ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Author: marcocampana

  • Call for proposals: "Ethnicity, governance and social justice: Linking Canada to the world"

    The Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) and the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association (CESA) announces a call for papers for their joint annual conference to be held Nov 5-6, 2010  in Toronto (Airport Holiday Inn). The theme of the 2010 conference is “Ethnicity, Governance and Social Justice: Linking Canada to the World”.
    From the call: “Conference organizers welcome proposals for papers, sessions, panels, roundtables, and poster presentations that address the topics of ethnicity, immigration, diversity, and multiculturalism in Canada, particularly in relation to social justice and governance. Organizers invite submissions from a variety of perspectives, academic disciplines, and areas of study, including the humanities and the social sciences”.
    Selected papers from the 2010 conference will be published in a special issue of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal.
    Abstracts should be 250 words or less. Deadline for submissions is Sept 15, 2010. For more information, contact James Ondrick, ACS at: james.ondrick@acs-aec.ca and visit both the ACS and CESA websites.

  • Who are the newcomer children in BC? An NCIE Bulletin

    The Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Services Agencies of BC (AMSSA) in February (see immigrantchildren.ca post) launched The Newcomer Children Information Exchange (NCIE) to share information, resources and announce events related to newcomer children in British Columbia.
    One of the proposed activities of NCIE was to regularly put out an information bulletin. From the March 2010 Bulletin:

    “The Bulletin will explore different topics related to newcomer children. There are a number of service providers, educators and researchers currently working with newcomer children to help them succeed, but their work is rarely documented. The ANCIE Bulletins will provide an opportunity to feature some of their work, strategies, service models, success stories and/or research. Each issue will also include a relevant case study“.

    The March 2010 Bulletin is now available. It highlights some demographic facts about newcomer children in BC. The next bulletin will focus on English as a Second Language. Future bulletins will focus on:

    • Early Childhood Education
    • Health and Wellness
    • Refugee Children.

  • Multilingual resources from the Best Start Resource Centre

    The Best Start Resource Centre, Ontario’s Maternal, Newborn and Early Child Development Resource Centre (part of Health Nexus Santé) is holding an event to announce a new series of multilingual resources in eight languages developed for newcomers to Canada who are planning a pregnancy, are pregnant or are new parents.
    The event will be held 6-7:30pm on Thurs May 13, 2010 at Oakham House in Toronto. For more information and to rsvp, please contact Ronald Dieleman, 416.408.6910 or r.dieleman@healthnexus.ca.
    The eight languages are: Arabic, Filipino, Hindi, Punjabi, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Tamil and Urdu.

  • FRP Perspectives in Family Support (Spring 2010) special issue on immigrant families

    The Canadian Association of Family Resource Centres (FRP Canada) has released a special edition of their journal, Perspectives in Family Support with a focus on immigrant families:
    In “The Participation of Immigrant Families in the Activities of Family Resource Programs”, Marie Rhéaume reports on a research study conducted in Québéc that examined the issues and “distances” between immigrant mothers and Québécois mothers and found that, overall, family resource centres because of the “values that underlie the work of these community-based organizations, particularly the climate of respect, help build bridges between the two groups”. For more on the study, see here.
    In “Taking an Advocacy With Approach”, as opposed to an advocacy for approach, Lianne Fisher argues for the importance of self-reflection of family resource practitioners who work with newcomers to recognize and resolve possible stigmatizing and marginalizing that may occur when practitioners seek to help newcomers.
    An excerpt of “Phase 2 of FRP Canada’s Welcome Here Project: A Summary Report of Lessons Learned”, also available on the FRP Canada website welcomehere.ca.
    The issue of cultural adaptation and/or interpretation v. simple translation is covered by Betsy Mann in “Reflecting on Issues of Translation and Interpretation”.
    Researcher Dr. Judith K. Bernhard writes on “What are the Essential Elements of Valid Research? The Problem of ‘Data’ and their Collection in Cross-Cultural Contexts” from a personal viewpoint as both an immigrant to Canada and now a practicing academic in immigrant-family related studies.

  • Consequences of losing a lawful immigrant parent to deportation

    The International Human Rights Law Clinic, the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity (UC, Berkeley) and the Immigration Law Clinic (UC, Davis) have recently released a policy brief entitled “In The Child’s Best Interest? The Consequences of Losing a  Lawful Immigrant Parent to Deportation”.
    The brief reviews the current state of immigration law in the United States and the impact of the deportation of “lawful permanent resident parents” of more than 100,000 children (of which, more than 80,000 are US citizens).  A harrowing look at the impact of such deportations on children’s lives, education and relationships.

  • Call for participants: Working group on age & generation in migration

    Canadian-based researchers working on issues related to age and/or generational relations in the context of migration are invited to join the Refugee Research Network‘s (RRN) working group.
    The working group will complement other ongoing initiatives, including the Metropolis Canada priority on Family, Children and Youth.

    Some of the activities of the proposed working group include:

    • A database of Canada-based researchers
    • As part of the RRN website, an online discussion forum and links to other related and relevant online sites, etc.
    • Information exchange, through meetings and collaborative research projects
    • A 2011 seminar/roundtable, culminating in a working paper series or journal or edited volume(s).

    First meeting is scheduled for Wed May 5, 2010 in Hamilton at McMaster University (one day before the CARFMS conference). Details TBD. For more information, contact Christina Clark-Kazak, International Studies, York University, 416.736.2100 x 88106.

  • One World, One Family, Many Cultures, IPSCAN conference

    IPSCAN – the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, sponsors the upcoming conference One World, One Family, Many Cultures: Strengthening Children and Families Affected by Personal, Intra-Familial and Global Conflict Sept 26-29/10 in Hawaii. From the conference description:

    “Our theme, One World, One Family, Many Cultures, recognizes that in spite of our differences we live in one world that is a global family made up of many cultures that can work together towards a common goal of strengthening families, and preventing abuse and neglect of our children. The world faces many challenges with unfortunate conflicts among nations and tragic effects of armed conflict on our families, children and communities. The increase in violence among family members and its painful effects on our children have also challenged us to find ways to strengthen families and prevent family violence. Knowing the value of diversity in our efforts to prevent harm to our children, we invite the nations of the world to share their cultural experiences, values, and traditions to empower the youth of our nations to work together”.

    Conference sub-themes:
    1. Cultural Perspectives in Strengthening Families and Protecting Children
    2. Identifying, Treating and Preventing Family and Sexual Violence
    3. Impact of Armed Conflict on Families and Children
    4. Family Strengthening: A Key to the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
    5. Youth Empowerment in the Prevention of Generational Child Abuse and Neglect.
    For more information, visit the conference website.

  • Citizenship: A birthright lottery?

    Should folks fortunate enough to be born in the ‘developed’ world be obliged to share their privilege with those less lucky? Author – and Canada Research Chair in Citizenship and Multiculturalism, Ayelet Shachar thinks so. In her new book “The Birthright Lottery”, Shachar investigates the accident of birth and proposes several ways to reconsider (and bestow) citizenship.
    Arguing that citizenship status has been arbitrarily given in most nations by birthright and that a child born in Canada ought not have such an unfair advantage over a child born in a poor nation. Among Shachar’s suggestions is a levy on “the inheritance of citizenship” or that citizenship be awarded based on the individual’s “genuine connection” to a country. Shachar asks important and provocative questions on what responsibilities global citizens have to each other.

  • Welcoming newcomers to Canada: How to, by Metropolis Canada

    Metropolis Canada held a national forum in January asking presenters to answer the question “How could communities be more welcoming” to immigrants. Several presentations are now available on their website.
    Interesting note: One of the presentations by CIC defines “integration” as “the ability to contribute, free of barriers, to every dimension of Canadian life – economic, social, cultural and political”. (Source: Metropolis Canada Welcoming Communities presentation by CIC staff member Deborah Tunis).

  • Call for NAME conference proposals: Empowering children and youth

    The theme for the 2010 NAME (National Association for Multicultural Education) conference is “Empowering Children and Youth: Equity, Multiculturally Responsive Teaching and Achievement Gaps”. The international conference runs from Nov 4-6, 2010 in Las Vegas NV.
    Deadline is April 17, 2010. For more information and to access the online submission form, see the conference website.