ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: International

  • Multicultural to intercultural: Libraries connecting communities

    The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) is holding a satellite meeting Aug 5-7/08 in Vancouver BC (prior to their 2008 Conference and Congress, Libraries Without Borders, in Quebec City).
    The satellite meeting theme is Multicultural to Intercultural: Libraries Connecting Communities. See the site also for a call for papers.
    Visit the IFLANET site to learn about how libraries and other institutions come together to meet the needs of culturally diverse populations. Here you’ll find strategic plans, work schedules, publications and more.

  • OECD Thematic review of migrant education – an update

    As posted Jan 22 on this blog, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – the OECD – is undertaking a thematic review of migrant education.
    The question being asked is ‘What policies will promote successful education outcomes for first and second generation migrants’? 
    The objectives and outputs are based on criteria for the assessment of the successful integration into the education system, including pre-school education, which is threefold:

    1. Access: Do immigrant students/children have the same opportunities to access quality education as their native-born peers?
    2. Participation: Do immigrant students/children participate (enrol and complete) as much as their native-born peers?
    3. Learning outcomes: Do immigrant students/children perform as well as their native-born peers?

    An interesting project. Here’s the site.

  • Developing positive identities: Young children and diversity

    The Bernard van Leer Foundation has released a resource on the theory and evidence of how identity can be impacted by adversity, discrimination and diversity in early childhood, entitled Developing Positive Identities: Young Children and Diversity.
    This release is the latest in the Bernard van Leer Foundation’s Early Childhood in Focus series. Earlier editions were Attachment Relationships: Quality of Care for Young Children and Early Childhood and Primary Education: Transitions in the Lives of Young Children. 

  • Diaspora and immigration: Fieldwork course in San Diego & Tijuana

    In the summer of 2008, a special fieldwork course in immigration will be conducted by Edward M. Olivos, Department of Teacher Education, University of Oregon. The focus of the course (open to non-US citizens and non-Education majors) is how the US has responded to immigration and developed its immigration policy. Students of the course will travel between the US and Mexico. Of special interest to the Early Childhood Working Group, as part of the course, students will visit and meet with immigrant families in the US and in Mexico.
    For more information, call 541-346-2983 or contact Edward M. Olivos.

  • Call for papers: Migration, policy and society

    Statistics Canada Research Data Centre (RDC) has issued a call for proposals for their 6th annual conference, Oct 17-18/08 to be held in Ottawa. The theme this year is international and internal migration. The conference will be hosted by the Carleton Ottawa Outaouais Local (COOL) at the University of Ottawa.
    Deadline is May 9/08. 
    For more info, see either the COOL site or the RDC site.

  • childtrafficking.org updated

    childtrafficking.org, hosted by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre has updated its digital library and added the 2007 report by Save the Children UK, Legacy of Disasters: The Impact of Climate Change on Children. From the report:

    “Overall, natural disasters are likely to lead to unprecedented numbers of ‘environmental refugees’ or ‘environmentally displaced people’. Regions that rely most heavily on agriculture will be most affected; environmental migration is already most acute in sub-Saharan Africa, but millions of people in Asia and India are also on the move.
    “The UN estimates that by 2010 there will be 50 million such people worldwide. Given the demographics of the countries most likely to be affected and the traditional composition of displaced populations, most environmentally displaced people will be women and children”.

    Visit childtrafficking.org or Save the Children UK to read the report.

  • NAME Call for 2008 conference proposal reviewers

    As posted here Feb 12/08, the US-based National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) is holding its 18th annual conference Nov 12-16/08 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The conference theme is Beyond Celebrating Diversity: reActivating the Equity and Social Justice Roots of Multicultural Education.
    NAME is now seeking conference proposal reviewers. From the proposal review Chair, Christine Clark, as posted today to the NAME listserv:
    “The review timeframe will be – with some flexibility on either end – that proposals will be sent to you by mid to late May and would need to be completed and returned by early to mid June. You do not need to be a NAME member to be a reviewer.
    “Please let me know ASAP if you are willing to be a proposal reviewer this year. In your reply, please send me all of your contact information (name,professional affiliation, mailing address, phones, faxes, e-mails) so that we can update the database. If nothing about your contact information has changed in the last year please indicate that in your reply.
    “Also, please indicate your interests and/or expertise with respect to proposal review topic areas – for example, gender equity, achievement gap, P-12, disability access, gay rights, and so forth”.

    Christine Clark, Ed.D.
    Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion & Professor of Curriculum and Instruction
    University of Nevada, Las Vegas
    702.895.3888 Office Telephone
    702.895.2944 Office Facsimile

  • World directory of minorities and indigeneous peoples

    Minority Groups International (MGI) is an international non-governmental organization that works with over 100 partners in 60 countries to ensure minority voices are heard and rights are won and maintained. MGI has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
    MGI has released a country-by-country profile of the history and contemporary situations of the world’s minorities and indigenous peoples, entitled the State of the World’s Minorities. Each country profile includes information about the environment, history, governance, and current state of minority and indigeneous peoples.
    A brief excerpt about Canada:

    “Canada is often described as ‘a country of immigrants’, perhaps implying that it is by definition both a diverse and tolerant country. However, members of certain ethnic groups and most First Nations people face widespread discrimination and endure poorer-than-average living standards in Canada. … As a general rule, the relative position of minorities is determined by factors such as the darkness of skin colour, popular pressures, political expedience and economic conditions. Language is also a dividing line, especially between the English-speaking majority and French Canadian minority. Many English-speakers in the French-majority province of Quebec consider themselves disempowered”.

    Lots of interesting information and data here, and searchable on-line. Visit the Minority Rights Group International website.

  • Conference call: 2008 (US) National refugee and immigration conference

    The National Refugee and Immigration Conference will be held Sept 25-26/08 in Chicago. The aim of the conference is to identify issues, emphasize best practices and highlight innovations by providing those who work with refugees and immigrants an opportunity to learn from and to network with one another. Children and families are a focus of this conference.
    From The Center website:

    “Refugees and other immigrants in the U.S. must do their best to manage transitions and adjustments in new communities. Many families endure poverty, low wage employment, and attend schools under strain. Frequently, it is these families’ first experiences with formal education and urban life. Both adults and children experience tension in family relationships since cultural adjustment puts additional stress on marital and parental structures. Along with these struggles, however, comes evidence of strength and resilience, including healthy families, strong work ethic and aspirations, cohesive communities and faith.
    Services for pre-school and K-12 refugee youth and their families may be compromised by differing perceptions and misunderstandings concerning the cultural adjustment process, health, health care, and nutrition, public education enrollment and attendance, academic roles and expectations, and American conventions and laws. Efforts to help refugee youth and families will have a better chance of succeeding if they are based on shared understandings and collaborative partnerships among families, schools, health and mental health providers.
    Proposals are being accepted that address these and other related issues”.

    Deadline for submissions is May 2/08. See the application here.
    Registration questions: Tatiana Davidson. To receive conference updates, email Losheff@thecenterweb.org.

  • March 21

    March 21 is United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.