1. Newcomer Youth Settlement: Needs, Services, and Emerging Best Practices

SUMMARY

Organizers:

Paul Anisef
York University
CANADA
anisef@yorku.ca

Kenise Murphy Kilbride
Ryerson Polytechnic University
CANADA
kilbride@acs.ryerson.ca

Description:

To further the under-researched area of the needs of young immigrants, five papers will present outcomes of a large, multi-partnered research project funded by the Ontario Settlement Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). A representative of CIC will present the policy context in which the research was deemed useful to fund; Dr. Kilbride will present an overview of the needs identified through qualitative and quantitative analyses of the reports from youth, their parents, service providers, key informants and a literature review; and Dr. Anisef will present an overview of the emerging ‘best practices’ as articulated by focus groups, interviews, and a survey of experts in five different sectors: education, health, mental health, social services, and employment. A representative of the six community-based groups doing parallel research in the area, chosen by the groups themselves, will present outcomes from the service sector perspective; and a representative from the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University will speak to the Centre’s experience of monitoring this model of co-ordinated parallel research. These papers will be followed by a commentary by a researcher from Centro Studi Investimenti Sociali (CENSIS), a Rome-based social science research centre that has recently concluded a seven-nation study of immigrant youth in the city, on implications of the five papers for European researchers and policy makers. Participants will be given an Inventory of Best Practices derived from the research and asked to comment on it from their own perspectives in the ensuing discussion.

Presenters

Howard Adelman, York University, CANADA
Etta Anisef, York University, CANADA (discussant)
Paul Anisef, York University, CANADA
Elisete Bettencourt, Citizenship and Immigration CANADA
Rich Janzen, Centre for Research and Education in Human Services, CANADA Paper Slides
Kenise Murphy Kilbride, Ryerson Polytechnic University, CANADA (discussant)
Joanna Ochocka, Centre for Research and Education in Human Services, CANADA (chair) Paper Slides
Jacqueline Scott, Praxis Research & Training, CANADA Paper
Marc Verlot, Ghent University, BELGIUM Abstract