immigrant adolescents

We pay a lot of attention of how immigrants are having difficulties of finding their career and disadvantages due to social inequalities that we have in Canada. But immigrant adolescents have issues of integration to Canadian society too...

Most teenagers are moving to Canada with their immigrant parents. But perceptions of immigration of the children and parent are totally different. Maybe parents view immigration as an opportunity for better future. But for teenagers, it could be departure from friends in homeland. In most cases they immigrant to Canada because of their parents, no matter if they want to or not(Qin, 2008).

We might have a misconception like they will face fewer problems because they will get educated in Canadian High School, they will integrate into Canadian culture quicker than their parents, and they will learn English quicker. but according to this article, some immigrants adolescents' relationship between their parents are not as close as when they were back home because the problems are immigrant parents face(employment, financial stresses, working at low pay jobs) result for parents spending less time with their children(Michael, 2009) . This interview for a girl who immigrant from Hong Kong said that: 

 “Now I don’t want to go home....Before, when we were in Hong Kong, sometimes we sat down and talked. It happened more often in Hong Kong than in here. [Here in the U.S.] we have to work. Even if we have time to talk, I mostly stay in my room. When I get home I stay in my room to play with the computer, listen to the music, sleep, whatever. I just can't communicate with my parents (sigh). I don't know what to say.”(Michael, 2009)

Parents working long hours cause alienation between their children, another study also reveal that 55% of the Chinese parents and 35% of students report that they have relationship issues with their parents and children at home(Qin, 2008) . 

I think beside the problems that immigrant adults are facing right now, social worker should pay attention to the consequence of immigrant families dynamics that cause by immigrants parents having hard time to find their career and such. It’s because immigrant adolescents are like other children who born and raised in Canada, they are the future of the country. Having a good relationship with their families can improve child’s well-being. And family support is very important for some immigrants, if they have some issues with their child, I personally think they will get more frustration and depression while they are facing other difficulties. I think social worker can help immigrant families to repair their relationship, then they can overcome the relationship problem and focus on other problems that the Canadian society has give them. 

In my opinion, family support is very important when family member are facing difficulties.

Sarah

Reference:
Michael, S. (2009). Continuities and discontinuities: patterns of migration, adolescent immigrant girls and their family relationships. Qualitative Social Work, 8(2), 229-247.

Qin, D. B. (2008). Gendered processes of adaptation: understanding parent–child relations in Chinese immigrant families . Sex Roles, 60(7/8), 467-481. 

Feminism Statistics with Immigration

According to statistics Canada 16,136,925 women immigrated to Canada in 2006 and a total of 15,475,970 men immigrated to Canada in 2006. These statistics found on Statistics Canada show that more women immigrated to Canada over the last few years than men. Is there reasoning behind this? I personally think that more women are immigrating because they are beginning to realize that they can get a future in Canada and that they can run their own lives. In any society men seem to always have this advantage over women and I think that it is beginning to get noticed that women can do just as many things as men and live a life of power to. In some countries it may seem that women are meant to stay at home and feed the children and look after everything around the house. Now women are breaking the norm and taking control by running their own lives. For a lot of these women coming to Canada means a new beginning, a place to start fresh and become who they really want to be. I think to a degree this can be recognized as a form of feminism. These women are most likely not all extreme feminists but by choosing to take control and supporting other women to do the same I do think to a degree they are supporting a form of feminism. 

                I decided that I wanted to know what all these women coming into Canada were doing here to make a living. And this is when I discovered that Canada had three types of visas for women immigrating. One was the work visa, another was the student visa and the last one was the stripper visa. Canada was taking women from foreign countries into our society on what was called a stripper visa. This visa allowed women to come to Canada on the regards that they would be strippers which provided Canada with this exotic theme drawing more attention to clubs and other places these females worked. The site listed below is a site that explains this stripper visa a little bit more. Now that the visa no longer exists maybe numbers for the 2011 census for immigration will go down for women and maybe equal out with the mens statistics. 

-Brittany L

http://www.owjn.org/owjn_2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=294:how-canadian-immigration-policy-exploits-women-the-story-of-the-stripper-visa&catid=47&Itemid=94

http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/hlt/97-551/pages/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo=PR&Code=01&Table=1&Data=Count&Sex=2&StartRec=1&Sort=2&Display=Page

Re visiting Neo-conservatism

According to Mullaly on page 89 of the text book (The new structural social Work), Neo conservatism believes that in a society there is freedom from government coercion, individualism, and inequality. Neoconservatives believe in tradition and following the plan laid down for them. So, imagine being an immigrant coming into Canada for the first time and having to decide what view on society you fit in best with. Well right away most immigrants would realize that Neo-conservatism is not what suites them best. Most of the time new immigrants don’t come over with family. That breaks tradition. A lot of the time it is a single female coming. That breaks tradition. It seems like everything a new immigrant does will somehow break tradition or upset the neoconservative way of living. I can only imagine what it would be like for me if I was an immigrant who just came into a completely new society and had to live in this neoconservative world even though half the things I was partaking in would be breaking the traditional standards of this new society.

This is a hard process for any immigrant to go through. Before anyone comes to Canada I think that all political parties out there should make themselves known to immigrants. This can help the new comer to decide what suites him or her best and lets them fit in with a group of people like themselves. If this was available for immigrants I think there would be a lot less confusion and it would help immigrants fit into our already existing society better.

-Brittany Litke

The New Structural Social Work Third Edition Oxford Bob Mullaly 

Disabled Immigrants

Immigrants coming to Canada with disabilities are a very unique thing. Canada offers programs to help disabled people once they are in Canada but trying to get disabled people into Canada is a hard task to accomplish. In Canada we do offer jobs for people with disabilities but they are rare and hard to come by. A new immigrant with a disability has a very low chance of getting a job. According to a student from the University of Victoria studies show that 98% of immigrants with disabilities are not employed in Canada. http://communications.uvic.ca/releases/release.php?display=release&id=816 This shows us that there are not very many jobs available. I believe that if Canada continues to let immigrants with disabilities into our society the numbers for people with disabilities trying to find jobs will continue to rise.

 In 2009 12 % of immigrants who had been in Canada for 5 years or less were UN employed.  (http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=960c9aed-8eff-48c7-8adc-39f2604381f0&k=99437) If this is the case for Immigrants what chance do immigrants with disabilities have? This is a continues cycle that needs to be changed. I believe that Canada should stop taking in as many disabled immigrants until some programs and jobs are formed to suit the needs of disabled workers. Once these needs are met then Canada may begin to accept more immigrants with disabilities.

-Brittany Litke

http://communications.uvic.ca/releases/release.php?display=release&id=816

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=960c9aed-8eff-48c7-8adc-39f2604381f0&k=99437

Elderly Immigrants

Here in Canada we see a lot of young immigrants coming into our country on a regular basis. We can look around us and see many different types of people. But, what we often do not notice is that there are not very many elderly immigrants. Yes, there are a few that came over when they were younger but we often do not often see new elderly immigrants. Is this just because immigration seems like too much work to go through if one knows they only have a certain number of years left or is it Canada that is regulating how many elderly immigrants we are allowed to have come over.

According to the Canadian Government website , it is not usual for an elderly person to apply to Canada unless they are being sponsored by family or they have great reason to be here.

Most elderly people come to Canada to reconnect with family or to live somewhere peaceful and enjoyable before they move on. It is rare that an elderly person will take the time to fill out all the paper work unless they need to come to Canada. For many it is just too big of a hassle.

According to Hugh Grant and Gretta Wong Grant from the University of Winnipeg:

“The human rights code in most Canadian jurisdictions restricts the employment rights of the

elderly, either by defining “age” to exclude those 65 years of age and older or by identifying

a bona fide mandatory retirement plan as reasonable limitation on the equality rights. This

paper considers the possibility that these restrictions entail “adverse effect” discrimination

for immigrants to Canada. Since many immigrants arrive relatively late in their working life

and with little personal wealth, denying them the right to employment may inadvertently

create an undue economic hardship by limiting their capacity to accumulate sufficient

savings for retirement.” http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/collection_2007/lcc-cdc/JL2-33-2002E.pdf

If elderly people over 65 are unable to work once they arrive in Canada then for many elderly people it is a waste of time to come to Canada. If they have enough money to support themselves for a while that is good but what happens when they run out of money and are unable to work. I think that if the age limit on work was removed then we would be seeing a lot more elderly immigrants coming to Canada.

-Brittany Litke

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/index.asp

http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/collection_2007/lcc-cdc/JL2-33-2002E.pdf

Domestic violence against immigrant women

Domestic violence against immigrant women is an issue in Canada, even though feminism is a "phenomenon" in Canada and ladies in Canada have more equalities in the present, however, when immigrants arrived Canada, they brought some patriarchy values in and apply them to Canada.

This study conducted in Norway shown the huge impact of domestic violence in immigrant family(Bo Vatnar, & Bjorkly, 2010): immigrant women are in higher risk of facing mortal abuse when they have a n immigrant partner, and there is higher chance of the abuse is exposed to their children if the parents were immigrants. I believe that these are due to some abusers believe that physical violence is some kind of "discipline" for their wives. This is dangerous because the generalization of domestic violence could be mortal to women who are abused, and there will have some negative impact to their child because they will learn these "bad characteristics" from their parents.

There was a study conducted in Toronto tried to find out the reason why Hindu speaking immigrant women are hesitate to seek help from domestic violence(Ahmad, Driver, McNally, & Stewart, 2009) . They found out "social stigma, rigid gender roles, marriage obligations, expected silence, loss of social support after migration and limited knowledge about available resources and myths about partner abuse" are the reason of them afraid to seek help to free themselves from family abuse. I can feel immigrant women in the present are living under fear of "getting out of the frame", like Canadian women want to get divorce 50 years ago, back when divorce is not a norm that everyone can accept. Also the tradition values of men should be superior and women should obligated to men are deeply rooted in these women mind.

I think the issue of family violence among immigrant families reveal that immigrant women are having difficulties to seek help from others because of the hesitation and silence that their culture taught them. The state should have more community education to immigrants that family abuse is forbidden, and the community should tell immigrant women about their rights in Canada. So the rate of family abuse could decrease.

Sara

Reference:

Ahmad, F, Driver, N, McNally, M.J., & Stewart, D. (2009). "why doesn't she seek help for partner abuse?" an exploratory study with south asian immigrant women . Social Science & Medicine, 69(4), 613-622. 

Bo Vatnar, S.K., & Bjorkly, S. (2010). An interactional perspective on the relationship of immigration to intimate partner violence in a representative sample of help-seeking women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25(10), 1815-1835. 

They Shaped us.

     Is the country of Canada a result of immigration? Canada is one of the largest countries in the world, “the population of Canada is approximately 33,100,000” which leaves us wondering how all of these people arrived in Canada. “The original settlers were predominantly from England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and Wales, but were joined by immigrant families from Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, and China in the nineteenth century.” There are many different tradition, languages, races and cultures rest in Canada. I believe this is due to the older immigrants that now reside in Canada. “This pattern of immigration had important implications for the age and sex structure of the aging population...”

     In my opinion, older persons hold valuable traditions that are sometimes lost as a culture changes with the times. An older immigrant on the other hand, would hold traditions different from those who were born and grew old in Canada. Can new traditions add to the country or will destroy it? Traditions from different cultures always fascinate me. I was searching for traditions that older Canadian residents held and how immigrants had impacted them when I came across an intriguing story told by a young girl today. She called her story Our Christmases are a smorgasbord of immigrant traditions. The story is about how her father was an immigrant that came to Canada, lived in Toronto and met his wife, who was a resident of Canada. She tells us how her holidays were split. Since Christmas and Easter were new to her father it was as if it was his first Christmas as well. Therefore, as this young girl grows up she will be a part of two worlds. I believe this is a good thing; she will be experiencing two cultures. This could change her into a more multicultural person with a better sense of self as she learns more about both worlds.
     Along with traditions, older immigrants brought more things into Canada. Immigrants brought multiple languages into Canada. There are tons of different languages used today. Unfortunately, many languages were lost throughout time. Wikipedia states, “according to the 2006 census, English and French are the preferred language. English and French are recognized by the Constitution of Canada as "official languages." This means that all laws of the federal government are enacted in both English and French and that federal government services must be available in both languages.” Canada is home to many languages, many are only spoken at home. When older immigrants came to Canada they were not faced with the language test that immigrants today are faced with. Citizen and Immigration Canada present that language test, “You must provide proof of language proficiency by taking a language test from an agency designated by CIC. With your test results, you will be able to see exactly how many points you will receive for the language selection factor.” This test is just another barrier to get into Canada.
     It is clear that older immigrants have shaped Canada’s Character. About Canada says, “all Canadians have a parent, grandparent or more distant relative who came to Canada as a stranger to a strange land. Because all Canadians share an immigrant past, there would be no Canada without immigration.” I fully believe this; I am here today because of the immigration that took place a long time ago. “Each newcomer played a role in the building of Canada.” In my opinion, our culture, our language, and our traditions have come from the first immigrants that came to Canada.

- Samantha

References

      Statistics Canada. (2007). Ethnic Diversity and Immigration. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subject-sujet/theme-theme.action?pid=30000&lang=eng&more=0

     True Knowledge. (2010). Populations Canada. Retrieved from http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/population_of_canada_2010

     Wikipedia. (2010). Languages of Canada. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Canada

     About Canada. (2008). Multiculturalism in Canada. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Canada
    
     Aging healthy. (2010). Canada - Characteristics of the older population. Retrieved from http://medicine.jrank.org/pages/213/Canada-Characteristics-older-population.html