Gender and Immigrant Political Participation in Comparative Perspective

Research Team:
Dr. Yasmeen Abu-Laban (University of Alberta) - Principal Investigator

This research project focuses on the under-examined question of the similarities and differences in the political participation of female and male immigrants in Canada, the United States and countries of Western Europe. It pools the findings of existing comparative studies, and the bulk of single country case studies focusing on immigrant political participation, to develop a comparative conceptual framework for understanding immigrant politics. In addressing the nature and effects of immigrant political participation, attention will be paid to defining "participation,"; revealing how immigrants have variably effected the political process and outcomes at local, national and even transnational levels; and, documenting the interplay between "host society" laws, policies and practices versus the race/ethnicity, class and gender of immigrants in accounting for potentially different forms of participation and the content of political demands. It is suggested that knowing the similarities and differences between immigrant women and men, and across time and space, enhances our explanatory and theoretical base, as well as potential to make effective and inclusive policy prescriptions informed by knowledge of the full range of constraints and opportunities for the full participation of immigrants in political life.

Providers of support to Survivors of Torture

Research Team:
Dr. Nancy Arthur (University of Calgary) - Principal Investigator

The impact of organized violence or torture is evidenced in longstanding physiological, psychological, and interpersonal effects for individuals and families. Symptoms related to the trauma of torture may surface during the migration process or be exacerbated through the stress of resettlement. Interventions designed to assist survivors of torture require a concerted community effort to understand related adjustment difficulties and to develop appropriate interventions. Although community members and professional specialists may be active in assisting migrants, they are often ill-prepared to meet the needs of survivors of torture. Further, providers of support are at risk of debilitating stress reactions, known as vicarious traumatization, in reaction to working with migrants who have experienced the trauma of torture. In order to prepare community members for the role that they may play in the settlement process, this study is an exploratory investigation of experiences and needs of people who provide support to survivors of torture. The study involves two areas, 1) interviews with host volunteers and community professionals who provide support services to survivors or torture, and 2) the development of an annotated bibliography of the literature on vicarious traumatization. The results of both areas of the study will be used as the basis of inquiry for recommendations regarding the training of host volunteers and community professionals who provide services to survivors of torture.

Teaching and Cultural Integration

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Research Team:
Dr. Terrance Carson (University of Alberta) - Principal Investigator
Dr. Robert Graham (University of Manitoba)
Dr. Hans Smits (University of Regina)
Dr. Ingrid Johnston (University of Alberta)

Successful integration of an increasing number of immigrant students into Canadian society will depend directly on preparing prospective and practicing teachers for the diverse needs of students in heterogeneous classes.

This on-going, collaborative research project on ethno-cultural diversity is being conducted in the faculties of education at the Universities of Alberta, Regina, and Manitoba and in selected secondary schools in the three prairie cities of Edmonton, Regina and Winnipeg.

Initial insights gained from questionnaire responses and interviews with secondary route student teachers in each of the three faculties of education about their experiences with and preparation for culturally-diverse classrooms have enabled the investigative team to pursue specific research questions related to teacher education and to the needs of ethno-culturally diverse communities.

Future in-depth research with student teachers will enable the research team to understand the kinds of educational programs and intervention strategies in teacher education which might be effective in promoting ethno-cultural understanding and integration. Individual school action research projects with students, teachers and parents of partnership schools will offer schools new strategies for responding to the needs of their culturally diverse communities.

Factors Influencing Child Rearing Practices of Recently Migrated East Indian and Chinese Women with Children from Infancy to Age Six

Research Team:
Dr. David Este (University of Calgary) - Principal Investigator
Dr. Sarla Sethi (University of Calgary)
Ms. Maya Charlebois (Calgary Health Services)

In 1992 the majority of new immigrants to the City of Calgary came from Hong Kong, Philippines, and India (Samuel, 1992). People of different nationalities make a concerted effort to transmit their cherished cultural beliefs and values to their children in the new environment. From a review of the literature, it became evident that there is a lack of research addressing child-rearing practices of non-Western societies. This has resulted in the lack of understanding of the values and beliefs guiding the child-rearing practices of new immigrants of varied ethnic and cultural orientations.

The proposed research is designed to explicate factors that influence child-rearing practices of recently (up to 36 months) immigrated East Indian and Chinese women with children from infancy to 6 years.

The study will use the generic qualitative method presented by Schatzman and Strauss (1973). A minimum of 15 women from each cultural group will be recruited and data from them will be collected using semi-structured interviews.

The findings of this study will be very beneficial for all involved in assisting newly immigrated families in their transition to Canada. Increased understanding of diverse beliefs and practices will be extremely helpful in the development of a variety of social policies and programs that will facilitate the incorporation of new immigrants ways of being.

The Settlement Renewal Initiative: Quo Vadis Immigrant Settlement in Canada?

Research Team:
Dr. Joseph Garcea (University of Saskatchewan) - Principal Investigator

The overarching objective of this research project is to analyze the Settlement Renewal initiative undertaken by the federal government between 1995 and 1996. More specifically the objective is to examine the purpose, process, and products of that initiative.

In analyzing the purpose and process of the Settlement Renewal initiative the objectives will be to ascertain the political, programmatic, and economic factors that provided the impetus for it, shaped the process used during the first stage of the initiative, and influenced the substantive content of the products (i.e., various position papers, briefs, and reports) of the first stage of the initiative.

In analyzing the products of the first stage of that initiative the objective will be to ascertain the recommended and potential policy and management directions for the immigrant settlement services sector in the future. The Settlement Renewal initiative has produced a plethora of documentation that contains invaluable observations and recommendations regarding future directions both for the policy and management of immigrant settlement services. A detailed and thematic analysis of those observations and recommendations has not been produced to date. Such an analysis would not only help answer questions regarding what the prevailing views of stakeholders are regarding various issues and options in reforming policies and management structures in the settlement sector, but it would also provide a basis for discussing and negotiating future reforms.

The research project will result in three products. The first product will be a thematic compendium of recommendations on policy and management directions made by various organizations both to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and also to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration during their respective consultation process. The compendium will be titled: A Thematic Compendium of Recommendations on Policy and Management Directions for Settlement Services in Canada: 1995-1996. The second product will be an article titled: "The CIC Immigrant Settlement Renewal Initiative: Purpose, Process, Prescriptions, and Progress." The third product is an article titled: "Settlement Renewal: The Role and Recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration."

The Triple Ghetto: The Spatial Concentration of Poverty Among Prairie Immigrants

Research Team:
Dr. Shiva Halli (University of Manitoba) - Principal Investigator

The recent rise of poverty in Canada has disproportionately affected certain segments of society: female-headed single parent families, aged, children and disabled. Immigrants, and in particular, those of visible minority origins, are another group which are over-represented among poor. The extent of immigrants’ poverty, surprisingly enough, has not been investigated before. The previous research on immigrants, and their resultant public policies such as ‘Employment Equity’, have heavily focused on the differential incomes of foreign-born and native-born, as well as their representation in certain occupations. The main concern of these studies has been to locate the trace of discrimination against immigrants in the job market. Such programs, however, benefited mostly the middle class immigrants who typically enjoyed higher education and better job skills. The poor immigrants who lacked such qualifications, therefore, were left out and forced into a ‘triple ghetto’ situation. They were ‘ghettoized’ because of their social class, their immigrant status, and their ethnic origin. Also, they are likely to suffer from an additional dimension of poverty, namely, ‘spatially concentrated poverty’, which is not necessarily experienced by all poor. The ‘spatially concentrated poverty’ occurs at the neighbourhood-level and has the potential to turn the immigrants’ temporary poverty into persistent poverty, a poverty which extends across generations. The main thrust of this study is to investigate the magnitude of Canadian immigrants’ Spatial Concentration of Poverty (SCOP). Some initial inquiries point out that extent of SCOP for Prairie immigrants may be significantly higher than that of immigrants in other CMAs. The findings of this study have direct implications for poverty alleviation programs as well as public housing projects.

Religion as Place: Autonomous Integration and the Construction of Community by Deracinated People

Research Team:
Dr. Alison Hayford (University of Regina) - Principal Investigator

This study will examine one or more religious centres developed by deracinated people (immigrants) in a medium size (180,000) city where the numbers of immigrants are too small to allow for the development of ethnic neighbourhoods. The purpose of the study is to examine the ways in which religion and the creation of religious centres are forms of autonomous integration for deracinated people - that is, to study the ways in which people achieve both maintenance of cultural identity and involvement in the institutions, cultures, and other aspects of the larger society. Religion can be a moral and geographic space which provides a centre of social identity, and the creation of religious centres can be central to the construction of community. This is particularly the case where there is no other geographic definition of community (i.e., ethnic neighbourhoods). As institutions, religious centres become part of larger social institutional structures and practices. When deracinated people create and maintain religious centres, they not only create spaces for the expression of cultural distinctiveness, they also achieve a degree of integration with the new society.

Immigrant Women and Health: Phase 2 of WHEALTH

Research Team:
Dr. Lynn Meadows (University of Calgary) - Principal Investigator
Dr. Wilfreda Thurston (University of Calgary)

Purpose: Immigrant Women and Health: Phase II of WHEALTH will describe and identify patterns of variation related to immigrant women’s status characteristics. The health issues of immigrant women may differ significantly from those of women who are Canadian born.

Objectives: To identify patterns and variations in descriptions of health, and analyse the connection between them (e.g., education, income, English language proficiency, acculturation, social support, place of residence).

Significance: An understanding of women’s own perceptions of the meaning, experience and social and cultural context of their health and what influences it is important to designing programs that will have the maximum potential for being utilized.

Study Design: A grounded theory approach guided by advice from the 5-member Working committee, with membership from the community, university and immigrant service agencies. Maximum variation sampling will be used, face-to-face in-depth interviews and focus group interviews used to gather data. Verbatim transcripts will be analysed using the constant comparative method and thematic analysis.

Policy Implications: Study findings will be communicated to front-line community service agencies in a timely manner, and a condition of collaboration. They will be reported in the usual academic fora, as well as through a summary report to relevant government agencies.

The Voices of Immigrant Children in Canadian Schools

Research Team:
Dr. Bernard Schissel (University of Saskatchewan) - Principal Investigator

This research project is designed to study the attitudes and behaviours of immigrant children and youth in the Canadian school system. This interview-based survey of Saskatchewan elementary and high school immigrant students compares their experiences in the school system on the bases of gender, geography, socio-economic status, and country of origin. The results will provide a significant contribution to the study of immigration, education and integration because of the focus on the ‘voices’ of students. Education policy rarely draws on the individual and collective insights of children and this research begins with the premise that students are the most important stakeholders in the education system. As a consequence, they may have the most relevant recommendations for creating a more livable school environment which respects diversity.

Immigrant Women Organizing for Change: Integration and Community Development by Immigrant Women in the Maritimes

Research Team:
Dr. Evangelia Tastsoglou (Saint Mary’s University) - Principal Investigator
Dr. Baukje Miedema (University of New Brunswick)

The processes of immigration and integration are fraught with hardship for the majority of immigrants from non-English speaking countries or immigrant visible minorities, but in particular for immigrant women, who often come as dependent immigrants. Institutional, social and even cultural barriers render integration for immigrant women slow and difficult to achieve, or even unattainable. Based on statistical information, we know that immigrant women are not well integrated even though they often have higher levels of education than Canadian-born women, their average earnings are less, they are over-represented in the lower status jobs and they are often underemployed. Using a qualitative approach, namely focus groups and oral life histories, this research project proposes to examine the integration process of immigrant women in the major urban centres in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and to document the organizational activities of immigrant women assessing their significance in the integration process. The major questions addressed by this study include how immigrant women are integrated, what integration means to them, what barriers to equitable integration they face, what activities facilitate immigrant women’s integration in Canadian society and what role immigrant women’s ethnic-specific and multicultural organizations play in the integration process.

Shifting Origins, Shifting Labour Markets: Trends in the Occupational Attainment of Immigrants to Canada

Research Team:
Dr. Richard Wanner (University of Calgary) - Principal Investigator

The research proposed here will use unit-record data from Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey and the Census of Canada to determine the extent to which the opportunities afforded immigrants in Canada’s labour market are equivalent to the opportunities of the Canadian born, given equivalent human capital endowments. We will study trends in the occupational attainment process to determine the extent to which immigrants, particularly immigrants in urban labour markets, have matched the occupational attainments of native-born men and women. We will not only update earlier research on this issue but go beyond it by determining the effect of immigrant enclave and peripheral labour market employment in Canada on the mobility opportunities of immigrants. Rather than simply determining the extent to which immigrant status and country of origin are associated with occupational level, the analysis will examine differences in the process by which years of schooling and educational credentials are converted into occupational standing and the impact of both self-employment and the availability of co-ethnic employment.

Processes of Maturation and Development among Alberta Muslims

Research Team:
Dr. Earle Waugh (University of Alberta) - Principal Investigator

Earlier works on the Muslims in North America have focused on the issue of continuation and survival. It is now clear that Muslim immigrant groups are beyond this position and are moving into a more mature phase. Consequently, it is important that the ways and means of this process be identified and analyzed. Moreover, Islam has become part of the fabric of the larger Canadian community and with it, women have moved into a position commensurate with that stance. While this proposal is directed at determining and evaluating the indicators of maturity of the Muslim community in Alberta, it does so at three distinctive levels; urban, small town and rural. Levels which are adaptable across a wide spectrum of Muslim life in Canada.