The Immigration and Refugee Board is seeking full-time order-in-council members for its offices in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary. The positions are with the Refugee Protection Division and the Immigration Appeal Division. Let’s get some child advocates inside! Deadline to apply is June 30th.
The CBCs Sunday Edition program will broadcast a panel discussion on Canada’s immigration policy, Sunday, June 8 at 9:11am. Panelists include Catherine Dauvergne, Canada Research Chair in Migration Law, justice domain leader and Board member of Metropolis BC.
“Policy Options“, the publication of the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) has several stories on immigration and immigration policy in their June 2008 issue. We are pleased that 2 of the reports touch on issues related to immigrant children and families, although slightly disappointed in an article by Robin Sears.
Sears writes on the history of immigration policy in “Canada: If you build it, people will come” and notes that Canada received thousands of “guest children” during WWII in order to provide them with “safe haven”, but neglects to report on the shameful accounts of the 100,000 “home children” who were brought to Canada to serve the nation’s workforce needs.
Nik Nanos provides analysis on a recent poll in “Nation building through immigration: Workforce skills come out on top” and reports that “four Canadians in five thought family reunification was important or somewhat important”.
The Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS) is inviting feedback from the public on its intention to develop and implement what is being called “full day learning for 4 and 5 year olds“. The early learning advisor, Dr. Charles Pascal, provides an introduction to the initiative and provides a list of assumptions he is working under, and a discussion guide, which includes opportunity for input.
We are pleased that Dr. Pascal acknowledges and highlights issues related to immigrant children and families. From his list of assumptions, this statement:
Respect for diversity, equity and inclusion are critical for honoring children’s rights, optimal development, learning, and contributing to a more inclusive society. Ontario is a province of many cultures, religions, and languages and early childhood programs need to reflect those differences. Environments that promote attitudes and beliefs that celebrate equity, diversity and democracy and are inclusive of children with special needs enable character development and provide children with a strong sense of self in relation to others. Quality early learning environments incorporate the diversity of their participants to enrich programming for all. As well, while universally available, effective early learning programming should adapt to a wide variety of individual differences and needs of children and families.
Introducing the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) database on immigrants in OECD countries.
The database provides a comparative, comprehensive set of data, including demographic and labour market information. The database draws on population census, registers and includes demographic information including age and gender.
Visit the OECD website, OECD.StatExtracts and click on “Demography and Population” and follow the links to the database.
The Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University invites proposals for its 3rd Alternatives conference.
The Centre is seeking proposals that “explore the current state and future trajectories of Canadian Studies as a field of interdisciplinary inquiry” and that “explore different approaches to Canadian Studies”.
Among other topics, and of interest to the Canadian Coalition for Immigrant Children and Youth, the Centre is interested in receiving proposals that address transnationalism, transculturalism and Canadian Studies and the cultural politics of diversity.
For more information, see the Centre website or contact Dr. Andrew Nurse at anurse@mta.ca or 506.364.2350.
Deadline for submissions is November 30, 2008.
June 20th marks World Refugee Day. See the United Nations High Commission on Refugees website for information, resources and promotional material.