On November 29, 1999, the Metropolis Project Team hosted a Conversation sponsored by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to discuss the experience and prospects of immigrant children and second generation immigrants. The Conversation took place in Ottawa and brought together experts from academe, three levels of government, the media and the community sector. The goal of the meeting was to help policy makers balance their concerns around the emerging economic picture and to help them frame their concerns in a broader context. It was also intended to offer guidance as to the direction that a comprehensive policy response might take as well as to the public and private coalitions that could be enlisted. The starting point for the discussion was a brief text exploring the topic’s issues, which invitees received prior to the meeting. The Conversation was a day of fruitful exchanges, during which participants spoke freely, shared perspectives and expertise and ultimately determined questions of policy-research requiring further exploration.

The following pages give an overview of the Metropolis Conversation on the Experience of Immigrant Children and Second Generation Immigrants. First is the text presenting the topic, the document which participants received ahead of the discussion. Second is a report of the Conversation itself. Rather than a summary of proceedings, it highlights the many points of discussion in the course of the meeting and will serve as an aide-mémoire to participants. Finally, the document lists Conversation participants giving their contact information.

Conversation Topic

The Experience of Immigrant Children and Second Generation Immigrants: Is Immigration Working?

What are, and have been, the prospects of immigrant children and of second generation immigrants? What implications might these prospects have for public policy? These questions – given their importance – have not received adequate attention by policy makers. Still, the body of work by external academic researchers has been growing and a discussion of its import for public policy is timely.

The economic performance of immigrants has long been considered a critical indicator of the health of the immigration program. Poor or declining economic performance is seen as a signal to reduce immigration and/or reconfigure the filters through which immigrants – with the possible exception of refugees – must pass before being accepted into Canada.

Arguably, one of the most important dynamics now in play is the growing evidence of a decline, over the last several decades, in immigrant incomes as compared with the incomes of native born Canadians. This has led to upgraded selection criteria for independent immigrants, a concomitant fall in the number of independents who qualify and a corresponding downward pressure on overall immigration levels. The fallout from this, like so many sparks, has ignited debates around the importance of language ability for selection, around skill and educational equivalencies and around the prevalence of racism and exclusionary practices.

These are all very important issues and they need to be carefully explored and documented, nevertheless, it must be asked whether this is the appropriate ground on which to conduct such a fundamental policy debate. Many observers would argue that the current focus is misplaced and that rather than focusing on the economic performance of first-generation immigrants, policy makers should direct their attention to the second generation.

The following short list of questions and policy issues is intended to help frame and focus the discussion:

• Does the economic and scholastic performance of immigrant children and, more importantly, the children of immigrants (the second generation) compare favourably with that of children whose parents were born in Canada? What would be the implications of an affirmative answer for immigration levels policy? Would it allow CIC to downplay differences in immigrant economic attainment?

• Are there differences –scholastic and economic – between, for example, the children of refugees and those of independents? If differences do not manifest themselves, would this undermine the rationale for CIC’s considerable investment in immigrant selection and, instead, direct attention to the determinants of children’s performance? What would be the implications for provincial engagement?
• What if the evidence for children is not favourable and, instead, reinforces the primary findings of difference? Would it be sufficient for CIC to adjust its programs or would a wider public policy response be needed? If so, what role should provinces and other agencies play? How should immigration planning be reconfigured?

• An especially problematic variant of the above would be a finding that performance differences are related to ethnicity, national origin or race. This would raise questions about the openness of Canadian society or about the durability of cultural values that are not as "productive" in Canada, or both. How would public policy respond to such a situation? Should it be openly acknowledged? What public agencies would need to be mobilized? What role would NGO’s have?

To produce a fulsome and balanced discussion, any evidence of a decline in economic performance must be brought out along with various explanations tying the decline to immigrant characteristics, to the business cycle and to structural changes in the global economy. Much of this evidence is based on the Census and on CIC’s longitudinal database (IMDB).

Conversation Report

Changes in the North American economy and in the composition of immigration may produce different outcomes for today’s immigrants from those experienced by earlier immigrant cohorts. As well, it may be important to identify "at risk" groups for whom the outlook is not as positive as for the population at large.

Research into these changes may have implications for public policy in the area of immigrant selection and levels and for policy domains such as education and human resources. The research may also help different levels of government and NGOs to plan and co-ordinate their interventions.

The objectives for the Conversation were:

• to review the evidence and develop a broad perspective on the issues;
• to identify potential policy directions and new venues for research.

Reviewing the Evidence

What we know...

• The success of immigrant children and of the second generation is often embedded in family relationships. These relationships also strengthen community structures that facilitate the social integration of children.

• Educational attainment data provide indications of successful integration:

• The 1997 immigrant cohort is better educated than the 1996 educational profile of the Canadian population.
• Non-English or -French speaking students form a high proportion of the engineering and science students at McGill and the University of Toronto.
• Senior scientists at McGill feel that without the contribution of immigrants, the research and development infrastructure in the high technology industry would implode.

• The under-20 newly arrived immigrant group is encountering a different experience from the over-25 immigrants who entered Canada as young children (the "1.5" generation) and from second generation immigrants:

• They are racially and ethnically different;
• They seek entry into an economy that is undergoing rapid and fundamental restructuring;
• They are entering during a period of unprecedented, sustained migration.

• Some experiences of the under-20 group may be similar to those of earlier cohorts:

• Educationally, they do better than their parents, but not as well as native-born Canadians;
• Canadian-born visible minority groups do not generally earn as much as whites;
• They report conflicts between the cultures of home and host communities;
• They feel pressured by expectations placed on them as a result of both positive and negative stereotypes;
• They experience marginalization within schools and by Canadian-born peers.

• The evidence suggests that it is vital to invest more in the under-six population. A study prepared for the Ontario government found that refugee and immigrant children in that age group are not doing well.

• Health is important in itself as well as for its relationship to productivity. Statistics Canada’s longitudinal health survey shows that:
• The longer immigrants stay in Canada, the less healthy they become;
• Immigrant children are healthier than non-immigrants;
• The immigrant population is less likely to use preventive health care.

• The structure of the economy has changed from manufacturing to a knowledge base. This has led to jobs becoming bifurcated: on the one hand, there is a new, burgeoning high skill sector and, on the other, the service sector is creating low wage "McJobs". The restructuring is affecting both immigrants and native-born Canadians. The longitudinal database on immigrant tax-filers covering entrants from 1980 to 1995 shows that:

• Immigrants in the 1990s are doing worse financially than previous immigrant cohorts and those born in Canada;
• Prospects for many new labour market entrants have diminished and immigrants are doing worse relative to the Canadian-born than did earlier immigrant cohorts;

• Immigrants to Canada have, in the past, tended to be under-represented in incarceration statistics. More recently, it would appear that criminality among the foreign born has been increasing and there is concern with respect to some immigrant groups in particular.

• We cannot assume that the success story for immigrants will continue into the "1.5/second generation".

• As we become part of a global society, it is not clear to what extent it will be possible to have a uniquely Canadian value system. This will impact on the choice of measures by which to assess immigrant integration.

• We do not know whether the "immigrant experience" shapes the phenomenon of healthier children/less healthy adults. We also know little about the immigrant health practices that produce these effects.

• Census-based measures tell us little about the social context in which people are living. In particular, it is hard to tell the degree to which people are living in ethnic communities.

• We do not know how industrial and technological changes have affected the integration of second generation immigrants.

• We do not know to what extent immigrant families – including extended families – and ethnic communities contribute to immigrant integration.

• Changing context: There was general – but not unanimous – agreement among participants that the social and economic context in which immigrant integration takes place has changed significantly in several regards in the last decade and a half. The main changes that were cited were:

• Country of origin of immigrants
• Economic and technological globalization
• Scale of immigration
• Structure of the labour market and the shift to a knowledge economy
• The prospect of continued, rapid change

• Values and How to Define Success:

• The values of a country are simply the values of the dominant group, which are currently undergoing rapid change.
• As part of a global society, Canadian values will come to resemble more closely those of other countries.
• The growing diversity of newcomers is associated with diverse values, thus creating new tensions which are sometimes difficult to resolve.
• The most appropriate measure of immigrant basic values is behavioural, namely adherence to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and to the Criminal Code. As long as immigrants adhere to the law, there is no need to delve deeply into attitudes and values.
• Economic success is only one way of defining successful integration. Nevertheless, affluence is associated with well-being, with where people live and with the opportunities available to them, including schooling.

• In the past there tended to be more cohesion among immigrants regardless of their country of origin. The scale of today’s immigration is creating sub-groups and more intra-group tension.
• A small proportion of immigrants is integrating into groups whose behaviour is problematic. This is more pronounced in the United States than in Canada where some immigrant groups are exhibiting downward social and economic mobility, creating the spectre of a growing underclass. The evidence for this in Canada is scant, possibly due to Canada’s strong public education system.
• There are significant pockets of immigrants and refugees in major cities who depend, to a significant extent, on social supports.

• Several participants noted that the perspective of an historian would have been valuable.

Implications for Public Policy

What policy instruments and changes we may need…

• A basket of policy measures is needed to strengthen the social and economic capital of families and communities, including increased access by women to education and to language training, universal child care or school beginning at age three and support for families with two working parents and for single parents
• There is an overriding need to fund immigrant integration in order to ensure the success of "1.5/second generation" immigrants.

• Federal policy is largely concerned with the management of flows and with the primary characteristics of selected immigrants. For much of the movement, however, successful integration depends on settlement and integration measures that fall within provincial jurisdiction. Since the success of the second generation may depend on the opportunities available to their parents, the provinces have a very significant role to play in the long-term success of the immigration program. There is a need to more closely link admissions and settlement policies and, hence, the actions of federal and provincial governments.

• Provincial policy tends to be focused on general problems in the education and social policy fields and is not, by and large, aimed at immigrants. Nevertheless, the provinces have strong ties with local communities and are often able to respond quickly to specific needs. It remains to be seen whether there is the political will at the local level to support immigrant integration programs.

• A more attentive school system is needed. In particular, attention needs to be focused on education at the primary level, which research has shown to be more crucial to long-term success than interventions at the secondary school level.

• Measures are required to encourage the second generation to become more engaged in civic issues.

• Specific measures targeted on immigrants should be implemented by Human Resources Development Canada. Immigrants now comprise more than half of labour force growth and economic well-being has been correlated with the life chances of children.

• There is a need to implement and to extend programs known to produce favourable outcomes, including ESL and early intervention strategies. There appears to be a lack of public willingness to support such measures.

• Mobility and access to trades and professions should be enhanced and the certification process, which can take years, streamlined.

• Immigrants need to be better prepared for what they will encounter in Canada. The value of education and work skills should be accurately depicted to avoid creating expectations that may never be met. If parents have traumatic experiences, making them disillusioned and bitter, it will impact negatively on their children.

• There is an urgent need to harmonize settlement and employment resources and services and to develop coherent strategies across different levels of government.
• Selection and levels policies may need to be adjusted to maximize the opportunities that are available to "1.5/second generation" immigrants. There is insufficient empirical evidence to support any particular change in current policy directions.

• While immigrants are under-represented in the prison population, immigrant crime rates have been rising, particularly for certain types of crimes. There is a problem of immigrant youth gangs. A preventive movement is unfolding in policing, to focus on the community, youth and children, rather than law enforcement.

• In Quebec, ethnic minorities are absent from the youth lobby. As a result, there is little information about their expectations regarding the future of Quebec.

• Fundamental research is needed to determine whether Canada’s lauded experiment with federalism, multiculturalism and bilingualism is the appropriate blueprint for the future. If Canada is becoming a country of transit and is unable to retain its highly skilled population – immigrant and non-immigrant – new policy measures will need to be devised.

• Immigrants are becoming more mobile and families are distributing themselves in complex patterns reflecting rising transnationalism. Research is needed into these changing behaviours and governments will need to broadly rethink their policies in order to retain the benefits that have in the past been associated with immigration.

• Research should be undertaken on the links between immigration and emigration in the high skill sector. Canada needs to ask whether it is getting the most out of its visa students.

• We need to know more about the contribution of the extended immigrant family to the economic and social integration of immigrants and the second generation.

• Research is needed on the return, in adult life, to investments in ESL and day care for immigrant children.

• There is a need for research on how the children of refugees are faring.