Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research
on Immigration and Integration

ANNUAL REPORT, 1999-2000

The preceding Mid-Term Review Report covered the Prairie Centre’s first three years of operation ending March 31, 1999. This annual report, in contrast, is confined to the 1999-2000 fiscal year. However, past events and activities are discussed to the extent that they may help to provide a broader context for a better understanding of the Centre’s key activities during the year under review.

Metropolis is an evolving project and this calls for adaptability and flexibility on the part of the Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration (PCERII). These qualities, among others, are a necessary condition for success both at the centre level and the level of the national project. The principal values of the Prairie Centre, including openness to stakeholders and to new ideas, incorporation of new researchers, development of innovative research practices, proactive engagement, efficient and effective management, and research dissemination, continue to guide the Centre’s work.

This report consists of seven main parts. Part I addresses the Centre’s objectives and key activities. This is followed by a discussion of partnerships and collaborations. Next, Part III provides an overview of research and research outputs. Part IV deals with issues of management and communication, while Part V outlines the problems encountered and the challenges ahead. Part VI presents the revised budget for 2000-2001, while Part VII presents the workplan for 2000-2001. Supplementary and explanatory material is provided in the appendices attached to this report.

Part I. Overview of the Centre and of the Key Activities

The Prairie Centre’s key activities are discussed under four headings organized chronologically: (a) business arising from the First Annual Prairie Regional Workshop (Regina); (b) Mid-Term Review Report of the Expert Committee; (c) Second Annual Prairie Regional Workshop (Calgary); and, (d) publication of the Journal of International Migration and Integration.

In last year’s Mid-Term Review Report we listed key decisions that were taken at the First Annual Prairie Regional Workshop which was held in Regina in October 1998 and indicated how the Centre had implemented them. In addition, three items were listed as still being "in progress" at the time of submission of the report. Since then, the Prairie Centre has addressed all pending items.

Specifically, it was decided that in addition to preserving its annual grant competition, the Prairie Centre should reserve funding for domain-driven research activities. To date, the leaders of the Economic (Peter Li) and Health Domains (Linda Ogilvie) have established research teams and developed specific research projects for their respective domains.

Also, in accordance with a recommendation made at the Regina workshop, the Prairie Centre was actively involved in the development of criteria to guide PCERII-funded researchers in the preparation of their Progress/Final Reports. These guidelines were finalized during the year under review and are now posted on the PCERII web site at: http://pcerii.metropolis.net/generalinfo/info_content/1b(vi).html

Last year’s "annual" report, the Mid-Term Review Report, was a major undertaking, as was the preparation for the Expert Committee’s site visit which took place on June 18-19, 1999, at the Prairie Centre (University of Alberta). The Centre was extremely pleased with the Expert Committee’s positive evaluation of the Centre under three main categories: (a) effective partnerships and collaboration; (b) quality of the research and research outputs; and (c) effective research management and communications.

It is gratifying to note that the Expert Committee attached no reservations or conditions whatsoever to the recommendation that funding for the Prairie Centre be maintained. Nevertheless, the Committee suggested that the Centre (a) develop a long term strategic research planning process to sustain the long term viability of the Centre, (b) seek improved participation by and increased levels of funding from the provincial governments, (c) allow the voice of immigrants to be heard more directly through various forms of consultation and representation, (d) document the skills that students have acquired in the course of participation with the Centre, (e) explore means by which cross-domain and cross-centre collaborations might be further encouraged and facilitated, and (f) encourage linkages between the Prairie Centre and its researchers with colleagues in the US.

During this past year, the Centre has undertaken a number of "remedial" activities in order to deal positively with the above noted suggestions and progress has been made on all of them. The remedial activities undertaken are noted in the appropriate sections throughout the report.

The Prairie Centre held its second annual workshop at the University of Calgary, from October 21-23, 1999. This workshop was organized partly as a follow-up to the 1998 Regina workshop and partly in response to the Mid-Term Review Report of the Expert Committee suggesting that the Centre should institutionalize a strategic planning process. Parenthetically, it is relevant to note that plans are already under way to hold a third strategic planning workshop in Saskatoon in September 2000.

The title of the Calgary workshop was "Meeting the Metropolis Challenge: Research Coordination and Dissemination Amongst Stakeholders." The goals of the workshop were to organize domain retreats and institutionalize a strategic planning process for the Centre’s research agenda; strengthen the communication links between and among researchers, policy makers, service providers and other stakeholders; and present research results from selected projects funded by the Prairie Centre.

About 100 delegates were in attendance, representing government policy-makers and analysts, immigrant serving agencies and other community-based groups, university-based researchers and graduate students. Separate domain retreats were organized and the participants were asked to identify key research areas in each domain. The resulting domain reports are available on the PCERII web site at: http://pcerii.metropolis.net/events/events_content/Calconfrep.html.

A large number of activities have been carried out in support of the Journal of International Migration and Integration (JIMI)—a peer reviewed quarterly publication of the Prairie Centre. In the main, these activities included the recruitment of a second Editor representing the European arm of Metropolis, a Book Review Editor, and an Editorial Assistant; establishing a Board of Directors and a Board of Associate Editors for the journal; arranging with publishers to send relevant books for review; developing guidelines for potential contributors; attracting and peer reviewing quality articles for the first few issues of the journal; and promotion of and fund raising for the journal. The first (Winter 2000) issue of JIMI is due to appear shortly.

Part II. Partnerships and Collaborations

1.Collaborations with Policy-Makers

During this past year, the Centre has established stronger links with policy-makers at both the federal and regional levels. For example, while the policy-makers’ participation at the 1998 Regina workshop was strong, their participation at Calgary Workshop in October 1999 was even stronger, reflecting well on the rapid evolution of policy and research linkages within the Prairie Centre. Exactly 25 (or one-fourth) of the delegates at the Calgary workshop were drawn from the ranks policy-makers, of whom 15 represented federal departments in Ottawa or the regions; 6 represented the Alberta and Manitoba governments; and 4 represented the Calgary and Winnipeg municipal governments. This unprecedented level of participation by policy-makers at a regional workshop was much appreciated by the Centre, as it gave a boost to its strategic research planning process.

The Centre’s links with policy-makers are conditioned by the high quality of its researchers, of course. In this context, it is relevant to note that in August 1999, Peter Li (University of Saskatchewan) drafted a policy relevant document at the request of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) entitled, "Skilled Worker Immigrants: A Draft Model for Discussion." Subsequent to that, in November 1999, three Prairie Centre researchers, Shiva Halli (University of Manitoba), Peter Li, and Alice Nakamura (University of Alberta) were invited to participate in the first seminar of the Metropolis Conversations Series entitled, "Absorptive Capacity: Too Many Immigrants: Not Enough? How Would We Know?" The seminar and consultation took place in Ottawa and involved policy-makers from three levels of government, academic researchers as well as representatives from NGOs and the media.

On June 17, 1999, the University of Alberta research team that carried out the CIC-sponsored study on the settlement experiences of refugees in Alberta (Baha Abu-Laban, Tracey Derwing, Harvey Krahn, Marlene Mulder and Lori Wilkinson) made a presentation of its final report at a meeting which included Ms. Janice Cochrane (Deputy Minister, CIC), Mr. Robert Vineberg (Prairie Regional Director, CIC), among other CIC officials. Shortly thereafter, a similar presentation was made for Alberta government officials and service providing organizations in Red Deer Alberta.

Later in the year, at the 4^th International Metropolis Conference in Washington, D.C., the same research team brought together policy-makers, NGOs and researchers from Canada, the US, Europe and the Middle East, to identify ways in which refugees can be better integrated into the labour markets of their countries of destination. Building on this success, Prairie Centre researchers were commissioned again by CIC (Edmonton Centre) to do another study, this time on the "Lessons Learned" from Canada’s experience with Kosovar refugees. Like its predecessor, this project was contracted through the Population Research Laboratory at the University of Alberta.

Another example of interactive knowledge transfer between researchers and policy-makers, occurred at the 4^th National Metropolis Conference held in Toronto, where Baha Abu-Laban contributed a paper on the geographic mobility of refugees in Alberta, in a policy relevant workshop organized by Meyer Burstein (Metropolis Project Team, CIC) under the title "Developing a Regional Immigration Policy."

In addition to the above, stronger links have been developed with several provincial governments during the course of 1999-2000. For example, the Centre recently institutionalized its partnership with the Manitoba Department of Labour, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Division, along the lines suggested by the Mid-Term Review Report of the Expert Committee. In Saskatchewan, PCERII affiliates have been active in providing advice to government policy-makers particularly in the Department of Municipal Affairs.

Another notable development with the provincial governments is that the Quebec Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration (MRCI) purchased 10 institutional subscriptions to JIMI, while the Department of Alberta Learning (which is responsible for immigration matters) purchased one.

In addition, on November 3, 1999, PCERII staff members, Marlene Mulder and Humera Ibrahim, met with Kim Mah, Research Officer, Information and Policy Seminars, Alberta Learning, to discuss Kosovar Albanian refugees in the province. Ms. Mulder is the former national coordinator for Disaster Child Care (DCC), a not-for-profit organization which established and staffed on-site child care facilities for preschool-aged children at several of the Kosovar Refugee Reception Centres in Ontario and Nova Scotia during the Summer of 1999. Ms. Ibrahim worked as a DCC volunteer at the Reception Centre in Nova Scotia.

The Prairie Centre continued to offer policy makers a direct voice in the form of membership and voting rights on its management boards. For example, Rashmi Joshee (Canadian Heritage, Edmonton Regional Office) was appointed to the Program Committee in 1999-2000. Also, the Board of Governors’ membership includes a representative each from Status of Women Canada (Ms. Julie Dompierre) and Health Canada (Ms. Dina Juras)*, and a representative from Alberta Learning (Barbara Leung). As major funders, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council continue to be represented on the Board. [*Note: Ms. Juras changed jobs in November 1999 and is no longer with Health Canada. The Prairie Centre has invited Health Canada to name a replacement for her.]

The Prairie Centre has placed emphasis on strengthening its connections with community partners in a variety of ways such as (a) requiring grant applicants to consult with community groups, where appropriate, in advance of applying for funds (see Grant Applications and Guidelines), (b) providing full or partial financial support for NGO and community representatives to attend Metropolis national and international conferences, (c) providing information and, where possible, research support, and (d) participating in community-organized conferences. These ongoing networking activities have provided opportunities for allowing the immigrants’ voices to be heard more directly by the Prairie Centre and its researchers, as suggested by the Mid-Term Review Report of the Expert Committee.

In addition, the Prairie Centre will soon release a research monograph under the title Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities on the Prairies: A Statistical Compendium, by Navjot Lamba, Marlene Mulder and Lori Wilkinson. The purpose of this monograph is to provide baseline information on the social, economic and demographic profiles of the immigrant population in the prairie provinces. While the profiles will be of interest to academic researchers, they may also assist NGOs, urban planners, provincial and municipal government officials in developing strategies for providing services to immigrants and planning for future activities. As part of its contribution to the community, the Prairie Centre will distribute complimentary copies of this publication to all of its affiliated stakeholders.

The Prairie Centre continues to incorporate strong community representation within its management structures. For example, Tom Denton (Manitoba Citizenship Council) is a member of the Program Committee. Also, the Centre’s Board of Governors includes Fariborz Birjandian (Calgary Catholic Immigration Society), Joan Brownridge (City of Saskatoon Race Relations Committee); Ana Maria Fantino (Edmonton Catholic Social Services), Keith Karasin (Regina Open Door Society), and Sheri Musa (Mayor’s Task Force on Diversity 2000 for the City of Winnipeg).

The PCERII Volunteer Internship Program, now in its third year of operation, is yet another form of partnership with the community. For example, last year, partnership arrangements were established with the Edmonton Multicultural Health Brokers’ Cooperative, the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, and the Millwoods Welcome Centre for Immigrants, to provide placements for undergraduate students.

Prairie Centre researchers continue to work on collaborative projects with researchers from the other Metropolis Centres particularly in the Education and Health Domains. In the former domain, under the leadership of Yvonne Hébert (University of Calgary), collaborative relations are institutionalized through the Metropolis Educational Research Forum (MERF) and the Citizenship Education Research Network (CERN), a national body of Metropolis researchers and others interested in this topic. Notably, the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities in Sherbrooke (June 1999), the Fourth International Metropolis Conference in Washington, D.C. (December 1999), and the Fourth National Metropolis Conference in Toronto (March 2000) provided opportunities for researchers in the Education Domain to network and share research results. Similar cross-centre meetings were also held in the Health Domain.

As well, the Prairie Centre maintains its own Data Coordination Committee with membership drawn from across the Prairie provinces. A main goal of this committee is to facilitate the sharing of data materials among PCERII affiliated researchers as well as the other Metropolis Centres. For example, Data Committee member Chuck Humphrey converted the data contained in the Landed Immigrant Database (LIDS), provided by Statistics Canada for the years 1980 to 1998, into SPSS format. The data were originally provided in FoxPro format which many researchers do not use. This material was then distributed to all PCERII researchers as well as to the other Metropolis Centres. In addition, Mr. Humphrey drafted two documents to accompany the SPSS formatted CD ROMs entitled, "Listings in the LIDS SPSS Portable Files" and "Tips in Using the LIDS SPSS Portable Files," which are important reference materials for this somewhat complex database.

It is worth noting that the Prairie Centre published its inaugural issue of its data newsletter, Data Notes, in the fall of 1999. Data Notes, which will be published three times a year, aims to provide a listing of Metropolis data available, profiles of current research, and other relevant information. The Prairie Centre has also made much of the data it has received available to researchers through its password-protected web site located at: http://pcerii.metropolis.net/research-policy/data.html.

At the international level, productive relationships between Prairie Centre researchers and other colleagues are exemplified by a workshop held at the VIIe Congrès international de l’Association pour la recherche interculturelle, held in Paris in July 1999. The workshop featured comparative presentations on immigration to four cities (Calgary, Montreal, Frankfurt, and Marseille). The research on Calgary was presented by Yvonne Hébert and Jim Frideres (University of Calgary). It is worth noting that two of Yvonne Hébert’s European collaborators from her earlier PCERII-funded study (Christoph Kodron and Alain Moreau), plus Johanne Charbonneau from the Montreal Metropolis Centre, were also featured in the workshop.

Also, in the spring of 1999, Shiva Halli (University of Manitoba) served as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Albania, on sampling and survey methodology in connection with a prospective survey of Kosovar refugees.

In terms of other international activities, one of our affiliates (Hugh Grant, University of Winnipeg) was a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Economics, University of Western Australia in Perth. Other international organizations with which Prairie Centre researchers have established networks during this past year included the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI); the Urban Research Unit at the Australian National University in Canberra; and the Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.

In addition, on the initiative of the University of Alberta International Relations Office, a US/North American Strategy Group has been formed at the University of Alberta, of which the Prairie Centre is a constituent member. During a recent visit to three University of California campuses (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and San Diego), the University of Alberta Associate Vice-President (International), Dr. Brian J. R. Stevenson, carried packages of information designed to promote the Prairie Centre at these universities. On his return, Dr. Stevenson reported that the recipients of these packages expressed interest in the Centre’s work. Assuming that the Metropolis Project is renewed beyond its original six-year mandate, the Centre Director, Baha Abu-Laban, intends to build on Dr. Stevenson’s initiative and pursue the possibility of collaborative research with colleagues in the US, as suggested by the Mid-Review Report of the Expert Committee.

Finally, in June 1999 the Board of Governors established an Ad Hoc Communications Committee to develop a strategic communications plan for the Prairie Centre. Consisting of Fariborz Birjandian, Joan Brownridge, Baha Abu-Laban, and Kelly McKean, this committee held an all-day meeting in Calgary in September 1999. The committee’s report is being drafted and will be presented to the Board at the June 2000 meeting.

The space provided by the University of Alberta to the Prairie Centre is intact. This includes 12 rooms, plus a shared conference room, for a total of 2,000 square feet. The cost of space and amenities provided to the Centre in 1999-2000 amounts to about $40,000 (@$20 per square foot per year).

In addition to the above, all the participating universities are contributing space and amenities to the researchers funded by the Centre. A conservative estimate is that the cost of space for each funded project is $1,000 per year, for a total of $32,000 for the projects that were active in 1999-2000. Other forms of infrastructure support provided in 1999-2000 by the Consortium of Prairie Universities, such as accounting and administrative services, totaled $35,000—which is equivalent to 0.5 FTE @$70,000 per year.

In terms of direct financial support to the Prairie Centre, the University of Alberta, which is the host university, provided the Centre with a grant totaling $54,000 for 1999-2000. This grant was used to support a Research Associate, graduate student assistants, the Journal of International Migration and Integration, travel, computer equipment and software, equipment rental (telephone lines, photocopier, and so forth), and casual non-academic support, among other things.

Moreover, the University of Alberta contributed a senior academic to serve as a full-time Director of the Prairie Centre, at no cost to the SSHRC/CIC grant. The dollar value of this contribution, at minimal replacement rate, is $60,000, plus an administrative honorarium of $4,000, for a total of $64,000.

At the University of Calgary, the space provided for the exclusive use of Metropolis researchers includes three rooms, or a total of 820 square feet (one large room in the Education Tower and two large offices in the Math Sciences Building). The space in the Math Sciences Building contains four computers, two printers, plus furniture. The annual cost of these amenities (again @$20 per square foot per year) is $16,400.

All the participating universities awarded grants to Metropolis researchers, from internal funds, in support of Metropolis related activities. As recently reported by the researchers themselves, grant recipients include: Prairie Centre (Baha Abu-Laban), $9,600 in graduate student support from the Department of Sociology; Baha Abu-Laban ($8,500, of which $2,500 was in support of JIMI); Yasmeen Abu-Laban ($9,000), University of Alberta; Jim Frideres ($9,500 in support of the Calgary Workshop), Yvonne Hébert ($3,500 in support of attracting Dr. Ingve Lithman, Director of the Immigration and Ethnic Relations Centre at the University of Bergen, to the Calgary Workshop), Nancy Arthur ($500), University of Calgary; Gerald Friesen ($3,000), University of Manitoba; Wanda Hurren ($750), University of Regina; Peter Li/Terry Wotherspoon ($3,000 in support of JIMI), University of Saskatchewan; Tom Carter ($500); and Royden Loewen ($5,000), University of Winnipeg. The total contributions from the PCERII Consortium universities is $294,250.

Prairie Centre affiliates have also been successful in leveraging funds from external sources either to supplement their Prairie Centre grants or to support new research that may flow from such grants. The following grants were received in 1999-2000: Prairie Centre, $5,000 from SSHRC in support of travel for PCERII stakeholders in connection with the Mid-Term Review; plus $2,000 from the Health Promotion and Programs Branch of Health Canada, Manitoba/Saskatchewan Regional Office, in support of travel for NGO representatives from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to attend the Calgary Workshop; Journal of International Migration and Integration (Baha Abu-Laban, University of Alberta), $18,250 (of which $10,000 came from the Metropolis Project Team, $6,000 from a consortium of federal departments in Ottawa, and $2,250 from the Quebec Provincial Government Department, Ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l’immigration,MRCI [These contributions are in addition to the above noted contributions from the Universities of Alberta and Saskatchewan]; plus $169,350 from CIC, Edmonton Centre, contracted through the Population Research Laboratory at the University of Alberta, in support of a study of Kosovar refugees; Tracey Derwing (University of Alberta), $6,800 (of which $2,800 was from the Quebec Provincial Government department, MRCI, $2,000 from MPC; and $2,000 from the Montreal Metropolis Centre); Linda Ogilvie, Health Domain Leader (University of Alberta) obtained grants totaling $145,000 for the domain ($23,500 from the Edmonton and $11,500 from the Winnipeg regional offices of Canadian Heritage; $10,000 from Health Canada; plus $100,000 over two years from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR); Yvonne Hébert (University of Calgary), $68,400 ($40,000 from SSHRC; and $28,400 from Canadian Heritage); Li Zong (University of Saskatchewan), $42,400 from SSHRC; Henry Chow (University of Regina), $12,000 from the Department of Canadian Heritage; Royden Loewen (University of Winnipeg), $4,000 from the Mennonite Central Committee of Canada; plus $24,000 secured from various sources by Royden Loewen and Gerald Friesen’s (University of Manitoba) graduate students in support of their research programs. The grand total of these external grants is $497,200.

Overall, the support which the Prairie Centre received in 1999-2000 from consortium universities and from external sources amounts to $791,450. Thus, each dollar from the SSHRC/CIC grant is matched by 2.33 dollars from the participating universities and external funding agencies.

Part III. Research and Research Outputs

The Prairie Centre currently has 135 affiliated researchers from across the Prairies and beyond. The Centre’s research program continues to cover five domains, namely:

• Economic

• Educational

• Social and Cultural

• Health

• Citizenship and Political

Special emphasis continues to be placed on immigrant integration in medium-size cities, where immigrants’ experiences are likely to be different than in Canada’s large metropolises.

During 1999-2000, the Prairie Centre witnessed turnover in the Social/Cultural Domain with the resignation, in October 1999, of Murray Knuttila (Dean of Arts, University of Regina) as Domain Leader. In his stead, Douglas Durst (Social Work, University of Regina), was appointed Domain Leader effective October 1999.

The 1999-2000 deadline for receipt of grant applications from affiliated researchers was April 30, 1999 (except for domain-driven grant applications which could be submitted at any time during the year). The Prairie Centre received a total of 16 grant applications this year, of which 8 were approved for funding, for a total of $156,074 for year one, plus $19,694 for year two, for a grand total of $175,768. The average grant size is $21,971. The following is a list of the projects funded, by domain:

"Earnings and Employment of Visible Minority Immigrants," Derek Hum – Principal Investigator (Economics, University of Manitoba);

"Composition of Immigrants’ Admission Class and its Economic Outcome," Peter Li – Principal Investigator (Sociology, University of Saskatchewan) – Domain-driven;

"A Comparison of Citizenship Concepts in LINC Programs with those of French Language Programs for Adult Immigrants," Tracey Derwing – Principal Investigator (Educational Psychology, University of Alberta);

"Relations Among Informal Learning, Educational Credentials and Work Transitions Among Immigrants," Terry Wotherspoon – Principal Investigator (Sociology, University of Saskatchewan).

"Heritage Language Learning and Ethnic Identity Maintenance: A Case Study of Chinese-Canadian Adolescents in Calgary," Henry Chow – Principal Investigator (Sociology, University of Regina);

"The Changing Colour of Poverty: A Case Study of Immigrants’ Poverty in Canadian Cities," Shiva Halli – Principal Investigator (Sociology, University of Manitoba);

"New Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS)," Linda Ogilvie – Principal Investigator (Nursing, University of Alberta) – Domain-driven; and,

" The Context and Function of Canadian and Cultural Identities Among First and Second Generation Immigrants," Peter Grant – Principal Investigator (Psychology, University of Saskatchewan).

Of the funds awarded to these 8 projects in year 1, 32% was claimed by the Economic Domain; 32% by the Health Domain; 17% by the Social and Cultural Domain; 13% by the Education Domain; and 6% was claimed by the Citizenship and Political Domain. (See Appendix 3c)

Appendix 4 provides Project Profile Sheets for each of the above noted projects, including background information, an abstract and, where available, a brief account of the likely outcomes and policy implications of the work.

About 56% of the total funding awarded for 1999-2000 was allocated to student assistants. In terms of numbers of graduate assistants, the grant recipients have indicated they have hired or intended to hire one post-doctoral fellow, 4 Ph.D.-level students, 9 M.A.-level students, and 2 undergraduate students.

During the course of their participation in the Centre, students have acquired a variety of skills. For example, the two projects on refugees conducted by Prairie Centre researchers at the University of Alberta provided a range of training opportunities for graduate students including (a) direct research experience (in problem formulation, construction of questionnaires, interviewing, data analysis and writing), (b) co-authorship on articles and conference presentations, and (c) use of research data for M.A. and Ph.D. theses. It should also be noted the statistical compendium profiling immigrants and ethnic minorities on the prairies provided a unique training opportunity for three PCERII graduate students at the University of Alberta. In Winnipeg, PCERIII researchers and graduate students in the departments of history at the Universities of Manitoba and Winnipeg held regular monthly seminars to share their research experiences with the Winnipeg Immigration History Research Group (WIHRG). Similar training opportunities and educational experiences were acquired by students at other consortium universities.

At the undergraduate level, the Volunteer Internship Program provided students with opportunities to learn first-hand about immigration and integration issues and research, and gain practical work experience through the placements and regular monthly meetings. During these meetings, various guest speakers were invited to address such topics as applying to graduate programs and the role of graduate research assistants. It is gratifying to note that one of last year’s volunteer interns was recently offered paid employment at her placement agency after the internship had ended.

Last but not least, two PCERII graduate research assistants have recently found academic employment. Specifically, Abdolmohammad Kazemipur, who was recently awarded his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Manitoba under the supervision of Shiva Halli, has accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor in the Department Sociology at the University of Lethbridge starting July 1, 2000. In addition, Lori Wilkinson (Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology under the supervision Harvey Krahn, University of Alberta) has accepted a tenure track position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Manitoba commencing January 1, 2001.

Part IV. Research Management and Communications

In 1999-2000, the Prairie Centre experienced significant changes in its management structures and operations. First, as noted earlier, the institutionalization of a strategic research planning process, in the form of regional workshops, as suggested by the Mid-Term Review Report of the Expert Committee, represents a significant evolutionary change in the management structure of the Prairie Centre. This structural change is particularly important as it provides policy-makers and community groups with clear entry points for input into the research planning process. In addition, it allows for more intense networking among all the diverse stakeholders of the Metropolis Project. Hence, these workshops promise to strengthen collective research planning in a highly organized and recognizable way, as well as facilitating the sharing of research results. The implications of this development for cross-node and even cross-centre collaborative research are potentially far reaching. The Calgary Workshop is a prime example of the benefits to be derived from this structural change.

Second, the Prairie Centre’s standing committees have been restructured to facilitate a stronger voice on the part of stakeholders in the Centre’s decision-making process. Specifically, the Board of Governors has been expanded to includes three new members: two from partnering federal departments and one from a community-based partnering organization. In addition, the Program Committee has been restructured to include a new federal member, while the Data Coordination Committee has been expanded to include a new university-based Data Librarian. The Prairie Centre is fortunate to attract the interest and support of these new members.

Third, a most significant structural change in the Centre’s activities concerns the publication of the Journal of International Migration and Integration, discussed earlier in the report. As a new international venue for research dissemination, spearheaded by Peter Li (University of Saskatchewan) and Baha Abu-Laban (University of Alberta), the publication of JIMI is a major development not only for the Prairie Centre, but also for the International Metropolis Project at large.

The Centre’s administration and other management structures, financial affairs, and research activities continue to be regulated by the provisions of the Internal Agreement, which was approved by the Presidents of the Prairie Consortium Universities in 1996.

Prairie Centre researchers are actively engaged in research dissemination activities. A creative example of dissemination in teaching is a graduate seminar on "Immigration and Education in Global Contexts," offered by Yvonne Hébert (University of Calgary) in the fall of 1999, for which the instructor mounted a WebCT.

Other activities included presentations at professional conferences, and at colloquia and university classes and seminars within and outside the home institution, presentations to immigrant-serving agencies, multicultural groups, and other community groups, interviews with electronic and printed media, work with graduate students, publications in newsletters and applied journals, as well as publications in scholarly journals, books, and edited collections and conference proceedings. The publications include 13 books and research monographs; 15 refereed articles; 26 book chapters; 5 completed theses (3 Ph.D. and 2 M.A.); 3 book reviews; about 90 conference presentations; plus a large number of unpublished reports, AV material, workshops organized, and entries under work in progress. It is noteworthy that some of the publications reported are attributed to graduate students who are working with Metropolis researchers. By any standard, this is a prolific research output.

To their credit, several Prairie Centre researchers have been directly involved in organizing special sessions or day-long seminars at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities or at national or international Metropolis conferences, among other venues. They also have organized local workshops for researchers, policy-makers and community partners, such as the day-long workshop held in Regina, under the leadership of Polo Diaz (University of Regina), April 14, 2000.

The Prairie Centre has encouraged its research affiliates to participate actively in Metropolis conferences. For example, during this past year, the Prairie Centre subsidized, either partially or fully, over 89 Metropolis researchers, graduate students and representatives of partnering organizations to attend the following conferences: the Second Prairie Regional Workshop held in Calgary, October 21-23,1999 (34 delegates); the Fourth International Metropolis Conference in Washington, D.C., December 7-11, 1999 (16 delegates); and the Fourth National Metropolis Conference in Toronto, March 22-25, 2000 (39 delegates).

The Brown Bag Lecture series, or speaker program, brings university researchers, government policy-makers, and representatives of partnering organizations together, typically during the noon hour, to discuss Metropolis related topics. The University of Saskatchewan node hosted three brown bag seminars in 1999-2000. The topics covered included: "Canadian Data for Studying Immigration: A Growing Collection through PCERII," (Chuck Humphrey, University of Alberta); "Voices that Count: The Census as Postmodern Text," (Derek Hum, University of Manitoba); and, "Returns of Immigrants’ Self-Employment," (Peter Li, University of Saskatchewan). At the University of Manitoba, Dr. Hum made a presentation to the Anglican Council of St. John’s College, entitled "The Wages of Colour: Is it Sinful?" In addition, the Calgary node of the Prairie Centre featured Distinguished Visitor Yngve Lithman who gave a presentation entitled "Migration and Integration: A Look at Global, National and Local Challenges," at the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society.

With reference to the University of Alberta node, most of the lectures were held on the premises of partnering organizations and only a few on campus. This proved to be helpful in drawing policy-makers and NGOs to the lectures. The topics covered this year included: "The End of the Rainbow: Experiences, Achievements and Aspirations of Immigrant Youth" (James Frideres, University of Calgary); "Refugees in Egypt: Another Way of Looking at the World" (Christine Baghdady, graduate student, University of Alberta); "Gender, Immigrants and Political Participation" (Yasmeen Abu-Laban, University of Alberta); "Disaster Child Care: Responding to Kosovar Children Waiting in Canada" (Marlene Mulder, graduate student, and Humera Ibrahim, University of Alberta); "The Social, the Cultural, the Aesthetic: Dimensions of Migrant Youth Belonging" (Yvnge Lithman, University of Bergen); "Support and Barriers for Immigrant Women Who Care for a Family Member" (Anne Neufeld, University of Alberta); "Canada as a New Place: How Asian Immigrants May Relate to their Physical Environment" (Cheuk Fan Ng, Athabasca University); "Ups and Downs: The Social Integration of Salvadorean Refugees in Regina" (Douglas Durst, University of Regina); "Minority Challenge to Majority Identity" (Wsevolod Isajiw, University of Toronto); "The Role of Changing Together: A Centre for Immigrant Women in the Well-Being of its Clientele" (Katherine Hibbard, graduate student, University of Alberta); and "Making Health, Making Whole: Views from New Canadians" (Denise Spitzer, University of Alberta).

Regarding the Prairie Centre’s web site, it should be noted the Webmaster, Lenise Lévesque Edwards, was on maternity leave for the larger part of 1999-2000. Despite this, however, the web site continued to develop and some notable changes have been made. For example, the virtual library has undergone an extensive overhaul and new web site management software was installed on the Metropolis server in early January 1999. This upgrade has increased the overall efficiency of the system, and more specifically, decreased the time required to update and maintain the site.

The Prairie Centre web site continues to offer quick and easy access to grant application packages, reports from Centre workshops and other conferences, and past issues of the Centre's newsletter, Prairie Notes, remain available online. Moreover, the remote system which gives Prairie Centre researchers secure access to the Metropolis data has been updated.

Recently the Centre’s Webmaster returned from her maternity leave, in time for the annual webmasters’ meeting. She continues to work with the other Centres and the Ottawa Metropolis Project Team on the development of the Metropolis network of web sites, which will undergo further upgrading in the spring of 2000.

The Prairie Centre’s quarterly newsletter, Notes From the Prairie Centre, is distributed to all affiliated researchers, partnering organizations, and community contacts. The information contained in the newsletter includes profiles of research underway at the Prairie Centre or among our partnering organizations as well as announcements concerning conferences, workshops, news from research affiliates and announcements of publications related to immigration research. Four issues of the newsletter were published in 1999-2000.

Despite the fact that the Mid-Term Review Report of the Expert Committee recognized the Prairie Centre’s achievements in all the areas under review and was highly complimentary, the following problems and challenges need to be highlighted.

1. The role of Domain Leader inherent in the structure of Metropolis is a complex and demanding one, more so in a large region such as the one served by the Prairie Centre. The Centre has experienced some turnover in the incumbency of this role (most recently in the Social and Cultural Domain, but also in the Cultural and "Citizenship and Political" Domains). The challenge here is to motivate and retain domain leaders, and to find ways and means by which this leadership role is made more rewarding.

2. Following the institutionalization of a strategic research planning process, as suggested by the Mid-Term Review Report of the Expert Committee, two domain-driven research projects have been developed, one in the Health Domain and the other in the Economic Domain. However, two more projects need to be developed this year: one in the Social and Cultural Domain and the second in the Education Domain.

3. The Prairie Centre is currently involved in cross-node/cross-centre research in the Health and Education domains, in line with the Expert Committee’s Mid-Term Review Report. However, efforts need to be intensified to do more of this type of research.

4. Although relations with community partners and NGOs have evolved to encompass mutual trust and respect, and are mutually beneficial, the Prairie Centre plans to further strengthen its communication links with immigrant and other community groups in all five prairie cities, in line with the Review Report of the Expert Committee.

5. Unlike the other three city-based Metropolis Centres, the Prairie Centre faces the administrative challenge of geographical dispersal over a large region of Canada and many cities. The Prairie Centre has developed a number of strategies to mitigate this challenge, such as making use of the new information technology (teleconferences, e-mail, etc.), institutionalizing a research planning process in the form of regional workshops, and bolstering the web site (e.g., populating the virtual library and mounting password-protected Metropolis data). While these strategies proved to be helpful, the challenge of geographical dispersal, in terms of added costs and operational efficiency, continues to exist.

6. Another challenge in the coming year concerns the publication of the Journal of International Migration and Integration (JIMI). This challenge stems partly from the need to establish a backlog of quality manuscripts for publication, partly from the need to build subscriptions, and partly from the need to coordinate efforts between the journal’s North American and European Editors.

7. In 1999-2000, in line with the Mid-Term Review Report of the Expert Committee, the Prairie Centre made a special effort to build stronger relationships with the provincial governments. For example, the Manitoba Department of Labour, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Division, joined the Prairie Centre as a partnering organization. However, the challenge for the Prairie Centre is to seek not only improved participation by the provincial governments, but also funding commitments.

The problems and challenges noted above reflect not only an awareness of issues inherent in the unfolding and evolution of the highly complex Metropolis Project, but also the Prairie Centre’s resolve to forge ahead and improve on what it has by fine tuning its involvement in this strategic research area.

The following is a synopsis of the Centre’s main activities for 2000-2001, grouped under four headings:

• Establish research teams and finalize the domain-driven research programs in both the Social and Cultural Domain and the Education Domain.

• Develop at least one research project jointly with a community-based stakeholder.

• Continue data analyses, interpretations, and publication of research reports.

• Continue to consult and collaborate with policy-makers and community-based stakeholders and, as suggested by the Expert Committee Report, pursue opportunities for collaboration with colleagues in the US.

• Develop a communications and research dissemination strategic plan for the Centre.

• Publish four issues of the Journal of International Migration and Integration in 2000.

• Develop the web site and the virtual library further, and publish the Centre’s Newsletter and Data Notes.

• Fund quality grant applications that meet the Centre’s deadline of April 30, 2000.

• Develop an innovative program for the third prairie regional workshop, to be held in Saskatoon, September 21-23, 2000.

• Monitor the progress of Centre-funded research projects.

The Expert Committee that reviewed the Prairie Centre last June acknowledged there was a high level of interest in and commitment to the Metropolis Project throughout the prairie region. We will continue to improve on what we have and ensure that PCERII researchers remain productive scholars.

Respectfully submitted,

Baha Abu-Laban, Director

Kelly McKean, Administrative Coordinator

UPDATED June 2000