RFP Research Projects 1999-2000

Adjudicators in the 1999 CERIS Funding Competition were faced with the difficult task of selecting a limited number of outstanding projects from a very strong field of submissions. Five projects were selected following a lengthy adjudication process.

Drs. Daphne Winland (Anthropology, York University) and Sarah Wayland (Politics, Brock University) will be conducting a project entitled "Civic Participation and Homeland Ties: A Comparative Study of Croatians and Sri Lankan Tamils in the Greater Toronto Area." The goal of this collaborative research project is to examine the influence of transnationalism on the civic participation of newcomers to Canada. Through a comparative analysis of the Croatian and Sri Lankan Tamil communities in the GTA the researchers will investigate the assumption that immigrant involvement in homeland affairs adversely affects their inclusion in the Canadian social fabric as well as contributing to a breakdown in social cohesion. Community partner on this project is the Tamil Eelam Society of Canada. Three graduate students and/or community researchers will be working on this project over a forty week period.

"An Analysis of Socioeconomic Situation by Ethnocultural Groups, Periods of Immigration and Gender for Canada and Toronto CMA: 1986, 1991, and 1996 Compared" is the title of the next funded project, which is led by Dr. Edward Harvey (Sociology, University of Toronto). Using 1986, 1991, and 1996 census data supplemented by focus group information, this project analyses patterns of socioeconomic disadvantages across 58 ethnocultural groups at the Canada and Toronto CMA levels of geography. Differences will be examined by gender, immigrant/non-immigrant status and, for immigrants, by period of immigration. Particular attention will be given to situations of double or multiple disadvantages. The community partner on this project is COSTI. Kathleen Reil, a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, will be working very closely with Dr. Harvey on this project. The project will provide opportunities for graduate students to work with public data sets and train in both qualitative and quantitative forms of analysis.

Dr. Lucia Lo (Geography, York University) was the next successful applicant in the 1999 funding competition. Her two-year project is titled "Cultural Resources, Ethnic Strategies and Immigrant Entrepreneurship: A Comparative Study of Six Ethnic Groups in the Toronto CMA." The aim of the project is to examine how class, culture, ethnicity/ race, and gender interplay to affect entrepreneurial participation by exploring the business development patterns and enterprising behaviours of members of six immigrant groups. Immigrant entrepreneurship, contributing to economic and community development, has a potent influence upon social cohesion and economic integration. Understanding its process and patterns has implications for the design of public policies. Other research team members include Dr. Marie Truelove, Geography, Ryerson Polytechnic University, and Dr. Carlos Texeira, Geography, University of Toronto. Community partners on the project are the Association of Somali Service Agencies, Black Pages Canada Inc., the Federation of Portuguese Canadian Business and Professionals, the Korean Canadian Women's Association, the Polish Immigrant and Community Services, and The Bank of East Asia Canada. Two graduate students and three undergraduates will have opportunities to work on this project, along with one or more community-based researchers.

The fourth successful project is called "`Thanks for Asking Us': A Public Legal Education Project for Immigrant Women in Domestic Violence Situations." Dr. Shahrzad Mojab of the Adult Education, Community Development & Counselling Psychology Departments at OISE/ University of Toronto is the principal investigator and will be working with team members Susan McDonald, Ph.D Candidate, OISE/UT, and from the Women's Program, Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples, Maria Rosa Maggi, Ruth Lara, and Viviana Flemming. This project is based on the assumption that traditional legal services do not adequately address the legal needs of disadvantaged individuals and groups. Although it has been acknowledged that the demand for legal information is profound, there has been little research on public legal education needs for immigrant women in domestic violence situations. This project will establish a public legal education program for the clients of the community partner on the project, the Women's Program at the Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples. The research will examine the needs of the women and how to address these needs while remaining sensitive to the impact of trauma on learning. A graduate student will be working on the project as coordinator and will have the opportunity to participate in and conduct focus groups, code and analyse data, and to develop curriculum for training sessions for the participants in the study.

The final project to be approved in this round of funding is led by Dr. Robert Murdie from the Geography Department at York University. For this project, "Pathways to Housing: The Experiences of Refugees in Accessing Permanent Housing in Toronto," Dr. Murdie will be teaming up with community researcher Simon Liston. Mr. Liston, currently heading the Mayor's Homelessness Action Task Force, is with Shelter Housing, and Support Division, Community and Neighbourhood Services, City of Toronto.

The research will investigate the housing careers of refugees in Toronto who started out in a shelter or some other form of transitional accommodation but are now beyond the initial stage of settlement. In particular, it will examine the housing search process, the barriers encountered, the strategies used to overcome the barriers and the outcome of each search. The researchers hope to determine whether the housing situation of refugees has improved and how quickly this improvement has taken place. Two graduate students will be involved in all aspects of the research.

In 1999, CERIS established the Justice and Law Research Domain under the leadership of Dr. Scot Wortley of the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto. There are now six Research Domains, the others being Community, Education, Economics, Health, and Housing and Neighbourhoods (see descriptions in the Appendices).

The idea of a justice domain was first proposed in 1995 in response to the original Call for Proposals from SSHRC and CIC. CERIS began discussions of the creation of this new domain in the Spring of 1998 when Dr. Wortley responded to an invitation from Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride (CERIS Associate Director) to assist CERIS with such planning. In September 1999 the initial planning workshop was convened under his leadership. Participants in this initial meeting reflected a cross-section of institutions and organizations involved in CERIS or otherwise interested in justice issues. The following institutions and agencies were represented:

Ryerson Polytechnic University, University of Toronto, York University, United Way of Greater Toronto, Family Service Association, COSTI, Catholic Cross-Cultural Services, Toronto, Public Health, Access Action Council, Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, Department of the Solicitor General, Metro Toronto Chinese and East Asian Legal Clinic, Tropicana Community Services, and the African Canadian Legal Clinic

Already, the new Justice and Law Domain is making a difference to CERIS’s the research and dissemination activities.

Dr. Morton Beiser opened the third annual CERIS Research Retreat on Wednesday, September 22 1999 by thanking outgoing Management Board chair Dr. Carl Amrhein, introducing Dr. Winston Husbands, the new Academic Coordinator who had organized the retreat, and explaining the process that had preceded it. He stated that the retreat would focus on themes arrived at by canvassing the federal partners for information on their priorities and looking at our own research capacities. The themes are: immigrant access to social services, models of settlement for different communities, and issues related to the "second generation." After looking at the themes as presented by the federal partners, the group planned to look at how to transform these into research projects that the Centre can undertake.

The following individuals representing our federal funders presented the research priorities of their departments: Elizabeth Ruddick, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), Director of Strategic Research and Priorities; Carol Silcoff, Health Canada (Ottawa), Manager of the Research and Analysis Unit; John Biles, Canadian Heritage, Metropolis Project Liaison; Dean Lewis, Canadian Heritage (Ontario Region), Social Development Officer; Donna Slater, Status of Women Canada (SWC), Ontario Regional Coordinator; Sylvain Cot , HRDC Applied Research Branch (Ottawa), Economic Analyst; and Robert Genier, CMHC (Toronto), Market Analyst.

A number of research priorities were identified by each speaker. CIC representative Elizabeth Ruddick stressed the need for research on social services (absorptive capacity), settlement models for different communities, and youth and children.

Immigrant health issues related to the length of time in Canada, relationships between income and health, stresses among immigrant youth and the effect on their health, and immigrant families at risk of health problems are the priorities identified by Carol Silcoff of Health Canada. John Biles of Canadian Heritage identified the priorities of his department as working on university-community collaboration, civic participation and justice.

The Multiculturalism branch of the department is interested in diversity issues including sports, language, and native issues which have broad policy implications. Dean Lewis, from Canadian Heritage (Ontario Region), stated that his department would like to see a focus on institutional change in social services, especially the "failure to become integrated," an issue he indicated could be due to the failure to provide access to services on the part of the province.

Similar to Canadian Heritage, Status of Women Canada has identified systemic change as a research priority. Donna Slater explained that their focus is on women's economic self-sufficiency, eliminating violence against women and children, and women's human rights. They would like proposals to demonstrate how women's equality in areas of race, language, and immigration status will be advanced.

The focus of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) research needs is on immigrants in the labour force to gain information about labour adjustment and its relation to persistent poverty. They would like to see more research on specific groups, and on outcomes for children of immigrants. Robert Genier, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), identified his department's priorities as the impact of immigration on housing and related issues, such as housing choices and preferences, mobility, access, discrimination, and the impact of immigration on urban growth and infrastructure requirements.

The afternoon was devoted to discussions in small groups of each of the major themes. Participants were free to select the theme of greatest interest to them, and the federal representatives rotated among the rooms to discuss each theme from the vantage point of their own research needs. A wrap-up panel of CERIS directors Drs. Beiser, Paul Anisef, Kenise Murphy Kilbride, PAC Executive member Tim Owen, and CERIS staff member Kapila Sankaran reported back to the whole group, and out of these summaries, Dr. Beiser identified the foci that would provide priorities for this year's Request for Proposal

The past year represented the third year of development for the Integrating Diversity project (formerly titled Accommodating Diversity). Initial funding for the project as an MRI project was granted by the CERIS Management Board, and additional funding support has been provided by Canadian Heritage.

The research work developed through the Integrating Diversity project provided vital contributions to the program of the Fourth National Metropolis Conference and to the CERIS Working Papers Series. Results of the study will be published in book form.

This project assesses the process of integration as determined by the type and level of participation in various domains or areas of activity in the Greater Toronto metropolitan area (GTA). The subject areas or domains include economy, housing and neighbourhoods, education, health, and community. While these domains are not exhaustive, they represent principal areas of social activity. They point to activity that leads to integration and also to spheres or areas of activity where integration does not seem to appear. The study begins with two chapters surveying immigration and ethnic groups in the Toronto metropolis before the discussion turns in each successive chapter to ways in which the process of integrating diversity takes form in a particular domain. Details of the project are provided in the Appendices.

The planning, development and coordination of the New Canadian Children and Youth Survey (NCCYS) has been underway since January 1999. The research team’s efforts have focused on: a) the planning of the NCCYS study; b) an examination of the appropriateness of Statistics Canada’s existing NLSCY survey items for use with various ethnocultural immigrant and refugee populations; and c) the development of concepts and measures dealing with resettlement stress, coping and support. Across the country a total of $163,000 in "start-up" funding has facilitated the development and testing of the NCCYS questionnaire through research workshops, focus group sessions and pilot studies in each of six urban sites. This progress report details work accomplished to-date.

Advisory Committees are in place at the Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton sites and will, with the recent inclusion of Vancouver in the study, now need to be developed in Vancouver as well. The composition of these advisory committees are reflective of the unique resettlement experience / structures in each region and includes researchers, immigrant/refugee community representatives, various social service providers, governmental representatives, policy makers, and other experts. Community collaboration has been sought from various ethnocultural organizations whose membership encompasses the sixteen immigrant and refugee communities that make up the NCCYS. The NCCYS has developed from the beginning a collaborative project among the Canadian Metropolis Centres of Excellence. This has entailed the building of a committed multi-disciplinary research team across four Centres of Excellence and six urban sites. Site Leaders have been determined and responsibilities assigned regarding the division of labour and coordination of tasks among research team members. The number of Centres and sites has been recently expanded beyond Montreal (CRIMIIDU), Toronto (CERIS), Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary (PCERII) to include Vancouver (RIIM).

One of the new and exciting MRI projects endorsed by the CERIS Management Board in the past year concerns the settlement and integration experiences of Francophone immigrants in Toronto.

The lead investigators for this project are Monica Heller and Normand Labrie from the Centre de recherches en éducation franco-ontarienne at the Institut d'études pédagogiques de l'Ontario (OISE), University of Toronto. Working with them on the project are research assistants Amal Madibbo and John Maury. The project is titled "Immigration and the Toronto Francophone Community".

Data from the 1991 Census show that these immigrants head towards the eastern half of the province and in particular the municipalities of Ottawa and Carleton, and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). In this research project the focus of attention will be on Toronto as a predominantly anglophone urban milieu in which the Francophone sector is witnessing the arrival of increasing numbers of immigrants and refugees (currently 15.6 % of Toronto-area Francophones).

The research will be ethnographic in nature and will have two main thrusts. The first focus will be on reception and support services, including the impact of the new arrivals on the service-providing agencies and the way these institutions view themselves within the larger Franco-Ontarian community.

The second focus concerns the new arrivals themselves and their experiences with existing reception and support services. Two issues will be examined, employment and health, which are relevant both to reception and support services and to the experiences of the new arrivals.

There are two immigrant communities which will be studied in detail, Haitian and Mauritian. The examination of support services will involve collaboration with the Centre Francophone, the main community centre in Toronto dealing with pre-employment needs of Francophone immigrants, and with the Centre médico-social communitaire (the Francophone community health centre).

The research work will include interviews with senior personnel from support service agencies; with leaders from the Haitian and Mauritian communities involved in immigrant aid support groups, networks and associations; with Haitian and Mauritian clients of these support services; and with members of the Haitian and Mauritian communities who are not involved with any formal support services or immigrant aid groups. From each of these two communities researchers will also recruit two individuals to participate in a more detailed ethnographic study.

In addition, researchers will observe the routine activities of the support services and the community-based immigrant aid organizations. Finally, the project will look at all the written documentation produced by these agencies concerning their mandate and their clientele.

Through all these means, researchers expect to develop a deeper understanding of the process of providing support services to Francophone immigrants in Toronto, and of the lived experience of these immigrants in accessing and utilizing these services, as well as gaining a better understanding of the ways in which Francophone minority institutions face the challenge of pluralism.

This proposal, also endorsed this year by the CERIS Management Board as an MRI, builds on earlier work done by the applicants to examine the use of health services by recent immigrants in Toronto's inner city over time in relation to health and social policy changes. Key issues in this work are the impact of welfare cuts and hospital restructuring on recent immigrants. This new study extends the range of services examined to include health promotion and preventive health care, mental health, continuity of care, specialist referrals, obstetrical and newborn complications, alcohol and drug use and family violence. The main data sources for the study are the Canada census and administrative databases on hospital admissions and physician visits. The mapping component of the study, supported through matched funding, will make maps available to CERIS investigators and community agencies on the Internet depicting study findings. This work is intended to raise issues that will likely require further investigation. The use secondary data at the neighbourhood level as a means of population health surveillance, close collaboration with community agencies, and the use of innovative mapping techniques are novel features of the study.

The principal investigator is Richard Glazier, of the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital. The project got underway late in the 1999-2000 fiscal year.

In December of 1998, the CERIS Partnership Advisory Council (PAC) helped initiate with funding support from the Ontario Region of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (OASIS) entitled "Knowledge for Action - Action for Knowledge". Its purpose was to strengthen the capacity of agencies serving immigrants and refugees in the Greater Toronto Area to use relevant research on immigration and settlement issues to improve their program planning and delivery.

The CERIS-PAC Research Training Project, entitled "Knowledge for Action - Action for Knowledge," is a project funded by the Ontario Region of Citizenship and Immigration Canada which aims to increase the access of these agencies to available research, deliver specialized group training (e.g., structured training, information sessions and public forums), as well as increase the ability of community groups to participate in the CERIS priority-setting process.

During the 1999-2000 fiscal year the project was completed. Based on a preliminary needs assessment, the following workshops were chosen and developed for implementation from late April to June 30, 1999, throughout various community agencies in the GTA.

Five workshops on each of these topics:

* Accessing Available Research on Immigration and Settlement

* Acquiring and Interpreting Census Information

* Doing Valid and Cost-Effective In-House Research

* Acquiring and Using Research for the Purposes of Funding Proposals

* How to Utilize Research on Immigration and Settlement for Program Planning, Development & Evaluation

Three workshops on each of these topics:

* Introduction to Research Methodology on Immigration and Settlement

* Using the Internet to Gather Research on Immigration and Settlement

* Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods in Immigration and Settlement Research

* How to Undertake Action and Participatory Research

Two workshops on each of these topics:

* How to Apply for Research Funds

* Building Closer Academic-Community Collaboration

* How to Set Up a Reliable Client Database

* Using Research for Advocacy

In the fall of 1999 the project Steering Committee commissioned an evaluation and reviewed the final report submitted to the funder. As part of the project completion, the curricula developed through the training process were modified according to feedback from participants and then distributed to interested users. Dissemination mechanisms for the curricula including posting to the CERIS Website and distribution at cost on CD-ROM.

Staff support to the project was provided by Madelena Silva, Fernando Nunes and Huyen Nguyen. The Advisory Committee included the four members of the PAC Executive Mary Alberti, Wendy Kwong, Tim Owen and Khan Rahi as well as Board member John Shields, Director Dr. Morton Beiser and Administrative Coordinator Ted Richmond.

Over the course of the past year CERIS has been engaged in a major study entitled "The Needs of Newcomer Youth and Emerging ‘Best Practices’ to Meet Those Needs". The principal investigators were CERIS Associate Directors Paul Anisef and Kenise Murphy Kilbride. Funding was provided by the Settlement Directorate of the Ontario Region of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (OASIS). The research revealed that the needs of newcomer youth are simply not being met, and produced a number of recommendations. During the course of the research CERIS was also mandated to play a role in coordinating other youth-oriented research projects funded by OASIS; both this process and the original research project are described in the Appendices.

During the past year, the Health Access and Equity Project continued to develop as CERIS Special Project Dr. Morton Beiser, CERIS Director, as lead investigator.

In 1999, a pilot project on Access and Equity in Health and Social Services identified gaps in knowledge and directions for further research through the use of focus groups with health and social service organizations. The resulting report emphasized specific research directions. To follow up on these recommendations, members of the project team and representatives of Health Canada, Health Promotion and Programmes Branch, met to discuss initiating a case study of a mainstream health care agency that has been successful in providing accessible services to immigrants and refugees, specifically in the context of organizational change. As of the end of the fiscal year the project was still in the planning stage with funding under negotiation with Health Canada, Ontario Region.

With funding support from Canadian Heritage, CERIS this year completed the second phase of the Immigration Information Outreach Project (IIOP). As part of this work, substantial additions were made to the holdings of unpublished and limited-circulation immigration research papers in the CERIS Resource Centres. As well, the catalogue of these holdings was posted online and updated regularly.

Another vital part of this work was the expansion of holdings in the CERIS Virtual Library, with the emphasis on Working Papers and Research Reports. Student theses on immigration issues were also collected and posted online, and we began digitalizing (scanning) selected important and hard-to-access immigration research papers.

Perhaps the most dramatic outcome of the IIOP was the development during the past year is the successful launching of the CERIS MetaDatabase. The initiative is a fulfillment of the initial mandate of CERIS in its foundation, and provides through the CERIS website a single and easily accessible source of information on immigration-related databases held by our academic, government, and community partners in the Greater Toronto Area.

Pilot interviews and other initial contacts indicated considerable variety in types of data available and great interest in participating in the creation of the MetaDatabase. Work then proceeded on developing a questionnaire for further outreach and a computer format for storing and publicizing the information contributed. Containing information on approximately 50 databases, the MetaDatabase site represents a real success of collaborative efforts to provide a central reference point for information resources on immigration research in the GTA. The MetaDatabase comprises information on Census data, CIC databases, survey data sets, municipal and service agency databases and aggregate client demographics. The MetaDatabase also contains comprehensive information on all CERIS immigration databases.

The website programming and survey outreach behind the MetaDatabase development are available to other Metropolis partners on request.

Staff support to the IIOP was provided by Laura Simich (MetaDatabase), Wei Wei Da (Resource Centre), and Solomon Wong (website programming). Volunteer support came from the members of the Data Committee as well as Tim Owen of COSTI and Axelle Janczur, Executive Director of the Access Alliance for Multicultural Health.

With a grant from the Maytree Foundation, CERIS Director Dr. Morton Beiser has begun work in the latter part of this year to develop curriculum on education, suitable for grades 4 and 5 as well as high school students. The curriculum content and the audio presentation are based on the "Strangers Becoming Us" audiotapes developed previously in collaboration with public radio station CJRT.

Meanwhile, sales of the "Strangers Becoming Us" audiotapes continued strongly throughout the year.

Training the next generation of researchers (through opportunities for students) is integral to CERIS’s mandate. For example, projects funded through the RFP process must involve undergraduate, graduate or post-graduate students as team members or research assistants. Moreover, in their interim and final project reports submitted to CERIS, funded researchers must discuss the training opportunities that were made available to students.

To further increase the centre's visibility and promote student involvement, CERIS held a highly successful conference in the fall of 1998, designed to inform students about the centre and about the importance of policy relevant research. Many students who attended the conference have become CERIS affiliates.

The five projects funded in the 1999 RFP competition include 11 graduate or undergraduate students as research assistants and one graduate student as a research partner. Similarly, all the MRI projects funded by CERIS employ student research assistants.

At CERIS, students are also involved in administration and conference organizing through contract work and internships. 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.

Individuals and institutions may apply or be nominated for affiliation to CERIS (see the application/nomination form in the Appendices). The main affiliation designations are: Fellow, Research Associate, Research Assistant (University or Community), and Affiliated Member (Individual or Institution).

Affiliates (listed in the Appendices) are members of the CERIS research community, who are encouraged and expected to participate in the life of the Centre. Recently, CERIS embarked on a process of updating its affiliation data base. By the end of this process, CERIS will have developed ways to improve its outreach to affiliates, and to involve affiliates more productively in the life of the Centre.

Intensive preparatory work was done during this past year for a major campaign of outreach and renewal of affiliations in the coming year. During the process we will also solicit printed and computerized research materials including student theses for our resource centre and website virtual library.

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