ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: Rights of the Child

  • New citizenship law

    An amendment to the existing Citizenship Act comes into force April 17, 2009. Changes will impact citizenship status on different groups, including children. Here’s the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) official explanation on the first generation limitation (CIC reports that it will update the page for more information, as questions are raised): 

    Under the current rules, it’s possible for Canadians to pass on their citizenship to endless generations born outside Canada. To protect the value of Canadian citizenship for the future, the new law will – with a few exceptions – limit citizenship by descent to one generation born outside Canada.
    This means that children born to Canadian parents in the first generation outside Canada will only be Canadian at birth if:
    – one parent was born in Canada, or
    – one parent became a Canadian citizen by immigrating to Canada and was later granted citizenship (also called naturalization).
    The rules may also affect children adopted by Canadian parents outside Canada, depending on the way in which the child obtained, or will obtain, their Canadian citizenship. Learn more about the new citizenship law and adoption. 

  • Bernard van Leer annotated bibliography on social inclusion and diversity in early childhood

    The Bernard van Leer Foundation‘s annotated bibliography of resources and publications in social inclusion and diversity is called “Valuing the Learning“.
    The resource is organized in three main sections.
    Section A: Theories, concepts and ways of viewing concerns with resources that mostly focus on theory and key concepts and include the following overlapping sections:

    Diversity, belonging and positive identity, such as inclusion and access, linguistic diversity, relationships, place identity, self-image.
    Children as citizens, child participation, the visibility of children, spaces for children.
    Early Childhood Education and Care as democratic process and the relationship between ECEC and social inclusion, social capital and well-being.

    Section B: Working with children, parents, early childhood practitioners and trainers includes the following:

    Engaging, involving and listening to children.
    Engaging, involving and listening to parents.
    Changing attitudes, behaviours and structures and advocacy strategies. 
    Innovative training and professional development.
    Creating spaces to belong.

    Part C: Information exchange and dissemination of information, including:

    Networking.
    Communicating, through shared knowledge, conferences, publications, translations.
    Researching and documentation.

    Source: Kernan, M. 2008. Valuing the learning: An annotated bibliography of the resources and publications of the Bernard van Leer Foundation and its partners in the area of Social Inclusion and Respect for Diversity (2002-2008). Online Outreach Paper 6. The Hague, The Netherlands: Bernard van Leer Foundation.

  • Early childhood education and racial and ethnic divisions conference, Belgium

    The Joint Learning Initiative on Children and Ethnic Diversity presents Early Childhood Education in Contexts of Racial and Ethnic Divisions Conference, April 29/09 at Ghent University, Belgium.

    “The conference will consist of three to four round table discussions with the experts on common strands about delivering programs of early childhood education in contexts of ethnic division. The experts will meet two days prior to the conference to discuss these strands and will continue their discussion with the audience. Consequently, there will be no programm with distinct individual key-note speeches. Rather, participants will be able to follow in-depth discussions and participate in them”.

    Some of the invited experts include representatives from Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Hebrew University, UNICEF/OSI/REF, University of Melbourne and the Bernard van Leer Foundation.

  • Women's Refugee Commission May luncheon event, NYC

    The Women’s Refugee Commission (formerly the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children) is celebrating their 20th anniversary with a luncheon honouring two extraordinary women.

    Dr. Shamail Azimi, physician who returned to Afghanistan after the Taliban fell in 2001 and who lead a team of female physicians in providing maternal and child-health care services.
    Mariatu Kamara, a child refugee of Sierra Leone, now studying at the University of Toronto, who serves as the UNICEF Special Representative for Children. Mariatu is co-author of The Bite of the Mango, her memoir.

    The luncheon will be held Thursday May 7 at Gotham Hall, New York City. For more information, call 212.763.8590 or visit the Women’s Refugee Commission website and event page.

  • Diversity and children in Ireland

    The Bernard van Leer Foundation has released a working paper (another in its series on child development). Developing Programmes to Promote Ethnic Diversity in Early Childhood reviews case studies from Northern Ireland for promising practices in promoting ethnic diversity in early childhood. 
    The paper examines the effects of ethnic divisions on young children and explores some of the responses of the early childhood sector and concludes with challenges and suggestions on the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and Ethnic Diversity, co-founded by Paul Connolly, one of the authors of this working paper.

  • 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.

  • New York Times series on immigration: Teaching newcomer children

    Beginning today, the New York Times will run a series on immigration, inviting a national debate on the topic in the United States. The first installment is a discussion on how best to educate immigrant children. To be followed up this Sunday.
    The series will be interactive, inviting comments from readers and includes a searchable database of the history of ethnic diversity in each school district and an interactive map showing census data on settlement over the past century.
    Today’s stories include: 

    Robert Linquanti comments on “No Child Left Behind: Pros and Cons”. Linquanti is with WestEd research agency in San Francisco.
    Chicago superintendent Roger Prosise writes a piece entitled “For Bilingual Education, You Need Bilingual Teachers”
    Co-directors at NYU Immigration Studies, Marcelo Orozco and Carola Orozco write on “Teach in Two Languages”.
    A California principal, Linda Mikels counters with a piece entitled “No, Teach in English”.

    Looks like a fascinating series. Follow it online at the New York Times “Room for Debate” webpage.

  • My New Home, TVO documentary about immigrant children

    From the press release:

    TVO examines the immigrant experience through a child’s eyes in a special interactive event beginning with part one of the two part documentary, My New Home. The film is followed by a live, interactive webcast discussion on Your Voice at tvoparents.com on the immigrant experience in Ontario. This event airs during Belong or Bust: Where Do I Fit In?, a week of premier documentaries, dramas and current affairs programs that explore a variety of viewpoints on the themes of culture and identity and our place in society.

    My New Home premieres Sunday March 22 at 8pm and again on Sunday March 29 at 8pm on TVO. Directed by Daisy Asquith and produced by Ricochet Productions.