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CERIS MONTHLY BULLETIN
APRIL 2003Issue No. 49
This publication comes out each month to keep you informed about upcoming events in and around CERIS and the Metropolis Project including seminars, conferences, public consultations, new research resources, and meetings of the Management Board, its working committees, and its Partnership Advisory Council.
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If you do not have regular access to e-mail and you wish to get this bulletin, please contact Sue-Ann Truong at the CERIS address, and she will arrange to send it to you by fax. The deadline for information to be included in the next Monthly Bulletin is April 20, 2003. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ * Apologies to our Francophone colleagues as our email system does not permit the incorporation of French accents. ________________________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS
v CERIS Meetingsv News from CERIS, CERIS Researchers, and Partners v CERIS Seminars v Public Events and Conferences v Call for Papers and Proposals v CERIS Working Paper Series v Just Published v Internet Resources ________________________________________________________________________________
****** CERIS MEETINGS ******
CERIS MANAGEMENT BOARD MEETING
FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2003 2:00 - 4:00 P.M. At the main CERIS (Toronto) office, 246 Bloor St. W., 7th Floor, Room 702 _____________________
CERIS PARTNERSHIP ADVISORY COUNCIL (PAC) MEETING
THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 9:30 A.M. At the main CERIS (Toronto) office, 246 Bloor St. W., 5th Floor, Room 548
**** NEWS FROM CERIS, CERIS RESEARCHERS, AND PARTNERS ****
WELCOME COLLEEN BURKE
CERIS has a new Coordinator. The search was longer than
anyone expected, but the results are happy indeed. CERIS is very pleased to
announce the appointment of Colleen Burke to the position. Colleen comes to us
from the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, where she was Program
Coordinator from 1998 to 2000, and Centre Coordinator from 2000 until March of
2003. With this background experience, a Master of Arts in Canadian Studies, and
a long history of NGO involvement including Amnesty International, Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom, and the World March of Women,
Colleen has ideal credentials for her new position and the glowing praises we
have heard from everyone who has worked with her in the past augur well. Welcome
Colleen; it seems like the perfect match of position and person and we're
delighted that you've joined the CERIS community.
EXPRESSIONS OF GRATITUDE
Someone once called Kenise Murphy
Kilbride the patron saint of CERIS. The past few months have once again revealed
the appropriateness of the epithet. After serving for 6 years as CERIS
Co-Director, Kenise left us at the end of the 2001-2002 academic term, hoping to
have some well-earned time to devote to her research and other interests.
However, last fall, when we asked Kenise to come back to CERIS as Interim
Coordinator while we searched for a permanent incumbent for the role, she
accepted. Little did she know how protracted the search and hiring process would
be, nor how much of her time would be demanded for financial and administrative
work at CERIS. However, with her customary graciousness, she guided us
skillfully and surely through a trying period. Although she would have preferred
to get back to her own priorities sooner, Kenise left CERIS at the end of March,
only after she was sure that our future and the coordinating activities were in
good hands. Kenise, all of us owe you a debt of gratitude which can never be
repaid in monetary terms, but only with love, admiration and best wishes for
your so-called retirement.
ANOTHER EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE
They say that
no one is irreplaceable. However, many of us will find it hard to accept that
the saying applies in the case of Carl Amrhein. Dr. Amrhein, the Dean of Arts
and Sciences at the University of Toronto, will be leaving the University and
the Management Board of CERIS on May 1 in order to assume a new post as
Vice-President and Provost of the University of Alberta. A distinguished
geographer, Carl was part of the original team of applicants who successfully
competed for the award which resulted in the creation of CERIS. Since then, he
has served as a member of the Management Board and, for two terms, as Chair of
the Board. Despite the competing pressures associated with being the Dean of
Arts and Science at one of Canada's largest universities, Carl has always "been
there" for CERIS, supporting the directors, benefitting the Board with his
administrative experience and clear-headed judgement, and acting as an advocate
for the Centre, both nationally and internationally. Replaceable? It is hard to
imagine that either CERIS or the University of Toronto will find another Carl
Amrhein easily. We wish him luck in his new position, even though we will
continue to envy our colleagues at PCERI who, with good reason, couldn't be
happier about his move.
NEW SSHRC RESEARCH GRANT
Nazilla Khanlou (Health Domain Leader) and her colleagues Myer Siemiatycki (Community Domain Leader), Paul Anisef (Associate Director of CERIS) and Morton Beiser (Director of CERIS) have received a multi-year research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their study entitled “Immigrant youth and cultural identity in a global context.” The research will explore immigrant youth’s cultural identity in a multicultural metropolis. Specifically, it will consider cultural identity among immigrant youth who are from traditional immigrant source countries and from more recent immigrant source countries.
Data for the study will be collected in Toronto, Canada’s largest urban centre for immigrants. A prospective ethnographic approach will be used. Gender-specific analyses will yield an in-depth, rich picture of the internal and external experiences of cultural identity among immigrant youth. Findings will be a critical contribution to transdisciplinary scholarship in youth cultural identity. They will also inform policy and practice initiatives that incorporate an intersectional approach and address the role of gender, life stage, migrant, cultural and racialized status on health promotion.
The study’s academic collaborators include Maroussia Hajdukowski-Ahmed (McMaster University) and Denise Gastaldo (University of Toronto). Its international advisory panel members consist of Hyun Sil Kim (Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Nursing, Kyungsan University, South Korea) and Leif Ahnstrom’s (recently retired from Chair as Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oslo’s Department of Culture Studies). __________________________________________
CIHR GRANT
CERIS Director, Morton Beiser, has just received a grant called “Enhancing Health Capacity in the Niger Delta of Nigeria” from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. It is a joint University of Toronto/University of Port Harcourt project, born out of concerns about health conditions in sending countries. __________________________________________
OVERLOOKED NEWS
On November
29, 2002, Dr. Morton Beiser, CERIS Director, was awarded a Queen's Jubilee gold
medal for his book, "Strangers at the Gate," and for conceiving, writing and
narrating "Strangers Becoming Us." Funded by OASIS and the Maytree Foundation
through grants to CERIS, "Strangers Becoming Us" began as a 12-part series
broadcast on public radio in Ontario and in Alberta, and was then adapted and
distributed, in the form of a CD with accompanying teacher guides, to all public
elementary and high schools in Canada to instruct students about immigration,
its impact on Canada and on new settlers. Presenting the award on behalf of the
Government of Canada at a black-tie event held at the Chinese Cultural Centre,
Senator Vivienne Poy stressed the importance of informing the general public
about the results of research being carried out at CERIS and at the other
Metropolis centres. OPEN HOUSE FOR GRADUATE STUDENTSApril 23, 2003 (2:00 p.m.– 5:00 p.m.)
If you’re a graduate student who’s interested in immigration research within your field, attend the Open House to find out more about what CERIS can offer graduate students, and to discuss your research interests with the CERIS Domain Leaders for Community, Economics, Education, Health, Housing and Neighbourhoods, and Justice and Law.
CERIS intends to provide graduate students with a site for discussing and better understanding immigrant and refugee settlement issues. Affiliation with CERIS will allow you to network with researchers in immigration, gain access to immigration data through the CERIS Data Committee, exchange ideas regarding research interests and dissertations with other graduate students, and have the opportunity to publish your major papers in the CERIS Working Paper Series.
If you plan to attend, please register at ceris@yorku.ca, and include your name, university, programme of study, the domain representing your main area of interest (e.g. Education, Economics) and your specific research interests in immigration. Venue: Room 702, 7th Floor, 246 Bloor Street West (Bloor and Bedford Rd.) _______________________________________
TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF THE CERIS RESOURCE CENTRE
Since the CERIS office will be moving to the 7th floor this month, the Resource Centre will be closed to the public until May 15, 2003 to allow for packing and unpacking of the resource materials. We apologise for this inconvenience but the new Resource Centre will be more spacious and conducive to research work. _______________________________________
****** CERIS SEMINARS ******
REPORT ON THE ECONOMICS DOMAIN SEMINAR (held at CERIS on Jan 31, 2003) The opportunities and challenges facing Toronto’s immigrant entrepreneurs were discussed by Lucia Lo, CERIS Economics Domain Leader and Professor at York University’s Geography Department, and her research collaborators, Professor Marie Truelove from Ryerson University and Professor Carlos Teixeira from the University of Toronto. The event launched the monthly lunch-time Domain Seminar Series.
The talk, which drew over 70 people, including academics, NGO’s, government officials, and ethnic media, to a room intended for a much smaller crowd, was based on a new 90-page CERIS Working Paper, “Cultural Resources, Ethnic Strategies, and Immigrant Entrepreneurship: A Comparative study of Five Immigrant Groups in the Toronto CMA”, which is currently being re-worked into a book manuscript. The study, funded by CERIS, investigated the behaviour, strategies and barriers faced by Polish, Portuguese, Caribbean, Korean and Somali immigrant business owners in Toronto, with an attempt to address why some groups are more involved in business and more successful than others. This is a very timely study, as it echoes recent statistics that immigrant workers arriving in the late 80’s and 90’s are more likely to be self-employed than previous generations of immigrant workers. The five immigrant groups in the study were chosen on the basis of their immigration history, immigration class, community size and race.
In general, four major barriers were discussed: financing; language, culture, and perceived discrimination; and inexperience and lack of connection in both general business and specific Canadian contexts. However, their weight varied among the five immigrant groups. Koreans, Poles and the Portuguese rated language, culture, and perceived discrimination as the foremost barrier, whereas Caribbeans and Somalis found financing the most preponderant concern in this regard. Concerns about marketing and market penetration as potential barriers were shared by Portuguese, Poles, and Somalis. Portuguese and Koreans were also frustrated by their lack of business and Canadian experience.
Lo and her colleagues told the gathering that entrepreneurial opportunities are not equal for all immigrants. The more established, male, middle-aged, and university-educated immigrants with prior management or skilled experience in paid work have advantage over others. They found a general distinction in the opportunities and challenges faced by the Polish and Portuguese entrepreneurs and those by the Caribbeans, Koreans, and Somalis. Polish and Portuguese firms are larger and more diversified, moving beyond consumer and distributive areas traditionally associated with immigrant businesses. In addition, while the majority of immigrant entrepreneurs were not pushed by institutional discrimination into business pursuit, institutional discrimination was hinted at as a barrier during the establishment phase and the day-to-day operation of many businesses belonging to the visible minority groups of the sample. In particular, getting financing was a persistent problem for the Caribbeans, Koreans and Somalis. Their more recent history in Canada, their class of immigration, and the size of their community do not explain the whole story.
With our economic growth relying more and more on immigrants, Lo and her colleagues suggest to various government offices with programs targeting entrepreneurs to find more and better methods of disseminating information to non-business immigrants. They also invite financial institutions to be mentors and partners for new immigrant businesses, appealing for pilot projects among those groups whose loan applications are normally rejected. Some of the policy suggestions stemming from the study also include recognition of foreign credentials to avoid immigrants becoming self-employed in areas they have no interest in, an extended time period during which immigrants are eligible for free language training and the institution of a mentorship programme whereby a new entrepreneur will be guided by and hence learn from the experience of an established one.
Working Paper No. 21 “Cultural Resources, Ethnic Strategies, and Immigrant Entrepreneurship: A Comparative study of Five Immigrant Groups in the Toronto CMA” is available for purchase at CERIS. __________________________________________
REPORT ON THE EDUCATION DOMAIN SEMINAR(held at CERIS on February 28, 2003)
CERIS hosted The Immigrant Youth, Education, and Globalization seminar organized by Education Domain Leader, Dr. Mehrunnisa Ali, and her graduate student assistant, Svitlana Taraban. John Ippolito of York University presented findings from his PhD. dissertation, an ethnographic study of linguistic diversity and immigrant youth in junior school classrooms. Dr. Daniel Yon, also of York University, talked about immigrant youth and the concepts of culture and identity in global times, which are explored in his book “Elusive Culture: Schooling, Race and Identity in Global Times”. Finally, Dr. Paul Anisef (CERIS Associate Director, and Professor of Sociology at York University) and Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride (Professor Emerita and Adjunct Professor at Ryerson University’s School of Early Childhood Education) concluded the seminar presentations with their research project on the needs of immigrant youth from different cultural and racial backgrounds and the gap between those needs and the existing settlement services.
Mr. Ippolito argued that pedagogical and curricular practices of mainstream education, where English occupies a privileged place, make linguistically diverse students assimilate into Canadian society through the loss of their heritage language rather than through an opening up Canadian education to integrate linguistically diverse youth. The concern of his study is minority language maintenance, as he identifies five risks to this: 1. government-mandated, monolingual Ontario curriculum: teachers working within this curriculum are forced to prioritize English and to exclude minority languages from the regular school day 2. teachers pressed to modify the curriculum for language minority students are unable to cope; modifications made on behalf of linguistically diverse students served curricular objectives, but reiterated the priority of English to the exclusion of minority languages 3. linguistic dominance, reinforced by institutional referents for minority languages: “first language”, “second language”, “their language”, “heritage language”, etc., further distance minority languages from the curricular, pedagogical, and linguistic mainstream 4. limited resources: these prevent many linguistic minority students from receiving special attention, despite being identified as ESL students requiring special attention 5. teachers living in a minority language at home based their pedagogy almost exclusively on English
These risks to linguistic diversity impact the experience of education and language by immigrant youth, and these risks have quite serious implications for language attrition. Thus, according to Mr. Ippolito, mainstream education is facing a challenge to de-prioritize English and to redress the linguistic hierarchy, which stems from the monolingual curriculum, thus contributing to a linguistically plural society. Mr. Ippolito suggests that teachers should demonstrate openness to linguistic difference; it should be a part of their pedagogies, as it broadens linguistic, cultural and political participation available to all students in Canadian society. Mainstream education plays an important role in the successful integration of immigrant youth into Canadian society. Instead of using the practice of assimilation of linguistically diverse youth into Canadian society and mainstream education, education and society should change by the presence of linguistically diverse students opening up to alterity, thus enabling an ethical relation. (Mr. John Ippolito’s full presentation is available on the CERIS website in the “Virtual Library” section).
With respect to immigration and settlement, Dr. Daniel Yon’s presentation began with three taken-for-granted assumptions about the concepts "culture" and "identity," (explored further in “Elusive Culture”), as the context for thinking about immigrant youth in these "global" times. The first concerns the limits of the ruling trope of culture that has structured the direction of much research and the kinds of questions that are posed. This ruling trope views culture in older anthropological terms as attributes of groups. This gets played out in popular notions of "your" culture and "my" culture, "dominant culture" and "multi-cultures.”
Second, and rising from this first assumption, the concept "elusive culture" is coined to offer a theory of culture that goes beyond multiculturalist theories of culture as the object (ethnic, racial and other) that one can pin down and know with certainty. The concept gestures towards a view of culture as on-going processes, convergent, hybridized, implicated in the ambivalence and contradictions of everyday social life rather than as counter-force to them. This concept pays attention to the "popular" culture of youth, which often transcends, though sometimes re-inscribing, ethnic models of culture.
Third, Dr. Yon’s work on youth in Toronto suggests "identity" as social relations and not just attributes; as experiences as opposed to stable markers of identity. This means that the names and categories invoked by "identity" are not literal and fixed markers but rather sets of relationships that are both psychic and social relationships to ideas of culture, fantasies, experiences of belonging and longing, and so on. Thus in his study of youth, "immigrants" and "natives", one might see them laying claims to all the different identity and cultural categories that abound but what one also sees is that the categories offer no guarantee for what their desires, their social practices and social relations are, or what they are becoming. Far from being predictable, Dr. Yon’s study shows that what youth do and say is often full of surprises, tensions, contradictions and ambivalence. (Full details of the book: Daniel A Yon. “Elusive Culture, Race, Identity and Schooling in Global Times”, State University New York Press. 2000.)
Dr. Paul Anisef introduced the research projects on immigrant youth in Ontario he undertook with five other partner organizations and in collaboration with Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride. Their findings lay the foundation of a book, due to be published this summer by Canadian Scholars’ Press under the title of “Managing Two Worlds: Immigrant Youth in Ontario”. With the immigrant youth population continuously growing, concern rises also over the lack of research of newcomer youth issues.
Adolescence is a difficult period in the life of young individuals. For immigrant youth it is also coupled with the stress of settlement and tensions at school, in the family environment, as well as among friends and peers. One of the most significant barriers to successful youth adaptation in Canada is the language barrier. Lack of English proficiency can lead to educational difficulties, create family difficulties, reduce employment opportunities, produce low self-esteem and increase discrimination. Another settlement problem identified by the research is the cultural difference between the newcomer youth and Canadian youth, and the desire of immigrant youth to “fit into” both their home culture and that of their peer groups, sometimes creating conflicts in their families by not adhering to parental values and expectations. Prejudice and discrimination are other factors impeding successful youth settlement and integration into Canadian society. Two types of discrimination that newcomers encounter are discrimination in schools, coming from peers and Canadian-born youth, and discrimination from teachers and counselors.
Some of the policy and practice recommendations emerging were: -better types of assessment of youth achievements independent of their English proficiency; -heritage language classes; -interaction among students, teachers and parents to enrich the learning opportunities about diversity and Canadian culture and Canadian youth; -educating teachers on migration and educational experiences in students’ countries of origin; -more inclusive curriculum and accurate information about the world beyond Canada; -settlement workers present in each school.
Unfortunately, the reality of the state of education in Ontario as it relates to supporting newcomer students is dismal. The People for Education 2002/03 Secondary School Tracking Report found a crisis in secondary schools across Ontario: fewer ESL classes are available to ever growing numbers of newcomer youth; students are failing tests in huge numbers; fewer guidance counselors, psychologists, social workers and ESL teachers are available to those seeking support and advice, for example. Dr. Kilbride concluded her presentation by calling on parents and activists on behalf of youth to take action “to attempt to reverse these disturbing trends and obtain the programs for the success that our youth deserve”.
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LIVING ON THE RAGGED EDGES: IMMIGRANTS, REFUGEES AND HOMELESSNESS IN TORONTO (held at Metro Hall on March 28, 2003)
About 170 service providers, past and present service users, academics, housing interns, and representatives of the City of Toronto’s housing and social services departments came together for this enriching one-day forum. Bringing together such a complementary range of experiences and expertise was a major achievement for CERIS, its Housing and Neighbourhoods Domain Leader, Robert Murdie and administrative assistant, Wilhelmina Peter. The forum, initially planned as the third domain lunch-time seminar, grew to a full day programme, energized and propelled by the ideas and enthusiasm of co-organizers from the Informal Housing Network Project (Islamic Social Services and Resources Association, Community Resources Consultants of Toronto, and Syme-Woolner Neighbourhood and Family Centre), the City of Toronto’s Shelter, Housing and Support Division and CERIS.
Besides disseminating the findings of a research report by Jasmin Zine for the Informal Housing Network Project (“Living on the Ragged Edges: Absolute and Hidden Homelessness Among Latin Americans and Muslims in West Central Toronto”), the forum publicised the findings of reports by Sam Dunn for Access Alliance Multicultural Community Health Centre, Prince Sibanda for the First Contact Project of the Canadian Red Cross, Audrey Alfred for St. Stephen’s Community House and Lori Ryan for Romero House. These reports provide statistical evidence of the challenges immigrants and refugees face in accessing good quality and affordable housing in Toronto and also give voice to the housing experiences of immigrants and refugees.
The Opening Plenary presentations by David Hulchanski of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Urban and Community Studies, Mwarigha M.S. of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, and Angela Robertson of Sistering set the context for the day with professional knowledge, statistical evidence and personal experiences. The first set of concurrent workshops focussed on mental health and homelessness, issues concerning youth and seniors, and women and homelessness, while the second looked at recommendations from current research designed to improve policies, programs and practices. The latter included best practices for working with homeless immigrants and refugees, prospects for creating new affordable housing and livable communities and community development and economic initiatives.
The forum organizers would like to thank the Government of Canada’s Supporting Community Partnership Initiative (SCPI) administered by the City of Toronto, the SCPI Youth Project administered by the Toronto Homelessness Unit of HRDC, the Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto and CERIS for their financial support of this forum.
A summary of the day’s presentations and discussion will be posted on the CERIS web site by early May.
****** PUBLIC EVENTS AND CONFERENCES ****** ACTEW MEETING: "Exploring Sustainable Livelihoods – A
Workshop"
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