Immigrants In Canada Research Articles

“They act like we are going to heaven”: pre-arrival information experiences, information crafting and settlement of immigrants in Canada

PurposeAlthough there is a growing body of work on immigrants' information behavior, little is known about the pre-arrival information experiences of immigrants who consult formal information sources such as immigration agents. Drawn from a larger study on the information behavior of immigrants, this paper mainly reports the semi-structured interview findings on the pre-arrival information experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants who used formal information sources with discussion on how that affected their post-arrival settlement into Canada.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a mixed method approach with semi-structured interviews (n = 60) and surveys (n = 205) with participants who arrived in Canada between the years of 1971 and 2017. Data were collected from May 2017 to February 2018.FindingsAlthough the overall scope of the original study is much larger, this paper features findings on the pre-arrival information experiences derived mainly from an analysis of interview data. This study provides insights into the pre-arrival information experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants consulting formal information sources such as immigration firms, individual immigration consultants and more formal government agencies. The author introduces a new concept of “information crafting” by exploring the negative consequences of selective information sharing by immigration consultants/agents in newcomers' settlements in Canada, primarily positive information about life in Canada, sometimes with exaggeration and falsification. The interview participants shared story after the story of the settlement challenges they faced after arriving in Canada and how the expectations they built through the information received from immigration consultants and government agencies did not match after arrival. This study emphasizes the importance of providing comprehensive information about life in Canada to potential newcomers so that they can make informed decisions even before they apply.Originality/valueThe findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications for policy and research. This study provides insights into the complicated culturally situated pre-arrival information experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants. Moreover, the study findings encourage researchers in various disciplines, including psychology, migration studies and geography, to delve more deeply into newcomers' information experiences using an informational lens to examine the information newcomers receive from diverse sources and their effects on their post-arrival settlement in a new country. The study challenges the general assumptions that formal information sources are always reputable, useful, and comprehensive, and it provides some future directions for research that seeks to understand the culturally situated information behavior of diverse immigrant groups.

Self-Fashioning and Ambiguities of Revolution in Austin Clarke's "Initiation"

This is a paper on Austin Clarke’s short story from his collection of short stories titled, In This City. The story can be seen as being a part of Diaspora Studies, Immigrant Literature and Black Studies. The paper critically scrutinizes the short story based on the text and the context to argue how there was an absence of sustainable structures in the public sphere for black immigrant masculinities to sufficiently express themselves in a white heteronormative culture. Sociological ideas of Toby Miller and Erving Goffman are used to understand how black immigrant identities could only sufficiently be expressed in alternate sub-structures that remained isolated from the dominant white and heteronormative status quo. The central subject of “white space” of the issue is highly relevant to the paper’s exploration of how the systems of self-fashioning and revolution that exist in the public imagination are “incomplete” in their lack of reliability and sufficiency for black immigrants in Canada. Hence, their position in relation to aspirations of self-fashioning and revolution is one of ambiguity as the title of the paper itself states.
 
 The paper lays bare how these ambiguities are manufactured based on the chasm that exists between the ways in which the characters want to act and the ways of self-fashioning that society approves for them. It also explores how the systems of revolution are incomplete for them as there is an absence in terms of a revolutionary process that ensures stability and self-preservation.
 

Between Canada and Italy; or, lives and identities in transition: A reading of Where She Has Gone by Nino Ricci

This article focuses on the third novel of Nino Ricci's trilogy about Italian immigration in Canada. More precisely, taking my cue from the theme of nostos in the sense of a search for a fully-fledged identity, I will analyse the way that Where She Has Gone dramatizes the protagonist's predicament in terms of personal conflicts, psychological trauma and sexual ambiguities. Vittorio Innocente is a hero whose life seems to be split between Canada and Italy: this is at the origin of his personal crisis which is characterized by a deeply ingrained sense of peril. In many respects, the main point of the story is represented by the protagonist's return to Italy where he intends to meet all those people who knew him. In fact, he left for Canada as an eight-year-old boy with his pregnant mother who died during the journey after giving birth to a daughter named Rita. While living in Toronto, Vittorio has an incestuous relationship with his younger half-sister Rita, who was the fruit of their mother's adultery in Valle del Sole (Molise). The most dramatic moment of the diegesis takes place when Vittorio meets Rita in Valle del Sole as both are returning from Canada by different routes. Significantly, by looking into their mother's past, they both decide to give up their tormented relationship. The protagonist's journey back to his native village can be seen not only as that of an intellectual in search of his own roots but also as a compelling wish to meet, after many years, his own historic and socio-cultural past in order to better understand his unresolved life as well as his role in Canadian society.

The Flows of Racial Capitalism: Charting the Spread of COVID-19 through Alberta’s Meatpacking Industry

This article will present a case study of Cargill’s High River meatpacking plant operations to show how at crucial historical junctures racial capitalism shaped its working conditions and in so doing determined the spread of COVID-19. First, the Canadian meatpacking industry’s 1980s-era economic restructuring relocated and reorganized its workforce from a core to peripheral one, allowing for the low wage employment of many precarious workers; this restructuring enabled the Cargill company to gain overwhelming control of the meatpacking industry in Canada and to become a “choke point” in the supply chain. Second, Canadian immigration policy from 2006 to 2010 supported a marked increase in migrant workers to meet the labour market needs of business; this reconstituted the labour class to heighten their disposability. With these pieces in place, the Albertan provincial government could classify meatpackers as “essential workers” who worked even in the face of mass COVID infection in April through June 2020. Across this crucial historical period racial capitalism enabled the plant to circumvent public health interventions protecting workers through the onset of the pandemic. Political championing of business interests, enacted through legislative mechanisms, allowed for the exploitation of workers and consistently rendered workers personally responsible for their own health and safety, despite their lack of control over what exposed them to risk.

Why Are Public Attitudes towards Immigration in Canada Becoming Increasingly Positive? Exploring the Factors Behind the Changes in Attitudes towards Immigration (1998–2021)

Focusing on why and how public attitudes towards immigration in Canada have grown more positive between 1998 and 2021, this paper examines whether the changes in attitudes stem from changes in population characteristics or changes in the effect of these characteristics. Our analysis sheds light on the implications of the 2008–2010 financial crisis on the support for immigration. Our logit regression analysis shows that positive attitudes towards immigration are positively related to higher levels of education attainment regardless of the survey years but negatively associated with the support for conservative political parties, especially during and after the financial crisis. By employing decomposition analysis, we investigate the shift in public opinions across individual characteristics before, during, and after the 2008 financial crisis. We find that, for all periods, most of the attitude shift results from the change in the effect of population characteristics rather than the change in the characteristics themselves.

Syrian, Armenian, and Lebanese Claims to Whiteness in Post-War Canadian Immigration Policy

Abstract This article asks how, in early post-World War II Canada, Syrian, Armenian, and Lebanese communities claimed whiteness in the context of Canada’s racially restrictive immigration regulations that defined them as “Asiatics,” and hence inadmissible. But, it also examines how Canadian politicians and immigration bureaucrats responded to those claims. Using so-far untapped archival records, this article shows that immigration authorities were unwilling to redefine the racial status of these groups out of fear that doing so would provide a wedge for other groups of “Asiatics” to press for the ability to migrate to Canada. In this case, Syrians, Armenians, and Lebanese could be regarded as experiencing collateral damage in the politics of whiteness. While Canadian immigration authorities seemed to privately accept the white/European identity claims of these groups, they were nonetheless unwilling to publicly grant them one of the privileges of whiteness – namely the ability to migrate to Canada on a basis equal to that of other white immigrants. Instead, the government used “merit-based” orders-in-council as an under the radar administrative mechanism to admit members of these groups. This allowed the government and the immigration department to avoid a larger public debate about racial discrimination against “Asiatic” immigrants.

Exploring the influence of social and structural support on entrepreneurial intentions among South Asian Canadian immigrants

The focus of this paper is on the perspectives people hold towards starting their businesses. An investigation was conducted on recent immigrants to Canada, the majority of whom were from South Asian nations. Subsequently, the SmartPLS 3.2.8 analysis tool was used to examine the collected data. According to the findings of the analysis, the perception of having structural support is a poor predictor of entrepreneurial intentions. Conversely, individual characteristics, such as self-efficacy and self-control, are significant predictors of entrepreneurial intentions. The results call into question immigration policies and regulations that select immigrants based on their potential for financial success rather than the businesses they intend to start themselves. The research suggests that if immigrants with high self-efficacy were provided support from their immigrant communities, they could more easily launch new businesses. This information can serve as a guide for immigration policymakers.

The places we'll go: How have rural residents changed over time?

An increasingly key consideration in Canadian immigration policy is rural settlement patterns. As Canada’s largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs) continue to see increases in overall population, smaller and mid-sized communities face greater challenges in attracting and retaining newcomers as a means of economic and population improvements. As such, it is becoming increasingly important to look at the characteristics of individuals who opt for rural settlement in order to improve the outcomes of future attraction initiatives. While a substantial body of literature looks at the movement of immigrants and native-born Canadians across the country, far fewer look at the characteristics that positively predict rural settlement. This study helps to close the knowledge gap by investigating these characteristics and how they change over a 25-year period, using two identical logistic regression models and a pooled cross-sectional model based on the 1991 and 2016 Canadian Census. Overall, age, lower levels of education and income, as well as non-immigrant and non-visible minority statuses lead to higher propensities for rural living. However, the general trend is a move away from rural settlement in favour of larger cities.

Conflicting Identities in Canadian Immigrant Prose

The paper presents a portrait of immigrant identity on the example of two Polish Canadian writers. Aga Maksimowska’s novel, Giant introduces a protagonist who builds her national and personal identity over a dramatic experience of forced emigration, where Canadianness was at first a pragmatic construct, and not a conscious choice. As a result, the girl struggles with her concept of identity. In the case of Eva Stachniak’s Necessary Lies, one of the factors which leads to the protagonist’s internal conflict is guilt. When in 1981 the martial law was introduced in Poland, the narrator was already in Montreal, freshly in love with a man, who was not her husband. The motif of double guilt (marital betrayal, and that against her motherland) is a frame of Stachniak’s novel. The paper is an attempt to show young immigrant prose from the perspective of multicultural experience, which adds another formative background to the idea of identity understood as a choice or creation rather than an inherited legacy.

Force-Feeding: Consumption and Sexuality in Frank G. Paci's Black Madonna

Informed by calls to re-evaluate the relationship between Canadian literature and power in the wake of Canada’s sesquicentennial, this paper examines Frank G. Paci’s Black Madonna, a 1982 Italian-Canadian novel that played a significant role in early discussions of Canadian multiculturalism. This paper reassesses Paci’s representation of the protagonist Marie, a second-generation Italian-Canadian woman. Using Judith Butler’s concept of the construction of the gendered body and Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, this paper analyzes Marie’s struggle for bodily control and her rejection of her Italian mother’s ideals about food, sexuality, and family. Through applying this framework of gender performativity and abjection of Otherness, this paper argues that Marie’s disordered relationships with food and her sexuality are a result of the pressure on second-generation female immigrants to perform cultural identity while simultaneously assimilating into Anglo-Canadian culture. I contend that Marie’s rape fantasies and sexually transgressive encounters are indicative of the corporeal tensions faced by female immigrants in Canada, while her bulimic abjection of Italian food acts as a physical manifestation of the abjection of immigrant cultures by both Canadian multiculturalism and second generation immigrants within multiculturalism. This reassessment of Black Madonna provides a framework for re-reading early multicultural texts through a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between multiculturalism, gender, sexuality, food, and trauma.

Assessing the “healthy immigrant effect” in mental health: Intra- and inter-cohort trends in mood and/or anxiety disorders

BackgroundThe healthy immigrant effect implies that, at the time of immigration, new immigrants are typically healthier than the Canadian-born population. Furthermore, this health advantage fades the longer cohorts of immigrants remain in the host country. MethodsMost studies assessing the healthy immigrant effect rely on strong, untestable assumptions to extract unique effects for length of stay (LOS) (i.e., how long an immigrant has been in a host country), period (i.e., year of observation), and cohort (i.e., year of immigration). Rather than attempting to parse out separate effects for LOS, period, and cohort, we adopt a descriptive, cohort-centric approach to study immigrant mental health, which examines intra- and inter-cohort trends, that is, joint LOS-period and cohort-period parameters, respectively. While intra-cohort trends show how immigrants’ mental health change with LOS across periods, inter-cohort trends reveal how the mental health of successive cohorts of immigrants differ across time periods. To provide a thorough assessment of the healthy immigrant effect, we use both survey and administrative data on cohorts of Canadian immigrants from 2003 to 2013. ResultsThe survey data reveal that mental health declines steeply (i.e., there is an increase in mood and/or anxiety disorders) within and across immigrant cohorts, while the administrative data show little overall change in mental health care utilization within and across cohorts. The divergent results may reflect issues related to barriers in access to mental health services because the administrative data, which are based on health care utilization, do not the capture the increase in mental disorders seen in the survey data. ConclusionThis study highlights the benefit of a cohort-based approach to assess the healthy immigrant effect as it pertains to mental health as well as the importance of using different types of data, which may be measuring different aspects of immigrant mental health and health care utilization.

Abstract 11988: Understanding Ethnic Differences in the Risk of Cardiovascular Events and Mortality Among Immigrants in Canada

Introduction: Immigrants make up the largest share of the population in Canada, and one in four Canadians has come to the country as an immigrant. The high level of immigration has resulted in significant ethnic diversity in Canada, and each presents with a cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile unique to their ethnicity and country of birth. Methods: We performed a literature search of 6 electronic databases, including the grey literature sources of conferences, reports, theses, and dissertations from January 2000 until May 25, 2023. We included pertinent English language literature that summarized the evidence on ethnic differences in CVD risk and mortality among immigrants of the following ethnic groups in Canada: South Asian (East Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan), Chinese, Black, Latin American, Southeast Asian (Vietnamese, Cambodian, Malaysian), West Asian (Iran, Afghan), Arab, Korean, Japanese, and Filipinos. Results: Of the 9968 studies identified, 47 studies formed the basis of the review. Four overarching themes of CVD risk were found, comprising individual characteristics, ethnic differences, gender-related risks, and duration of residence in Canada. Among the different ethnic groups, South Asians had the greater risk of cardiovascular events, in which males had a striking difference in mortality of (42%) compared to females (29%), whereas East Asians had the least risk. No significant difference in the incidence of CVD was reported with the duration of residence between varied ethnic groups. However, East Asians showed a notable exception, with an increase in the incidence of CVD after 10 years of stay in Canada by 40% and 60% among males and females, respectively. Conclusions: Ethnic inequalities in CVD attributes to a combination of modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors, and this disparity in CVD incidence can be tackled by targeting interventions according to ethnic differences in risk profiles.

Abstract 13306: Substantial Variation in the Rate of Coronary Artery Disease Among Ontario Immigrants

Immigrants constitute a substantial proportion of the population in Western Europe and North America. Although prior studies have suggested that a "healthy immigrant effect" exists, little is known about the extent and variation of stable obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) among immigrants. We evaluated the association of country of origin and the rates of stable CAD among immigrants. We assembled a cohort of immigrants and non-immigrants who received elective cardiac catheterization in Ontario, Canada, between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2021. Immigrants were categorized by their country of origin into 7 regions: Africa, Caribbean, Latin America, Western Countries, East Asia, South Asia, and Middle East. Our main outcome was the rate of obstructive CAD (left main stenosis ≥50% or major epicardial vessel stenosis ≥70%). Multivariable logistic regression analyses adjusting for age, cardiac risk factors, and socioeconomic status was used to study the association of country of birth with presence of CAD. The study included 208,363 non-immigrants and 36,139 immigrants: 13,503 from South Asia, 6,839 from Western Countries, 5,036 from East Asia, 4,374 from the Middle East, 2,481 from Latin America, 2,320 from Caribbean, and 1,586 from Africa. Obstructive CAD was found in 47.1% of immigrants and 47.4% of non-immigrants. Immigrants from South Asia had the highest rate of obstructive CAD at 53.7% and those from the Caribbean had the lowest rate at 32.5%. South Asian men and women had the highest odds of obstructive CAD compared to non-immigrants (Figure). Despite the conventional belief that immigrants have better health status, we found that immigrants in Canada had higher odds of obstructive CAD than non-immigrants. In addition, significant variation exists among patients by country of origin even after accounting for the traditional cardiac risk factors.

Becoming ‘true’ Muslims in Canada: experiences of Uyghur immigrants

ABSTRACT This study explores the shifting religiosity and religious identity of a group of Muslim Uyghur immigrants in Canada. The findings reveal that many have strengthened their attachment to their Islamic faith and identity after resettlement. Drawing on data gathered through 12 in-depth (n = 12) interviews and a survey of more than 100 participants (n = 106), this article suggests that this ‘reconversion’ process results from ‘conversations’ with three groups of ‘interlocutors’. Firstly, their engagement with other Canadian Muslims has pushed them to revisit, confirm, and fortify their Muslim identity. Secondly, their self-reflection on their situation in China has renewed their awareness of their Uyghur Islamic heritage. Finally, their interaction with Christian/White majority others in Canada has reinforced the need to strengthen their Muslim identity. The awareness that they are different from the majorities in their homeland and Canada has contributed to this process simultaneously.

Chinese grand(parenting) encourages a re‐imagining of Canada's immigration regime

AbstractCanada's migration regime prioritizes the admission of young skilled immigrants while restricting elderly immigrants constructed as non‐contributing dependents. We review and compare the current pathways to family reunification for elderly immigrants. Based on interviews with 16 Chinese skilled immigrant mothers and eight sponsored (grand)parents in Edmonton and Ottawa, we highlight the contributions made by elderly Chinese immigrants to social reproduction, intergenerational cultural preservation, and various forms of transnational support. We also reveal the financial and emotional costs incurred by young skilled immigrants who sought to sponsor their elderly parents for permanent residency. Based on these rich conversations, we propose two policy recommendations to reduce the pressure on sponsoring family members and create opportunities for elderly immigrants to access gainful employment.

Evolution of Canadian immigration policy. The experience of resettlement and measures towards inclusiveness

Evolution of Canadian immigration policy. The experience of resettlement and measures towards inclusiveness

Adjustment challenges faced by Yazidi youth refugees in Canada

AbstractResettlement to a new country is a period of adjustment for all youth refugees, especially for highly traumatized groups of refugees, such as the Yazidi population. This study explores adjustment challenges faced by Yazidi youth refugees in Canada using group concept mapping. 12 Yazidi youth participated. Seven concepts represent the statements, including family stress and adjustment, the experience of instability and fear, navigating the differences between countries, starting over, getting used to school, the impact of war and my discomfort. The findings from this study were compared and contrasted with the existing literature.

Super Visa Program: Immigration Policy Changes and Social Injustice under the Neoliberal Governmentality in Canada

Abstract:
 In November 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Canada paused the parents/grandparents (PGP) sponsorship immigration and announced a new Super Visa program simultaneously to facilitate family reunification, specifically among older adults waiting to be reunified with their children in Canada. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the experiences of immigrant families with the Super Visa Program. In total, 19 semi-structured interviews were conducted in Toronto with Chinese immigrants and parents holding a Super Visa. Our findings revealed that Super Visa program is helpful for family reunification, especially for those whose regular visa applications are not successful. However, Super Visa is still a visitor visa and parents/grandparents have to leave after a maximum of two years. This temporary status of their parents does not promote among immigrants a sense of belonging in Canada, but reinforces their feeling of being treated as “foreigner”. They also debunked the stigma that older parents/grandparents come to Canada for better welfare and are non-contributor and a burden to Canadian society. We observe older parents/grandparents are categorized as “undesirable” and their unpaid contributions to immigrant family and Canada society are rendered invisible. We argue there exits an inherent link between PGP policy changes and social injustice. Behind the negative portrayal of older parents/grandparents and policy changes on them is State’s neoliberal governmentality grounded upon market norms and mechanism. The immigration and social injustice inflicting on older PGP migrants manifests that neoliberal immigration regime is still structurally raced, gendered, classed, and may be intertwined with other stigmatizing dynamics such as ageist, ableist etc. within the State’s power relationship.

The next jailor: An empirical study of danger to the public immigration detentions in Canada (summer 2021)

This article investigates who counts as dangerous for immigration control purposes and how states spot and monitor purportedly dangerous people for immigration enforcement measures. By examining Canadian immigration detention law and practice during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the study finds that nearly all danger-based immigration detentions targeted long-term Canadian residents who had typically lost permanent legal status following a criminal conviction. The article argues that a core function of immigration enforcement processes is the removal of supposedly undesirable persons from society and that danger-based detentions are used primarily for post-admission migration control. Furthermore, the study reveals that the surveillance and policing of dangerous individuals largely relies on external police agencies, with immigration officials rarely initiating or managing their own investigations. The findings from this research contribute to the growing body of literature on the overlap between criminal law and immigration law and shows that—in the context of danger-based immigration detention—immigration authorities do not initiate their own investigations, but depend almost exclusively on the work of criminal police forces.

'Shezan Muhammedi, Gifts from Amin: Ugandan Asian Refugees in Canada'

'Shezan Muhammedi, Gifts from Amin: Ugandan Asian Refugees in Canada'