ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: Research

  • 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.

  • 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.”

  • More than words: Supporting 2nd language acquisition in young immigrant children

    Interesting story out of Penn State University where researchers worked with preschool programs to help them identify strategies to support 2nd language learning in very young immigrant children.
    The children were given cameras and asked to take photos of their world outside of their classrooms. Then, the children talked about the pictures they had taken with their teachers. Researchers cite improved teacher and child interactions and stronger language and vocabulary development in the children. 
    From the news story:

    “After the two years and final transcript comparisons were completed, the study unexpectedly found that learning English was not an obstacle to the oral expression of immigrant preschool children when compared to their native-born classmates. In fact, once invited into conversation through photo elicitation, the stories of reportedly “quiet” immigrant children proved as long as the others. And there was no statistical difference in conversational skills when American-born and immigrant children were compared and, in fact, the immigrant language complexity became superior to the native-born children.
    The findings of the study also provided a caution for the teachers in the preschool. ‘The teachers have to listen to the kids,…We found the teachers had preconceived notions or myths about the children. The photo exercises changed that and they learned a great deal about the child’s world. The project turned out to be a powerful invitation for all the children to converse and they provided a place for the immigrant voice to be heard’.

  • Mothering and migration: (Trans)nationalism, globalization & displacement

    Call for papers for a conference from the Association for Research on Mothering (ARM), as posted on the mnchp-l listserv: Mothering and Migration: (Trans)nationalisms, Globalization, and Displacment. The conference will be held February 18-20, 2010 at the University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico.
    Submissions are welcome from scholars, students, activists, government agencies and workers, artists, mothers, and others who work or research in the area. Cross-cultural, historical and comparative work is encouraged. Topics can include (but not limited to):
    Representations/images of mothers and migration and (trans)national issues; globalization of motherhood; empowering migrant mothers; reproduction and movement of mother workers; migrant and (trans)national mothers and capitalism; migrant and (trans)national mothers and activism; public policy issues.
    For more information, contact the ARM at arm@yorku.ca or 416.736.2100 ext 60366. Or visit the ARM website. Abstract and bio deadline is Sept 1/09.

  • "They don't like us"

    Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Vol. 10, No. 1 includes the article “They Don’t Like Us”: Reflections of Turkish Children in a German Preschool, by Fikriye Kurban and Joseph Tobin, Arizona State University. From the abstract:

    In this article, the authors present multiple interpretations of a transcript of a discussion with a group of Turkish-German girls in a kindergarten in Berlin, Germany. These five-year-old girls make statements suggesting they experience alienation from their non-Turkish classmates and teachers, and the wider German society. The authors argue that the meanings of these statements should not be taken at face value. Instead, they employ interpretive strategies borrowed mostly from Mikhail Bakhtin and interpretive frameworks taken from Judith Butler, and post-colonial theory and Critical Race Theory to suggest that the girls’ utterances can be usefully seen as having a performative dimension and as expressing tensions around immigration that can be found in the larger society.

  • The early years study ~ 10 years later

    The landmark Early Years Study, subtitled The Real Brain Drain, was released on April 20, 1999.
    See also a “very brief history” of the Early Years Study posted on the Health Nexus Santé (formerly the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse) blog in March 2005, including links to the follow-up report The Early Years Study: Three Years Later, recounting how the early years initiative was rolled out in Ontario via the Ontario Early Years Centres.
    Fraser Mustard and the Council on Early Child Development continue to work to raise awareness of and support for an early childhood learning and care program for all children and their families across Canada as the first tier to the formal school system.
    See the upcoming conference sponsored by the Council on Early Child Development May 13-15 in New Brunswick, Putting Science into Action: Equity from the Start Through Early Child Development.
    How responsive have the Ontario Early Years Centres been to immigrant and refugee families and young children?

  • EU adopts motion on the education of children of migrants

    The European Union‘s Committee on Culture and Education has adopted a motion on educating the children of migrants.
    In a report written by Hannu Takkula, entitled Migration and Mobility: Challenges and Opportunities for European Education Systems, the motion address several key issues in migrant education and calls for “integration to be encouraged through sports and other extra-curricular activities, as this can also help to combat social exclusion of those from less privileged backgrounds.  The earlier and more successfully that migrant children are integrated into schools, the better they will perform through school, further education and eventually in the labour market”. (Source: European Parliament press release).
    An excerpt from the press release:

    Migration can be greatly beneficial to schools as it can enrich them both culturally and educationally, but at the same time it can present significant problems if cultural differences hamper understanding between pupils or between pupils and teachers.  The report, drafted by Hannu Takkula wants to encourage a more effective means of incorporating migrant children in national education systems, as he believes that workers within the Union will be less likely to move abroad ‘if there is a risk that their children will suffer educationally’.

  • The neglect of citizen children in US immigration policy

    A new study by Dorsey and Whitney, LLP for the Urban Institute raises several issues with regard to the impact of immigration policy on immigrant- and citizen-children of immigrants in the US.
    Severing a Lifeline: The Neglect of Citizen Children in America’s Immigration Enforcement Policy begins with the startling statistic that of the 5 million “illegal immigrants” in the United States, 3 million are actually children citizens, born in the USA.
    From the executive summary:

    “US citizen children are the victims of immigration laws that are out of step with the manner in which we address child welfare issues in other areas of the law. The “best interests” of the child find little or no hearing in the process of detaining and deporting undocumented parents. The hard suffered by the citizen child who loses a parent to deportation, or the citizen child who loses his or her prospective future in the United States in the interests of maintaining family unity, is thus the natural consequence of systemic shortcomings in US immigration law and policy.
    “The primary goal of this report is to reveal, and to prompt meaningful and reasoned debate regarding, the deficiencies in this country’s immigration laws and enforcement scheme relative to the interests of our citizen children”.

    The study includes a series of comprehensive recommendations for reform.

  • IDC Child detention study

    From the International Detention Coalition (IDC) March 2009 e-Newsletter:
    “The IDC is undertaking a research project to investigate the incidence and impact of immigration detention on children at national, regional and global levels”. As part of a larger international campaign, the research project will include a literature review, stakeholder interviews, and a survey of IDC members.
    Survey deadline is April 28th. For more information, contact brkessler@gmail.com.

  • Supporting GARs

    First published in International Settlement Canada (INSCAN), Vol. 22, No. 3, Winter 2009 by authors Yasmine Dossal, COSTI Immigrant Services and Rebecca Hill, YMCA of Greater Toronto, Supporting Government Assisted Refugees: A Coordinated Service Delivery Model.
    The paper looks at the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP), reviews the needs and gaps and proposes good practices, including the need for child care services and supports.