Abstract
The focus of this research project explores counsellors’ experiences and application of multicultural competencies when working with diverse clients. Using a descriptive qualitative case study approach (Yin, 2009), thirty professional counsellors engaged in semi-structured interviews. They reflected on various factors drawn upon in developing and incorporating a multicultural base of knowledge to inform their practice when working with diverse clients. This research study examines what it means to be a multicultural counsellor, including their perception of challenges and outcome expectations in developing a multicultural framework to situate their practice, and cultivation of professional resilience in their work with diverse clients. The article concludes with a discussion for future work in the area and presents a broadened scope of counsellor career adaptive behaviors implemented in effectively working with diverse clients.
Implications for Practice and Future Directions
This study provides a glimpse into counsellors understanding of helping skills acquired, processes, and outcomes of how multicultural competencies are developed and applied. Additionally, hope-based interventions emerged as a form for maintaining positive momentum in their work with clients. Further exploration of what contributes to restoring hope (life-career dreams), agency and meaning in their lives might be a next step.
The results suggest that the process of creating a personal working definition of multiculturalism when working with clients to inform practice is a consciously active, negotiated, and multifaceted process. Future research could explore decisional coping efficacy of counsellors when faced with taking empathic risks to bridge divides as well as engaging in self-reflection of failed experiences with clients. Due to the limited sample size, some potential limitations exist. The participants also had strong levels of self-efficacy in their work and it is unknown if similar experiences are held by individuals whose self-efficacy appraisals may vary in their work with diverse clients. Notwithstanding these limitations, the present research represents a useful step toward enriching an emerging research area about multicultural competency and the challenges encountered when working with diverse clients.
The overarching themes of the study has potential for helping to advance the research field by providing preliminary ideas from which novice counsellors may be able to draw from in order to increase their own understanding of how to create connections and fill in gaps between multicultural knowledge and practice. Results indicate that a counsellor’s personal worldview will shape their orientation towards the concept of diversity. The majority of counsellors’ view that an emphasis on an inclusive view of multiculturalism that incorporates the client’s intersection of multiple social identities (for example, gender, socioeconomic status, age, and disability) should have equal weight in conceptualization of culture. Over time, counsellors who adopted this point of view suggested that their need for culture-specific theories to inform their practice decreased (Collins & Arthur, 2010; Weinrach & Thomas, 2004).
Results point to the importance of unpacking how counsellors integrate understandings of culture and diversity to address client well-being. Results also indicate that counsellors could benefit from additional personal tools to learn how to become resilient problem-solvers, become better at tolerating ambiguity, and in turn increase their own sense of self-efficacy in their work. Researchers have pointed to the need for counsellors to be more prepared for the emotional challenges they will encounter in their work with diverse clients (Arthur & Collins, 2014; Collins, Arthur, & Wong-Wylie, 2010). With more personal tools available to enhance counsellor’s ability to stay open to their own learning process, practicing counsellors can be encouraged to proactively address their own developmental trajectory and engage in various experiences designed to enhance their creativity, cognitive complexity, and coping strategies.
An important consideration to take into account is how different stakeholders and social agencies in society change over time and impact it has on counsellor’s professional resilience and engagement in creative outreach with diverse clients. In this study, a pivotal turning point for counsellors was exploring the role that volunteering served to complement paid work in their field as a creative adaptive response to addressing their needs for supervision, consultation, and learning best practices within a changing social world.
Additionally, as counsellors develop over time, different life roles may become salient and questions regarding what contributes to people’s preferences for pursuing particular roles (paid work, non-monetary work, private practice, and balancing of different personal life roles) becomes important to revisit for future research (Sterner, 2012; Super, 1990). Another important consideration is how to enhance future infrastructure and norms in the workplace to facilitate professional resilience for counsellors. In this study, what became apparent was that counsellors would revise their theoretical framework over time. In turn, they would also modify their professional goals and would incrementally seek out situations of discrepancy to increase their risk tolerance with working creatively with diverse clients as a component of career self-management. Lent (2016) believed that the choices made in the workplace is a dynamic enterprise and helps to sustain interest development in one’s career.
Results of this study indicate that appraisal of opportunity structures (supports, barriers, and opportunities) found within the workplace and various social systems drawn from to inform one’s practice contributes to strengthening career choice goals and decisions made by counsellors to sustain practice.
Also in this issue:
Canadian Immigrant Youth and the Education-Employment Nexus
Special issue - Student Perspectives, 12(2) January 2020
Journal description
“The Canadian Journal of Family and Youth (CJFY), published once a year is a fully refereed interdisciplinary journal. Responding to the diversification of scholarly interests and regional concerns, the journal will be an outlet for Canadian and comparative scholarship on the changing dynamics of the family and the social situation of youth. Relevant papers might come from any discipline including Criminology, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, English, Philosophy, Business or Science. Scholarly debates on family related themes could refer to such topics as community and other social contexts, family dynamics, life course events, domestic violence, dating, marriage, and divorce but also ethnicity, racism, social class, gender, and ageism. Youth-related themes could include family issues, community, education, paid and volunteer work, youth-directed marketing, sports, delinquency and gangs, and so on.”
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
Abstract
“Canada’s population of immigrant youth between the ages of 15 and 35 is approaching 3 million and growing rapidly. Youth are critical to Canada’s goal of recruiting immigrants to expand the economy, but there is insufficient information about their school and work experiences and inadequate support to ensure their successful integration into the workforce. This literature review investigates the connection between education and work for Canadian immigrant youth. It documents obstacles in the form of underfunded settlement services, lack of diversity in the school curriculum, inadequate English-language instruction at all levels of schooling, racially and ethnically biased streaming of students into the lowest educational track in high school, rejection of foreign school transcripts and work credentials, employers’ prejudice and discrimination, and workplace exploitation.
The number and magnitude of these systemic impediments create significant obstacles for immigrant youth. A major cause of these issues is insufficient funding for immigrant services under neoliberal economic policies. The outcomes for immigrant youth include failure to finish secondary and postsecondary education, a long-term cycle of employment in low-skill, low-wage jobs, and socioeconomic hardship such as poverty and homelessness. The authors call for greater attention to this critical population and make nine recommendations that would contribute to solutions in each major issue area impacting the education of Canadian immigrant youth and their entry into the workforce.”
Conclusion
“With close to 3 million immigrant youth between 15 and 35, and given that the main priority of Canada’s immigration system is to ensure an adequate future supply of skilled workers, this large population merits further study and effective services to ensure their transition from school to the labour market. The picture for newcomer youth in Canada is not entirely bleak, as attested by the fact that more newcomer youth go to college or university than native-born Canadians. However, this study identified several problem areas that interfere with immigrant youths’ success at school and work, including insufficient and underfunded settlement services, lack of diversity in the school curriculum, inadequate ESL services at all levels of schooling, biased streaming into the lowest educational track in high school, difficulties with foreign school transcripts and work credentials, and employers’ prejudice and discrimination. The number and magnitude of these systemic impediments create significant obstacles for immigrant youth.
The following policy recommendations would contribute to correcting some of these challenges.
Policy changes can only succeed if there are simultaneous efforts to change societal attitudes surrounding immigrants, race, and ethnicity. Education in Canada’s fundamental values of equality and a pluralistic society is the key to creating deep social change that permeates all levels of government, education, and the workforce. It is immigrant youth who will meet Canada’s need for skilled workers to support economic expansion. For them to fulfill this mandate will necessitate changes in schools and the workplace and increased government commitment to their full integration into Canadian society.”
Download the full article | Télécharger l’article complet :
https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/cjfy/index.php/cjfy/article/view/29497
Also in this issue:
Career Self-Management and Development of Multicultural Knowledge and Practice: Experience of Professional Counsellors
Priya S. Mani
Special issue - Student Perspectives, 12(2) January 2020
Journal description
“The Canadian Journal of Family and Youth (CJFY), published once a year is a fully refereed interdisciplinary journal. Responding to the diversification of scholarly interests and regional concerns, the journal will be an outlet for Canadian and comparative scholarship on the changing dynamics of the family and the social situation of youth. Relevant papers might come from any discipline including Criminology, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, English, Philosophy, Business or Science. Scholarly debates on family related themes could refer to such topics as community and other social contexts, family dynamics, life course events, domestic violence, dating, marriage, and divorce but also ethnicity, racism, social class, gender, and ageism. Youth-related themes could include family issues, community, education, paid and volunteer work, youth-directed marketing, sports, delinquency and gangs, and so on.”
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
Abstract
“International education has become a policy sector of growing importance to Canada. With increased government regulations, disconnect is often observed between the intended policy outcomes and practice. This study aims to explain this disconnect by analyzing the heterogeneity among stakeholder interests. It focuses on 1) distribution of authority; 2) heterogeneity of values; and 3) complementarities and clashes in policy issues. A multi-level governance (MLG) framework (Chou et. al., 2017; Hooghe & Marks, 2003), as a guiding theoretical lens, is applied to examine the interactions among governments (federal-provincial), non-governmental organizations, school administrators, international students and their families in the context of the Manitoba K-12 sector. Data for this study were collected through document analysis and 40 semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate increased steering power of both the federal and provincial governments to regulate international education with conflicting agendas based on political ideologies. The pursuit of Canada’s economic competitiveness through K-12 international education has led to a rise in the authority of non-governmental actors, including parents and students, to shape the services, programs and curriculum content offered by public schools. The study proposes adding an additional layer to the MLG framework, that of the complexities within stakeholder groups.”
Conclusion and Discussion
“In this paper, we have intended to draw out the complexities and nuances in government policy-making, helping to contribute to the broader understanding of why there is often disconnect between policy and practice when it comes to international education. The following main findings emerged from the analysis.
First, even if there is indirect steering apparent from the federal government in Canada with regards to international education, the ultimate decision-making authority lies with the provincial government. Based on the comparison of the themes that emerged from document analysis and informants’ responses, we found that international education policies as texts can be used to address an actual policy issue (e.g. secure coherence among educational providers as in Manitoba’s IEA; attracting students as potential immigrants), but they can also be used for political purposes without an actual policy problem to advance certain ideologies.
The federal International Education Strategy is an example of an attempt to justify and show support for student mobility trends in Canada that were already happening. In addition, the policy documents analyzed in this study emphasized the economic rationales while the interview participants commented primarily on multicultural rationales for administering the International Student Program. Furthermore, the Manitoba provincial Enrolment Cap Policy is an example of an effort to influence the perception of voters (e.g. no preference given to international students over local students, international students framed as threats to the quality of public education, the enrollment numbers of international students not coming close to the 20% mentioned in the documents). In each of these cases, stakeholders furthered their own political agendas in the process of policy making. Such complexities in values may potentially influence local practices and limiting the learning experiences of both international and local students. This could include limiting the resources provided to the students at the school level, influencing the perceptions of employers, and ultimately restricting ethical practices in international education.
Second, the overall trend apparent among both federal and provincial governments is the increasing governmental participation and regulation of international education despite the autonomy of educational institutions. This mirrors Megarrity’s (2007) observations in the post-secondary context of increased regulation even as governments espouse neoliberal rhetoric of deregulation and market efficiency. Findings that emerge from this study indicate that this tendency is becoming apparent in the K-12 sector as well. This is closely linked with intertwining of international education with Canada’s economic, trade, and immigration interests. As international students are perceived to transition easily into the Canadian labour market with Canadian education credentials and language proficiency, they have become the targets of government immigration policies with various immigration pathways supporting this transition. With increased marketization and competition in the global knowledge economy, national governments are affirming their stronger steering role through regulative policies to secure their competitive edge in a global race for talent and skilled labour.
Manitoba’s Enrolment Cap Policy is an example of a K-12 regulatory policy approach without an actual policy problem to address. Another example of the increasing steering role of the provincial governments, including that in Manitoba, is the signing of agreements with schools overseas regulating which providers can offer provincial curriculum and award Canadian high school diplomas abroad. The tendency to increased regulation reveals the growing importance of the role of international education in Manitoba and Canada in the eyes of government and suggests both federal and provincial governments expect it to continue expanding. As a response to governments’ and educational institutions’ actions under neoliberal pressures, scholars are increasingly calling for the adoption of ethical approaches to internationalization (Stein, Andreotti & Suša, 2019).
Third, we also argue that the blurring of boundaries across the authority and power of educational stakeholders has given an impetus for individual stakeholders, particularly non-governmental stakeholders, to increase their own legitimacy, authority, and power in the international education process. We observed the increasing role of non-governmental organizations (e.g. CAPS-I, MCIE) in K-12 demonstrated by growing memberships and capacity in government lobbying. This finding confirms and adds to the emerging literature, where scholars have documented an increased provincial utilization of control over immigrant selection and the rise of post-secondary educational institutions as non-governmental selection actors for immigration in Canada (Brunner, 2017; McCartney & Metcalfe, 2018). We are witnessing governments incentivizing individual students to invest in their own education, as is evident in growing tuition costs and declining public funding. Consequently, students and their families have gained authority and power in this global market of education as they are courted for the potential economic and cultural benefits they bring to whichever place is able to attract them.
As such, families from privileged socio-economic backgrounds are in the position to influence the services, programs, and curriculum content offered by schools working to stay competitive. This finding aligns with others in the literature concerned with how international education programs in Canada are associated with the increasing privatization of public education. A separate stream of research has suggested that international students from privileged families gain valuable social and cultural capital through educational experiences in Canada (see Bosetti, Van Pelt & Allison, 2017; Waters, 2006). This capital is resulting in a new wave of emerging global dominant elites who have arisen with the help of Canadian public schools. Consequently, international education has become a new type of leverage for some individuals to secure access to the labour market and global mobility, including immigration. As such, we see a growing trend of neoliberal influences, encouraged by the governments and implemented through international education policy. This tendency provides opportunities for powerful non-governmental organizations to shape the administrative practices in K-12 international education.
Finally, the MLG framework’s emphasis on stakeholder interactions across levels, values, and policy issues was helpful, yet it currently does not provide a distinct lens to analyze differences within one group. MLG is useful as a framework that draws attention to those interactions in more comprehensive ways by examining the power dynamic and dependencies between stakeholder groups, providing new understanding of the policy process in international education. However, our findings have shown that we cannot objectively assume that the values and interests within one group are always similar, coherent, and complementary.
Therefore, we propose adding another layer to Chou et al.’s (2017) analytical framework – the complexities within stakeholder groups - for a more cohesive and holistic approach to assessing the political process of international education. The theory focuses on analysis across levels, actors, and policy issues within the multi-level governance framework, yet overlooks the importance of values and norms represented among individuals within one group of actors at one level or related to one policy issue.
Understanding the dynamic of those diverse values and norms represented within a single stakeholder group allows for explaining the power relationships between individuals leading to authoritative distribution of values, a notion that was pointed out in the beginning of the paper. Adding this fourth layer allows for more detailed and informed analysis, which would help to show the nuanced complexities within multi-level governance theory and explain the disconnects and differences in the processes of policy formulation and implementation.”
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
It is vital to measure language proficiency well, as it crucially determines immigrants’ earnings.
Summary
“Over recent decades, Western countries have admitted many immigrants from non-traditional regions (e.g. Philippines, India, China), which has coincided with poor economic integration. Language proficiency is an important determinant of economic integration; in addition to being a component of human capital, it plays a key role in facilitating the transmission of other components of human capital. Examining the strengths and weaknesses of objective and subjective measures of language proficiency is crucial for good integration policy, as is understanding the relationship between these measures and earnings, a key indicator of economic integration.”
Key findings
Pros
Cons
Summary and policy advice
“Language proficiency is key to the economic integration of immigrants, both as a component of human capital and because it facilitates the transmission of other components. Empirically, language proficiency is highly correlated with other skills though, such as numeracy. This suggests that tests are similar in terms of what they assess or that language proficiency affects test performance across skills, making it difficult to assess the relative importance of each for economic integration. Moreover, it could also be that tests are not difficult enough to capture skills and language proficiency in the upper part of the distribution.
To assess the relationship between language proficiency and economic integration, most research has relied on data sets that contain self-assessments, not objective test scores. However, there seems to be a large amount of overlap in literacy test scores for self-assessed speaking groups, which implies measurement error in the latter, or that self-assessments are capturing different skills. While both objective and subjective measures contain information pertinent to earnings, gaps remain for self-assessed groups when controlling for literacy test scores.
Many countries have recognized the importance of language proficiency and have integrated language tests into their immigrant selection criteria. For example, Australia made language tests mandatory for prospective immigrants in the 1990s. This policy improved language proficiency relative to earlier cohorts, as well as relative to Canada and the US, in which rigorous language tests were not in place over the same period.
However, Canada, for instance, has recently made efforts to better incorporate language tests into its immigrant selection criteria. Most recently, the Express Entry program requires economic immigrants to undergo tests that assess listening, speaking, reading, and writing proficiency. The level required to pass depends on the program to which the immigrant is applying, as well as the designated occupation. Still, better data are needed to accurately assess the effect of these types of policies, and policymakers should adjust the programs accordingly.”
View or download the full article:
https://wol.iza.org/articles/language-proficiency-and-the-economic-integration-of-immigrants/long
Other recent articles from IZA World of Labor:
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
Excerpts
“The inflow of refugees to Calgary fluctuates widely over time, and varies considerably by country of origin. Social agencies must adapt to a continuously shifting kaleidoscope of people, cultures, languages and needs.”
“A sharp rise in refugee arrivals from specific countries can attract additional volunteerism and support for refugees from those countries, but it can also obscure parallel efforts to resettle other groups. The spike in Syrian refugees, beginning in 2016, occurred concurrently with efforts to resettle an earlier and even larger population of Eritreans in Calgary, for example.
Calgarians have helped resettle thousands of refugees in Calgary through the generous donation of their time and funds to local agencies that support newcomers, and through a private sponsorship of refugees. Under the private sponsorship program, religious groups, community associations, businesses, and informal groups of individuals may take on the cost and work of bringing a refugee to Canada, housing them, and helping them adapt to their new community. Private refugee sponsorship began to surpass government sponsorship in 2010. Even in the midst of an economic downturn, Calgarians continue to sponsor large numbers of refugees following the 2016 Refugee Crisis. The federal government currently caps the number of privately sponsored refugees coming to Canada each year. Increasing or lifting this cap may encourage additional resettlement of some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.”
Related resources:
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
Executive Summary
“Winnipeg, Manitoba has one of the largest proportions of urban-dwelling Indigenous Peoples in Canada and a rapidly emerging newcomer population. Both broad communities share much in common including histories of colonization; shared cultural, traditional, and communal values; and experiences of racism and socioeconomic challenges. This makes Winnipeg an important case study on relationship-building processes between the two communities.
In partnership with The Immigration Partnership Winnipeg and The Winnipeg Foundation, this study endeavored to gather diverse voices, perspectives and experiences to understand the importance of relationship-building between newcomer and Indigenous communities. Stories were collected through semi-structured interviews, and various community leaders, knowledge keepers, elders, academics, support workers, and activists with links to newcomer and Indigenous communities were interviewed.
The report focuses on the dynamic relations between the two communities in the present context of Winnipeg. Following insights and stories gathered, we suggest several wise practices for the relationship-building process as recommended by participants. In so doing, the report seeks to inform a framework related to the development of an orientation toolkit for newcomers.
1. Where we currently stand
Relationships between newcomers and Indigenous Peoples are dynamic and ever-changing. There is momentum to bridge relations between the two broad communities in Winnipeg. Important conversations around reconciliation and decolonization have begun to occur, which have increased the level of awareness about Indigenous struggles, rights, and traditions. A core group of community advocates and activists are championing these efforts. In spite of the positive trend toward cross-cultural collaboration at an institutional level, the state of affairs on the ground remains tense and complex. These tensions are expressed in the form of xenophobia and racism, negative perceptions, and misinformation between individuals and segments of the two communities.
2. Path forward: wise practices for relationship-building
A path forward may necessitate that newcomers and Indigenous communities come together and lean on one another based on the historical and cultural dimensions of each community, forming in its essence the relationship nucleus. In terms of history, newcomers have to understand what has happened to Indigenous Peoples in ways they are able to perceive linkages to the present realities of Indigenous communities. In relation to culture, its sharing can be a foundational place to allow newcomers to understand the experiences of Indigenous Peoples considering the fact that both communities highly respect storytelling, ceremonies, and traditions.
In this context, the need for safe spaces where authentic experiences can form is of prime importance. Members of newcomer and Indigenous communities can come together in such spaces to learn about each other. At the present time, spaces supporting cross-cultural dialogue and interaction are for the most part generated by organizations. Even though these are valuable in their own right, these spaces created through programming offer a “controlled experience” rather than an “authentic experience”. Few spaces are organically established at a grassroots level to nurture authentic interactions.
Moreover, based on this report, a range of methods and actions to facilitate processes of relationship-building are suggested through which engagement and interaction between newcomer and Indigenous communities can be initiated and strengthened. They include the following methods and actions:
3. Orientation toolkit recommendations
An orientation toolkit was recognized as an indispensable resource to support agencies serving newcomers. The development of a toolkit has been championed by community and organizational leadership involved throughout this study and previous discussions. Recommendations were gathered with the aspiration to develop a framework which can inform orientations upon arrival in Canada. Findings suggest that the development of a toolkit should involve the following components: 1) relevant information related to Indigenous history and culture; 2) treaty-related information; 3) discussions on stereotypes; 4) positive stories; and 5) a list of relevant resources.
In addition, Indigenous elders, knowledge keepers, leaders, and activists should lead the delivery of orientations, wherever possible, with the support of representatives from the newcomer community. Furthermore, gendered and intergenerational representation should characterize the delivery of orientations, and settler testimony on the harms of colonization and land dispossession, and strategies on how to repair them should be considered throughout this process. When delivering the orientation toolkit, it is suggested the following aspects should be emphasized, including: employing an anti-oppression approach; explaining the linkages between historical and contemporary issues; centring interactive and experiential methodologies; and ensuring the presentation and language of delivery is accessible and appropriate.
Through these considerations, a platform for the preservation of these tools should be developed to exist in the form of a ‘living document’. Its ownership should be vested with the community at large, and a centralized resource platform must be continuously updated to respond to current topics and trends.
In light of these insights and experiences, this report seeks to enhance our understanding of methods and processes through which relationship-building can be established between newcomers and Indigenous Peoples. Consequently, we hope it will equip newcomers to play an important role in shaping and contributing to the future of Canada; a future that embodies social and environmental justice, healing, and reconciliation.”
Also available in French (PDF).
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
Overview
“IWYS is a research project on the settlement and service experiences of immigrant women, youth, and seniors.
We document their experiences, profile services available to them, and identify what else they need to settle in Canada. Our research is intended to help service providers and policy makers directly.
Knowledge synthesis, primary research, and knowledge mobilization are the three pillars of the project.
Phase 1 - Knowledge synthesis will be conducted in the first year of the project from 2017 to 2018. In a literature review, we will collect relevant studies, including both academic publications and “grey literature,” about immigrant women, youth, and seniors. Grey literature is research produced by organizations outside of the traditional commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels. We are interested in four broad areas of settlement: economic, social, political, and ideational. These areas will also be covered in a service review, including online research and submissions by service providers across Canada.
Phase 2 - Primary research, research that aims for knowledge creation, will be grounded in three Ontario locations – Ottawa, Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton, and Windsor – in the second year from 2018 to 2019. Main research instruments include interviews with key stakeholders, focus groups with service providers and with three immigrant groups, and interviews with individual immigrants.
Phase 3 - Knowledge mobilization will be a constant throughout the project. Knowledge mobilization will seek to make connections between research/expertise and policy/practice in order to improve the outcomes of our study. This website, along with a newsletter and social media, will be used to communicate with our stakeholders and disseminate our findings. Knowledge synthesis and primary research findings will be published in different formats (reports, summaries, and infographics) and discussed at a community forum in 2019.
Each report is linked to below. Presentation videos from the community forum are included under the Phase 1 reports.
(Phase 2) Primary Research Reports:
The Immigrant Settlement Ecosystem in Canada: An Ontario Case Study [Composite report]
Adnan Türegün, Rupaleem Bhuyan, Nancy Mandell and John Shields
Immigrant Women’s Settlement Transitions in an Era of Precarious Migration
Rupaleem Bhuyan and Catherine Schmidt
Immigrant Youth, Settlement, and Resilience: A Qualitative Examination of Newcomer Youth and Settlement Services
John Shields and Omar Lujan
Settlement Experiences of Recently Arrived Senior Immigrants
Nancy Mandell, Julia Hemphill, Jana Borras, and Janice Phonepraseuth
(Phase 1) Knowledge Synthesis Reports | Synthèse des connaissances (en anglais) :
State of the Art in Research on, and Services for, Immigrant Women, Youth and Seniors [Composite report]
Adnan Türegün, Rupaleem Bhuyan, Nancy Mandell, John Shields
Identifying Structural Barriers to Improve Settlement Outcomes for Vulnerable Groups of Immigrant Women
Rupaleem Bhuyan, Catherine Schmidt
Immigrant Youth in Canada: A Literature Review of Migrant Youth Settlement and Service Issues
John Shields, Omar Lujan
Recent Canadian Immigrant Seniors: A Literature Review of Settlement Experiences and Services
Nancy Mandell, Jana Borras, Janice Phonepraseuth
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
Summary
“Canada’s population is increasingly racialized. The 2016 census counted 7.7 million racialized individuals in Canada. That number represented 22% of the population, up sharply from 16% just a decade earlier.
Unfortunately, the rapid growth in the racialized population is not being matched by a corresponding increase in economic equality. This paper uses 2016 census data to paint a portrait of income inequality between racialized and non-racialized Canadians. It also looks at the labour market discrimination faced by racialized workers in 2006 and 2016.
Racialized workers are more likely to be active in the workforce than non-racialized workers, either working or trying to find work, but this does not result in better employment outcomes for them. From 2006 to 2016, there was little change to the patterns of employment and earnings inequality along racial and gender lines in Canada.
Overall in 2016, the racialized population had an unemployment rate of 9.2% compared to the non-racialized rate of 7.3%. Racialized women had the highest unemployment rate at 9.6%, followed by racialized men at 8.8%, non-racialized men at 8.2%, and non-racialized women at 6.4%.
In 2015, racialized men earned 78 cents for every dollar that non-racialized men earned. This earnings gap remained unchanged since 2005.
Labour market discrimination continues to be gendered and racialized. Racialized women earned 59 cents for every dollar that non-racialized men earned, while non-racialized women earned 67 cents for every dollar that non-racialized men earned. Little progress was made in reducing this gap over the 10-year period.
This paper also looked at differences in income from wealth between the racialized and non-racialized population. The racialized gap in capital gains is clear: 8.3% of the racialized population over the age of 15 reported capital gains, compared to 11.9% of the non-racialized population. And the average amount of capital gains of non-racialized Canadians ($13,974) is 29% higher than the average amount for racialized Canadians ($10,828).
Investment income shows a similar pattern: 25.1% of the racialized population over the age of 15 reported investment income, compared to 30.8% of the non-racialized population. The average investment income for the non-racialized population ($11,428) is 47% higher than the average for the racialized population ($7,774).
These data provide a glimpse of the likely differences in wealth between racialized and non-racialized Canadians.
These aspects of income inequality, from both employment and wealth, are also visible in the inequality in family incomes. The data show that racialized individuals are more likely to be in families in the bottom half of the income distribution (60%) than non-racialized individuals are (47%).
This paper also explores the relationship between race, immigration and employment incomes.
We saw that non-racialized immigrants do better in the Canadian labour market, and do better sooner, than racialized immigrants do. Moreover, income inequality between racialized and non-racialized Canadians extends to the second and third generations—and beyond. Clearly, immigration is not the only issue.
Among prime-age (25–54 years old) workers, racialized immigrant men earned 71 cents for every dollar that non-racialized immigrant men earned. Racialized immigrant women earned 79 cents for every dollar that non-racialized immigrant women earned. These gaps continue into the second generation and beyond. Second-generation racialized men earned 79 cents for every dollar that second-generation non-racialized men earned. Second-generation racialized women earned 96 cents for every dollar that second-generation non-racialized women earned.
Our analysis also illustrates the importance of understanding the distinct barriers in the labour market faced by different racialized groups. Both men and women who identified as Black had higher labour force participation rates than their non-racialized counterparts. However, they also had higher unemployment rates and bigger wage gaps than the average for all racialized workers. Men who identified as Filipino had much lower unemployment rates than the average for racialized workers and yet had a larger earnings gap, while women who identified as Filipino had lower unemployment rates and a smaller earnings gap than the racialized average.
Addressing the labour market discrimination faced by racialized workers will require a deeper understanding of racism and the different ways it is manifested in the labour market. That understanding needs to be used to shape policy.
Taken together, the data point to an unequivocal pattern of racialized economic inequality in Canada. In the absence of bold policies to combat racism, this economic inequality shows no signs of disappearing.”
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
The Working Poor in the Toronto Region: A closer look at the increasing numbers
Summary
“This is the third in a series of reports on working poverty in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and the City of Toronto.
The first, The Working Poor in the Toronto Region: Who they are, where they live, and how trends are changing, published in 2012, compared data from the 2001 census to the 2006 census, finding that the number of working poor in the Toronto region and across the country was increasing at an alarming rate. Increases were seen to the east of Toronto’s central area and in the north, with a significant amount of intensification in the northeast corner of the city.
The 2015 report, The Working Poor in the Toronto Region: Mapping working poverty in Canada’s largest city, measured change in the working poor population from 2006 to 2012. Income tax data was used because of the loss, in 2011, of the mandatory long-form census. Although we drew upon income tax data as opposed to census data, the income tax data showed similar patterns.
For this third report (2019) the authors have the return of the use of the mandatory long-form census, providing quality data for 2016. They are, therefore, able to compare the number, characteristics, and neighbourhood concentrations of working poor households using comparable data from the 2006 census and the 2016 census. The census numbers of 2006 to 2016, compared to 2001 to 2006, reflect a slower rate of growth for working poverty.
The main takeaway from all three reports is that the rate of working poverty in Canada, Ontario, and the Toronto region is increasing. Underemployment, growth in low-wage service sector jobs, fewer hours available to each worker, and layoffs are part of what is driving the growth of working poverty. The growth in precarious employment and the gig economy have all come together to increase the number of people who are working for wages that cannot sustain them and drawing incomes too low to lift them out of poverty.
This report identifies areas in the Toronto region that have a high concentration of working poverty and describes general trends within the Toronto CMA and City of Toronto. The authors use disaggregated data from the 2016 census to explore how gender, age, education, racialization, and immigration status can help us understand potential underlying causes of working poverty.”
“In the Toronto region, working poverty continued to expand northwards growing by 27%, to 170,000 individuals, with almost every census track north of Hwy. 401 exhibiting more than 5% of the working-age population to be working poor. This growth is troubling, especially given the relatively strong employment figures in 2016 and increases in the minimum wage and new government transfers.
The return of the mandatory long-form census, in 2016, has been critical to help illustrate both geographic and demographic characteristics of the working poor. By disaggregating the data, Stapleton identifies how incidents differ according to gender, age, education, and ethno-cultural and immigration status. For example, in the Toronto CMA, 46% of the working-age population is racialized, yet 63% of the working poor are racialized. Some of the highest rates of working poverty are among Toronto’s Black communities. Dr. James and Dr. Hope provide contextual framing for how this data might be interpreted.
The goal with this report is to provide insight into Toronto’s working poor in the hope that this work provokes not only further research and analysis but also organizing and action on the divide in our labour force, and the need for higher wages, better job stability, anti-racism strategies, and more effective support programs.”
Download the full report
https://metcalffoundation.com/site/uploads/2019/11/Working-Poor-2019-NEW.pdf
Related resources:
The Working Poor in the Toronto Region: Mapping working poverty in Canada’s richest city (2015) - John Stapleton with | avec Jasmin Kay
The Working Poor in the Toronto Region: Who they are, where they live and how trends are changing (2012) - John Stapleton, Brian Murphy, Yue Xing
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
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