Annual Activities Report -- Metropolis Project CERIS Toronto Fiscal Year 1997-98 Submitted to SSHRC April 30, 1998 International Links and Dimensions Conferences, Visits and Exchanges During the recent year CERIS continued to develop its international research connections as part of the global aspects of the Metropolis project. In June, 1997 CERIS was honoured with an extended visit by a delegation of visiting scholars from India whose specialty is Canadian Studies and Canadian Literature, including Dr. Vijay Kumar Sharma and Dr. Chandra Mohan, President of the Indian Association for Canadian Studies. Also in June, 1997 a group of three policy advisors, Roy Blinker, Robert Flos, and Zuhel Gul from the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs visited CERIS. The Atlantic and Pacific Exchange Program (APEP) was instrumental in organizing this visit. APEP is a non-profit organization that arranges educational study tours for mid- and senior-level government officials and business executives from the Netherlands, Japan, China and the United States. While in Canada, the Dutch delegation was investigating the country's policies on multiculturalism, immigration and integration. Specifically, they hoped to gather information about the social aspects of integration. A number of CERIS board members and researchers were on hand to meet with the visitors: Mwarigha M.S., David Hulchanski, Usha George, Kenise Murphy Kilbride, Judy Bernhard, Anneke Rummens, and Wsevolod Isajiw. In October, 1997, CERIS hosted a high-ranking governmental delegation from France. M. Gerard Moreau, Member of the National Audit Court and former Director of Population and Migrations at the Social Affairs Ministry, and M. Andre-Clement Decouflé, Population and Migrations, Ministry of Employment and Solidarity had been charged by their Minister to meet with researchers and policy makers in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto in order to learn more about Canada's multicultural policy and its implications for social integration. The Toronto visit was coordinated by CERIS' Academic Coordinator, Anneke Rummens, working in conjunction with M. Jean-Baptiste Chauvin, Adjunct Consul General of the French Consulate. After greetings by the members of CERIS' Executive Committee, we shared with the French delegation a stimulating and productive three-hour discussion. The exchange focussed on the process of social integration of immigrants and refugees in Canada as well as on the mechanisms by which immigration research may inform policy-making via the Metropolis project. Special thanks go to Wsevolod Isajiw who chaired the afternoon session, as well as to participants Michael Lanphier, Engin Isin, Luin Goldring, Samuel Noh and Anneke Rummens. November, 1997 saw a group of Swedish visitors in Toronto. Associate Director Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride spoke on behalf of CERIS to a delegation of professors and other educators from Faculties of Education at several universities in Sweden. At their request, her topic was "The Development of Teachers in the New Society: An Overview of Teacher Training for Human Diversity." In the fall of 1997 Dr. Valerie Preston, Associate Director of CERIS, was discussant for a session entitled "International Perspectives on Gender and Post World War II Immigration Policy" that was part of the recent annual meeting of the Science History Association in Washington, D.C. The session included three papers, each from a different country: Constructing the Female Migrant: Gender and Immigration Policy by Dr. Christiane Harzig, Bremen University, Germany. The Gender Politics of Home and Identity Among Portuguese Women in Toronto by Dr. Wenona Giles, York University, Canada. From Dependent to Independent Labour: Ethnic Business and Gender in Europe by Dr. Mirjana Morokvasic-Muller, Université de Paris X, France. Funding from the Metropolis Secretariat in Ottawa allowed Associate Director Dr. Valerie Preston to represent CERIS at the German-Canadian Studies Association meeting in Grainau, Germany. At a subsequent workshop organized by the Institute for Canadian Studies of the University of Augsburg, she made a public presentation outlining the mandate and organization of Metropolis with particular emphasis on the research activities of the four centres of excellence in Canada. Her presentation of the Metropolis project will be included in the forthcoming conference proceedings published by the University of Augsburg. After presenting at our first monthly seminar Jeff Reitz, one of the founding researchers of CERIS, has been travelling the globe to present lectures at a number of different conferences. In early January, Dr. Reitz presented a paper on Globalization, Global Migration, and Nation-Building: Issues Affecting the Flow of Migrants from India to Canada, at the 14th Annual Conference of the Indian Association for Canadian Studies, held in Pondicherry, India. A month of work in Bangkok preceded a trip to New South Wales where Dr. Reitz will work as a Visiting Scholar at the Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia. While there, he will be presenting a talk on Institutional Change in Australia and the Reception of New Immigrants: Comparisons with the United States and Canada. The second annual International Metropolis Conference was held in Helsinore, Denmark in September, 1997. For this event CERIS was represented by Drs. Morton Beiser (Director), Kenise Murphy Kilbride (Associate Director), and Marie Truelove (former Board member and current member of the Data Committee). This international Metropolis conference had as its main themes social cohesion and tolerance, economic integration and labour market issues, and spatial concerns and mobility. The keynote address, "Back to the Future: From Metropolis to Cosmopolis", was given by Prof. Robin Cohen of the University of Warwick in the UK. The conference provided participants with opportunities for networking internationally and an appreciation of the global scope of the Metropolis project. CERIS delegates recommended finding ways to link more tightly the agendas of international conference to domestic research priorities and agendas. Visiting Scholars During the past year Dr. Christiane Harzig from the Department of English Studies at University of Bremen, Germany completed her sabbatical year (September 1996 to June 1997) at CERIS, York University. New visiting scholars for 1997-98 were: Dr. Joe Darden Dean, Urban Affairs Michigan State university CERIS; Geography, University of Toronto Dr. Morton Weinfeld Sociology, McGill University and the Montreal Centre of Excellence CERIS -- University of Toronto Jeff Fuller, MSc, RN, RPN Migrant Health Research Fellow Centre for Research into Nursing and Health Care University of South Australia CERIS -- University of Toronto Dr. Damaris Rose INRS-Urbanisation, Montreal CERIS; Geography, York University Research Collaboration Drs. Mary Chamberlain of Oxford Brookes University and Harry Goulbourne of the Centre for Policy and Health Research in Britain continue to be international collaborative researchers with the CERIS-funded research project Upward Mobility Among Second Generation Caribbeans Living in Toronto (Drs. Cliff Janzen, Dwaine Plaza and Carl James). During the past year CERIS has continued to develop its links with the American Centre for Migration Studies (CMS). The CMS on Staten Island in New York City is one of the best established centres for research on migration and settlement. Home of the International Migration Review, it also houses archives that regularly attract scholars from around the world. Its Director is Dr. Lydio Tomasi, who edits IMR. Dr. Tomasi cordially welcomed several CERIS researchers at different times this summer: Dr. Michael Lanphier of York (CERIS Board member), Dr. Myer Siemiatycki of Ryerson (CERIS researcher), and Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride of Ryerson (CERIS Associate Director). An overview of the Metropolis Project and the work of the Centres will appear in a forthcoming issue of the IMR. Back to Table of Contents