Joint Centre of Excellence for Research
on Immigration and Settlement -- Toronto
Annual
Activities Report to SSHRC
Phase II
Metropolis Project
Fiscal
Year 2002-2003
July 2003
246 Bloor Street West, 7th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V4
Tel: (416) 946-3110 Fax: (416) 971-3094
Email: ceris.office@utoronto.ca
ceris.metropolis.net
Table of Contents
I.
Mandate and Objectives of
CERIS 1
CERIS Phase
II
1
II.
CERIS Activities
2002-2003
3
III. CERIS
Research Program 2002-2003
4
CERIS Research
Domains
4
Domain Activities
5
Other CERIS
Projects
8
Training Activities and Research
Affiliation 13
IV.
Dissemination and Public
Activities 18
Research Seminars
18
Monthly
Bulletin
20
Working Paper Series
20
Website and Resource
Centre
20
Publications and Publicity
22
Partnerships and Community
Liaison 23
V.
National and International
Exchanges
24
Sixth National Metropolis
Conference
24
Other National Networking
26
Involvement in International
Projects 27
Visiting Scholars and International
Liaison 27
VI.
Management and
Administration 29
Management
Board
29
Activities of the Data
Committee
30
Partnership Advisory
Council
30
Changes in CERIS
Directorship
31
Executive
Committee
31
Administration and
Infrastructure
32
Support from
Universities
32
VII.
Activities and Work plan for April, 2003 - March, 2004
34
Appendices
Appendix One CERIS Research
Domains
Appendix Two
CERIS Domain Leaders
Appendix Three Categories of CERIS
Affiliation
Appendix Four List of CERIS Working Papers
Appendix Five Members of CERIS
Management Board
Appendix Six Members of CERIS
Partnership Advisory Council (PAC)
Appendix Seven Members of CERIS Data
Committee
Appendix Eight CERIS Staff, Volunteers and
Student Placements 2002-2003
Appendix Nine Budget for 2003-2004
I.
Mandate and Objectives of CERIS
The Joint Centre of
Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement -- Toronto (CERIS) was
established in March of 1996 to conduct policy-oriented research relevant to
immigration and to the integration of immigrants and refugees into the
economic, social, political and cultural life of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Along with centres in
Montreal, Edmonton,
and Vancouver, CERIS is a major component of Canada’s participation in the
international Metropolis Project. The Metropolis Project focuses on issues
related to the settlement of immigrants in large cities, and seeks to
understand related “best practices” that should inform public policy.
Funding for the Metropolis Project for the first six-year cycle was provided
by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), along with Health Canada,
Human Resources, Canadian Heritage, Status of Women Canada, the Canada
Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and the Solicitor General’s Office.
Statistics Canada provided support through data donations and subsidies as
well as technical support. Three partner universities, Ryerson
University, University of Toronto
and York University contributed
substantial in-kind as well as direct financial support.
The objectives of CERIS
are: 1) to create a community dedicated to research on immigration and
settlement; 2) to promote innovative, multidisciplinary research on the
integration of immigrants into Canada’s economic, social, political and
cultural life, focusing on the urban system, with particular attention to
the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and to create sustained, collaborative
research programs involving academics and policy-makers concerned with
immigration issues; 3) to provide training opportunities for students
interested in immigration issues; and 4) to disseminate research results
widely in order to stimulate policy development and debate among the broad
general public.
CERIS Phase II
CERIS received its
second cycle of funding from the Metropolis Project in 2002. Metropolis
Phase II placed enhanced emphasis on domains, more pan-Canadian research and
attention to research priorities articulated by federal partners. CERIS
responses to this included:
·
Domain Outreach -- Domain
Leaders were actively engaged in a cross-centre effort to establish domain
networks of academics, students, and community and government partners. Our
goal has been to establish the broadest alliances through seminars, joint
research and dissemination activities to enhance understanding, and
contribute to policy development and to improve program delivery. In
addition to domain networks, we also plan to encourage the development of
interest clusters on specific topics such as source country/region of
migration, immigration status, gender, etc.
·
Pan-Canadian Outreach – To
encourage more nationally-oriented research, CERIS Domain Leaders and
researchers have taken the lead in building teams with colleagues from other
Centres. Two applications have already been submitted to support national
projects on barriers to newcomer service delivery, and prospects for
successful newcomer settlement beyond the major immigrant-receiving cities.
Domain Leaders from across the Centres held workshops at the National
Metropolis Conference in Edmonton to facilitate planning for future joint
research initiatives, as well as to highlight findings from the first
pan-Canadian Metropolis project, the New Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS).
·
Research Priorities – CERIS
Domain Leaders activities are taking account of the federal partners’
research priorities. Reflecting this principle, the CERIS domains include:
Ø
Community: civic
participation; newcomer service delivery; newcomer
community capacity-building;
citizenship and belonging.
Ø
Economic: economic performance
of immigrants and their children over
time and across space; immigrant
entrepreneurship and its impact on job creation, investment, international
trade and diversity of consumer goods.
Ø
Education: the role of
schools, parents and other service providers in integrating newcomer
children and youth; development models and interventions to address current
policy/practice shortcomings; evaluating the impact of alternate approaches.
Ø
Health: refugees and
post-traumatic stress disorder; tuberculosis among
immigrants and refugees; gender, equity and
health promotion; changes in family power relations and violence against
children and women.
Ø
Housing and Neighbourhoods:
immigrant and refugee vulnerability in the
housing market; ethnic neighbourhoods –
their advantages, disadvantages and transformations; impact of immigrants on
the housing market; cultural attitudes towards housing.
Ø
Justice and Law: alternate
perspectives on immigration and crime; police,
the courts and immigrant communities.
In comparison with
Phase I, Phase II CERIS research is more rooted in domain and cluster
networks, is increasing its connection to activities in other Metropolis
Centres, and is focusing on overarching themes and questions. Phase II is
also building upon previous experience and past success in disseminating
research results through the media and other venues of public discourse.
Following are the
activities of CERIS that supported the implementation of these objectives in
the first year of our second cycle, and our perspectives and plans for the
second year of the second five-year cycle of Metropolis activities.
II.
CERIS Activities 2002 - 2003
In its first year of
the second cycle, CERIS continued to build on past successes and expand our
range of partnerships and the scope of research and dissemination
activities. Among the highlights of the year’s activities were:
·
the development of major externally-funded research projects, including “Immigrant
Youth and Cultural Identity in a Global Context”
and “A Geomatics Approach to Immigrant Settlement Services: The Integration
of Supply and Demand over Space and Time;”
·
the continuation of the New
Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS) by the four Metropolis centers
with funding resulting from a successful application to the Canadian
Institutes of Health Research (CIHR);
·
further additions to the
titles in our Working Paper Series and of the holdings in our Resource
Centre;
·
a substantial increase in the
volume of the research available online through the CERIS Website and
corresponding improvements to the website user interface;
·
further development of our
public profile and expansion of our networking activities with academic,
government and NGO partners;
·
continued growth of training
activities and formal affiliations along with development of our
international liaison activities; and
·
further development of
participation in the Metropolis network domestically and internationally
including CERIS involvement in the Sixth National Metropolis Conference in
Edmonton and contributions to and collaboration with the Journal of
International Migration and Integration.
III.
CERIS Research Program 2002 - 2003
CERIS Research Domains
During the
second Metropolis cycle, CERIS responded to the Phase I reviews which noted
a relative deficiency in research dealing with national issues, and the
relative lack of cross-centre studies, by increasing its support for
domain-initiated and domain-centred activities. In order to put this
decision in motion as early as possible and thus help ensure its maturation
during the next 5-year cycle, the CERIS Board decided to devote research
resources to the domains for the first year of funding, and to postpone
holding an RFP until the second year.
Although
it may appear that, in so doing, CERIS made a radical departure from the
successful model of research that it had established during the first phase
of the Metropolis cycle, it would be more accurate to characterize this as
re-balancing of priorities and approaches, rather than a departure. Aside
from wanting to respond to the federal reviews received, CERIS had good
reasons for re-balancing and for emphasizing the domains at this point in
its history.
First,
within its research and knowledge-transfer “portfolios”, CERIS has
successful programs which are prototypes for domain-focussed initiatives.
In the past, aside from funding RFP’s, the Board funded special projects
under the rubric of “Major Research Initiatives (MRI).” 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 as a result of the RFP competitions.
We
expect that the domain
structure will support the continuation of this type of activity.
Second,
stimulated in part by annual RFP’s as well as other activities, there is now
an important legacy of the first six-year CERIS cycle: a community of
scholars and community partners who have come to know each other, who have
worked together on research and dissemination projects, who have learned
from each other, and who are prepared to continue investigating immigration
and settlement questions together, as well as to inform policy and practice
with their findings.
Finally,
the domain structure is an excellent vehicle with which to continue to
nurture the mutual interests of current CERIS affiliates as well as to
attract junior scholars, other community partners, and students to become
part of an ever-expanding community of researchers on immigration and
settlement issues.
CERIS
believes that an increased emphasis on domains will solidify its past
accomplishments, allow it to expand rationally, and lead to improved theory
and method, a goal the achievement of which was helped by the many
inter-disciplinary and university-community partnerships in CERIS. Improved
theory, concepts, and methods will help ensure high quality research
proposals that can be submitted in response to the future RFP’s that CERIS
intends to hold, as well as to help the Centre attract external sources of
funding to complement its core grant budget.
Domain Activities:
Throughout the autumn
of 2002, Domain Leaders individually attended meetings at the national
Metropolis office in Ottawa. Each set of meetings was oriented to a specific
domain area with three main objectives: roundtable on a specific policy area
in preparation for the Intersections of Diversity Conference to be held in
April 2003; meetings with relevant federal partners; and meetings with
counterparts from the other Metropolis centres.
Immigrant Youth and Cultural Identity in a Global Context
Dr. Nazilla Khanlou (Health
Domain Leader) and project Principal Investigator and her colleagues Dr.
Myer Siemiatycki (Community Domain Leader) and Dr. Paul Anisef (Associate
Director of CERIS) have received a multi-year research grant of $82,302 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, and 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).
A Geomatics Approach to Immigrant Settlement Services: The Integration of
Supply and Demand over Space and Time
GEOIDE (Geomatics for Informed Decision Making), a Network Centre of
Excellence based in Laval University, has awarded $207,150 to a group of
CERIS researchers to work on the project entitled "A Geomatics Approach to
Immigrant Settlement Services: The Integration of Supply and Demand over
Space and Time". CERIS Domain Leaders Dr. Lucia Lo
(Economics) and Dr. Myer Siemiatycki (Community)
are Co-Principal Investigators on the project. Other members of the research
team include Drs. Mehrunnisa Ali, Marie Truelove, Shuguang Wang at Ryerson
University; Drs. Paul Anisef, Qiuming Cheng, Robert Murdie at York
University; Drs. Annick Germain and Damaris Rose at INRS, University of
Quebec; and Dr. Brian Klinkenberg at the
University of British Columbia. OASIS (now Citizenship and Immigration
Settlement/Port of Entry Directorate) and CERIS are partners to this
project.
The settlement process for new immigrants can be
considered as a continuum from acclimatization, to adaptation, and to
integration into the existing host society. During the acclimatization and
early adaptation stages, learning the official language, finding jobs,
locating housing, starting children in the education system and developing a
social network are priorities. These language, employment, accommodation,
and social needs create a demand for services. Hence, newcomer access to
services and information is a critical prerequisite to successful
integration. Typically, Canada’s federal, provincial and municipal
governments fund a wide array of newcomer services and programs. However, in
Toronto, the recent spatial decentralization and deconcentration of new
immigrants, during a period of major economic restructuring, financial
cutbacks and downloading that began in the early 1990’s, pose particular
challenges to social service providers who have a responsibility to respond
quickly to needs. For example, old service agency locations may not serve
the residential locations of today’s clients. Also, the spatial dispersion
of some new immigrant groups creates challenges for the optimum location of
settlement services.
There is relatively little research on this theme in
Canada, and even less has been done to evaluate spatial, social and
organizational factors that would maximize newcomer access to and use of
these services. The interaction of demand (newcomer residential location)
and supply (service agency location) is not clear, and the reasons why some
newcomer communities take up settlement services more readily than others
are not well known by either government funders or service providers. Also,
there has been no analysis of the dynamics of immigrant settlement compared
to service agency location. As well, immigrant settlement patterns change
over time, as do the incidence and location of social service providers.
Depending on factors such as the size of the immigrant community, its
political voice, and its socio-economic background there may be a temporal
lag between the establishment of new immigrant communities and the
establishment of settlement services.
As a network of multi-disciplinary academic researchers,
government funders, service delivery agencies and immigrant community
representatives, this project aims to address these critical issues through
a blending of geomatics (primarily Geographical Information Systems) and
social science methodologies (including social surveys, focus groups and key
informant interviews). The project will examine settlement services in
Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Toronto will receive the most extensive
evaluation; a longitudinal perspective will be employed, and five to
eight immigrant groups with differing immigration characteristics and a
sufficient number of recent arrivals will be examined in detail.
More focussed complementary studies will be undertaken in Vancouver and
Montreal. Specifically the objectives are:
1. To identify the settlement patterns of recent immigrant groups in the
Toronto CMA, paying specific attention to core-suburban distinctions and
temporal changes;
2. To build a geo-referenced information database of settlement service
delivery within the Toronto CMA, making it available to users;
3. To examine the match or mismatch between the demand and supply of
settlement services in order to identify gaps and to evaluate the notions of
spatial efficiency and spatial equity;
4. To analyze the dynamics of immigrant settlement patterns and the
location of settlement service agencies;
5. To
analyze the geographic, linguistic, cross-cultural, gender, religious,
promotional, program design and organizational variables most conducive to
newcomer participation in settlement programs; and
6. To develop and compare
case studies of immigrant service agencies in Toronto, Montréal and
Vancouver.
This project will enrich
our understanding of the relationship between immigrant settlement and the
provision of settlement services, point the way to enhanced decision making
and improved immigrant service delivery, and advance the social
inclusion of newcomers to Canadian society in a
significant way.
Other Domain Activity
In January 2003,
Dr.
Mehrunnisa Ali, Education Domain Leader
completed her project “Unaccompanied/Separated Minors Seeking Asylum in
Ontario.” This was funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Dr. Ali is
also developing a proposal on teacher education along with education
colleagues from all four Metropolis centers for submission to SSHRC in
October 2003. Funding for a pilot study related to this work has been
granted by Ryerson University.
Dr. Scot Wortley, Justice and Law Domain Leader is
currently developing a project with researchers from across Canada on
regional differences in experiences with racial profiling and perceptions of
social justice. It will be submitted for funding this fall.
Other CERIS Projects
World in A City
This is a major research and dissemination project under the co-editorship
of Dr. Paul Anisef and
Dr.
Michael Lanphier of York University. The results will be published in the
form of an edited book by the University of Toronto Press in the summer of
2003. A collaborative effort, World in a City,
involved 15 scholars drawn from all of CERIS’ domains and from each of its
three founding universities, a scholar from Memorial University in
Newfoundland, and another from the University of Akron
in Ohio, one research fellow, two federal government partners, and two
community-based researchers. The authors represent such diverse fields as
sociology, education, health, geography, politics and public administration,
history, public policy, and community-based service. World in a City
began with a Major Research Initiative (MRI) grant from CERIS of $20,000 and
then received a grant of $58,000 from Canadian Heritage. Funding enabled
the authors for the chapters making up World in a City to hire
5 or 6 graduate students to assist them in reviewing pertinent literature,
and in conducting new analyses on public use and other data sets.
World
in a City explores
challenges relating to the accommodation of immigrants in Toronto with
respect to health, education, housing, employment and community, and to the
capacity of Toronto to sustain a civic society. The book offers a template
for comparative studies of cities both within Canada and across countries.
To facilitate this process, Paul Anisef, one of the co-editors, and Khan
Rahi, representing an NGO and one of the chapter co-authors, have organized
a series of workshops for the upcoming (September 2003) International
Metropolis Conference in Vienna.
World
in a City will be
followed by a series of publications exploring issues raised in its various
chapters in more depth and detail. The first of these publications,
Managing Two Worlds (Dr. Paul Anisef and Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride
co-editors), derives from their work in the Education Domain that has
involved a number of mature and younger scholars, and will be published by
Scholars Press in 2003.
New Canadian
Children and Youth Study
The NCCYS
is an example of a domain-generated (Health) research initiative begun at
CERIS, which involves all four Metropolis centres in a major longitudinal
study which will contribute to science as well as to improved policy and
practice. The NCCYS teams 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 of the immigrant and refugee children
living in the 6 identified Canadian cities. The Project Principal
Investigator is Dr. Morton Beiser, CERIS Director.
The National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth (NLSCY),
conceived and carried out by the federal Department of Human Resources,
together with Statistics Canada -- a study of 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 of 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 in the age range currently of the NLSCY sample 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 would apply equally well 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 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.
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
project would not have been possible had there been no health domains in the
four Metropolis centres. Data gathering is currently nearing completion for
the first wave of the NCCYS study. Workshop presentations at the Metropolis
meeting in Edmonton in March of 2003 focussed on methodological 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.
The EMPIRICAL Project
EMPIRICAL (Educational
Media Partnership on Immigration and Refugee Issues for Computer Assisted
Learning), a package of computer-assisted courses about immigration and
settlement, has been developed by CERIS under a contract with the Ontario
Administration of Settlement and Integration Services (OASIS), the regional
settlement arm of CIC. EMPIRICAL consists of twelve courses at the
undergraduate post-secondary level of instruction. Each course is devoted to
a specific topic and is designed to be stand-alone. Taken together, the
package could constitute an undergraduate major in immigration studies.
Each course was developed by an expert from an Ontario university, sometimes
in partnership with experts from government or other parts of the community.
The courses are flexible, media-rich packages utilizing the most advanced
forms of computer-assisted learning including chat rooms, instructor
assignments and Internet linkages to relevant web-based materials. The
second phase of the EMPIRICAL project was completed in June 2002. Dr.
Morton Beiser, CERIS Director, is the
project Principal Investigator.
Further funding for the EMPIRICAL Project was provided by Ontario
Administration of Settlement and Integration Services (OASIS) to
Dr. Kenise Kilbride in 2003. Under her
supervision, a team of specialists at the Rogers Communications Centre at
Ryerson University did further work on the Empirical project. Over a
three-month period, they coded over 9,000 web pages for internet delivery.
This will provide the flexibility of both CD-Rom and Internet delivery of
the eleven course packages. In addition to the internet coding, the team
checked and updated all Internet links, did an extensive copyedit to the
text and ensured that all permissions and releases were on file. This work
means that the courses are "ready to go" once Citizenship and Immigration
Canada selects a CERIS partner institution for course delivery.
Canadian
Identities Database (CID):
An
Interdisciplinary Reference Database of Canadian Research on Identity
Dr.
Joanna Anneke
Rummens, from the Culture, Community and Health Studies, Dept. of
Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health was the Principal Investigator on the Canadian
Identities Database (CID). This is an interdisciplinary electronic
reference database of English-language Canadian research on identity and
designated University of Toronto Invention. 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 studies. It currently contains
860 abstracted, analysed and coded reference items.
The CID was
developed to facilitate access to a highly specialized research literature
to guide policy decisions and support future research initiatives. Detailed
analytic coding within each of five fields - Types of Identity, Specific
Identities, Identity Processes, Group Dynamics, Role of the State - provides
maximum search flexibility and rapid retrieval of research references and
findings dealing with even the most specialized identity topics. The
database is updated three times a year in January, May and September.
Since April 2001
the CID has been made available in electronic format to the Department of
Canadian Heritage where it is used by policy makers and analysts. As funder
of this initiative Canadian Heritage will be making the CID directly
accessible to researchers, students, media and the general public by posting
the entire database on the www.metropolis.net website with a link from
www.pch.gc.ca.
Revisiting
“Personal is Political”: Immigrant Women’s Health Promotion
CERIS
Health Domain Leader Dr.
Nazilla Khanlou is one
of the co-investigators of this inter-disciplinary joint venture between
Women’s Health in Women’s Hands (WHIWH) and the Faculty of Nursing,
University of Toronto. The research team consists of the principal
investigator, Denise Gastaldo,
co-investigators: Dr. Khanlou, Notisha Massaquoi, Deone Curling and research
coordinator, Amoaba Gooden.
The
objectives of the research are to: (1) illustrate the resources and
strategies immigrant women employ in order to promote their own mental
health; (2) explore how being an immigrant shapes the power relations in
which women are engaged in their everyday lives; (3) describe how gender
roles and relationships influence the degree of control immigrant women have
over their lives; and (4) examine the concepts of individual and collective
empowerment as simultaneously key elements for health promotion and as
discourse for self-care and the care of others.
Phase one
of the project is well underway. Focus groups have been conducted with
immigrant women at LINC classes and at WHIWH.
CERIS as
a community partner allows the project to have access to a broad range of
communication channels while ensuring that the project finds effective means
of disseminating findings at the end of the research.
Research Project on the Impact of Migration and the City Emergency's
Shelters
CERIS
partnered with the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson
University to submit a successful proposal in a recent Call for Proposals by
the City of Toronto on the impact of migration on the City's emergency
shelters. Dr.
Kenise Murphy Kilbride and
Dr.
Joseph Springer, both CERIS
Research Associates, are the co-Principal Investigators on this project.
Tuberculosis Among Immigrants in Canada
A decade ago, it seemed that Tuberculosis in Canada might be well on the way
to eradication. Having reached a post mid-century peak of, the prevalence of
Tuberculosis began to fall steadily. In 1987, the rate dropped to an
all-time low of 6.9 cases per 100,000 per year. However, rather than
continuing to fall, the prevalence of the disease has remained stable ever
since, hovering between 6.9 and 7.4 cases per 100,000.
Immigration undoubtedly helps account for TB’s tenacity. In 1980, the
Canadian-born non-Aboriginal population accounted for 50% of all cases of
Tuberculosis. By 1995, this proportion had dropped to 22%. During the same
interval, the proportion of Tuberculosis accounted for by First Nations
cases rose from 14% to 18%, and, among the foreign-born, from 35% to 58% (in
2% of cases, origin was unknown). Other immigration-receiving countries’
experiences with TB have been consistent.
Data from Ontario are even more striking than national Canadian figures. The
average number of cases of Tuberculosis in Ontario declined from 13 per
100,000 in the decade 1970-1979 to a low of 6.7 per 100,000 in 1988. In the
ensuing 5 years, 1990-1995, the rate rose to 7 per 100,000, with
particularly high rates in Toronto (23 per 100,000) and Etobicoke (24 per
100,000). The proportion of cases accounted for by the Canadian-born dropped
from 53% in the 1970-1979 decade to 16% in 1995, while the proportion
accounted for by the foreign-born increased from 42% to 81%. Asians
accounted for 47% of the foreign-born Tuberculosis cases, and Africans for
9.6%.
Do immigrants coming to Canada bring TB with them?
When they first arrive, immigrants are at least as healthy as the host
population. Furthermore, health screening requirements prior to entry help
ensure that immigrants and refugees are free of active TB. In both Canada
and the US, a negative sputum culture and either a normal chest x-ray or
proof of successful treatment for those with x-ray abnormalities compatible
with active Tuberculosis are prerequisites for admission. Screening of
immigrants and refugees occurs abroad, and applicants are excluded until
found to be free from active disease. The only exceptions are persons who
arrive in Canada and claim refugee status once on Canadian soil. During the
period that refugee claims are processed, claimants receive a health
examination.
One of the most intriguing facts concerning Tuberculosis among the
foreign-born is that the highest rates of disease occur a few years after
initial resettlement, and that the emergence of new cases seems to occur
earlier among refugees than among immigrants. Most Canadian experts are of
the opinion that, rather than bringing active TB to Canada, immigrants
succumb to the disease as a result of the reactivation of previously dormant
infection. The aim of the current project is to investigate factors such
diet, stress and physical conditions that may help explain the increased
risk of Tuberculosis occurrence among immigrants during the early years of
resettlement in Canada. The project, which received $189,610 in funding from
the CIHR, is under the direction of Dr. Morton Beiser (PI), CERIS Director.
A Community in Distress
“A Community in Distress” is a collaborative project involving CERIS, the
University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry and the Tamil community of
Toronto, with funding from the CIHR ($449,696), Principal Investigator, Dr.
Morton Beiser, CERIS Director. Concerned by a perceived high rate of suicide
in their community, a number of Tamil community leaders approached Dr.
Beiser with a request for research to document the prevalence of suicide and
suicidal ideation in the community, as well as factors helping to account
for the despair which may prompt self-inflicted violence. A mental health
survey of 1600 adult Tamils is now nearing completion. The project has been
overseen by a council made up of university researchers and Tamil community
leaders who have jointly framed questions, developed a sampling strategy,
designed the research instrument, hired staff and planned data analyses.
Plans are currently underway to develop a new CIHR proposal for a second
wave of interviewing to investigate trends in mental health over time as
well as to examine possible effects of the peace process which gained
momentum during the conduct of the survey.
Training Activities and Research
Affiliation
Training the next
generation of researchers (through opportunities for students) is integral
to CERIS’ mandate. A number of students have already begun to build on
their research experience with CERIS projects to develop their graduate work
and participate in conferences and other forms of dissemination.
Other opportunities for training for students occur through a limited number
of internships and part-time positions at CERIS, as well as volunteer
activities associated with the maintenance of our Resource Centre and
Virtual Library. 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. During the past year,
the following graduate and undergraduate students were volunteers and
interns at CERIS:
·
Isabel Wiebe, a
graduate student from Germany worked with both CERIS-Toronto and the Ottawa
Metropolis Project Team as an intern from May to August, 2002;
·
Yuliya Prodaniuk was
a CIDA intern who assumed Public Relations and Communications Coordinator
responsibilities at CERIS from November 2002 to April 2003. She holds a
Bachelor of Arts degree from York University in Mass Communications and
French and speaks four languages. The major focus of Yuliya’s work was
organizing the CERIS seminars on sending countries and on designing
materials related to our correspondence and research dissemination;
·
Haruko
Nishimura, an undergraduate in Ryerson’s School of Early Childhood
Education, did her fourth-year internship at CERIS under Dr. Kilbride’s
supervision. She was instrumental in collecting information on CERIS
dissemination activities during the first cycle;
·
Hong Zhu, a
Ph.D. student working on the integration of independent class immigrants at
OISE / University of Toronto, is volunteering in our Resource Centre.
About 90 per cent of the users of our
Resource Centre are graduate students -- approximately 145 students in the
past year.
The CERIS domains
funded six graduate students representing each domain to attend the Sixth
National Metropolis Conference. They were: Ms. Sepali Guruge (Health), Ms.
Svetlana Taraban (Education), Ms. Sutama Ray (Housing and Neighbourhoods),
Ms. Rachel Bezanson (Community), Ms. Lu Wang (Economics) and Ms. Andrea
McCalla (Justice and Law).
Two CERIS-affiliated
graduate students were awarded the recently-instituted bursaries for a
period of continuing study with the Montreal Metropolis Centre Immigration
et mJtropoles.
Amal Madibbo is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and
Equity Studies in Education at OISE at the University of Toronto
and Elke Winter is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at York University. Amal has been very
active in CERIS-funded research on Francophone immigrants in Toronto and
Elke has conducted a policy review of CERIS-funded research for our
Management Board.
The GEOIDE Project (see
above in Section II) has provided valuable experience for graduate students.
Kareem Sadiq, York University worked on the literature review for the
project; Cathy Weihua Liu, Ryerson University worked on the profile of
Toronto’s landed immigrants from 1981 to 2001, and produced summary tables
based on country of last residence, immigration class, year of landing,
education level, English/French proficiency, and age; and April Lim,
University of Waterloo compiled information on settlement services and their
funders in the GTA, identifying 14 main service areas and produced a list of
immigrant service agencies in Toronto, York and Peel which clearly shows the
imbalance between Toronto and the surrounding areas with respect to
provision of services.
The NCCYS, Tamil and
Tuberculosis projects provide examples of the role CERIS projects play in
stimulating the careers
of junior scholars and students who might not otherwise have become involved
in immigration-related research. The domain structure 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 activities related to
these interests, continues to nurture their interest in the field.
Examples
include:
1. Dr. Anneke Rummens is an
anthropologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of
Toronto. Partially through her involvement with the NCCYS and CERIS in
general, Anneke has developed an interest in identity. The NCCYS provided
her an opportunity to test out some of her measures with a major sample.
Anneke presented a paper at the Metropolis Conference in Edmonton, and has
also been invited to Ottawa on several occasions by Canadian Heritage to
make presentations about her research interests.
2. Dr. Hayley Hamilton
recently received her PhD in Medical Sociology from Ohio State University,
and is currently an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Hayley’s dissertation focussed on adjustment issues among second-generation
immigrants, using data from US national data bases. She is currently a
co-investigator on the NCCYS and, through this route, has become a CERIS
affiliate.
3. Dr. Nazilla Khanlou
received a PhD in Nursing and then spent one year as a post-doctoral fellow
with the University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry. Her doctoral
dissertation focussed on identity formation among immigrant youth living in
Canada. Currently an assistant professor at the University of Toronto
Faculty of Nursing, Nazilla is a co-investigator on the NCCYS project. Her
increasing involvement with CERIS through the NCCYS led to her becoming the
Health Domain Leader for CERIS. In this role, she has received strong
support from the Dean of Nursing at the University of Toronto who became
aware of CERIS and its importance by virtue of Nazilla’s involvement with
the Centre. With several of the CERIS directors and Domain Leaders as
co-applicants, Nazilla submitted a successful proposal for research on
identity formation for the SSHRC 2003 Standard Research Grants competition.
4. Farah Mawani has a Master’s
Degree in Epidemiology and was recruited as the National Coordinator for
NCCYS. Stimulated by her involvement with the NCCYS and CERIS, she has
recently enrolled in a PhD program in epidemiology at the University of
Toronto. Farah continues to work part-time on the NCCYS and is developing a
dissertation proposal based on NCCYS data.
5. Abimanyu Singham was
recruited as a coordinator for the Tamil community, one of the communities
involved in the Toronto NCCYS site. After working as a coordinator on the
project, Abi has now applied to several PhD programs in epidemiology, and is
planning to pursue his degree beginning in the fall of 2003. Currently, he
is planning to use NCCYS data as the basis for a dissertation.
6. Nalini Pandalangat has been principal
coordinator for the Tamil project: “A Community in Distress” since its
inception. She will pursue a PhD in Epidemiology from the Institute of Medical Sciences,
University of Toronto,
in the fall of 2003. Nalini will use the Tamil data for her thesis.
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. This is currently in its final stages of the approval process at
Ryerson University. 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 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 is that:
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; and 2) graduate
students will have an opportunity to interact with other researchers in the
Metropolis Project through the 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 of
them 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 only passing
interest 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.
New Directions: Graduate Student Involvement at CERIS
In September 2002, the
CERIS Board received a report written by Denise Tom-Kun on graduate student
involvement in CERIS which explored the experiences of graduate students
associated with the Centre. The report found that graduate students reported
having a very favourable experience with CERIS; however, there are ways in
which CERIS could improve its support structure for graduate students. The
report made eleven recommendations, which were considered at the January
2003 Board meeting. The Board committed to holding an Open House for
graduate students in April 2003 which would promote CERIS and its
opportunities. Graduate students will meet with Domain Leaders and have an
opportunity to network, learn about research opportunities in CERIS and
learn how to gain access to CERIS data.
IV.
Dissemination and Public Activities
Research Seminars
Increased interest in
CERIS and Metropolis as well as improved publicity resulted in significantly
increased attendance at the University of Toronto
office seminars, with events attracting between 30 and 60 persons. In
addition to domain-organized seminars, CERIS hosted a series of seminars
exploring the push factors involved in contemporary migration to Canada. These were organized by Yuliya
Prodaniuk, who interned in the CERIS office
from November
2002 to April 2003.
April 10, 2002
“The Impact of September 11th on New Canadians in Toronto”
Presenters: Mr. Nouman Ashraf, Muslim Students Association, University of
Toronto; Prof. Audrey Macklin from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law;
Dr. Paula De Coito, Executive Director of the Social Planning Council of
Peel; and Ms. Julie Wang Morris, Columnist, Town Crier.
January 22, 2003
“Contemporary Ukrainian Immigration to Canada”
Presenters: Professor Victor Satzewich, Professor and Chair, Department of
Sociology, McMaster University; Mr. Eugene Duvalko, Executive Director,
Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society, Toronto; and Dr. Taras Kuzio,
Resident Fellow, Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of
Toronto; Facilitator: Ms. Yuliya Prodaniuk, CERIS Public Relations and
Communications Coordinator, CIDA/CBIE intern.
January 31, 2003
“Immigrant Businesses in Toronto: Opportunities and Challenges Facing
Caribbean, Korean, Polish, Portuguese and Somali Entrepreneurs” (organized
by Economic Domain)
Presenters: Dr. Lucia Lo, Dept of Geography at York University and CERIS
Economic Domain Leader; Dr. Carlos Teixeira, Dept of Geography at the
University of Toronto; and Dr. Marie Truelove, School of Applied Geography
at Ryerson University.
February 26, 2003
“Contemporary South Asian Immigration to Canada”
Presenters: Dr. Sabin Mukkah; Dr. Mehrunnisa Ali, Ryerson University and
CERIS Education Domain Leader; Dr. Kazi Hoque, Executive Director, South
Asian Family Support Services; Dr. R. Cheran, York University, Facilitator:
Dr. Usha George, Associate Dean at the Faculty of Social Work, the
University of Toronto.
February 28, 2003
“Immigrant Youth, Education and Globalization” (organized by Education
Domain)
Presenters: Dr. Paul Anisef , Professor at the Department of Sociology at
York University and CERIS Associate Director; Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride,
Professor Emerita and Adjunct Professor at the School of Early Childhood
Education at Ryerson University, and CERIS Interim Coordinator; Dr. Daniel
Yon, Director of the Graduate Programme in Social Anthropology at York
University; and Mr. John Ippolito, York University.
March 19, 2003
“Contemporary Migration from Africa to Canada”
Presenters: Mr. Charles
Adeyanju, PhD candidate, McMaster University; Mr. David Onyango Oloo,
Program Coordinator, Quebec Public Interest Research Group, McGill
University; Mr. Farah Khayre, Africa Transitional Council Coordinator; Dr.
Gertrude Mianda, Professor, Glendon College, York University; Facilitator,
Dr. Pablo Idahosa, Director of African Studies, York University.
“Living on the Ragged Edges: Immigrants, Refugees and Homelessness in
Toronto”, Metro Hall, Toronto, 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,
Dr.
Robert Murdie and administrative assistant,
Wilhelmina Peter. The forum, initially planned as a 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 liveable communities and community development
and economic initiatives.
Financial Support
for this forum was provided by 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.
Monthly Bulletin
The CERIS electronic
monthly news bulletin was distributed nine times in the past year; the
number of subscribers is 1350. Readers of the monthly bulletin are mainly
CERIS affiliates and Metropolis colleagues in Ottawa and across Canada. The
bulletin continues to a popular source of information on upcoming events
sponsored by CERIS and its partners, as well as new research resources.
Working Papers Series
Eight new papers
published during the year brought the total of CERIS Working Papers in
circulation to 24. Dr.
Michael Doucet is the editor and
CERIS at Ryerson takes responsibility for the series. Please see Appendix
Four for a complete list of Working Papers published in this period.
Website and Resource Centre
With both volunteer
assistance and staff support, the Resource Centre continues to be open to
the public and to expand its holdings of rare and valuable immigration
research documents. Our
unique collection includes 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. Publications can be reviewed on site or
photocopied at cost.
More than one hundred new documents were classified, catalogued and added to
the Resource Centre holding list during the past year. The