoming Us, both the radio and school versions, each of which involved researchers, community participants and policy experts.

The Centre attracted almost 3 million dollars in external funding to support its dissemination activities. Over the past six years, CERIS’ dissemination activities have included:

A. Web site

An important aspect of CERIS dissemination activities has been the continued development of the CERIS Website and Virtual Library, with funding support from both Canadian Heritage and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ontario Administration of Settlement and Integration Services (OASIS). Among the special features of the website are the CERIS MetaDatabase or database of immigration-related databases, and the large number of both academic and community-based research papers available for downloading from the Virtual Library. The provision of basic information and access points for various CERIS committees and working groups and the updating on special events has also developed as an important and cost-effective use of the website.

The CERIS Website is linked to the sites of the other Metropolis centres, the Ottawa and international Metropolis sites, and the special website hosted by the University of Toronto Data Library for Metropolis license data products. The CERIS Website also includes hot links with a large number of academic, government and community partners involved in immigration research across Canada and internationally, including federal funding partners in the Metropolis project. It also contains a section on research on access to trades and professions, co-hosted with the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship.

In 2000 the Online Content Enhancement Project (OCEP), funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ontario Administration for Settlement and Integration Services (OASIS), was completed. In collaboration with the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS),York University and CIC, OASIS, and under the leadership of CERIS Administrative Coordinator Ted Richmond, CERIS digitalized and posted a large selection of historical immigration research documents. Selection of documents from the library collections of the three partners was based on their historical and contemporary significance, as well as their previously limited circulation.

B. Resource Centre

The CERIS Resource Centre was created with a collection of valuable immigration research documents, some of which are unique. The collection includes “grey literature,” such as unindexed publications and a large number of unpublished community needs assessments related to settlement and equity issues, documents produced by CERIS researchers and Metropolis Project affiliates, and donations from publishers and partners.

With funding support from