immigrantchildren.ca

People for Education has a series of useful parent tip sheets, in several languages, on a variety of topics related to starting school.

Topics include:

Starting school can be scary for kids and parents ~ Tips to help parents prepare their children for Kindergarten and Grade 1.

What is the role of the Ministry of Education, school boards, schools, teachers and school councils? Who does what.

Parent-teacher interviews ~ How to make the best use of time with your child’s teacher.

Homework help ~ How to support your child in their homework.

Health and physical education and activity ~ Physical, emotional and mental health as key predictors of future quality of life.

High School courses and choices ~ Making the right decisions.

Solving problems at school ~ Tips for parents and children if problems arise at school.

Special Ed ~ All about special education programs for children with challenges and/or learning disAbilities.

EQAO ~ What are the EQAO tests? How can parents help prepare their children?

Tip sheets are currently available in the following languages:

Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, Korean, Punjabi, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, Urdu.

In November, immigrantchildren.ca marks its third anniversary!

See the entry marking Year One here and the 2nd anniversary post here.

While I have enjoyed finding, analyzing and sharing information, resources, research, Canadian and international initiatives related to immigrant, refugee, newcomer children with my blog visitors, summer is a great time to evaluate the impact of immigrantchildren.ca make some plans for changes and improvements and see if it can be made better.

In anticipation of the 3rd anniversary, I am asking What else would you like to see on this blog? How can I help you in your efforts to understand the settlement, integration needs of young children, birth to age eight and their families?

How can I help you?

• Are there resources you believe are missing?
• Would you like to see online videos, presentations, other social media apps/tricks? If so, what would you like? What do you recommend?
• Do you wish there were more comments from others in the field?
• Would you like to see what academics, researchers, policymakers and others are thinking about the issues raised here?
• Would you like to read interviews with key folks in the immigration and settlement field?
• Would you like to participate in online webinars to develop your cultural competencies or just to learn more about the range of cultures that land on our shores?
• How about quizzes to test your knowledge on immigrant/refugee policy? Issues related to supporting the home language of newcomer children? For service providers, would you like to have a forum to ask questions, such as how to respond to requests for acommoation for religious/cultural practices?

Finally, are there existing sites run from a Canadian perspective that you think I may learn from or that I might consider collaborating/partnering with?

• How about the layout of the site? In 2007, I chose the banner on the home children, because that is the issues that sparked my interest in the history of immigrant children in the first place. Now here we are in 2010 – the Year of the British Home Child in Canada. Seems like a perfect fit – although there have been suggestions that my banner ought to better reflect the children who arrive on Canada’s shores today. What do you think?

As tweeted last month (and I shall reminder folks again), immigrantchildren.ca will be up and down often over  the month of August in order to plan and make changes, improvements, and etc. You can always reach me through DM on twitter or via email: zs dot worotynec at utoronto dot ca. And, of course, leaving a comment here may spark others to add their own comments, so feel free!

Many thanks for all with an interest, dedication to, and appreciation of the distinct needs of immigrant, refugee and newcomer children to Canada.

Please leave a comment below, or contact me. I am keen to hear your ideas.

Thanks,

Z Sonia Worotynec

Metropolis Canada held a national forum in January asking presenters to answer the question “How could communities be more welcoming” to immigrants. Several presentations are now available on their website.

Interesting note: One of the presentations by CIC defines “integration” as “the ability to contribute, free of barriers, to every dimension of Canadian life – economic, social, cultural and political”. (Source: Metropolis Canada Welcoming Communities presentation by CIC staff member Deborah Tunis).

NB: UPDATE Jan 19th: The call for proposals has been extended to March 10th.

Following on the call for papers for the 4th annual On New Shores conference, co-organizer Dr. Susan Chuang has today announced additions to the conference. First, the conference will be dedicated to Dr. Tom Luster of Michigan State University, who passed away last year. Dr. Luster was an advocate for immigrant children and families and had attended two of the 4 On New Shores conferences.

Dr. Chuang has also arranged for all conference delegates to attend a traditional ten-course Chinese dinner as part of the conference, including transportation. A great opportunity to meet and network!

Reminder: Deadline for the call for papers is February 15th. For more info, contact Dr. Chuang at schuang@uoguelph.ca and see the related post: Call for papers: On New Shores.

January 2009

Pier 21, Canada’s Immigration Museum, received a cash infusion of $15 million from the Federal government to make the museum a national one.

The federal government budget included $50 million to support the work of the Foreign Credential program.

The federal Liberal party appointed MP for Brampton-Springdale, Ontario, Ruby Dhalla as critic for “Multiculturalism and Youth”. Maurizio Bevilacqua (MP for Vaughn, Ontario) remained critic for Citizenship and Immigration.

Safe Kids Canada launched an Ethno-Cultural Program, including multi-language injury prevention resources.

The Fraser Institute supported the federal government’s intention to reign in so-called ‘citizens of convenience’: “If you’re going to be a Canadian, you have to have some substantive ties. If you keep giving citizenship on indefinitely to your progeny and their progeny, the ties are pretty questionable.”

The Ontario Metropolis Centre/the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research in Immigration Studies (CERIS)  releases a literature review on barriers to integration and settlement for live-in caregivers.

National Post columnist George Jonas questions the Canadian “multiculturalism fallacy”, says promoting diversity (vs. tolerating it) creates “outsiders”, which is, in Jonas’ view, particularly harmful for children of immigrants: “.if unassimilated ‘diverse’ communities produce misfits, malcontents, traitors or outright terrorists, they’re more likely to produce them in the second or third generation. The jihadist is the native son rather than the immigrant father”.

February 2009

The Annual Report to Parliament on the Operation of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act 2007-2008 is tabled. The report acknowledges the “important development in Government policy, when the Prime Minister decided to link Multiculturalism policy and programs with those at Citizenship and Immigration Canada”.

The Canadian Council on Refugees (CCR) releases their Annual Status Report on Refugee and Immigrant Rights in Canada, 2008.

March 2009

Dr. Susan Chuang, University of Guelph,  released a discussion paper, entitled Immigrant Serving Agencies’ Perspective on the Issues and Needs of Immigrant and Refugee Children in Canada.

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister, The Honourable Jason Kenney addressed delegates at the Calgary Metropolis conference and startles delegates with what was widely perceived as the notion that prospective immigrants must have a “working knowledge of either English of French” in order to come to Canada.

TVO airs the documentary, My New Home as part of its series, Belong or Bust: Where Do I Fit In?. The series explored a variety of viewpoints on the themes of culture and identity and our place in society.

TVO and HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters) announce a partnership in literacy programming for newcomer children.

Rudyard Griffiths (Dominion Institute and author of “Who We Are: A Citizen’s Manifesto“) champions language as the key to successful integration and suggests that “The federal government should also put special emphasis on second-language training for school-age children”.

Welcome BC held a Learning Forum and Consultation on the Settlement Needs of Immigrant/Refugee Children 0-6 years of age and Their Families.

April 2009

The Hospital for Sick Children received over 9 million in settlement funding to establish an “immigrant support network“.

mylanguage.ca continued to promote the importance of newcomer children retaining their ‘home language’ by providing resources in multiple languages on their website.

An amendment to the Citizenship Act came into force with changes on the ‘first generation limitation’ impacting children.

May 2009

The Globe and Mail and the Dominion Institute launch a Public Policy Wiki as a vehicle to bring forward to government a range of views from the general public on matters of public policy. Among the topics is a section on immigration policy.

Settlement Arts, a Toronto-based organization established to raise awareness and increase education on immigration and settlement issues presents their first exhibit on transnational families entitled ‘Waiting for My Children’.

The Children’s Aid Foundation partnered with RBC to launch a Diversity Fund to support social service agencies abilities to work with a diverse population.

The Senate releases an investigative report, Early Childhood Education and Care: Next Steps, acknowledging the importance of high quality early learning and care for newcomer families and young children.

Maclean’s magazine featured an interview with Minister Jason Kenney where he expanded on the language and integration position.

June 2009

The Edmonton Public School system plans to pilot a program to assist immigrant children with integrating into school.

Status of Women Canada funds the Canadian Council of Muslim Women to develop a program to assist the integration and inclusion of young Muslim women and girls.

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM) releases a study on Migrant Workers and Ghost Consultants. The paper is the result of the investigation undertaken by the Committee on the Live-in Caregiver Program, and is a follow-up to the May 2009 report, Temporary Foreign Workers and Non-status Workers*.

Minister Jason Kenney was interviewed on TVO’s The Agenda and spoke about the importance of English/French for newcomer children.

July 2009

The Maytree Foundation, during an online webinar on ‘Adjusting the Balance: Fixing Canada’s Economic Immigration Policies’ coins the phrase “family unification” v. “family reunification“.

Children, registered to attend a summer camp in Ontario, were turned away from the border due to new regulations requiring visas for Mexicans.

The Institute for Canadian Citizenship partners with Toronto-area cultural institutions, like galleries and museums, in offering new citizens – and their children – passess to local cultural attractions.

Both Ottawa and Calgary launch settlement programs directly for newcomer children.

September 2009

The Canadian Mothercraft College offers an online (or in-person) course for settlement workers who work with young immigrant children and their families, funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

October 2009

The Liberal Party of Canada released their Pink Book, Volume III: An Action Plan for Canadian Women. The report does not address immigration issues, specifically 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).

November 2009

immigrantchildren.ca celebrates its 2nd birthday.

The Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto presented a lecture on child trafficking.

Britain apologizes to its ‘home children’; Canada refuses to do the same for its ‘home children’, although declared that 2010 will be The Year of The Home Child.

Minister Jason Kenney released an updated guide to Canadian Citizenship. Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has funded the organization CMAS (Childminding Monitoring Advisory Support) to conduct a national consultation towards the development of a new child care model for newcomer families.

Auditor-General Sheila Fraser raised serious questions around Canada’s immigration policies and system.

December 2009

The ‘Burka Barbie’ is scrutinized by Barbara Kay in the National Post and Mark Steyn in Maclean’s.

The federal Ministry of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism invited comments from the public on the newly introduced changes to the live-in caregiver program.

November 3, 2008 marks the first anniversary of immigrantchildren.ca. It has been a pleasure to find and share information related to immigrant children (birth to age eight) and their families with readers of this blog.

The 200th post went up in early October! The Election Fall ‘08 page, with its near-daily updates on immigration issues raised during the recent federal election campaign, received many new visitors.

Suggestions, criticisms and comments are always welcome.

A journalist from the CBCs Radio Canada International has asked immigrantchildren.ca to assist her with a story. She has identified that stories about immigrant children are often told by their parents, immigrant serving organizations, teachers and other adults. She wants to talk to immigrant children themselves to hear their perspectives and opinions for a story she is working on. Bravo!

If you can help Paloma Martinez connect with immigrant children for her story, please email her at paloma.martinez@radio-canada.ca  or if you’re in Montreal, by phone at 514.597.7515 as soon as possible and no later than the end of this week.

Let’s help ensure immigrant children’s voices are heard in stories about them!

The last of the Minerva Lecture Series, sponsored by the Canadian Council on Learning, was delivered to a New Brunswick audience last week by Dr. Esther Geva, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and language and literacy researcher. Second language learning is a current topic in NB. The Telegraph Journal:

“According to recent census figures, New Brunswick is currently attracting relatively few immigrants, making retention a key issue with the impending boom. Encouragement to stay can come from the grass roots, by providing adequate education opportunities for immigrant children whose first language is not English, allowing them to succeed on their own here”.

Geva emphasized an important aspect of second language learning: “Learning to read in multiple languages does not hinder achievement, but rather enhances one’s ability to learn”.

For more on the importance of language and literacy for immigrant children, see mylanguage.ca.

As posted Jan 22 on this blog, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – the OECD – is undertaking a thematic review of migrant education.

The question being asked is ‘What policies will promote successful education outcomes for first and second generation migrants’? 

The objectives and outputs are based on criteria for the assessment of the successful integration into the education system, including pre-school education, which is threefold:

1. Access: Do immigrant students/children have the same opportunities to access quality education as their native-born peers?

2. Participation: Do immigrant students/children participate (enrol and complete) as much as their native-born peers?

3. Learning outcomes: Do immigrant students/children perform as well as their native-born peers?

An interesting project. Here’s the site.

Migration is a key policy area of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Speech of Deputy Secretary-General Aart de Geus at the launch of the OECD Thematic Review on Migrant Education, Jan 21-22, 2008:

“The education of migrants is challenging and complex, not least because each migrant group has its own distinctive history. And so does each country, where often, different layers are built up.

Migration is one of the Organisation’s central priorities. Indeed it is a topic that comes up regularly at Ministerial Council and other high level meetings and will continue to do so. So you can help us — your work over the next year or so will help policymakers across the OECD understand better how to tackle migration challenges effectively – through education. The patterns of migration differ from country to country and can change over time – perhaps reflecting shifts in policy or maybe other factors. However, one thing is clear. No matter which scenario we take, international migration is here to stay”.

Country Notes and Background Reports will be available soon on the OECD Migrant Education website.

The 10th annual Metropolis conference will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia from April 3-6, 2008. The theme is ‘Expanding the debate: Multiple perspectives on immigration to Canada‘. Several events focus on children and families (descriptions from the conference website), including:

Workshops at the Conference

School-family relations arising from immigration: A Critical perspective. This workshop brings to light, in a comparative manner, recent efforts regarding migrants and the school environment, identifying strategies to avoid difficult interaction and highlight available tools to improve intercultural interaction. Annick Lenoir, Université de Sherbrooke, QC.

Defining the issue of missing child migrants. This workshop will examine the issue of unaccompanied migrant children who go missing after being released into the care of relatives, what can or should be done to assay how large an issue it really is. It will also explore the academic and policy dimensions that need to be addressed. Steven L. Morris, Metropolis Project Secretariat at Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Dr. Madine VanderPlaat, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS.

Health and wellbeing among newcomer families, children and youth. Data from the national longitudinal New Canadian Children and Youth Study is discussed in relation to identity, health, discrimination, and education of newcomer youth. Findings are presented by project researchers and a response panel comprised of policy makers and community representatives. Lori A. Wilkinson, University of Manitoba, MB.

Roundtables at the Conference

Various stakeholders: Creating potential alliances to serve immigrant families. Goal: Talk about the issues of knowledge exchange among various stakeholders which tends to be shared within, not among, each stakeholder group. Susan Chuang, University of Guelph, ON.

Poster Presentations at the Conference

Art therapy: Meeting the mental health needs of immigrant and refugee families. Immigrant and refugee families underutilize mental health services due to multiple barriers that inhibit accessibility to conventional services. Integrating art therapy in a naturalized setting, such as the child’s school or home, may reduce the constraints of providing services to this population. Presenters: Lucy Lu and Karin Derouaux, Concordia University, Montréal, QC.

Poverty, social support and the health of children born to minority migrants. We examined differences in health status between 17-month-old children of minority migrant mothers and children of Canadian and majority migrant mothers. When facing poverty and lack of social support, the health advantage of children born to minority migrant mothers is lost. Presenter: Andrea Van Hulst, Université de Montréal, QC.

Don’t forget me: Immigrant Chinese fathers of today. Since the 1970’s, there is substantial evidence that fathers are important which has beneficial effects on their children’s development. However, our understanding of Asian fathering remains limited. The poster will present a multi-informant, multi-methodological study addressing these concerns. Presenter: Susan Chuang, University of Guelph, ON.

For more information, see the Metropolis conference website: http://www.metropolis2008.net/english.html

Statistics Canada has released several data sets of interest. The news yesterday focussed on the increase of immigrants and the type of immigrants Canada is receiving. It’s important to flag the issues that immigrant parents and children are experiencing. An op-ed, anyone?

See the Statistics Canada website for:

Immigration and citizenship highlight tables

Language highlight tables

2006 community profiles.

Customized views of data sets are available and, for our purposes, allow us to look at the numbers of immigrant children coming into Canada. Age breakdowns: 0-4 yrs, 5-9.

Also of interest is mother tongue and language spoken most often at home.