immigrantchildren.ca

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has released a report today on the barriers to immigrant integration. A brief quote from the report/website:

“Municipalities are the front-line, first-responders for many immigrants´ needs, yet we collect just eight cents of every tax-dollar paid in Canada and have been given no formal role in developing federal immigration policies and programs,” said FCM vice-president Claude Dauphin. “The federal government must recognize municipalities as key partners in immigrant settlement and work with us to tailor solutions to local needs.”

“FCM called on the federal government to protect long-term investments in communities, including more than $500 million in annual housing investments scheduled to expire during the next decade; protect and build on recent investments in Canada’s infrastructure and public transit; work with municipalities, provinces and territories to design longer-term settlement programs that respond better to changing local needs; and collect data on immigrants´ needs and report back to Canadians on the results”.

Among the main findings of the FCM report is the need to provide more and better ESL clasess for parents, alongside afffordable, accessible child care.

Read the full report here.

This spring, the Social Planning Council of Ottawa concluded work on “Immigrant children, youth and families: A Qualitative analysis of the challenges of integration”, as part of their Families in Community project.

The report addresses the disconnect when newcomer families feel their parenting and child-rearing methods are not acknowledged/respected and the tension service providers feel about some newcomers who they perceive demonstrate a lack of commitment to early child development.

Next stages in the SPCO Families in Community project will result in:

An analysis of best/good practices for culturally-based family supports by ethno-cultural organizations.

Supports to good/best practices within 8 pilot projects with small ethno-cultural organizations.

A resource kit for mainstream family services based on good practices serving new immigrant families.

The report will be launched at the annual Social Planning Council of Ottawa AGM, May 26, 2011 in Ottawa. For information, contact Helene by May 15 at 613-236-9300 ext. 300 office@spcottawa.on.ca.  Free admission, but donations are welcome.

Inter-Action is the new Multiculturalism Grants program, administered by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

From the latest funding call:

“The Program supports CIC’s mandate and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act by assisting the socio-economic integration of individuals and communities and their contributions to building an integrated and socially cohesive society”.

“Priority areas under consideration for this call are: Youth, including youth at risk; Faith communities and organizations; Immigrants. Themes focus on: Citizenship rights and responsibilities; Facilitating positive interaction among different cultural, ethnic and religious communities in Canada”.

For more information, including application forms and details on applying, see the CIC site and the Settlement At Work site.

Deadline for applications is Oct 15, 2010.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has funded the organization CMAS (Childminding Monitoring Advisory Support) to conduct a national consultation of the settlement community, including immigrant serving organizations, Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) administrators and childminders, towards the development of a new child care model for newcomer families. The consultation process includes an online survey and teleconferences. See the CMAS website for information and details.

The Department of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism are entertaining proposals for projects “Promoting Integration*“.

Program Objectives:

1. Ethno-cultural/racial minorities participate in public decision-making (civic participation) To assist in the development of strategies that facilitate full and active participation of ethnic, racial, cultural, and religious communities in Canadian society.
2. Communities and the broad public engage in informed dialogue and sustained action to combat racism (anti-racism/anti-hate/cross-cultural understanding) To increase public awareness, understanding and informed public dialogue about multiculturalism, racism, and cultural diversity in Canada.To facilitate collective community initiatives and responses to ethnic, racial, cultural, and religious conflict and hate-motivated activities.
3. Public institutions eliminate systemic barriers (institutional change) To improve the ability of public institutions to respond to ethnic, racial, cultural, and religious diversity by assisting in the identification and removal of barriers to equitable access and by supporting the involvement of these ethno-racial/cultural communities in the public decision-making process.

Program Priorities

1. Program Priorities:Support the economic, social, and cultural integration of new Canadians and cultural communities. Emphasis will be placed on projects which aim to: assist new Canadians and cultural communities to gain knowledge and skills for economic, social, and cultural integration and civic engagement; provide opportunities and support for the involvement of new Canadians and cultural communities to work in partnerships with various stakeholders towards identifying and resolving issues affecting them (schools, social services, employment, recognition of foreign credentials, justice systems, policing, media, etc.); improve the ability of public institutions to respond to, and integrate, ethnic, racial, cultural, and religious diversity by assisting in the identification and removal of barriers to equitable access.
2. Facilitate programs such as mentorship, volunteerism, leadership, and civic education among at-risk cultural youth Areas of emphasis include projects that will: assist cultural youth at-risk to gain self-confidence, knowledge, and skills for participation and civic engagement (volunteerism); provide opportunities for youth through partnerships with their peers, adults, and community leaders as well as through mentorship initiatives, to gain practical learning experience and develop the skills necessary to contribute to the economic, social and cultural life of their communities; assist in addressing the root causes of cultural youth marginalization, detachment, and radicalization; assist youth in responding to racism and hate-motivated activities.
3. Promote inter-cultural understanding and Canadian values (democracy, freedom, human rights and rule of law) through community initiatives, with the objective of addressing issues of cultural social exclusion (parallel communities) and radicalization. Areas of emphasis include projects that will: foster interaction between different communities and support cross-sector collaboration in community-based projects to build and shape an inclusive and respectful society; facilitate collective community initiatives and responses to combat ethnic, racial, cultural and religious conflicts and hate-motivated activities; support community-based initiatives designed to facilitate inter-faith dialogue and increase understanding of the place of religion in Canada in order to combat ignorance and faulty assumptions and foster constructive and informed dialogue about multiculturalism, religions, racism, cultural diversity, and Canadian values; encourage activities aimed at reaching society at large to facilitate inter-cultural understanding and address the cultural social exclusion of some communities; increase awareness and understanding of racism and discrimination and take action to foster equal opportunities for all people; reduce or eliminate factors contributing to exclusion, disenchantment, and radicalization.

*Still no official definition of “integration” from the Federal government.

The Liberal Party of Canada released yesterday their Pink Book, Volume III: An Action Plan for Canadian Women. I tweeted overall disappointment in not addressing immigration issues and specifically that there was no discussion or proposal for improving the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program that brings women to Canada as nannies to provide child care for Canadian women (often leaving behind their own children in the process).

The third volume in the Pink Book series does make commitments on child care and on a “national care-giving strategy” (p. 8) but doesn’t connect the dots. Here’s what they say about early learning and child care, under the general heading of Women in the Economy:

“The National Liberal Women’s Caucus recommends that a new federal Liberal government: Work with the provinces and territories to build a system of affordable, accessible and high-quality early learning and childcare spaces across the country, including programs to meet the unique needs of rural families” (p. 6).

Continuing in the same category, they propose to “Establish a ‘Bridging-to-Employment’ program covering the first 6 weeks of salary for new immigrant and visible minority women employees. Workplace educational programs should also be expanded to help break down existing racial and gender stereotypes” (p. 7).

The problem with these policy directions include not recognizing that much of the patchwork that is the child care system in Canada is provided by immigrant women in the informal, unlicensed sector.  Canada brings in TFWs/nannies to address labour shortages. The human resource issues in regulated child care are numerous and are being examined by a federal body, but again, there is no link made in this third volume of policies to improve life for women in Canada.

A truly comprehensive plan for women in Canada requires reconciling immigration policy that exploits migrant women workers, does not deliver ‘high-quality’ early learning, and furthers racial and gender stereotypes with the plans to create an affordable, accessible and high quality system. The overlaps and gaps are clear.

An interesting piece is the attention paid to language in legislation, including a commitment to change foreign policy wording of “children in armed conflict” to “child soldiers”. Curious.

In March ’09,  TVO and HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters) to deliver literacy programming, targeted to newcomer children and families. This week, the federal government has funded HIPPY to develop and deliver “culturally sensitive programs” for immigrant children.

The funding (around $3M from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and $300,000 from Human Resources and Skills Development) will be used to “increase Canadian content” in the HIPPY curriculum and expand programs across Canada.

The Federal government might consider increasing funding to the child care portion of their own LINC program (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada). LINC provides language training and settlement support to adults, and provides what’s called “childminding” for children of LINC students. The childminders, many of whom are Early Childhood Educators, and therefore trained in promoting language and literacy development (including having a unique understanding of the importance of retaining the home language while learning a new language) are among the first points of contact to Canadian society for immigrant children and are well positioned to work with LINC instructors, who work with parents. Now, that’s a partnership that could support integration.

The Maytree Foundation held an online media event (teleconference and webinar) on their latest paper “Adjusting the Balance: Fixing Canada’s Economic Immigration Policies”. In the online Q&A after the presentation, Naomi Alboim informed us that she is now working on another paper that will address the live-in caregiver and seasonal agricultural worker programs. We look forward to an examination of family reunification and transnational families in the next paper.

NB: Maytree and Naomi Alboim used the term “family unification” v. family reunification. We like it!

Visit the Maytree Foundation site to download the current paper, the online presentation notes and after July 27th, the online media event.

Federal Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, The Honourable Jason Kenney Friday, July 10/09 announced $9.5 Million to Calgary immigrant serving organizations delivering language training. Citing once again the well-known quote by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Kenney reiterated that “newcomers have a right to be different but a duty to integrate”. Adding:

“Our new focus is on integration. We don’t want to create a bunch of silo communities where kids grow up in a community that more resembles their parents’ country of origin than Canada”. (Source: The Canadian Press).

Calgary immigrant serving organizations were happy to receive the funds, however, no details were made available on whether or how much of this funding is allocated to children’s settlement and language training.

The St. Joseph Immigrant Women’s Centre in Hamilton, Ontario today received over $130,000 to support a financial literacy program for immigrant women. The Centre works with refugee and immigrant women and “provides services including labour market training and support, language and driving instruction, educational funding, and health services for women and their families”.

Minister of State, Status of Women, Helena Guergis made the announcement today. From the news release:

“New Canadians play a vital role in contributing to Canada’s economy. Especially during these tough economic times, it is more important than ever that new Canadians have the opportunity and skills to contribute fully,” said Minister Guergis. “By supporting the St. Joseph’s Immigrant Women’s Centre in carrying out this important project, our Government is working to ensure that immigrant and refugee women have the tools they need to overcome poverty”.

immigrantchildren.ca hopes that child care is supported as one of the tools to lift newcomer families out of poverty – and provide children with quality early learning opportunities.

Status of Women Canada have funded the Canadian Council of Muslim Women to direct a project to assist the integration and inclusion of young Muslim women and girls.

From the April 2/09 news announcement:

Status of Women Canada will provide $314,000 for a project called “Being a Canadian Muslim Woman in the 21st Century.” It will focus on equipping young Muslim women to lead and participate in a number of workshops with their educators and non-Muslim and male peers to discuss discrimination, violence and human rights.

The Council will be working in partnership with two other organizations – the Afghan Women’s Organization of Toronto and YOUCAN.

A description of the project from the Status of Women website:

This project will involve seven schools from across Ontario located in Toronto, London, Peel and Waterloo. Muslim girls and their classmates will develop leadership skills as well as knowledge of their rights regarding gender equality, racial equality and how to eliminate violence in their lives. Muslim girls, with the assistance of their educators, non-Muslim and male peers, will form a Steering Committee in each school. These Committees will lead a series of workshops addressing discrimination, violence and human rights. A Steering Committee Coordinator will organize each school to contribute to the formation of a tool for educators. This tool will provide a basis for reacting sensitively and knowledgably to the issues facing young Muslim women in the 21st century.

Metropolis National Research Competition, an initiative of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), has issued a call for proposals. This year’s research question is:

From the point of view of governments and of newcomers and minorities, are government-NGO partnerships the most effective model for delivering services for integration and inclusion in Canada?

Deadline is September 30, 2009.

For details about the call, including eligibility, process, application forms and more, see this SSHRC page.