ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: Policy and Legislation

  • "Peel Immigration Papers"

    In May, CERIS (The Joint Centre of Excellence for Research in Immigration Studies and Ontario Metropolis Centre) held a seminar based on research conducted in several areas, culminating in the Peel Immigration Papers. The papers include issues related to children and families. They are:

    • Meeting the human service needs of immigrants. Speaker: Sarah V. Wayland, Wayland Consulting.
    • Meeting the needs of immigrants throughout the life cycle. Speaker: Ilene Hyman, UT.
    • From generation to generation. Speaker: Michelle P. Goldberg, OISE/UT.

    Wayland’s presentation provides an overview of the issues and makes recommendations for optimal service delivery. Hyman’s presentatiaon (developed with Judith K. Bernhard and Ellen Tate) closely examines the importance of early childhood education in their overview of the issues and in their recommendations. Finally, Goldberg’s presentation (developed with Sarah V. Wayland) examines supports to families and communities in the areas of: Academic supports; Emotional and social supports; Mitigating the effects of poverty; and Building community social capital. We hope that the full papers – from which these presentations were based – are also made available online.

  • Maytree's proposed (economic) immigration strategy

    The Maytree Foundation held an online media event (teleconference and webinar) on their latest paper “Adjusting the Balance: Fixing Canada’s Economic Immigration Policies”. In the online Q&A after the presentation, Naomi Alboim informed us that she is now working on another paper that will address the live-in caregiver and seasonal agricultural worker programs. We look forward to an examination of family reunification and transnational families in the next paper.

    NB: Maytree and Naomi Alboim used the term “family unification” v. family reunification. We like it!

    Visit the Maytree Foundation site to download the current paper, the online presentation notes and after July 27th, the online media event.

  • GGs statement on Canadian Multiculturalism Day

    From the Canada News Centre website, a message from Governor General Michaëlle Jean on Canadian Multiculturalism Day (June 27th):

    Awareness. Inclusion. Equality. Sharing. With just these few, simple words, the full measure of the Canadian reality immediately comes to mind with all its possibilities. It is a reality that is ever changing, encouraging us to preserve and develop the best of the cultures that are already here and that we continue to welcome with open arms.
    I often say that Canada contains the world and that our diversity is synonymous with opportunity and the key to our success. Diversity is a fundamental fact of the modern world. Social practices are being transformed, and cultures are becoming richer and more complex than ever before. It is up to each and every one of us to help build a society in which everyone can reach their full potential.
    Although there have been some painful periods in our history – I am thinking in particular of residential schools–there are still many glorious chapters for us to write, together, with kindness, openness and generosity. Let us celebrate the richness of our diversity and share in our good fortune!

    Related resources: Citizenship and Immigration Canada official “Multiculturalism” webpage.
    Canadian Multiculturalism Act

  • House of Commons committee report on the live-in caregiver program

    The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM) has released their study on Migrant Workers and Ghost Consultants. The paper is the result of the investigation undertaken by the Committee on the Live-in Caregiver Program, and is a follow-up to the May 2009 report, Temporary Foreign Workers and Non-status Workers*.
    The June 2009 report makes several recommendations about the LCP including that “the Government of Canada grant live-in caregivers permanent resident status” with conditions.
    *The report “Temporary Foreign Workers and Non-status Workers” is currently not available on the Parliament website. {Update: thanks to our friend at OCASI, here’s a link to the report}

  • Metropolis funding for projects that examine "effective partnerships" in delivery of immigrant & settlement services

    Metropolis National Research Competition, an initiative of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), has issued a call for proposals. This year’s research question is:

    From the point of view of governments and of newcomers and minorities, are government-NGO partnerships the most effective model for delivering services for integration and inclusion in Canada?

    Deadline is September 30, 2009.
    For details about the call, including eligibility, process, application forms and more, see this SSHRC page.

  • Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on immigrant children

    The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism was interviewed on TVO’s The Agenda last week. Click here to see and hear the entire interview.
    Did the Minister have anything to say about immigrant/newcomer children? Yes! On integration:

    “We want to be deliberate about it and we want to make sure that we don’t end up with a series of parallel communities where children grow up in a community that more resembles their parents country of origin than Canada”.

    An example on “basic social and linguistic integration”:

    “If you’re a young guy, you’re arriving with your parents from China, you live in Richmond, you might go to a school where all the kids speak Cantonese or Mandarin as first language, that’s the language of entertainment, at home on the computer, at the movie theatre, with your peer group, I/we want to make sure that a young guy like that doesn’t end up limiting his opportunities in Canada just by retarding linguistic integration, which is after all the pathway to successful economic and social integration”.

    An interesting interview, uncovering Kenney’s plans to reshape citizenship and multiculturalism. Look for an announcement soon from Minister Kenney on a Blue Ribbon panel to tackle a new citizenship test.

  • Family class applications expedited for Sri Lankans

    Citizenship and Immigration Canada is expediting applications for family class sponsorship for Sri Lankans. For details, see:

    Sri Lankan Initiative: Applications for Family Class Members and Dependents of In-Canada Permanent Residence Applicants Affected by the Current Humanitarian Situation.

  • Study calls for strengthened family reunification policy

    An upcoming edition of the Journal of International Migration includes a piece on transnational families by Judith Bernhard, Ryerson University, Luin Golding, York University and Patricia Landolt, University of Toronto. Transnationalizing Families: Canadian Immigration Policy and the Spatial Fragmentation of Caregiving Among Latin American Newcomers details a study of several transnational families and their struggles to reunite and how they cope when they do.
    The article includes several recommendations including some focussed on improving policy in the family reunification area. Quoted about the piece on the Ryerson University news page, co-author Judith Bernhard says:

    “After September 11, and now with the economic downturn, immigration policies have become more protectionist. Canada is narrowing its borders for secure permanent residence and increasingly relying on temporary labour arrangements to meet the needs of particular industries. That means that it is more difficult for mothers to bring their children to Canada and spatial ruptures can be prolonged, if not become permanent. What’s more, we have learned that the emotional toll of the separation arrangements often has a lasting negative influence on family relations.”

  • Ten policies to improve child care for immigrant children

    New from CLASP  (US-based Center for Law and Social Policy) comes Ten Policies to Improve Access to Quality Child Care for Children in Immigrant Families:

    1. Create and disseminate information packets for new parents in multiple languages that discuss quality child care and help link parents with information and referral agencies.
    2. Fund outreach on quality child care and subsidy eligibility targeted to immigrant families, including grants to community-based organizations with expertise in serving immigration populations.
    3. Use grants, contracts and quality funds to expand the availability of high-quality child care in immigrant communities.
    4. Expand access to Head Start and Early Head Start in child care settings through grants, contracts and eligibility policies.
    5. Translate child care subsidy information and materials and provide dedicated funding and translation and interpretation at the local level.
    6. Increase bilingual staff capacity in subsidy agencies through pay differentials or incentives.
    7. Pay differential child care subsidy payment rates to centers and family child care homes that serve English Language Learners and/or child care providers with a bilingual endorsement.
    8. Create community-based support networks for family, friend and neighbor caregivers in immigrant communities that improve quality of care.
    9. Include measures of cultural and linguistic competence in state quality rating and improvement systems, and provide supports to help programs meet the standards.
    10. Ensure that child care providers receive training to improve their work with culturally and linguistically diverse children and their families and provide support for cultural competency initiatives.

    Read the full report on the CLASP site.

  • Immigration policy consultation by wiki

    The Public Policy Wiki is a collaborative project of the Globe and Mail and the Dominion Institute. The Public Policy Wiki is an attempt to bring forward to government a range of views from the general public on matters of public policy. How do they do this? Through an online wiki, of course. The public is invited to “be bold”, participate, contribute and even edit works cited on the wiki.
    Among the topics currently on the Public Policy Wiki is a section on immigration policy. There are several resources to review on this page, including pieces written by experts and stakeholders. The wiki poses a series of questions for consideration – and requests for responses – after a reading of the online resources. immigrantchildren.ca readers will note that there are no specific questions related to children and families, but a couple of analysis papers do address immigrant children. Maytree President Ratna Omidvar:

    “It is a serious oversight to ignore the settlement needs of immigrant children; however the reality is that these needs remain overlooked in the not inconsiderable resources we spend in settlement programming every year. This oversight is possibly not entirely intentional, but a reflection of jurisdictional arrangements that govern our federation.
    “Here is an opportunity for the federal government to reaffirm its role as nation-builder by finding creative ways to overcome jurisdictional barriers. It could, for instance, flow money to provinces and their schools so that immigrant children have assured access to English language training, sports and cultural activities. There are no better integration ambassadors for immigrant parents than their own children, who by participating in team sports and cultural activities are guaranteed to bring their parents to the rink.
    “Imagine, children playing hockey, or soccer or even cricket together and parents watching and cheering them along! Here is how we can build our nation”.

    Rudyard Griffiths, co-founder of the Dominion Institute:

    “…the federal government should also put special emphasis on second language training for school-age children, particularly in the country’s major cities.
    “In Toronto, the city that attracts the majority of newcomers to Canada, the percentage of elementary schools with English-as-a-second-language instructors has declined from 41 to 29 percent in the last decade while the number of students requiring such instruction has doubled. Young people from non- French- or English-speaking countries desperately need additional support to master French and/or English. The federal government should find ways to work with the provinces to get more funding for language instruction into urban classroom to relieve overburdened ESL instructors”.

    Mathew Ingram, Communities Editor at the Globe hopes the Public Policy Wiki is working towards a ‘Two Million Minds’ “open, crowd-powered forum” that will have legitimacy on the public policy landscape. Deadline for comments is June 1. Responses from this online forum will be collated and submitted to the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. Let’s participate and ensure that the issues, challenges and needs of immigrant and refugee children and their families are voiced in the forum. Visit the Public Policy Wiki on immigration policy here.