Annual Activities Report -- Metropolis Project CERIS Toronto Fiscal Year 1997-98 Submitted to SSHRC April 30, 1998 Activities and Workplan for April, 1998 - March, 1999 Perspectives for Year Three With our management structures and infrastructural support systems largely consolidated, the focus for CERIS in our third year of activities will be on continuing the expansion of our research program and dissemination activities. Essential to this process will be further development of productive working partnerships both within the Greater Toronto Area and throughout the Metropolis network. The potential exists to draw ever larger numbers of immigration researchers into CERIS activities and link them with the Metropolis project. A key factor in our plans is the fact that research reports from the first two years of funded projects are due within the coming year. These reports will provide a wealth of material for dissemination activities and consultations with our community and government partners on the policy relevance of the research, as well as being catalogued in our Resource Centre and shared throughout the Metropolis network through posting to the virtual library on the WebSites. The coming year includes the mid-term evaluation of the Metropolis centres, and the CERIS Executive, Management Board and Partnership Advisory Council will devote the necessary attention and resources to support of the review process. As discussed previously in this report, expectations about CERIS from all our partners far outstrip our current resources. Much of our work in the coming year depends on securing additional funding, a task that will continue to be a priority. In this sense, activities outlined below are a provisional agenda. Core Activities Research Program and Activities decisions on the 1998 RFP, and other available research funds, will be made by the Management Board early in the year after consultation with partners and stakeholders in May and June, 1998, the 1999 RFP will be finalized for circulation CERIS Domain leaders are planning a forum for the fall of 1998 to bring the widest possible circle of immigration researchers in the Toronto area into contact with CERIS activities and the Metropolis project visiting scholars will include Dr. Dirk Hoerder and Dr. Christiane Harzig, both of the University of Bremen, Germany. CERIS will continue to monitor policy implications of the public discussions on the Immigration Legislative Review and intervene as appropriate attention will be paid to improving communications with federal funding partners to learn more about their research priorities so they may be integrated into our research program Dissemination under the supervision of the Communications Committee, CERIS will publish and circulate four more newsletters the monthly research seminars will continue and may be expanded in scope and varied in location WebSite development will focus on posting our research reports, working papers and other relevant material to the virtual library. our Resource Centre will expand its holdings and hours of operation; work will proceed on integrating the cataloguing and indexing with online WebSite search capacities the launch and broadcasts of Strangers Becoming Us will take place at the beginning of the year, after which the series will be available for broad dissemination on audio tapes and possibly through real audio on the Internet CERIS will be an active participant in the Rights to the city: Citizenship, Democracy, and Cities in a Global Age international symposium held at York University, June 26-28, 1998, and in other Toronto-area conferences and symposiums on immigration issues Activities in the Metropolis Network Participation in activities within the Metropolis network is key to building our partnerships and developing policy-relevant, domain-focussed immigration research. Among these activities already scheduled are: an Education Domain conference and a seminar on Immigrants and Identity scheduled to coincide with the Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ottawa, May-June, 1998 the third International Metropolis Conference in Israel, November-December, 1998 the third National Metropolis Conference in Vancouver, January, 1999 Management, Administration and Infrastructure Rotation of academic members of the Management Board and selection of a new Chair will take place at our June meeting. The main responsibility of the Management Board, in consultation with the Partnership Advisory Council, will continue to be the supervision of our research program. Among the others issues to be addressed by our management with the support of the directors and staff are the following: consolidating and securing funding applications in progress and seeking additional funding planning and organizing the fourth National Metropolis Conference in Toronto in January, 2000 continuing discussions concerning the Metropolis Management Review, with a formal submission from CERIS followed by discussions with Centre directors, the Metropolis Secretariat and federal funding partners in Ottawa in June, 1998 participating in and supporting the three-year mid-term Metropolis review process Expanded Activities and New Initiatives Among the expanded activities and new initiatives planned for the coming year are the following: development of a series of CERIS Working Papers an immigration research training and outreach program directed at building the capacity of community agencies to participate in and benefit from CERIS activities and the Metropolis project collaboration with the urban studies departments of the Toronto area universities on the Management of Social Transformation (MOST) initiative, a project with links to the Montreal Metropolis Centre as well as international partners implementation of the MetaDatabase project to provide a central access point to all immigration databases in the GTA negotiation and implementation of the joint data purchase with the other Metropolis centres a special panel presentation and discussion in the fall of 1998 focussing on the use of research for policy purposes several new research initiatives included the Accommodating Diversity project presented by the MRI to the Management Board and a seminar on "state of the art" research on measurement of discrimination Back to Table of Contents