Minorities In Canada Research Articles

The professional ‘Creed’ of francophone journalists in linguistic majorities and minorities in Canada

Abstract Scientific research concentrating on Quebec journalism and media has been conducted for nearly 40 years. It may be said that in 2014, the domain is richer and more fertile than ever. Such an emphasis on Quebec, however, gives the impression that there is no francophone journalism worthy of research outside of that province. To compensate somewhat for this shortcoming, I propose two proceedings. First, I will sketch a sociological portrait of journalists in Canadian francophone minorities in order to present a more general overview of this population. Second, I will compare their professional priorities with those of two homologous groups: Quebec journalists, and francophone and anglophone Canadian journalists. This comparison will allow us to observe that journalists in francophone minorities (JFMs) are not so different after all from their counterparts, though they have certain distinguishing traits that I will attempt to explain.

Aboriginal People and Confidence in the Police

No nationally representative study has been conducted about differential confidence in the police between Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal persons in Canada. Based on the 2009 General Social Survey of Canada, this article examines the influence of Aboriginal status on confidence in the police. Consistent with the theoretical prediction, results of multiple regression analyses show that Aboriginal people and visible minorities have a significantly lower level of confidence than other Canadians do, after the effects of both expressive and instrumental concerns are controlled for. The persistent effects of Aboriginal or visible minorities status raise questions about racial relationships in Canada. Other significant predictors of confidence in the police are expressive concerns, such as trust, and instrumental concerns, such as community context, crime experiences, perceptions of crime in one’s own neighbourhood, and police contact. Findings indicate that continued reform measures are needed for the police force to gain the confidence of Aboriginal people and visible minorities in Canada.

Methodological Issues in Analyzing Small Populations Using CCHS Cycles Based on the Official Language Minority Studies

Statistical analyses for small populations or small domains of interest can be challenging. To obtain reliable estimates, only very large surveys such as the Canadian Community Health Survey can be considered. However, despite its good geographical and temporal coverage, the analysis of small populations in smaller regions (e.g., health regions) and in regards to specific health issues remains challenging. We will look at the methodological issues in analysis of small populations in relation to sampling and non-sampling survey errors that affect the precision and accuracy of the estimates. Francophone minorities in Canada will be used to illustrate the issues throughout the paper.

Physical Inactivity Among Francophones and Anglophones in Canada

Leisure-time physical activity participation is influenced by various socio-demographic factors. Recent evidence suggests that being part of a minority negatively impacts an individual's health status. The objective of this study was to compare inactive leisure-time physical activity between the Francophone minority and the Anglophone majority in Canada. Data from the fusion of cycles 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 2008 and 2009 of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) were used. The linguistic variable was determined by languages spoken at home, first language learned and still understood, language of interview, and language of preference. Leisure-time physical activity was based on a questionnaire provided during the interview. Factors associated with inactive leisure time were examined using logistic regression models. Francophones were more likely than Anglophones to be physically inactive in their leisure time (49.1% vs. 47.2%). A greater percentage of Francophones had poor self-perceived health, were older, were single, had lower education, had higher rate of unemployment and lived in rural areas compared to Anglophones. When these socio-demographic factors were taken into account, there were no further differences in the likelihood of being inactive between Francophones and Anglophones. The Francophone minority in Canada is characterized by socio-demographic factors that have a negative impact on leisure-time physical activity participation.

Linguistic Minorities in Canada and Health

Official language minorities (Francophones outside of Quebec and Anglophones in Quebec) make up about 6.4% of the Canadian population. Even though the Canadian constitution gives legal equality status to French and English, there is still room to ask if this equality is maintained in the health sector. In other words, do Francophone and Anglophone communities of Canada have the same health profiles regardless of their minority or majority status? Do they have access to the same health services and in the same conditions? The objective of this paper is to identify the health issues associated with belonging to a linguistic minority. Our research allows us to highlight the social and health disparities that can be attributed to belonging to a minority. In the Canadian context, which has two official languages, an equitable health policy will have to take into consideration language as a determinant of health.

Risks for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among Asian men who have sex with men in Vancouver, British Columbia: a cross-sectional survey.

BackgroundIndividuals of Asian heritage represent the largest ethnic minority in Canada. Approximately 10% of the new HIV diagnoses in men in British Columbia occur among Asian-Canadians. However, the HIV risk patterns of Asian men who have sex with men (MSM) have not been extensively studied.MethodsParticipants aged ≥ 19 years were enrolled in a venue-based HIV serobehavioural survey of MSM in Vancouver, Canada. We compared the demographic characteristics, risk behaviours, and prevalence of HIV and other sexual and blood borne infections between Asian and non-Asian MSM using bivariate analysis and logistic regression confounder modelling.ResultsAmongst 1132 participants, 110 (9.7%) self-identified as Asian. Asian participants were younger than non-Asian participants (median age 29 vs. 32 years; p < 0.001), but otherwise did not differ from other study participants. HIV prevalence was lower among Asian MSM compared to Non-Asian MSM (3.7% vs 19.0%, p <0.001). Among men who self-reported as HIV negative or unknown we found no differences in unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) with a discordant or unknown serostatus partner in the previous six months (11 vs. 13%; p = 0.503). However, Asian MSM were less likely to report ever using injection drugs (10.8% vs. 19.2%; p = 0.043) or using alcohol before having sex (52% vs. 64.4%; p = 0.017).ConclusionsAsian MSM in our study reported similar rates of UAI as non-Asian MSM, but had a lower prevalence of HIV infection. Other factors, such as the use of drugs and alcohol, in relation to sex, may partly explain these differences. However this requires further investigation.

“Hard to crack”: Experiences of community integration among first- and second-generation Asian MSM in Canada.

Asians are the largest racial minority in Canada making up 11% of the population and represented over 60% of new immigrants between 2001 and 2006. We examined the experiences of community integration for first-generation (n = 27) and second-generation (n = 22) Asian Canadian men who have sex with men (MSM) in their ethnic and gay communities. Through focus group interviews, we explored their level of connectedness and the level of discrimination they experienced in the two communities. Findings indicate that Asian MSM in general perceived their ethnic community as homophobic, stemming from a combination of seeing sex as taboo, stereotypes about being gay, and the affiliation with religion. Although the literature indicates that immigrants rely on the support of their ethnic communities, our finding suggest that this is not the case for Asian immigrant MSM, who in our sample reported feeling less connected compared to their second-generation counterparts. For the gay community, our sample reported mixed experiences as some regarded it as welcoming, whereas others described it as racist. However, these experiences did not differ by generational status. Many were aware of explicit messages stating "No Asians" in dating contexts, while at the same time being aware that some older White men were interested in dating Asians exclusively. Barriers to integration in both communities may contribute to feelings of isolation. Theoretical implications are discussed.

The role of language in processes of internationalization: Considering linguistic heterogeneity and voices from within and out in two diverse contexts in Ontario

This multi-voiced paper considers the role of language and linguistic heterogeneity in relation to larger discourses and processes of internationalization and globalization in Canadian higher education by examining two particular educational contexts in Ontario: newly arrived adult students participating in Immigrant language training programs; and Franco-Ontarian students transitioning to post-secondary schools and gaining access to higher education. The authors argue for a multidimensional conceptual approach to theorizing internationalization; one that takes into account the significance of language from the global, transnational and local levels of the social world whereby linguistic heterogeneity is viewed as the “norm” and one that allows for a broader and deeper engagement when considering what international education might mean for citizenship, integration, and linguistic minorities in Canada.

The “Clash of Perceptions” in Canada since 9/11

Arab communities in the western world faced public scrutiny in the aftermath of n September 2011. The Canadian Arab community, one of the country's largest non- European ethnic populations, was no exception.1 This scrutiny was mostly due to a failure to distinguish between the motivations and beliefs of the 9/11 attackers and the culture of the Arab and Muslim communities at large, which were still little-known, although they had been present in the western world for several decades. In the decade following 9/11, which was marked by a growing sense of threat in Canadian society, Arab-Canadian citizens felt they were victims of stigmatism, as well as racial and religious targeting.2 The assumption that all Arabs are Muslims has been another growing phenomenon found not just colloquially but in Canadian outlets as well. Indeed, what makes this Arab-Muslim confusion even more interesting in Canada is that roughly half of Canada's Arab populace is actually Christian. The Canadian Arab community is atypical in comparison not just to other western Arab communities but also to Arab populations as a whole. Another, arguably more serious, post-9/11 phenomenon has been the branding of Arabs and Muslims as fundamentalists, fanatics, Salafists, and even terrorists and jihadists.Moreover, the preventive measures developed after 9/11 and the ensuing War on Terror declared by the United States have resulted in infringements on the freedom and dignity of many members of the western Arab community, as North American Arab organizations often reported. Public discussion of the Arab community's integration or lack thereof with Canadian society has escalated the rhetoric of discrimination. For the past ten years, communication has rarely been open between the Arab minority in Canada and the rest of Canadian society, leading to what is referred to as a of perceptions. The paradigm of the clash of perceptions is a more apt alternative to the of civilizations, which posits an enduring opposition between east and west. As Mathieu Guidere and Newton Howard put it, struggles are not fought between abstract entities called 'cultures' or 'civilizations' but between active individuals that are well aware of their identity and intentionally bear a conception or conceptions of their country, community or culture.3 When tackling the communication problems between the Canadian Arab community and the rest of Canadian society, one must indeed take into account the divergences of perception and points of view between the two categories of people. Analysis should also be applied to relations between the Francophone and Anglophone communities, as well as to relations between Conservatives and Liberals, since these groups also face barriers to communication on multiple levels.A MEDIA WATCH STUDY OF THE CANADIAN ARAB COMMUNITYDiffering perceptions among ethnic, religious, and political groups often harden into stereotypes, but these perceptions are rarely studied in a rigorous and systematic manner. These perceptions can nevertheless be followed and measured through precise studies that use multilingual monitoring techniques. Among these methods, the most effective is media watch.Insight into multilingual watchMedia watch is defined as a current, systematic, and comprehensive followup of the information processed by different sources and targeted in relation to a specific topic.4 In tackling a multilingual society like Canada, watch becomes necessarily multilingual (here, French, English, and Arabic), since the conceptual links, the fields' internal structures, as well as the lexical and semantic fields, vary between languages. A multilingual monitoring process consists of three phases that can occur in different orders depending on the purposes of that watch. First, a research phase consists of browsing - thanks to the numerous computer tools available today - the hundreds of thousands of pages of information published and broadcast daily on all the written and audiovisual of the world, and mainly (although sometimes solely) on the hypermedia that is the Internet. …

Experiences of French speaking immigrants and non-immigrants accessing health care services in a large Canadian city.

French speakers residing in predominantly English-speaking communities have been linked to difficulties accessing health care. This study examined health care access experiences of immigrants and non-immigrants who self-identify as Francophone or French speakers in a mainly English speaking province of Canada. We used semi-structured interviews to gather opinions of recent users of physician and hospital services (N = 26). Language barriers and difficulties finding family doctors were experienced by both French speaking immigrants and non-immigrants alike. This was exacerbated by a general preference for health services in French and less interest in using language interpreters during a medical consultation. Some participants experienced emotional distress, were discontent with care received, often delayed seeking care due to language barriers. Recent immigrants identified lack of insurance coverage for drugs, transportation difficulties and limited knowledge of the healthcare system as major detractors to achieving health. This study provided the groundwork for future research on health issues of official language minorities in Canada.

Electoral redistricting and minority political representation in Canada and the United States

This article compares the political representation of visible minorities in Canada and the United States, focusing on differences in federal redistribution (redistricting) practices and constituency composition. Although the two countries both use territorially‐based electoral systems, they operate under different legal standards and institutional environments for the creation of ridings (districts). In the US, redistricting is a highly political process, yet must respect strict population equality standards. Litigation over redistricting is common, and courts adjudicate voting and representation under a constitutional system enforcing strong individual rights. In contrast, Canada's redistribution process is relatively nonpartisan, permits large population variances among ridings, places more emphasis on community rights, and is seldom subject to extensive court challenges. Despite these differences, the two countries exhibit striking similarities in the overall level of visible minority representation relative to population share. Conversely, Canada's population inequalities among ridings create a systematic disadvantage for visible minorities. Political attention to visible minority representation is stronger in the US, but the means to achieve it are constrained both by the judicial limits on group representation and the constitutional limits on the use of racial identity. Canada has a framework for political representation that could easily accommodate significant visible minority representation but lacks the political imperative to use it, in part because doing so would run counter to Canada's multicultural image of these groups as immigrants rather than as non‐white minorities.

Gambling in children and adolescents

Despite the fact that minors in Canada are prohibited from legalized gambling, adolescents commonly engage in both legalized (lottery products, casino, video lottery terminals) and self-organized (cards, sports betting, dice) gambling activities both at home and in school. Lifetime prevalence rates of pathological gambling for adults range from 1% to 2%, and existing data suggest that the prevalence among adolescents may be two to four times higher. Very little is known about risk factors in the development and perpetuation of problematic and pathological gambling. This statement is intended to educate paediatricians, family physicians and other health care providers about the emerging knowledge around gambling in childhood and adolescence and the potential serious consequences of this activity. It also urges federal, provincial and territorial governments to include this specific issue in their agendas and to address the socio-political factors associated with gambling.

Multiple Minorities or Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Plurilingual Learners? Re-envisioning Allophone Immigrant Children and Their Inclusion in French-Language Schools in Ontario

Abstract:Four out of five immigrants to Canada speak a language other than English or French as a first language. Immigration is increasingly transforming francophone minority communities. Allophone children acquire minority status on multiple levels within French-language schools, where they can become both a linguistic minority and a cultural minority within an official francophone minority in Canada. This article examines how culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) allophones have been constructed historically through official language and multiculturalism policies in Canada and how this political framing limits language rights and schooling for allophone immigrant children. By examining recent language policies, this article argues that the ways in which policy makers, educators, and researchers conceptualize CLD children shape their integration into Canada. This article draws upon a case study of teachers’ practices with allophone learners in one French-language school to highlight the potential for transformative third-space practices to support CLD children in French-language schools.

Visible Minorities and Confidence in the Police

Few studies have been conducted about differential public perceptions of the police in Canada. Based on the 2004 General Social Survey of Canada, this article examines the impact of belonging to the category visible minorities on citizens' confidence in the police. Consistent with the theoretical prediction, results of multivariate analyses show that members of visible minorities had lower levels of confidence than non–members of visible minorities, even after the effects of perceptions, community contexts, and crime-related variables were controlled for. The small but persistent effect of visible minorities raises questions about race relations in Canada. Other interesting significant predictors of confidence in the police are community context, perceptions, and crime experiences. The findings indicate that equal racial confidence in the police is yet to be achieved and continued reform measures are needed if the police force is to win the hearts and minds of visible minorities in Canada.

A Mixed-Method Approach to Examining Physical Activity Among Canadian Girls of South Asian Ancestry in High School

Physical activity (PA) participation is a critical issue for health promotion with well-established links to healthy development, disease prevention, and well-being. Population research indicates that youth PA levels are low, especially among older adolescents, girls, and visible minorities in Canada. Researchers have identified persons of South Asian origin to be at risk for inactivity and chronic disease risk factors, e.g., glucose intolerance. Thus, there is a need for PA research with youth of South Asian ancestry, and especially girls who report lower levels of PA than boys. The purpose of this research was to better understand PA participation among girls in high school of South Asian ancestry using a mixed methods design of daily diaries and a survey. This paper reviews the literature on youth PA and focuses on study methodology, methodological challenges, and solutions that were employed. Episodic daily diaries of everyday activities were administered to girls with probes for types, timing, location, and companions. Girls identified their most physically demanding pastimes each day. The survey examined demographics, participation in, and perceptions of support in PA, parental and peer relationships, and cultural and religious identities. Diaries offered a comprehensive strategy for evaluating PA while simultaneously gathering information on pastimes and responsibilities.

Psychological Distress Among Immigrants and Visible Minorities in Canada: a Contextual Analysis

Immigrants to Canada are less likely to report depression compared with the non-immigrant population. This healthy migrant effect has not so far been explained by demographic and socioeconomic determinants of health. The present study examined whether the psychological health advantage of immigrants varied across Canadian health regions and investigated the hypothesis of immigrant density as a determinant of immigrant mental health advantage. Data from the 2000-2001 Canadian Community Health Survey were used to build multi-level models estimating variation in depression within and between health regions by immigrant/visible minority status. Immigrant and visible minority residents were less likely to experience depression compared with the general population. Depression varied across health regions and the extent of variation was greater for visible minorities. The likelihood of depression decreased with increasing percentage of immigrants in the region among visible minority participants but not among whites. The protection against depression afforded by immigrant and visible minority status in Canada appears to depend on contextual factors, notably the percentage of immigrants in the region. Future work should seek to better characterize the experiences of visible minorities in different settings.

Race, Religion, and the Social Integration of New Immigrant Minorities in Canada

The social integration of Canada's new religious minorities is determined more by their racial minority status than by their religious affiliation or degree of religiosity, according to results from Statistics Canada's 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey. Interview questions tap life satisfaction, affective ties to Canada, and participation in the wider community. Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Hindus are slower to integrate socially, mainly because they are mostly racial minorities. Degree of religiosity affects social integration in the same ways as ethnic community attachments in general, positively for some dimensions, negatively for others, and similarly for different religious groups. Patterns are similar in Quebec and the rest of Canada; results carry implications for the debate over “reasonable accommodation” of religious minorities in Quebec, and parallel debates in other provinces and countries.

Global Migrants and the New Pacific Canada

THE NEW CANADAIn the last quarter of a century, a wholesale shift of immigration patterns from transatlantic to trans-Pacific flows has created a Canada. The changes were quiet at first, beginning after the creation of a the points system for immigration in 1967, but rising in volume during the 1980s so that increasingly the voices of the new are spoken in various Asian languages, a powerful blend of multhingual Canadians that has created a globally connected Pacific Canada in the last 25 years. We have become a nation that remains in conversation with the dominant Anglo-French society of the mid-20th century, but our future no longer makes sense as a bilingual dialogue solely between English and French. Our national past, built on the outer edges of British imperial settlement that displaced societies already existing in North America, is at the present moment a complicated global conversation in multiple languages, and if we are to embrace a future that builds upon the strength and diversity of this Canada rather than silencing the great potential we now possess, we must recognize what we have become and reconcile with a colonial past that continues to haunt us.What is the demographic reality of the Canada? The top io places of birth for immigrants who arrived in Canada between 2001 and 2006 included only two European countries: Romania, at number seven, was the origin of just over 28,000 immigrants; the United Kingdom, which was the dominant sending nation for the first century of Canadian history, was even lower on the list at number nine, sending just over 25,000 immigrants. In contrast, six of the top 10 countries were in Asia, and the top four on the list alone - the People's Republic of China, India, the Philippines, and Pakistan, accounted for two-thirds of all migrants to Canada in that period. China sent over 155,000; India over 129,000; the Philippines over 77,000; and Pakistan over 57,00?.1In 2006, 83.9 percent of all immigrants to Canada came from regions outside of Europe, and the very moniker minority to designate nonwhite Canadians had become a questionable descriptor of Canada's urban populations. Over 96 percent of Canada's live in metropolitan regions. Two main groups - south Asians and self-identified ethnic Chinese - accounted for half of all visible minorities in Canada, with each accounting for roughly a quarter of the total. Ethnic Chinese and south Asians account for eight percent of Canada's total population, but because they have settled overwhelmingly in either the metropolitan regions of Toronto or Vancouver, they have transformed those cities. Between 1980 and 2001, for instance, the largest proportion of migrants to Canada were ethnic Chinese who came from various locations in southeast Asia (including Hong Kong), along with migrants born in the People's Republic of China. These various ethnic Chinese migrants went overwhelmingly (87 percent ) to the five largest cities in Canada, with 41 percent going to Toronto and 31 percent to Vancouver alone.2 Chinese Canada is not homogenous, with a range of linguistic and social variation reflecting diverse origins not only in Asia, but from around the globe. The same can be said of south Asians, who, like ethnic Chinese, often come to Canada as part of global diasporas that emanated from home villages decades and even centuries earlier, bringing with them a wide array of family journeys and complicated histories from around the world and over many generations. By 2006, south Asians had slightly surpassed ethnic Chinese as the largest group of in Canada, but both are categories that envelop a complex spectrum of family and personal histories that cannot be reduced to simple ethnocultural or racial categorizations.What is clear, however, is that trans-Pacific migration from Asia has transformed Canada in the last 25 years. Toronto and Vancouver have become the urban capitals of Pacific Canada, and Vancouver in particular has become a city in which the term minority to describe Asians makes no sense. …

Social capital and voting participation of immigrants and minorities in Canada

Using the social capital literature as a base, we explore the impact of interaction with others on voter participation with particular emphasis on exploring the differences between Canadian-born majority and minority residents. We use the 2002 wave of the Equality Security Community survey to explore the relationship between voting and personal characteristics, work characteristics, social capital attributes and ethnic characteristics. We find that the odds of voting are largely a product of socio-demographic and social capital attributes. The impact of immigration and ethnicity is largely overridden. This suggests that it is not the minority attribute that impacts voting. Rather it is age, level of schooling and level of civic engagement which affects the probability of voting, both federal and provincial.

Canadian Multiculturalism : Imagined/Experiential Narratives of Canadian Citizens

Canadian multiculturalism : imagined/ experiential narratives of Canadian citizens What does it mean to be a citizen of Canada ? Specifically, this paper investigates what it means to be a hyphenated Canadian citizen, contrasting the experiential narrative of a French-Canadian Educator with the imagined narrative of Canadian Citizenship brought by a Pakistani-Canadian immigrant. Both stories are structured by the dualities of insider, or French-Canadian, and outsider, or Pakistani-Canadian experiences. To ‘outsiders’, Canada’s multicultural mosaic forms a cohesive national narrative ; but within this mosaic lie enmeshed layers of narrative experience. The inside-outside narratives of minority groups share many similarities across apparent cultural divides. Opportunities for mutual understanding and empathy emerge from the sharing of these stories, particularly, those concerned with concepts of Canadian citizenship in a multicultural framework. Often the language that we choose to define ourselves by creates borders that imply difference ; to become a truly multicultural society we must risk looking beyond labels to the shared role of cultural minorities in Canada’s ‘constructed’ national identity.