Annual Activities Report -- Metropolis Project CERIS Toronto Fiscal Year 1997-98 Submitted to SSHRC April 30, 1998 Research Program Funded Research Projects 1997 The successful applicants in CERIS' second funding competition, organized during the 1996-97 fiscal year, were announced in June, 1997. The field of submissions was extensive, with a wide variety of topics covered. Research projects were identified by domain -- Economic, Education, and Community. Because of the broad nature of the Community domain and the number of submissions, projects were further divided into two groups -- community health, and social services. Four adjudication panels, each made up of five individuals, 2 community representatives, 2 academic representatives, and one chair selected the projects that they felt had the most scientific merit. Along with scholarly research criteria, attention was paid to the usefulness of the research, the extent of community partnerships in each project, the plans for dissemination of information to community practitioners, and the use of students as research assistants and project managers. Each adjudication panel forwarded its recommendations regarding proposals submitted to its research domain to a composite panel, which in turn made final recommendations to the CERIS Management Board. CERIS awarded eleven new projects with up to $15,000 each for their research, bringing the total number of funded projects to twenty-three. Together these projects involved: fifty-one academics (faculty) seventy-three graduate and undergraduate students working as research assistants twenty-nine community-based researchers and research assistants sixty-one partner organizations including planning councils, school boards, schools, parents' associations, hospitals, immigrant and community service delivery agencies, community centres, ethno-specific organizations, business associations, professional organizations, community organizations, and umbrella organizations and advocacy groups These twenty-three projects involve academics from various departments and research centres at the three founding universities (Ryerson, Toronto and York) plus six other Canadian universities and colleges from coast to coast (St. Francis Xavier, Queens, Seneca College, Guelph, Simon Fraser and UBC). Four projects involve cross-project linkages with other CERIS RFP teams, and one includes international collaboration with academic researchers at two different institutions in Britain (Centre for Policy and Health Research, and Oxford Brookes University). For the 1997 research funding a total of more than $147,000 went to one project in the economic domain, three in the education domain, five in the community domain -- social services, other, and two in the community domain -- health. For complete project descriptions see Appendices -- Funded Research Projects -- 1997 RFP Funding Competition. Funded in the economic domain is a project headed by Dr. Edward Harvey entitled Changing Patterns of Immigrants' Socioeconomic Integration (1986-1995) and their Policy and Program Implications. Dr. Harvey of the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies, OISE/UT, and his team of researchers will be examining over 46 ethno-cultural groups on a number of dimensions. They will compare groups to one another and to the national average in areas such as employment income, the unemployment and labour force participation rates, and the proportion of persons in each group falling below Statistics Canada's low income cut-off measure. This project replicates a 1986 study with the goal of discovering if the observed disadvantages and determinants of socioeconomic disadvantage are changing, and if so, in what direction. It will expand on the 1986 analysis to include additional immigrant groups of different ethnocultural backgrounds, variables, data, and geographical areas. Through focus groups, the team hopes to develop an understanding of barriers and other factors that operate to produce certain patterns of socioeconomic disadvantage to immigrant groups. Program and policy implications of the results of their findings will be examined. For this project, Dr. Harvey has joined forces with Dr. Bobby Siu, a community-based researcher with COSTI Immigrant Services and will be assisted by Kathleen Reil, a doctoral student in Sociology at University of Toronto. A pilot study conducted by a group of third year early childhood education students at Ryerson Polytechnic University was the basis for this next CERIS-funded project. The project, headed by Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride, is entitled Early Differences Experienced by Visible Minority Children. In the pilot study, students conducted observations of teacher interactions with preschool children, 48 of whom were "visible minority" children and 21 of whom were "white"; "positive interactions" were recorded. The observations showed that the white children received a majority of the interactions that were labelled "positive", despite being the minority of children, and that white boys receive the most attention, across the various types of interactions. These findings suggest an urgent need for verification and elaboration. The objectives of this project are to identify important implications for educational theory and training issues for programs in early childhood education, and by extension, faculties of education in Canada, to contribute to Canadian research in this area, and to identify program and policy implications for pre-service and in-service teacher-training. Professor June Pollard of Ryerson, Martha Friendly of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies at University of Toronto, and Julie Dotsch of Bias-Free Early Childhood Services are members of the research team. The project will make extensive use of student research assistants for observations and compilation of data. Dr. Carl Corter from the Institute of Child Study, OISE/UT and Dr. Maria Barrera from Sick Children's Hospital have joined together to look at the participation of immigrant parents in their children's elementary schools. Parent participation has been identified as a key element in exemplary early education programs and effective elementary schooling. With the shift in the Ontario public education system to School Advisory Councils which depend on parental involvement, there is a concern that immigrant parents will not be engaged or served by the councils. This project has the opportunity to gather useful information to foster this desired participation and to influence developing policy. School Experiences of Immigrant and Ethnic Minority Youth: Risk and Protective Factors in coping with Bullying and Harassment is the title of the project of lead researcher Dr. Debra Pepler from York University. Dr. Pepler, who is the Director of the LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution and the Department of Psychology, will be collaborating on this project with other psychology professors, Dr. Jennifer Connolly, from York, and Dr. Wendy Craig, from Queens University. In addition, Tim Kearns, head of the Conflict Resolution Advisory Team, Toronto Board of Education, will be participating in this project. Bullying and harassment are pervasive among late elementary and high school students, and immigrant and minority children are very often the target. The psychosocial impact of these experiences among majority youth has been documented and has led to the development of programs to reduce harassment and violence in the schools. It is the goal of this project to produce theoretical and empirical links between existing anti-racism policies in schools and anti-bullying/harassment interventions through the investigation of the experiences of immigrant and minority youth. Lead researcher, Professor Enid Collins, of Ryerson's School of Nursing, with an extensive academic team from the University of Toronto, Seneca College, Osgoode Hall Law School, and St. Francis Xavier University, will examine immigrant nurses' experience of racism and the grievance proceedings they have navigated. Collaborative community partners for this project are Culture Care Nursing Interest Group, the Barbados Nurses' Association of Toronto, the Grenada Healthcare Resource Group, and the South Asian Nurses Association of Canada. The broad objective of the project is to generate policy support for equity in professional life. Using a diverse sample of twenty nurses, focus group sessions and face-to-face interviews will be conducted to assist in the gathering of information. Selected case studies will be subjected to legal analysis, and interviews with unions and ethno-racial groups will be conducted. Andrée Coté of the Centre for Feminist Research at York University will look at the Impact of Sponsorship on the Equality Rights of Francophone Immigrant Women. The project is aimed at documenting the impact of family class sponsorship on Francophone immigrant women living in Ontario, analyse its impact in light of the government's constitutional obligation to respect and promote women's equality and develop recommendations for legislative and administrative reform, taking into consideration those that have been achieved in Quebec. Researchers from York University, and University of British Columbia in collaboration with the Etobicoke and Toronto Boards of Education will examine the Civic Engagement of Immigrants and Refugees. They will look at women's and men's participation in schooling issues in the Greater Toronto Area. The principal investigator on this project is Dr. Luin Goldring from York's sociology department. In addition, the team will collaborate with members of a York/ Ryerson research team who are currently conducting a CERIS-funded research project on the participation of immigrants in municipal politics. This project which will identify pre-migration and post-migration characteristics of selected immigrants, is the first of a long-term analysis of factors that facilitate or inhibit civic engagement among immigrants. The title of the study led by Dr. Howard Irving of University of Toronto is Satellite Children: An Exploratory Study of their Experience and Perception. This study will investigate Asian "astronaut" families, in which one spouse leaves the family in the foreign country to which the family emigrated, while s/he returns to the home country to continue with his/her business. The focus will be on their adolescent children, called "satellite kids". Through a qualitative research design, this study will analyse the acculturation and adjustment of satellite children, and the effects of parental absence. Findings from this will be a valuable resource for frontline workers, social service agencies, school officials, and immigration and settlement policy makers. The effects of recent cutbacks on the settlement experiences of Hispanic and Somali women is the focus of a study led by researcher Neita Israelite of York University's Faculty of Education. Working with Dr. Israelite is Arlene Herman, a doctoral student in Women's Studies at York, and community researchers from City of York Community & Agency Social Planning Council (YCASP), York Community Services, Legal, Health and Social Services, York Hispanic Centre, and Somali Immigrant Aid Organization (SIAO). New immigrants to Canada often experience difficulties meeting their food needs. The project, Food Security, Health and the Immigrant Experience, will examine the long-standing problem of food security faced by vulnerable groups in our communities. Ethnically appropriate food-related programs, and community action strategies and policies to enhance the health and well being of immigrants will be identified and supported by this investigation. Food security issues will be explored with the intent of identifying appropriate action, service and policy responses. Principal investigator Jennifer Welsh of Ryerson, is collaborating with a number of York departments (Environmental Studies and Anthropology and the Centre for Health Studies), as well as the Centre Medico-Social Communautaire and the Regent Park Community Health Centre, both in Toronto. The Study of the Health Status and Health Care Access for the Arab Community in Toronto: A Pilot Study to Assess Health Needs is the project headed by Lilian Yuan from the University of Toronto, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics. Working with Dr. Yuan is The Centre for Health Promotion, Banting Institute, the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), and the Arab Community Centre of Toronto. This is an initial study to compile socio-economic, demographic, health and other data regarding the Arab community in Toronto area to determine health needs. In addition to the gathering of statistical information, community-based research will be conducted using focus groups. This project will lay the groundwork for future research to investigate the health status of the Arab community and their access to health care services in Toronto. Research Competition 1998 In order to develop a rich and diversified research portfolio, CERIS has relied on both domain and theme-oriented research funding competitions. While the first two were organized along the lines of our original research domains, the 1998 research competition was organized by theme areas. Identification of themes for the 1998 competition came out of a year-end retreat held on July 22, 1997 offices in order to review our first year of research activities and to provide the Board of Directors with input regarding CERIS' research agenda and priorities for the 1997-1998 academic year. The retreat brought together 35 representatives from community agencies and organizations, governmental departments and ministries, and universities. A variety of pressing research themes emerged from the round table retreat discussion. These themes were recorded in detail, subsequently revisited by both the Partnership Advisory Council (PAC) and CERIS' Board of Directors and condensed into the three directed research themes: Children and Youth; Cohesion, Citizenship and Social Climate; and Institutional Restructuring and Policy Change. The 1998 RFP, circulated as an insert to November 1997 our newsletter, also allowed for multi-year proposals with larger funding limits. CERIS received nineteen applications in response to the theme-oriented 1998 RFP. Due to the effects of the postal strike in the fall of 1997, the deadline was extended to March 03, 1998. The adjudication process, based on essentially the same principles and procedures as previously, began immediately afterwards and the Management Board was scheduled to meet in April, 1998 to review the results of the competition. For the details of the 1998 RFP and specification of some changes in the adjudication process see 1998 Request for Proposals and Modifications to the RFP Adjudication Process in the Appendices. Back to Table of Contents Expansion of Research Domains Revised Domain Definitions Based on the experience of the first two research competitions and the expressed interests of our affiliated researchers, the CERIS Management Board decided during this past year to expand our definition of research domains. CERIS now has five domains, each of them engaged in unifying the talents, energies, and insights of our academic and community partners. Research collaboration both pan-Canadian and international will be favoured by the fact that our revised domains are more compatible with those of our partners at the Metropolis centres in Montreal, the Prairies and Vancouver. The five domains target research in their areas that has a significant focus on the Greater Toronto Area, has valuable implications for public policy, and addresses issues of concern to immigrants and second-generation Canadians and the social institutions and organizations that serve them. Education and Economics are two original domains that remain unaltered. The (former) Community domain is now defined as three distinct research domains. The Health domain has two principal thrusts: 1) the study of the pre-migration and post-migration (resettlement) determinants of immigrant health; and 2) the study of the health system's response to immigrant health needs. The first thrust will contribute to theory about coping with the stresses of resettlement, and will provide information useful for creating programs to prevent illness and to promote health. The second thrust focuses on: a) whether immigrants have equitable access to care, as the Canada Health act and other legislation decrees; b) factors affecting the quality of care immigrants receive within the health care system; and c) formal and informal systems of care, including so-called "traditional" health practices and their effect on immigrant health. The Housing and Neighbourhoods domain focuses on the residential patterns and housing conditions of immigrants and on the social and built aspects of the neighbourhoods where they live. Emphasis is placed on the changing residential locations of immigrants, the nature of residential or housing segregation, and immigrants' involvement in neighbourhoods with all their implications for integration and access to appropriate and affordable shelter. The effects of immigration on housing demand, housing stock, local planning issues, and neighbourhood social and political life are of interest. The Community domain seeks to identify those factors which facilitate or impede the social integration and civic participation of immigrants in contemporary urban societies. The experience of immigrants and the receiving society, and the service-providing agencies of both, are appropriate foci, with emphasis on those elements of welcome, service, and integration (or the absence thereof) that are legitimate concerns of public policy in an urban area. A full description of the five CERIS research domains is provided in the Appendices as CERIS Research Domains. Appointment of Domain Leaders Domain Leaders act as the contact person and provide coordination for CERIS-affiliated researchers, and facilitate inter-Centre exchanges, within their particular domain. They also provide support to the Management Board and the CERIS Executive in planning our research program, dissemination activities, and participation in Metropolis activities. After finalizing the revised domain descriptions in January, 1998, the Management Board appointed the following Domain Leaders: Community -- Dr. Harold Troper, Professor, Department of History & Philosophy of Education, University of Toronto/OISE Education -- Mr. Hugh McKeown, Bond International College and the Anti-racist Multicultural Educators' Network of Ontario Economics -- Dr. John Shields, Professor, Department of Politics & School of Public Administration, Ryerson Polytechnic University Health -- Dr. Samuel Noh, Associate Professor & Senior Research Scientist, Culture, Community, & Health Studies, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto / Clarke Institute of Psychiatry Housing and Neighbourhood -- Dr. Robert A. Murdie, Professor, Department of Geography, York University Affiliation Process Integral to the mandate of CERIS is the establishment of a network of interested academic and community-based researchers, service agencies, community groups, non-governmental organizations, and governmental departments, in order to facilitate the pooling of insight and experience, information exchange, research collaboration, and the dissemination of research results. During the past year the CERIS Management Board therefore established official affiliation categories for interested individuals and institutions. Development and implementation of this process was coordinated by Academic Coordinator Dr. Anneke Rummens. The affiliation issue is one of membership in an active research community, with all its various benefits and attendant responsibilities. Such membership is crucial to the establishment of a strong research community of active participants in CERIS' diverse activities (research initiatives, brownbag seminars, workshops, conferences, etc.). Official affiliation helps to establish and foster a sense of belonging to such a community, while the application/nomination process itself helps to underscore the reciprocal rights and responsibilities of those individuals and institutions approved under each affiliation category. Full participation in CERIS activities is understood to be essential for all membership designations. Individuals and institutions may either apply or be nominated for affiliation with CERIS using the relevant application or nomination form. CERIS Affiliation categories are divided into "Researcher" and "Management and Administration" designations. The primary researcher designations are: Fellow, Research Associate, Research Assistant (University/Community) and Affiliated Member (Individual/Institution). Individuals can fall under more that one affiliation category, particularly if they are involved in both research and management or administration. Affiliated members include both university- and community-based individuals and organizations. For details of the affiliation process see CERIS Affiliation Categories in the Appendices. For a list of CERIS affiliates as of March 31, 1998 see in the Appendices Official CERIS Affiliations. Activities of the Data Committee One of the main goals of CERIS is to provide access to statistical and other information about immigrants. Chaired by Associate Director Dr. Valerie Preston, the CERIS Data Committee has been very active during the past year. The committee met frequently throughout the past twelve months to provide support and coordination to the Management Board and CERIS researchers in dealing with issues of access to relevant immigration data. Making Metropolis license data accessible to CERIS researchers was a major task and accomplishment this year. Included in the data received this past year is a number of special tabulations provided by Statistics Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage. They include the Employment Equity Visible Minority Profiles, Immigrant Profiles for 16 countries of origin and special tabulations prepared for Heritage Canada, both drawn from the 1991 Census. Most information is at a national level, but the Heritage Canada data also includes detailed information for provinces and Census Metropolitan Areas along with more limited information about Census Subdivisions and census tracts. Also included under the Metropolis license data are data sets from CERIS research projects. Made available this year were two special tabulations from the 1991 Census. One dataset describes GTA residents' occupations using the new occupational codes; the information is available for Census subdivisions and census tracts. The social and economic characteristics of immigrant and Canadian-born Chinese residents of the GTA are compared in the second dataset. This data, and other future data sets donated by Metropolis partners or purchased with CERIS research funds, are made available under specific Metropolis licensing conditions. The conditions for access to the data were developed according to the preliminary license agreement received by CERIS from Statistic Canada in December, 1997. Some restrictive conditions in this agreement are under discussion. Access to the data sets has been organized by Laine Ruus, the University of Toronto data librarian who has catalogued the data, established a website and prepared the data for use. The Data Committee chose to distribute the data through the data librarian at University of Toronto because of her expertise and experience working with social science information. Recently, she has trained a data librarian at Ryerson and she will train the new data librarian who will begin at York University in the summer. As a result of these training initiatives, we anticipate that in the long run, data will be available through each of the university's data libraries, making the information readily accessible to all affiliates. In its original proposal, CERIS committed to developing an inventory of information about immigrants in the GTA that was available from all levels of government, universities, and community agencies. During the past year the Data Committee began planning the work necessary to compile this database of immigration databases or MetaDatabase. The committee is reviewing a cataloguing system called the Dublin Accords that is used to document such datasets. The metadatabase will be developed in an InterNet compatible format and made available through the CERIS and Metropolis WebSites. An urban studies placement student and a volunteer have begun to compile information about relevant data and plan the necessary outreach to carry the work forward. The Urban Studies program at York University has also committed to providing a placement student next year for this task. Work on the MetaDatabase will continue during the coming year. The CERIS Data Committee works in collaboration with other Metropolis partners, especially Statistics Canada and the data committees and chairs at the other centres. This collaboration was formalized at the Montreal Metropolis Conference in November, 1997 with the establishment of a National Data Committee. The national committee exists mostly for electronic communication of issues of general concern to all centres. It includes the chairs of the data committees from all four centres, the regional representatives of Statistics Canada, one data librarian from a participating university, and two representatives of the national offices of Statistics Canada. Other issues discussed by the CERIS Data Committee with our Metropolis partners during the past year -- by written correspondence, email and telephone consultations -- included the license conditions for Metropolis data and the joint purchase of a common data set. The latter issue proved to be time-consuming due to its complexity. Issues still under negotiation include distinguishing data that will be donated by Metropolis partners and data that must be purchased, and negotiating the details of the data set in relation to differences in research agendas and priorities. Upon the recommendation of the CERIS Data Committee, the Management Board agreed to contribute up to $20,000 in research funds towards the purchase of a common data set upon agreement. In the latter part of the past year the CERIS Data Committee also organized two consultations on Census data and data use. These are described later in this report under Dissemination Activities -- Census and Data Use Consultations. Major Research Initiatives During this past year the CERIS Management Board identified the need to respond better to urgent research needs identified by our community, municipal, provincial government and federal funding partners. One response to this need, discussed previously, was the theme-based 1998 research competition. Another was the establishment of a Major Research Initiatives (MRI) Working Group, chaired by Khan Rahi (Access Action Council and also Chair of the Executive of the Partnership Advisory Council). The role of the MRI Working Group is to identify and seek to address pressing research needs not otherwise met through CERIS' annual RFP funding competition. Such major research initiatives will be CERIS-based and involve both a greater scope and degree of research collaboration than that which is currently possible through RFP projects. This will also enable CERIS to engage in research beyond that which has been delineated under the Centre's core funding arrangement; it will further welcome into our research community researchers who have either not sought or received RFP funding. Once a major research initiative is identified and agreed upon, CERIS will undertake to secure the necessary resources and seek appropriate additional outside funding. Researchers, community-based immigrant and refugee settlement services, teaching institutions, policy makers and funders are all expected to participate in and benefit from such research initiatives. The initial recommendations of the MRI Working Group will be reviewed by the Management Board and made operational in the coming year. Training Opportunities Fundamental to the mandate of CERIS and the Metropolis project is the provision of training opportunities in immigration research. In its original proposal, CERIS committed to providing at least seventy per cent of its funding to student research assistants and ten per cent to community research assistants. These targets have been exceeded for both years of funded research projects. The projects cover a wide variety of disciplines within the social sciences, health sciences, and law, attracting a wide group of students. Through their experiences with CERIS research teams they are acquiring research skills such as proposal writing, formulation and implementation of appropriate research methodology, interviewing techniques, data gathering and statistical analysis, and preparation of results for dissemination, including publication. Details of the research projects are provided in Appendices -- Overview of CERIS' Research Programme (1996 and 1997) and Funded Research Projects 1997 Funding Competition. With the expansion of our research program and dissemination activities, other training opportunities have developed at CERIS. A number of doctoral fellows, postgraduates and graduate students took on literature reviews to help prepare the CERIS submission to the Immigration Legislative Review. The Department of Urban Studies at York University provided a placement student to help with the CERIS Resource Centre and this program will likely continue next year with both the Resource Centre and the MetaDatabase project. A University of Toronto urban studies student has consolidated employment-related technical expertise working on maintenance of our WebSite. Training opportunities are also developing in relation to access to Metropolis data. Laine Ruus, the University of Toronto data librarian has recently trained a data librarian at Ryerson and she will train the new data librarian who will begin at York University in the summer. As a result of these training initiatives, we anticipate that in the long run, data will be available through each of the university's data libraries. Arrangements also have been made with Citizenship and Immigration Canada to "train a trainer" in Ottawa on use of the IMDB with the goal of continuing the training processes for interested researchers in Toronto. Many graduate students, postgraduates and foreign-trained professionals approach CERIS seeking both training and employment. With the expansion of our dissemination activities, particularly the introduction of the monthly research seminars, the number of interested persons continues to increase. A few of these people, including some of those with foreign credentials, have been able to use volunteer opportunities at CERIS to secure employment as researchers. Generally, however, the demand exceeds our capacity and the challenge is to find the means and resources to further develop training opportunities beyond the funded research projects. Back to Table of Contents