ImmigrantChildren.ca Archive

Category: Transnational Families

  • 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.”

  • 'Waiting for my children' art exhibit

    Settlement Arts, a new Toronto-based organization established to raise awareness and increase education on immigration and settlement issues presents their first exhibit “Waiting for My Children”, a collaboration between Curator Lisa Wyndels, Photographer Anna  Hill and Editor, Sally Dundas.
    From the description:

    There are parents in our community who are forced to wait for many years to be joined by their children, after they first arrived in Canada as immigrants or refugees.
    The impact of the separation of children from parents is profound, and increasingly so as the period of waiting becomes prolonged.  A period of separation of many years creates risks of children being exposed to multiple harms, including severe psychological damage. We know of instances of depression, suicide attempt, and even death.  Children who arrive in Canada after years of separation from a parent are often at real risk of not integrating well, either into family or into society.

    The show runs from May 13-23 at 1080 Queen St. W. For more info, visit the website.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Para nuestros niños

    The US-based National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics was established to enhance educational achievement and opportunities for children of Hispanic descent and to influence US education policy.
    The Task Force is made up of early childhood educators, academics, researchers and policy makers. The website provides several interesting resources, including research reports, fact/information sheets, policy briefs and the final report of the Task Force: Expanding and Improving Education for Hispanics.

  • Gender-based barriers to settlement and integration for live-in caregivers: A review of the literature

    The Ontario Metropolis Centre/the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research in Immigration Studies (CERIS) has released a literature review on barriers to integration and settlement for live-in caregivers.
    Authors Denise L. Spitzer and Sara Torres ask what is known about the women who migrate to Canada under the federal live-in caregiver program and the barriers they face in settling and integrating in a new community. The paper provides historical, economic and demographic information and concludes with several policy recommendations.

  • Transnationalism and beyond: Canadian Comparative Literature Association

    Call for Papers from The Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis in association with the Canadian Comparative Literature Association and the Association des professeur des universites et colleges canadiens .

    From the call: “Transnationalism, transculturation, diaspora, migrancy, postcoloniality, ethnicity, mestizaje, multiculturalism, creolization, these are only some of the rubrics that literary critics employ as a corrective to the national paradigm of literary study and to call into question singular cultural, national and linguistic allegiances. Such terms are variously evoked in discussions of immigration, mobility, temporary and permanent forms of displacement, and other forms of cultural and geographic flow. Indeed, closely related phenomena connected to globalization are being analysed through divergent theoretical frameworks and the vocabularies that attend these frameworks. This panel will explore the root causes of these divergences in terminology. More specifically, we will ask:

    ·       “Do these terminological divergences point to different methods of literary analysis that offer distinct advantages or disadvantages?

    ·       “How much overlap or mutual influence exists among these models? Should there be more dialogue between them?

    ·       “To what extent do these critical vocabularies reflect divergences among disciplinary traditions or among national, linguistic and regional traditions of literary practice and study?

    ·       “Are there tensions created by the movement across fields and disciplines of vocabularies that have specific, local origins?

    ·       “What do these terms tell us about particular historical, geopolitical and ideological considerations and their impact on critical discourse?”

    Proposals of 300-400 words to one of the following by January 15, 2009: 

    Sarah Casteel, sarah_casteel@carleton.ca

    Pascal Gin, pascal_gin@carleton.ca

  • 2009 immigration levels for Canada

    The office of the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism has released news on the immigration levels planned for 2009.
    Backgrounders to the news release include information on the ministerial instructions for visa officers to assist them in identifying applications that may be given priority consideration. 
    ‘Live-in caregivers’ continue to be listed as economic-class priorities. 
    From the backgrounder, this information on family-class applications:

    “Family class applications will be processed in the same manner and with the same priorities as usual. Specifically, applications for sponsored spouses, partners and dependent children shall continue to be placed into processing immediately upon receipt”.

    Read the full ministerial instructions, as they appear in the Canada Gazette.

  • Canada in a diasporic framework

    The Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto and the International Institute for Diasporic Studies will hold a conference entitled “Canada in a Diasporic Framework: Future Policies and Agendas“. The conference will be held May 15-17 at the University of Toronto.

    “The emerging field of ‘Diaspora Studies’ provides a powerful lens through which to view and understand the contemporary fabric of Canadian society and the opportunities and challenges it faces. In an attempt to proactively address these pressing concerns, the University of Toronto’s Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies and the International Institute for Diaspora Studies are convening an international conference to address the character, capacity and concerns of Canadian Diaspora communities, as both domestic and international actors, in order to analyse, understand and project possible outcomes of these vital dynamics forging twenty-first century Canada. Though focussing primarily on the Canadian context, the conference will also seek to place Canada in a comparative international perspective and to address diaspora issues pertinent to Canada, Europe, Australia and the US, among others”.

  • Call for papers: The economics of integration – children of immigrants and temporary migration

    The Economics of Immigration: Children of Immigrants and Temporary Migration will be held May 11-12, 2009 in Vancouver BC.

    The conference is intended to provide a forum for discussing innovative theoretical and empirical research on two important topics in migration research: economic issues related to the children of immigrants, and temporary migration. Possible topics (of interest to immigrantchildren.ca readers) include:

    • economic conditions faced by the children of immigrants
    • intergenerational integration
    • racial/ethnic stratification, segregation, and attitudes
    • social capital of immigrants and their children

    Those interested in participating should submit a complete paper, in PDF format, to the program committee by January 1, 2009. Submissions must be made via e-mail to: pendakur@sfu.ca.

    All presenters will be provided with hotel accommodations for 3 nights plus all meals for the 2 days of the conference. Funds may become available for air transportation …Major funding for this event is provided by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Metropolis British Columbia. Institutional support is provided by Metropolis British Columbia, CReAM, and Simon Fraser University.

    Source: CERIS November 2008 Newsletter.