immigrantchildren.ca is approaching its 500th entry! To celebrate, we’re having a contest. If you have ever commented to any post on immigrantchildren.ca since the launch in November 2007, you are eligible to win a copy of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival.
All you need to do is add a comment responding to the question What do you think best supports the settlement needs of young children (birth to age eight)?
Is it high quality, early learning and child care?
Is it ensuring that settlement services promote and support home languages?
Are social/recreational programs the best way to facilitate very young immigrant children’s integration into Canadian society?
Is it a family-oriented approach, involving all members of the child’s family in programming/activities? Like what?
Or, something else? Let us know!
Post your responses and comments to this blog entry and I will randomly draw a winner two days after the date of my 500th post, and send off a copy of Shaun Tan’s beautiful book (via Canada Post).
Contest opens now! Don’t delay; reply with your comments today.
The best thing that gives support to any child is to give her mother mental, fisical and emotional sanity during the 2 years of settlement. If the mother finds “her” place she will be in balance and in good health to create a safe environment for her children. I would love to win THE book!
Hi Rita H.
Thanks for your comment – and your answer.
The Arrival is a beautiful book.
Of the clients entering the immigration law office where I work, I notice continuity. By that I mean, the parent/s give their children a sense of their native culture while embracing the opportunities of the new country. Therefore, I think continuity is the most important thing to immigrant children.
Thanks for your comment, Canadian immigrant lawyer. The research certainly bears out your remarks. This is why there is emphasis on maintaining a child’s home language (often called L1) while children learn a 2nd or 3rd language, for one example.
Good luck to you in the contest!
First and foremost: preserve section 3(1)(d) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (the section cites Family Reunification as a principle of administration & interpretation of the Act). Resisting ill-conceived demagogic pressure to abandon sponsorship of parents/grandparents provides
1. Compelling economic motive for establishment.
2. Responsive, free family assistance in L1 at zero social cost and without bureaucratic inefficiency.
3. Reinforcement of identity consistent with the Multiculturalism Act, in the best interests of children affected.
4. A keenly alert, culturally-attuned monitoring/intervention apparatus should negative alternatives to “inclusiveness” emerge (e.g. gang participation).
5. Fair return-on-investment to the sponsored parents, who have provided Canada with the economically-attractive primary immigrants’ upbringing & education at no cost to Canada.
Thanks for your response, Thomas. For others, here’s some links that may prove useful as folks digest what you’re suggesting. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Section 3 (1) d says:
“3. (1) The objectives of this Act with respect to immigration are … (d) to see that families are reunited in Canada;…”
The Canadian Multiculturalism Act can be read here.