Annual Activities Report -- Metropolis Project CERIS Toronto Fiscal Year 1997-98 Submitted to SSHRC April 30, 1998 Dissemination Activities CERIS Newsletter and Communications Committee For the past year the main work of the Communications Committee, chaired by Associate Director Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride, has been planning the content of the CERIS newsletter. The newsletter has been an effective tool in communicating our research program, informing readers of upcoming events, reporting on activities, and sharing information about the Metropolis network. The newsletter was also the main vehicle for circulation of the 1998 Request for Proposals (RFP). Approximately 1,100 newsletters are circulated each issue, with 800 going to our mailing list and the remainder distributed at public events. Three newsletters were produced this past year and a fourth was at the planning stage at the end of the year. Monthly Research Seminar Series An important and highly successful feature of CERIS activities in the past year was the introduction of a fall and winter series of research seminars organized by Academic Coordinator Dr. Anneke Rummens. The first seminar in September, 1997 with Professor Jeff Reitz of the Department of Sociology and the Centre for Industrial Relations, University of Toronto, attracted fifty participants. The remaining seminars had an average of twenty in attendance with a mix of academic and community researchers and graduate students. All of the presentations stimulated extended discussions, sometimes quite lively, concerning research methodology and the policy implications of the research. The seminar presentations during the past year were as follows: September 18, 1997 The Warmth of Our Welcome: Social Institutions and Immigrant Integration in Canada's Cities -- Jeff Reitz, Department of Sociology and the Centre for Industrial Relations, University of Toronto October 16, 1997 Implementing Immigrant Health Care Services in Urban and Rural South Australia -- Jeff Fuller, MSc., RN, RPN, Migrant Health Research Fellow, Centre for Research into Nursing and Health Care, University of South Australia November 13, 1997 Methodology in University-Community Research Partnerships -- Adrienne Chambon, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto; Mulugeta Abai, Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT); Ben Zion Shapiro, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto; Teresa Dremetsikas, Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT); Susan McGrath, Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto December 11, 1997 Dilemmas of 'Ethnic Match' in Health and Social Services -- Morton Weinfeld, Department of Sociology, McGill University, and Immigration et métropoles: Centre de recherche interuniversitaire de Montréal sur l'immigration, l'integration et la dynamique urbaine January 15, 1998 Residential Segregation of Racial, Ethnic Groups: Examples from the United States, Britain and Canada -- Joe Darden, Dean, Urban Affairs, Michigan State University February 12, 1998 Toronto's Chinese in Transition -- Lucia Lo, Department of Geography, York University; Shuguang Wang, Department of Applied Geography, Ryerson Polytechnic University; Xiaofeng Liu, Ph.D. in Geography, York University. Commentator: Chantal Ramsey, Manager, Business Immigration Section, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism March 12, 1998 Access to Professions and Trade: An Overview of Ontario Government Research and Initiatives -- Michelle Goldberg, Research Officer Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation Access to Professions and Trades Unit; Sabra Desai, Researcher, Skills for Change; Nadia Burton, Consultant, Ontario College of Midwives April 9, 1998 The Role of 'Weak Ties' in the Settlement Experience of Immigrant Women with Young Children: Case Studies from Montreal -- Damaris Rose, INRS-Urbanisation, Université du Québec, Montreal Census and Data Use Consultations With coordination provided by the Data Committee and support from Statistics Canada, CERIS organized two important consultations on the use of Census and other data. On January 30, 1998, two representatives from Statistics Canada, Sylvie Bourbonnais and Korina Besednik met with twenty researchers at CERIS to discuss current plans for the 2001 Census and researchers' related concerns. After an informative presentation, the importance of retaining the ethnic origin question, questions designed to elicit Canadians' views of racial identity, and the need for more detailed information about immigrants were discussed. The results of this discussion were communicated formally to Statistics Canada. On March 09, 1998 CERIS and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) jointly hosted a public meeting for discussion of the following topics: Content of the Census 2001 -- Questions related to immigration/ethnicity/race Information available from the 1996 Census Use of the 1996 Census data (Research Priorities) The participants were welcomed by Moy Tam, Executive Director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Dr. Valerie Preston, CERIS Associate Director and Data Committee Chair, chaired the panel presentation and discussion. Korina Besednik of Statistics Canada provided information on availability of 1996 Census data and plans for the 2001 Census. Professor Michael Ornstein of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at York University and Tim Rees of the Access and Equity Centre, City of Toronto discussed their research using census data to examine ethno-racial inequality in the GTA. Discussion focused on availability of census data at the appropriate geographic level, and the need for continued research using appropriate indicators of ethno-racial disparities, as well as specific suggestions for the content of the 2001 Census. Dr. Laura Simich provided a record of the discussions which was posted to the CERIS WebSite. Dissemination by CERIS and Metropolis Researchers The monthly research seminars series provided opportunities for dissemination of initial results from two CERIS-funded research projects: Methodology in University-Community Research Partnerships, and Toronto's Chinese in Transition. The seminar series also featured two visiting scholars associated with the Metropolis project: Morton Weinfeld and Damaris Rose. For details see the earlier section of this report Monthly Research Seminar Series. Metropolis national and domain conferences, especially the second national Metropolis conference in Montreal in November, 1997, provided another important avenue for dissemination by CERIS-affiliated researchers. Other venues used by our researchers included public forums on municipal governance and international meetings and conferences. More details are provided in the earlier sections of this report Linkages and Interactions with Academic and Community Partners, Metropolis Conferences and Activities, and Public Activities in the GTA; and International Links and Dimensions, Conferences, Visits and Exchanges. At the Urban Affairs Association meetings in Toronto April 16-19, 1997, Canadian and American experts discussed the causes, impacts and policy implications of the residential segregation of immigrant housing. Associate Director Dr. Valerie Preston represented CERIS and the Metropolis project and organized a session Immigrants, Housing and Segregations in New York, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Adrienne Chambon and J. David Hulchanski, University of Toronto, and Robert Murdie and Carlos Teixera, York University, presented on Housing in a Canadian City: Experiences of Three Immigrant Groups. Heather Smith and David Ley (Co-Director of RIIM), University of British Columbia, presented on A Canadian Underclass? Evidence from Vancouver and Toronto. Valerie Preston and Xiaofeng Liu, York University, and Sara McLafferty, Hunter College, presented at the session Socio-Spatial Divisions: Local Labor Markets in the Metropolis on Immigrants in the New York Labor Market: A Case Study of Latinas. Drs. Carl Amrhein (Chair of Management Board) and Valerie Preston (Associate Director) represented CERIS and the Metropolis project at the meetings of the Canadian Association of Geographers in Newfoundland in August, 1997. Dr. Preston organized a well-attended panel discussion entitled Immigration, Citizenship and Urban Issues in Canada. She also presented a paper in a special session organized by Dr. David Ley, Co-Director of RIIM, entitled Conflict in the new Chinatown: a Case Study of "Asian" Malls. In November, Dr. Jeff Reitz completed a study comparing the earnings of immigrants in Canada with the earnings of foreigners in Germany. Copies will be available in May. His new book, The Warmth of Our Welcome: The Social Causes of Economic Success for Immigrants in Different Nations and Cities will be out from Westview Press in April. Judith K. Bernhard and Veronica Pacini did a presentation of CERIS-funded research entitled Supporting parental involvement in schools: An ethnographic study of the Toronto Latin-American parent support group at the Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum in Philadelphia on March 6 and 7, 1998. Immigrants, Ethnic Economy and Integration: A Case Study of Chinese in the GTA is a CERIS-funded research project conducted jointly by Drs. Lucia Lo (Geography, York) and Shuguang Wang (Applied Geography, Ryerson). Because of the important role of Chinese immigration in Toronto, this study has captured considerable public attention. During the latter part of the past year Dr. Lo was invited to present preliminary research results in a panel discussion organized by Ming Pao, a Chinese daily newspaper in Toronto, and through a talk at the Toronto Hong Kong Chinese Lions Club. She and her research were also featured in Profile, the York University alumni magazine. Both Dr. Lo and Dr. Wang have received inquiries from mainstream journalists and other professionals working on various Chinese-related projects. In March, 1998, Dr. Lo presented Intra-ethnic and Inter-temporal Variations in Settlement Patterns: A Case Study of Chinese in Toronto, at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, in Boston. The scope of dissemination activities will expand significantly in the coming year, as the reports from the first two years of RFP-funded research projects come due. Media Relations Outreach through the Toronto media continued as part of our dissemination activities during the past year. Along with the three CERIS directors, journalists were also provided with the names of our domain leaders as experts in their respective areas. The two subjects generating the most media coverage were the Immigration Legislative Review, and the immigration-related data releases from the 1996 Census. In February, 1998 after the release of census data on visible minority status Dr. Morton Beiser, CERIS Director, and Professor Michael Lanphier, CERIS Board member (York University) provided interviews for a large number of media outlets including the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, CFTM TV, and MacLean's. Resource Centre After a good deal of work by Dr. Sarah Wayland, Administrative Coordinator Ted Richmond and a number of volunteers, the CERIS Resource Centre opened for use by academics, community researchers, and students in January, 1998. The collection is specialised and relies mainly on donations. It is not meant to compete with university libraries and the holdings of other community organizations, but rather to help people find the resources they need, either by providing them directly at CERIS or by directing them to another appropriate community agency or resource centre. Currently it features a large number of unpublished community needs assessments related to settlement and equity issues, as well as documents produced by the Metropolis project and CERIS-affiliated researchers. While the primary focus of the collection is on immigration and settlement in the Toronto area, CERIS also uses Metropolis project links to collect materials that address immigration issues in different regions of Canada and internationally. Bibliographies relevant to immigration issues and descriptions of other related collections are also included in the documents available. The documents in the resource centre are catalogued and the listing is available through the CERIS and linked Metropolis WebSites. Resource materials can be reviewed on site or photocopied at cost. Public domain data donated to the Metropolis project on disk or CD-ROM is also available through the Resource Centre. Further technical work as well as continuing work on cataloguing, in conjunction with the standards for indexing and searching under development for the Metropolis WebSites, is required to improve the online search capacity for the collection. Donations of new materials are encouraged, and volunteers are recruited for cataloguing documents and expanding the hours of operation. WebSite During the past year the CERIS WebSite became fully operational and CERIS took over responsibilities for posting of documents and maintenance of our local site. Information on the site now includes, along with CERIS research activities and general profile, the online editions of our newsletters and details of upcoming events in the GTA of interest to Metropolis researchers. The CERIS WebSite is linked to other Metropolis WebSites both nationally and internationally and, through these links, to the sites of a number of federal funding partners. Development of the WebSite is done in coordination with the other Canadian Metropolis centres with the assistance of the Metropolis Secretariat at the levels of both technical and strategic planning. Even with the significant support provided by the National Secretariat, local WebSite development has needed and will continue to require substantial human resources. In Toronto planning and coordination with Metropolis partners is provided by Administrative Coordinator Ted Richmond and technical services for the recent months have been provided by Solomon Wong. Public Radio Broadcasts One of the most important efforts in dissemination in the past year has been the development by CERIS, in collaboration with CJRT-FM Open College, of a series of public radio broadcasts on immigration issues. Strangers Becoming Us is a new twelve-part series that examines the way immigration is transforming the institutions of Canadian society -- our families and neighbourhoods, our education, health and social service systems, and the way we work and play. It also focuses on how settling in a new country affects immigrants and refugees. The series weaves together interviews with leading immigration researchers and experts from across Canada, with personal stories told by immigrants and refugees, as well as music and poetry. Interviewees include Stephen Lewis, George Seremba, Charles Taylor, Ramiro Puerta, Susan Davis, Harold Troper, Gunther Plaut, James Hathaway and Michael Lanphier. The series is written and narrated by Dr. Morton Beiser, Director of CERIS and the David Crombie Professor of Cultural Pluralism and Health at the Clarke Institute and the University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry. Broadcast of the series begins in April, 1998. After the first series has been broadcast, tapes of the programs are available for public use at cost. Back to Table of Contents