TIEDI report: Class enrollment and labour outcomes of immigrants

Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative (TIEDI) has published its latest report on whether enrolling in classes in Canada affects the labour outcomes of immigrants.

The report is available at: http://www.yorku.ca/tiedi/pubreports.html.

Findings from the report include:

Immigrants who have enrolled in at least one university course in Canada take longer to find employment, but are more likely to have higher hourly wages and to work in their field of study than other immigrants.

Immigrants who have completed courses in Canada are less likely, on average, to hold full-time employment than immigrant men who did not return to school, but more likely than immigrant women who did not return to school.

Immigrants who enrolled in classes leading to higher degrees were likely to have taken more time to find their first job following immigration.

Immigrants who had completed classes leading to a high school diploma or had enrolled in other training not leading to a diploma had significantly higher average income per household member than immigrants who
had enrolled in trades or university education or immigrants who had not attended school after immigration.

Immigrant women who did not return to school have less favourable labour market outcomes than immigrant men who did not return to school, or immigrants who enrolled in courses.

Further reports are forthcoming on, among others: the labour outcomes of immigrants by educational attainment and the experiences of immigrants with accreditation.

Peterborough elementary school student populations

We have received some data regarding the profile of elementary school student populations in Peterborough.

The data include:
Percentage of students who live in lower-income households
Percentage of students whose parents have some university education
Percentage of students who receive special education services
Percentage of students identified as gifted
Percentage of students whose first language is not English
Percentage of students who are new to Canada from non-English speaking country
Percentage of students whose first language is not French
Percentage of students who are new to Canada from non-French
speaking country

The full data set is available here

March 25: Dance Around Africa

 

Dust off your dancing shoes because it’s time to dance, this time with live marimba music!

We have invited “The Resolutionaries”, a group of local Peterborough musicians led by Chaka Chikodzi. The marimba is a traditional Zimbabwean instrument that combines sweet melodies with African rhythms.

Date: Thursday March 25, 2010
Time: 7-9:30 pm
Location: Ballroom, Holiday Inn Peterborough
Admission is by donation.

Projections of the diversity of the Canadian population

All growth scenarios considered, the diversity of Canada's population will continue to increase significantly during the next two decades, especially within certain census metropolitan areas, according to new projections of the country's ethnocultural makeup.

By 2031, between 25% and 28% of the population could be foreign-born. This would surpass the proportion of 22% observed between 1911 and 1931, the highest during the twentieth century. About 55% of this population would be born in Asia.

Between 29% and 32% of the population could belong to a visible minority group, as defined in the Employment Equity Act. This would be nearly double the proportion reported by the 2006 Census. The visible minority population is likely to increase rapidly among the Canadian-born, many of whom are children and grandchildren of immigrants.

Full report available here

Presentation: Community Integration in Rural Ontario

At the March 11 meeting of the Peterborough Partnership Council on Immigrant Integration (PPCII), guest speaker, Magdy ElDakiky, Community Economic Development Specialist at OMAFRA, will deliver a presentation on the Community Immigrant Retention in Rural Ontario (CIRRO) project. The project was designed to respond to the rural communities’ growing need to deal with the issue of human capital decline. Magdy will present highlights of this provincial initiative involving 3 case-study communities (Brockville, North Bay and Chatham-Kent).

The subject of immigrant integration will be more comprehensively addressed at the upcoming PPCII conference “Together We Prosper – Practical Tools for Immigrant Integration”.

Date of presentation: Thursday March 11
Time: 1:00pm – 1:30pm
Location: Auditorium, Peterborough Public Library

Presentation materials (pdf format)
- Slides
- CIRRO Infosheet Jan 2009
- CIRRO Infosheet Jan 2010

Edited 12 March
- Peterborough Examiner news article
- Peterborough Examiner video

Conference: "Together We Prosper: Practical Resources for Immigrant Integration"

The Peterborough Partnership Council on Immigrant Integration is organising a one-day conference to provide information to make our community and workplaces more welcoming to immigrants. The workshops will include information on the business case for immigration, how to develop a diversity policy for your organization, diversity training, an introduction to the services and supports for employers, and how to recruit and select foreign-trained professionals.

The conference will take place on Thursday March 25, from 8:30am to 4:30pm at the Holiday Inn. There will be an evening social event from 7-10pm, which is a dance with live Marimba music at the Holiday Inn. Registration for the conference is $25, and includes admission to the evening social event.

You are invited to participate in this conference.
a) The conference poster
b) The conference program
c) The registration form

The deadline to register for the conference is Friday March 19. Your registration is complete only once you receive email confirmation. Space is limited and a waiting list will be kept.

Please forward this information widely.

Funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, with the support of the Eastern Ontario Development Program (EODP), New Canadians Centre Peterborough, Workforce Development Board and member organisations of the PPCII.

NCC Job Posting: Partnership Resource Coordinator

The Partnership Resource Coordinator will be responsible for building partnerships between the New Canadians Centre Peterborough and regional educational institutions. The Coordinator will develop collaborative programs that facilitate settlement services for new Canadian children, youth and their families by providing supports, resources, and programming through the schools.

Applications will ONLY be accepted in hard copy AND IF received by 2pm on March 15, 2010.

Full details available here

Consultation: Peterborough Housing Strategy

As required by the Places To Grow Act, the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and municipal Official Plans, the City and County must develop a Housing Strategy to meet the needs of all residents, with a particular emphasis on affordable housing. As Service Manager for Housing, the City is leading development of this Strategy for both City and County.

Our community, like others, is experiencing the effects of climate change, urban sprawl, traffic congestion, and environmental degradation. The Province and the Municipalities are developing strategies for dealing with these challenges. Housing is fundamental to a healthy community; the Housing Strategy will address the need for greater urban density and intensification, as well as the needs of housing households of low and moderate incomes, seniors and persons with special needs across the continuum of housing from homelessness/housing insecurity to home ownership.

A community Steering Committee has been formed to advise on the process of research, consultation and drafting the final document that will go before Councils for approval - likely before summer.

In addition to the contribution of Steering Committee members, a number of consultations in the community have been held or are to come. These include meetings with the Supply Sub-Committee of AHAC, the Peterborough Social Planning Council, social housing provider representatives, the Homelessness Agencies Co-ordinating Committee, Social Services Division staff, Planning Department staff, Our Space users, County Planning staff, the Township Clerks/Treasurers and Chief Building Officials, PACAC, the Council for Persons with Disabilities, and the Landlords Association.

Some questions to consider from local research:
• What support systems for newcomers (i.e.: immigrant services, ESL programs) are required to ensure a quality of life for new immigrants in the community?
• Is Peterborough today prepared/willing for any significant influx of immigrants/cultural diversity? What planning is necessary to facilitate a changing demographic/community composition?

A consultation for the general public will be held on Thursday, 11 March 2010, 6 - 8:30 p.m. at the Public Library (lower level). Your presence would be most welcome.

Contact:
Cheryl Lyon
Programs Officer
Housing Division
City of Peterborough
(705) 742-7777 ext. 1501
clyon@peterborough.ca

The full InfoNotes document with additional consultation questions can be found here

Webinar: Making the Grade - Integration Through Education in Toronto and Zurich

Webinar, March 2, 2010

Making the Grade: Integration Through Education in Toronto and Zurich
Free Webinar - Register online

Date and Time (By Timezone):

Tuesday, March 2, 2010
10:00 (EST, Toronto, New York)
15:00 (GMT, London)
16:00 (CET, Berlin, Zurich)

From Zurich and Toronto
Join Cities of Migration on March 2, 2010 for a 60-minute international conversation about integration strategies that generate equal opportunities in education and accelerate improved academic outcomes for immigrant and second-generation students.

Making the Grade: Integration Through Education in Toronto and Zurich

* Learn about The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), the 2008 winner of the international Carl Bertelsmann Prize, and their grade-A success in responding to the challenge of migration and demographic changes in the culturally-diverse city of Toronto, Canada. Moving beyond traditional instructional models of second-language learning, discover how a public school system can partner with settlement agencies, community organizations, and government partners to guarantee educational opportunity for every student in Toronto's diverse, inclusive city schools.

* From Zurich, learn how Quality in Multicultural Schools (QUIMS) tackled inequality of education at school with a flexible, multi-strand approach that included the student’s most important allies –her teachers and parents. Language support, parent councils, intercultural mediators, and systematic additional teacher training all combined to transform a pilot school program in the Canton of Zurich into core school legislation since 2008.

How to join: To participate, you need a computer with internet access and a landline telephone, not a mobile. Online and audio instructions will be emailed to confirmed participants.

To register, click here.

For assistance, contact: citiesofmigration@maytree.com

Immigrant Health in Ontario

This profile highlights immigrant health using provincial level findings from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). It compares self-perceived health, risk factors, use of services, and chronic conditions among immigrants and the Canadian-born population. The analysis is based on data from the combined 2005 and 2007/08 CCHS for the Ontario population age 12 and over (unless otherwise stated).

The total sample size for this combined data file is 81,286 respondents (16,443 of whom are immigrants). Local Health Integration Network (LHIN)level analysis, provided in an accompanying spreadsheet, allows LHINs to profile their individual immigrant populations.

Download this report here