Abstract
Every year more temporary migrant workers come to Canada to fill labour shortages in the agricultural sector. While research has examined the ways that these workers are made vulnerable and exploitable due to their temporary statuses, less has focused on the subjective experiences of migrant agricultural workers in regards their workplace health and safety. We conducted interviews and focus groups with migrant workers in the interior of British Columbia, Canada and used a narrative line of inquiry to highlight two main themes that illustrate the implicit and complex mechanisms that can structure migrant agricultural workers’ workplace climate, and ultimately, endanger their health and safety. The two themes we elaborate are (1) authorities that silence; and (2) ‘I will not leave my body here.’
We discuss the implications of each theme, ultimately arguing that a number of complex political and economic forces create a climate of coercion in which workers feel compelled to choose between their health and safety and tenuous economic security.
Discussion
Our findings identified two over-arching themes that largely determined workers’ occupational health and safety environments.
Theme 1: Authorities That Silence
In Theme 1, authorities that enable and silence, migrant workers described ways in which authorities intended to protect them, particularly the consular officials and employers, either actively or passively helped reinforce coercive power dynamics, and/or, failed to deliver on protections promised under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program in Canada. The subtheme of ‘it doesn’t make sense to say anything to them,’ revealed workers’ sense of powerlessness in the workplace. Of significance, accounts revealed that authorities enforced workers’ conformity rather than empowering them to assert their rights to adequate health and labour standards.
The subtheme of ‘there is no-one to enforce the rules,’ illustrated the limited visibility and presence of supports and authorities ensuring adequate health and safety standards in the workplace. In many cases, workers reported not having any contact with authorities or inspectors who would be in a position to monitor or regulate workplace conditions. Participants also distinguished between unannounced and announced inspections, articulating that the norm of announced inspections in the workplace created a permissive climate in which poorer working conditions could go unchecked. Without regular monitoring of their work environments, the onus was on workers to self-report workplace hazards that were putting their health at risk. Yet individuals typically did not feel empowered to report these concerns, and in the cases that they did report them to authorities, they were often made to feel more vulnerable than protected.
Prior research has identified various layers of vulnerability that contribute to a coercive and unhealthy work environment. Such research requires us to consider conditions such as precarity (e.g., in terms of dependence on another for permission to stay in Canada), freedom (e.g., a prescribed place of residence) and segregation (including familial separation and geographic isolation) as key determinants of health and healthcare access for migrant agricultural workers. Considering these conditions in light of our current findings, it is clear that stories shared under the theme of ‘authorities that silence’ are so prominent in workers’ lives precisely because alternative pathways and supports towards health are so clearly restricted or limited. In short, without the freedom, power, or opportunity to speak up about health issues in the workplace or to refuse unsafe work or poor living conditions, then the project of improving this population’s health must be closely tied to the politics of stabilizing security and status for this group.
These vulnerabilities are also felt simultaneously at regional, national, and international levels. For example, the local economies of Caribbean and Mexican countries have been largely devastated by liberalized trade agreements and mega-projects. As these local economies are undermined, workers of the Global South have been displaced or relocated in order to find economic means to sustain their families, and a more captive, and even desperate, workforce is created. Yet specifics of the program also play an important role in creating coercive and under-monitored workplace conditions. The practice of being tied to a specific employer (being ‘renamed’) for instance, has been criticized because it places unique power in the hands of the employer to determine not just a worker’s ability to stay employed at a particular work site, but by extension, their status in the program, and ability to remain in Canada. Advocates have suggested policy alternatives such as open work permits and the granting of permanent residence upon arrival. Both of these policies would enable workers to increase their workplace mobility, and consequently, better empower them to refuse unsafe or hazardous work practices that threaten their most basic physical and mental health. If workers are able to refuse unsafe work, perhaps by extension, there will be increased incentive for employers to improve their workplace environments. Yet the option of permanent status upon arrival would also allow workers the opportunity for greater protection under the law, and would remove jurisdictional blurriness that maintains workers at the margins of legal protections.
Scholars have long criticized the inadequacies of complaint-driven mechanisms that take a reactive rather than a proactive stance to the regulation of workplace conditions. Under pressure from advocates and migrant rights groups, the Canadian government has committed to increasing unannounced inspections to provide greater oversight of substandard workplace and housing conditions faced by migrant agricultural workers. These regulatory practices would have some potential to strengthen oversight of the program and even increase workers’ confidence that they can assert their rights on the job. Yet as noted in the accounts above, it would require adequate staffing, resources, and political will to implement such approaches, both by Canadian authorities and sending country consulates. Complicating the calls to improve the oversight and regulation of the program is that workers who have experienced a great deal of hardship may carry a mentality of ‘better the devil you know.’ In fact, our consultations confirmed that most workers had experienced similar challenges, but that they were reticent to leave their bosses for fear that their next workplace could be even more difficult or unsafe. Ultimately, this suggests that even if ideal regulatory mechanisms intended to protect migrant agricultural workers are established, it will require that officials first regain the trust and confidence of workers who have been failed by regulatory authorities in the past. This theme also suggests that if workers’ access to protections continues to be limited and perceived as both systematic and routine, these individuals are likely to normalize risk in the workplace, further endangering both their physical and mental health.
Theme 2: “I will not leave my body here.”
In Theme 2, ‘I will not leave my body here,’ participants’ stories revealed ways in which their economic and political status created lose–lose conditions in which they felt compelled to sacrifice their physical health for short-term security in the SAWP while at the same time endangering their long-term livelihood in this same program, and even their basic survival. Workers expressed a deep ambivalence about this relationship, both expressing acts of defiance or intentions to refuse unsafe work conditions, while still not feeling at liberty to refuse unsafe conditions or labour standards. Cohen and Hjalmarson’s prior research indicates that even amidst coercive labour conditions, migrant agricultural workers are active in creatively resisting exploitative conditions and that they are not merely passive participants in agricultural programs. Nonetheless, the material consequences of living within this coercive climate have inevitable consequences for the health and safety of migrant agricultural workers.
Participants in this study were reluctant to report workplace injuries, refuse unsafe workplace practices, seek medical attention for workplace injuries, and assert their rights to adequate hygiene (e.g., handwashing stations, washrooms) and prevention measures (e.g., seatbelts, breaks, protective equipment). A lack of oversight and will to ensure that these measures are in place in the workplace will continue to have significant consequences on the physical and mental health of migrant agricultural workers.
Given the health risks and challenges faced by this population, workers’ ability to access health care services also merits attention. Participants in our study described various barriers to accessing medical care: transportation, geographic isolation, language, limited clinic hours (in combination with demanding work hours), and fear of job loss or medical repatriation. In Ontario, a survey of 6000 migrant agricultural workers indicated that many workers fear, or actually suffer negative consequences because of seeking medical attention. In fact, 44% of respondents stated that a co-worker would work while sick for fear of telling their employer, and one in five reported that their boss had expressed anger as a result of their illness.
While no large surveys have been conducted in BC, the qualitative accounts identified in our narrative inquiry and confirmed in our subsequent consultations, suggest that a similar dynamic can explain the limited healthcare seeking in the Okanagan Valley. Beyond replicating accounts that have been documented in different regions, this theme helps uncover the true motivation behind workers’ limited health-seeking behaviours. This theme challenges commonly held views that workers’ cultures, lack of trust in the Canadian system, or lack of information prevent them from seeking healthcare or related protections. Rather, workers navigate a coercive environment in which they feel that they must choose between their health and their livelihood.
Even in cases when individuals do access medical care, they encounter various challenges that may negatively impact the quality of care they receive. Our interviews with community volunteers accompanying migrant agricultural workers to hospitals and clinics helped to further illustrate these barriers. Volunteers and migrant agricultural workers alike reported a lack of access to an unbiased, third-party translator, for instance, making it difficult for workers to fully disclose their symptoms, especially if the only translator available held a supervisory position in their workplace. In these cases, workers feared disclosing the severity of their symptoms or reporting workplace injuries because it could affect their job status or put them at risk for medical repatriation. In other cases, interviews and content confirmation carried out in our research indicated that employer translators may have a vested interest in downplaying symptoms and preventing the reporting of workplace injury claims that may have financial or regulatory consequences for them. Failure to provide independent care not mediated by an employer may exacerbate vulnerabilities or limit the protection workers are afforded.
Fearing punitive consequences, workers may hide workplace injuries, accept unsafe work practices, and not seek necessary medical treatment. We have even witnessed workers participate in their own medical repatriation, not because it is their preference, but rather, because employers feel threatened by the possibility of a worker seeking compensation for a medical injury. Mirroring our findings, accounts of employer mediation have also played a significant role in limiting health care access and delivery to migrant agricultural workers in Ontario. In addition to anticipating barriers to access and quality care, our theme of ‘I will not leave my body here’ suggests that a more complex approach to healthcare planning that can account for the deep ambivalence that workers may feel about care provision must be developed. For instance, changing standard practice for this group to more proactively screen for workplace injuries, preference for the place where care is provided (e.g., Mexico or Canada), and an explicit reminder of what workers are entitled to, could help foster greater cooperation among migrant workers and their host-country care providers.
Many participants reported out-of-pocket expenses and difficulties receiving compensation by their private insurance company when direct billing is not available in clinics that they access. In British Columbia, the premium rates that residents pay to access provincial health care coverage make access to public health services cost-prohibitive to migrant agricultural workers, even when/if they meet the eligibility requirements for public health coverage. Notably, as of 2020, these monthly premiums will be eliminated, which may have the potential to begin to address healthcare coverage gaps faced by migrant agricultural workers. However, it is important to note that even with fewer financial barriers to registering for provincial health programs, other barriers remain that mean many workers still may not have access to such coverage. For workers in Ontario, notable challenges include the three-month waiting period and their dependence on their employers to assist them in registering for provincial health coverage. Such developments and challenges remind us that healthcare barriers and pressures faced by workers under the theme of ‘I will not leave my body here,’ are very much woven into the equity and governance issues that were revealed in stories of ‘authorities that silence.’ Ultimately then, short and incremental steps towards addressing gaps in healthcare prevention and care provision for this population are warranted, but without attention to the larger social and economic factors that shape and undermine migrant agricultural workers’ living and working conditions in Canada, this group will continue to face significant health and safety challenges.
Conclusions
The findings presented here illustrate the ways in which migrant agricultural workers’ workplace environments are significantly mediated by political and economic structures, such as globalizing forces that have undermined local economies in the Global South, and the limited scope, and in some cases, complicity of sending country ocials that fail to protect workers’ basic rights under the program. However, these macro-level structures do much more than determine transnational oversight mechanisms. They are also reflected at the level of the farm and the worker under these programs, creating coercive, paradoxical, lose–lose choices in which workers may normalize, accept, or only partially resist unsafe or hazardous workplace environments. Provincial and regional bodies that do not interrupt these conditions of coercion, may wittingly or unwittingly reinforce these dynamics, by, for example, relying on complaint-driven mechanisms that place the onus on workers to take on further risk in the attempts to address inappropriate workplace practices. Likewise, healthcare and other public sectors may create further conditions of coercion by posing barriers for workers to access or navigate services, which may require them to confront further risk to their job status, or, long-term health. Ultimately, workers’ right to a healthy, hazard-free workplace must account for the various political, economic, and regulatory factors that currently limit and undermine this very possibility.
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
A pair of contradictory trends is challenging humanitarian protection systems around the world: the number of refugees in need of protection has climbed to an all-time high, while at the same time, many countries have reduced their commitments to refugee resettlement. With protection needs high and generosity low, it has become more important to find new ways for refugees to reach safety and to rebuild public consensus around the value of offering protection to those in need.
To meet these challenges, governments and civil-society groups in a growing number of countries have begun to explore refugee sponsorship (also called community or private sponsorship), either as a complement or alternative to traditional protection pathways. This MPI Europe policy brief takes stock of sponsorship programs worldwide—from the well-established Canadian private sponsorship program, to much newer and smaller-scale initiatives in countries such as Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Although government investment and support for such programs are essential, this study also lays out a variety of ways private philanthropic actors can support these programs. Among them: funding the development of informational materials and hotlines for sponsors; investing in program infrastrucrture, such as staff positions within civil-society organizations; and monitoring and evaluation by civil society and/or government. Crucially, the authors note that while much effort in recent years has gone into developing and launching new initiatives, existing programs also face important capacity and funding gaps. “To ensure the capacity of refugee protection systems at a global level,” they write, “strengthening these programs should be viewed as a priority equal in importance to setting up new schemes.”
Other recent MPI publications | Autre publications récentes de MPI :
2019-11 : Volunteers and Sponsors : A Catalyst for Refugee Integration
2019-11 : Creating a Home in Canada: Refugee Housing Challenges and Potential Policy Solutions
2019-10 : Changing U.S. Policy and Safe-Third Country “Loophole” Drive Irregular Migration to Canada
2019-09 : Changing Mexico-U.S. Migration Patterns and Opportunities for Sustainable Cooperation
2019-09 : On the Brink: Prospects for UK Nationals in the EU-27 after a No-Deal Brexit
2019-08 : Immigration and the U.S. Labor Market: A Look Ahead
2019-08 : Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy: New Realities Call for New Answers
2019-08 : From Control to Crisis: Changing Trends and Policies Reshaping U.S.-Mexico Border Enforcement
2019-07 : Start-Up Visas: A Passport for Innovation and Growth?
2019-07 : A Growing Destination for Sub-Saharan Africans, Morocco Wrestles with Immigrant Integration
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.
An increase in irregular migration has placed strain and scrutiny on Canada’s immigration and refugee system. The controversy boils down to a question: under domestic and international law, who should qualify for asylum and refugee protection? On the one hand, Canada needs to ensure the integrity of our border and migratory regime. On the other hand, Canada must meet its domestic and international obligations.This study proposes reforms necessary for Canada to square these two challenges. The study explains how asylum seekers and immigrants are discouraged from following proper legal procedure to enter the country and how irregular migration has lowered public support for immigration overall.
Executive Summary
“A marked increase in irregular border crossers, especially outside of official ports of entry, has put Canada’s immigration and refugee system under scrutiny and fuelled an emotionally charged debate with important policy implications for Ottawa, the provinces, and Canada-US relations: Who should qualify for asylum, or refugee protection, under domestic and international law? Proponents defend migrants’ unequivocal legal entitlement to lodge a claim as a refugee in Canada; critics deem these irregular crossings to be an end-run around Canada’s refugee system by breaking – or at least abusing – the law.
In an immigrant country with a checkered history of immigration policy, to champion the underdog migrant who actually makes it to Canada is par for the course. However, this lenient attitude has effectively turned irregular migration into a back door to Canada: a disproportionate number of refugee claims by irregular migrants turn out to be unfounded yet few rejected claimants ever end up being deported.
On one hand, irregular migration is a function of a complex interplay of domestic, bilateral, and international factors. On the other hand, the Canadian dislike for US President Donald Trump has given rise to a narrative that attributes the surge in irregular migration to the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election. However convenient and appealing, simplistic explanations also tend to be wrong or, as this study explains, at least inchoate. This study lays out the myriad aggravating political factors in the US that predate the Trump administration.
At the same time, Canada has implemented the electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) for visa- exempt nationals, cracked down on human traffickers, used enhanced technology to reduce fake passports, and improved intelligence sharing on at-risk travellers. While these measures have reduced the number of irregular migrants arriving by air and sea, they have made crossing by land from the US much more attractive for those who prefer Canada as a destination. Contrary to claims that most of those who are crossing are taking flight from the Trump regime, about two-thirds of asylum seekers crossing irregularly into Canada by land actually enter the United States legally on a visa for the sole purpose of making their way to Canada. By way of example, Saudi nationals have obtained American visas at the embassy in Riyadh under false pretense, intent on entering Canada to claim asylum.
Between 2016 and 2017 irregular migration into Quebec, primarily from New York state across the now infamous Roxham Road, surged by 230-percent. Although not wholly without precedent, these numbers are nonetheless high by historical standards. Through September 2019, 12,080 irregular migrants had been apprehended by the RCMP out of 46,165 total claims, or 26.2 percent of claims, in 2019. The 2019 numbers are a decline from the RCMP apprehensions of roughly 20,000 irregular migrants in each of the two previous years, although at a rate of 1,200 a month in the fourth quarter, the final tally for 2019 will probably range around 15,700. It appears to be a case of squeezing the snake: total claims from all sources are running close to 6,500 a month in the third quarter of 2019 compared to 4,900 a month during the same quarter in 2018.
Canada’s migratory regime is based on a social contract. Recent trends challenge the integrity, sustainability, and legitimacy of that social contract because they undermine the cornerstones of Canada’s migratory regime writ large, and especially its approach to refugees:
How, then, is Canada to confront the phenomenon of global migration in a way that respects the rule of law while preserving the legitimacy of domestic migration regimes?
As challenges to the integrity of border management and policy have compounded over the past 25 years or so, binational and bilateral cooperation between Canada and the United States has expanded incrementally. After all, open borders depend on extensive cross-border cooperation for their effectiveness and legitimacy. This is the premise that informs a sustainable approach to irregular migration across Canada’s land border between ports of entry.
The government is currently exploring extending the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) beyond ports of entry to cover the entire land border. This is a better option than unilaterally suspending the STCA, as some commentators have prescribed. Yet, given the disproportionate number of refugee claims at inland offices, extending the STCA to cover the land border is unlikely to solve the migration problem facing Canada.
This study lays out a cooperative strategy with the aim of sustaining a coherent border-migration compact that includes:
The cumulative effect of both regular and back-door immigration risks undermining popular support for migration altogether. Polling data suggest that trend is well underway. These targeted measures are designed to reinforce confidence in Canada’s commitment to managing its borders, the integrity of the refugee migration system, the prospects of the political and economic integration of migrants, and consequences for the country’s prosperity as a whole.”
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
Access to relevant, timely, and appropriately presented information may become an increasingly important resource for recent immigrants who are learning to navigate and negotiate a largely unknown health care system and are at high risk of becoming underserved. Users’ informational needs are also a powerful reflection of the complexity and multifaceted nature of their interactions with the immediate social surroundings and the health care system. Focusing on information needs, therefore, represents a potentially useful approach to better understand what is needed to build a health care system that is truly responsive to the needs of the population it aims to serve.
The objectives of this thesis are to:
The study had three phases:
Participants were randomly selected adult callers living within the boundaries of Toronto’s Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). Respondents were compared with the general adult population living in Toronto’s CMA, using 2001 Census data, to identify under- or overrepresented population groups. A sub-set of callers who had asked health-related questions was followed up to understand how they had used the information received and their level of satisfaction with the service. Qualitative interviews were conducted with callers who were recent immigrants and native Spanish speakers from Latin America to explore their post-migration experiences.
Recent immigrants experience significant information challenges. Health-related questions reflect the multifaceted nature of the concept of health in the experience of users. Negative experiences with the health care system are common. Recent immigrants have access to disorganized, confusing, often poor quality information. 211 Toronto represents an efficient and effective way to gain access to information but does not achieve its full potential.
Newcomers should receive timely, appropriate, and reliable information on existing health and health-related services as soon as possible after they relocate to Canada. Appropriate information should also be made available to potential immigrants in their countries of origin. Information and communication technologies should be used to support newcomers, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of services such as 211 Toronto.
Some key findings
Jangles Productions was contracted by Citizenship and Immigration Canada Ontario Region in August of 2009 to conduct a print campaign to promote three settlement services:
This was the fifth campaign carried out to promote these agencies/services. It consisted of:
The results of this print campaign were quite positive. There were more than 6.4 million impressions from the combined circulation figures of all 22 ethnic publications over the six month period. The 10 Newcomer Information Centres (NIC) posted significant increases. For March/10 the Toronto sites were the highest on record for new clients served while the Ottawa site saw a 100% increase in new and repeat clients for December/09. The six NIC sites operated by Centre for Education and Training (CET) showed dramatic increases of over 100% in October/09 and 110% in November/09 compared to the year before.Findhelp information Services 211 Toronto posted an18% increase in monthly calls in March/10 compared to February/10 and 211 Peel indicated a 110% increase in November/09 compared to November/08. OCASI’s website www.settlement.org showed a 40% increase in unique users (first time users) in March/10 compared to December/09.
Comments and Recommendations
The strategy of communicating with newcomers in their first language by targeting ethnic communities at the “grass-roots” level has proven itself over and over again as an effective means of reaching immigrants. Jangles Productions recommends Citizenship and Immigration Canada continues this campaign on a yearly basis. At the conclusion of this fifth campaign this approach of advertising directly to newcomers in their first language and in the communities where they live has proven itself as a successful method of promoting newcomer services
For the next print campaign Jangles Productions recommends the following:
Overview
“In 2016, immigrants made up over one-third of Canada's population aged 25 to 64—the age group that is most active in the labour market—with at least a bachelor's degree, and over one half of those in that age group with a degree in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Two new studies by Statistics Canada examine the education-occupation match of immigrants with at least a bachelor's degree.
Based on the 2016 Census data, the study ‘Skill Utilization and Earnings of STEM-educated Immigrants in Canada: Differences by Degree Level and Field of Study’ compares the likelihood of immigrant and Canadian-born workers with a degree in a STEM field to be working in a STEM-related occupation.
Among immigrants with a doctoral degree in a STEM field, the rate of employment in a STEM occupation (62%) was similar to the rate observed among their Canadian-born counterparts (61%). These immigrants earned about 9% less annually than Canadian-born workers with similar socio-demographic characteristics. About two-thirds (63%) of immigrants with a doctoral degree in a STEM field were educated in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, or France. Immigrants educated in these four Western countries had outcomes similar to those of the Canadian-born, while those educated elsewhere did less well.
In comparison, 39% of immigrants with a bachelor's degree in a STEM field worked in a STEM occupation, compared with 47% among Canadian-born workers with the same level of education. Immigrants with a bachelor's degree in a STEM field earned 28% less annually than their Canadian-born counterparts. About one-quarter of immigrants with a bachelor's degree in a STEM field were educated in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, or France.
When looking at field of study, immigrants with an engineering degree were much less likely to be working in a STEM occupation (48%) than Canadian-born workers (66%). Many occupations in engineering are regulated professions, and immigrants may face more difficulties with foreign credential recognition in these professions.
In comparison, immigrants and the Canadian-born educated in science and computer science had a similar rate of employment in STEM occupations. About 32% of immigrants with a science degree worked in a STEM occupation, compared with 30% of the Canadian-born. The share of workers with a computer science degree working in a STEM occupation was 54% for immigrants and 57% for the Canadian-born.
The second study, ‘Recent Trends in Over-education by Immigration Status,’ documents changes in education-occupation match from 2001 to 2016 for recent immigrants (arrived in Canada 1 to 10 years before the census) and Canadian-born youth aged 25 to 34. Both groups are new entrants to the Canadian labour market.
From 2001 to 2016, the number of university-educated workers aged 25 to 64 in Canada increased by 1.7 million, while the number of university-educated people in jobs requiring a university degree grew by 857,000. The larger supply relative to demand for university-educated workers likely affected recent immigrants disproportionately.
Over the 15-year period, about 60% of employment growth among Canadian-born youth with a university degree was for jobs that required a university degree. In comparison, among recent immigrants with a university degree, jobs requiring a university degree represented 30% of employment growth.
Among workers with at least a bachelor's degree, the proportion of those with a job requiring at least a bachelor's degree decreased from 46% to 38% among recent immigrants, but was stable at 59% among Canadian-born youth.”
Read or download the full reports:
Garnett Picot (Research and Evaluation Branch, IRCC
and the Institute for Research in Public Policy) and Feng Hou (Statistics Canada)
Recent trends in over-education by immigration status
Feng Hou (Statistics Canada), Yao Lu (Columbia University) and Christoph Schimmele (Statistics Canada)
Infographic:
Over-education among immigrants in Canada
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.
This Scoping Review discusses the effective use of the Internet for the provision of integral information to new immigrants.
The Scoping Review includes information gathered from available research in the fields of communications, library science, web design, web internationalization, information science, technology studies, immigration studies, settlement studies, media studies, and several other areas. It considers barriers to online information gathering that are systemic to any immigrant population. These include issues of linguistic competency in the dominant language(s) of the adopted country (in this case, Canada’s official languages, English and French); issues of cultural competency, including research into the provision of online information in more culturally-appropriate ways and the development of online environments that accommodate a range of culturally diverse information finding practices; and issues of illiteracy even in the language of one’s home country—this discussion includes a summary and examination of cutting edge research into online provision of information in the context of illiteracy or semi literacy in either the dominant language of the adopted country or that of the source country, or both.
This Scoping Review offers critical comparison and analysis of several websites that have been identified as sites that follow some of the best practices for website design that are outlined in the previous section of the review. It also considers technical barriers to the provision of multilanguage information, as well as solutions to the most common technical barriers. In addition, it presents a short discussion of the use of new and emerging web 2.0 and social media technologies.
Trends
Existing surveys and research that explore the use of the Internet by immigrants suggest that immigrants have high levels of home computer and internet use (Veenhof, Wellman & Hogan, 2008; Aizlewood & Doody, 2002). Statistics from the General Social Survey 2000 and the General Social Survey 2003 indicate that immigrants are more likely than Canadian-born individuals to use the Internet to communicate with friends and family. Veenhof et al. (2008) note that immigrants have, on average, relatively high levels of education, which is a factor associated with increased internet use.
According to Caidi, Allard, and Dechief (2008) new immigrants pass through three distinct stages of information needs:immediate, intermediate, and integration. New immigrants, as they have been defined by the Ministry of Attorney General for the purposes of this project, include immigrants who are newcomers who are in the process of settling into Canada and have not yet become Canadian citizens. Their needs are therefore described substantially by the first and second of Caidi et al.’s stages. During the immediate stage of information needs,new immigrants are most concerned with obtaining information pertaining to issues such as housing, food, transportation, and methods of overcoming language barriers. The intermediate stage involves seeking information about topics such as accessing legal and municipals services, employment training and opportunities, and health care. The third and final stage of information needs includes any information,such as information regarding ―host‖culture and politics that will assist new immigrants in successfully integrating into their new country (Caidi, Allard, and Dechief, 2008).
New immigrants encounter several barriers to accessing integral information.Some of the main barriers include language, the diversity of the immigrant population, and a lack of familiarity with the information resources available in the ―host‖ country.
There is evidence that certain ethnic groups have cultural features that predispose them to certain communication preferences, independent of the linguistic features of their language. There are certain generalizations that can be made about the communication preferences of members of ethnic groups,which are better delineated according to their ethnic origins (and thus their cultural affiliations), and other generalizations that can be made regarding multilingual web design, which do not consider cultural specificity, but rather focus on multilingual accessibility and design strategies and practices.
Conclusion
Importantly, it should be noted that available research into the use of the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies for the distribution of PLEI to immigrants indicates that to be most successful, internet information must be complemented by in person interaction, as well as the provision of non-internet informational and educational materials(CS/Resors Consulting Ltd., 2005). Thus although the use of internet and Web 2.0 technologies is emerging as a new and potentially effective trend in PLEI distribution, the importance of other media in distributing PLEI cannot be underestimated
Since immigrants are a widely diverse group with diverse and individual needs, it is important to evaluate to what extent current programs are meeting their needs and in what way their needs may have changed. Further, it is important to be aware of how culturally appropriate the format of presentation is, as well as how useful the information presented. The research has shown that although many organizations are doing important work in the area of information provision, very few are performing evaluations.
The WRWG has pursued completion of an environmental scan in advance of strategic plan development. As a point-‐in-‐time snapshot, an environmental scan is intended to explore and capture current trends, successes and challenges at the immigrant sector’s system level, generate a coherent narrative supported by facts, and set the foundation for dialogue, strategic planning, and stakeholder influence.
Technology trends and advancements and their increasing uptake in the nonprofit sector have implications for increasing service effectiveness and improved work processes. Cloud computing, social media and mobile technology can increase the number of clients served and also improve service quality (Boles, 2013). Further, another trend focused on what is delivered through technology as opposed to mechanisms for delivery, is a growing demand for dynamic data. This type of data or reporting is distinguished from static data in that users can really explore and work with the data by watching, clicking and sharing. In turn, the data/site owner can collect valuable user information and statistics.
Hsu identified 3 best practices which are critical to nonprofit success in technology use:
Opportunities
Little is understood about the scope of information and communication technology (ICT) use in practice for agency- based social work professionals, and still less is known about how such practitioners acquire and avail themselves of opportunities to learn about ICT tools. This study asked a sample of social work field supervisors to describe their personal and professional ICT use, to rank the technological sophistication of their agency, to describe the barriers and facilitators to ICT use in their organizations and to operationalize environmental opportunities for acquiring new skills and knowledge.
The authors examine factors that may influence technology use: asking if organizational culture is related to uptake in the professional context, and if self-reported individual resistance to innovation and change can explain voluntary adoption of ICT tools. The results offer a portrait of how agency-based social workers are using technology in personal and professional life, describe how these supervisors learn about developing technologies for practice, and highlight the gaps in technology infrastructures among agencies, pointing to directions for further exploration.
Findings
The findings suggest that nearly all respondents are regularly conversant with more than one technology, refuting the narrative that social workers are techno-luddites.
These findings present a snapshot of U.S. agency-based social work practice with respect to technology usage, challenging the simple notion that social workers are inherently suspicious of technology, and that agencies are universally behind the curve on technology adoption. While social worker supervi-sors may not be informed assessors, few define themselves as resistant to using technology, most are embracing technology in a context of personal choice, and a majority (64%) define their agencies as “operating” or “leading” in the context of technology adoption.
The pattern of professional technology use by social workers described here is, at least in part, determined by the agencies in which they work: individual usage reflects an organization’s emphasis on and ability to commit resources to the project of incorporating technology. Indeed, our results document that an agency’s profile of technology uptake is highly correlated with a supervi-sor’s use of ICTs: showing a significant difference in professional technology use between social workers working in agencies which they characterize as “leading” and their counterparts who characterize their agencies as “nonleading.” This challenges hypotheses that attempt to locate resistance to technology within the individual, and supports research like that of Stam, Stanton, and Guzman (2004) and Venkatesh and colleagues (2003), which aims to add the variable of context to describing the infusion of technology into the individual routines that ultimately characterize the implementation of organizational goals.
However, the portion of the study dedicated to describing ongoing professional learning yields the finding that only a small percentage of respondents sought out opportunities to learn more about technology for professional use. Most participants received continuing education about technology only as it was provided by their agency.
f, as described here, agency-driven professional development is the primary conduit for creating awareness of the potential of technology to enhance practice, then this should become a site for the energetic infusion of information and innovation. Others have suggested elsewhere that effective introduction of technology into social service will require that new technologies be articulated in the terms of the elemental values that inspire social work: relationship, advancement of mission, and the imperative of client benefit (Kreuger & Stretch, 2000; Zhang & Gutierrez, 2007).
Ultimately, these results invite research to query the assumption that underlies the imperative to infuse technology into social work practice: that technology-enabled social work is an ethical imperative because it serves clients better. If professionals in leading technology agencies use more technology, do they offer more effective services? This question is unanswered here, and should inspire debate.
Conclusion
This research yields a snapshot of technology adoption by social work super-visors working primarily in the area of mental health in a metropolitan area of the northeastern United States. While specific in scope, the study shows that the majority of these professionals define their agency setting as technologi-cally functional, though few identify theirs as leading. They use technology in their personal lives, and use it to communicate and to enhance workflow in the workplace. Few among respondents sought to expand their relevant professional knowledge about technology. The research suggests that the areas of agency-sponsored professional development, client facing technology interventions, and the dissemination of practices out of leading technology agencies may be particularly potent locations for intervention in the service of accelerating the adoption of technology across the field of social work.
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