Pathways to Prosperity: Canada

From the desk of Victoria Esses, Principal Investigator

It has been a busy year for Pathways to Prosperity, with work on our governance structures, consultations and priority setting, new research, and enhancement of the infrastructure for knowledge mobilization.

 
Governance

As a large national project, Pathways to Prosperity has established governance structures that give voice to its various constituents. To ensure regional activity and respond to partner needs at the local level, regional nodes have been established in British Columbia, the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic, as well as a central hub responsible for coordinating the activities of the regions and working on national issues. Some of the regional nodes were slow to initiate activity this year, but as a result of changes in node leadership they are now back on track with new co-investigators keen to consult and plan at the regional level.

As well, Pathways to Prosperity held its first Board of Directors meeting in November 2013 following the inaugural national conference. The Board brought together 35 members, including community/municipal partners, co-investigators, and provincial and federal partners in an ex officio capacity. A Management Committee, comprising a subset of Board members, is now being established and will be meeting in the new year.

Pathways to Prosperity also includes three standing committees. The Standing Committee on Student Engagement met in parallel with the Board of Directors, with 23 graduate student representatives from across the country participating. We are excited to have this Committee underway and look forward to working with the student team. The Standing Committee on Francophone Immigration has been reconstituted and will be initiating an active agenda in the new year. One noteworthy change will be a co-chair arrangement combining a representative community organization with an academic appointment. Importantly, the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) du Canada has agreed to take on the former role. The FCFA’s interests and role will be the subject of a detailed article in the next eBulletin. Finally, we have yet to launch the Standing Committee on Northern and Remote Communities, but will get this Committee off the ground early in the year.

National Research

Several mechanisms were used this year to consult stakeholders and set initial national priorities. Based on discussions at a two-day meeting of co-investigators in the fall of 2012, tentative priorities for research were set out, which were then presented to stakeholders for feedback early in 2013. Consultations included an online survey sent to all P2P members, and separate discussions with provincial and federal representatives. Following some tweaks to the initial topics, seven national research priorities were set for the year.

Research activities were initiated on many of these priorities. For example, Victoria Esses, Zenaida Ravanera, Julie Drolet, and Meyer Burstein participated in follow-up projects of the Alberta Settlement Outcomes Survey, and Victoria Esses and Leah Hamilton participated in the Western Settlement Outcomes Survey project. Two SSHRC-funded Knowledge Synthesis Projects were initiated by P2P co-investigators, with the project led by Julie Drolet focusing on the role that employers might play in settlement and integration, and the project led by Chedly Belkhodja focusing on the challenges of attracting and integrating international students into professional lives and enhancing their economic contributions. The Agency of the Future Project, led by Meyer Burstein and Carl Nicholson, has been the focus of considerable discussion this year, including two workshops – one in Toronto and one in Ottawa – to establish project parameters. Task groups have been established and we look forward to hearing about their deliberations in the coming months. A SSHRC Insight proposal on sports participation among immigrant children and youth and its potential as an integrative tool – led by Anne Marie Sullivan, with collaborators in Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Quebec – was submitted in the fall, and we look forward to the results of this submission in the spring of 2014.

Other exciting developments this year include the first installment of a video series that explores seminal moments and key inflection points in the development of Canada’s immigration program, the initial offering focusing on Canada’s refugee program. As well, P2P is proud to announce its successful application to Mitacs for pre-approval of 44 internship units for Pathways to Prosperity graduate students and postdoctoral fellows over the next six years (subject to appropriate matching funding and eligibility). These internship opportunities will be of considerable benefit to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and P2P partner organizations who wish to work with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to conduct relevant research.

We are also pleased to announce the success of a Canada Foundation for Innovation – Leaders Opportunity Fund Award that will support the work of the Pathways to Prosperity. In collaboration with Bipasha Baruah who conducts research on Women and International Development, Victoria Esses led the successful application to CFI to establish the Migration, Gender, and International Development Research Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario. This laboratory, to be in operation by mid-2014, will include Field Data Collection Equipment, a Remote Interview Data Collection Facility, a Video and Image Production Facility, and a Secure Data Analysis and Data Storage Facility. The Field Data Collection Equipment will be used by the P2P to collect data outside of the laboratory, including interviews with service providers and immigrants. The Remote Interview Data Collection Facility will allow interviews to be conducted without the necessity of travel, with video capture for later analysis. The Video and Image Production Facility will support the production of professional quality videos and images that will be used as stimuli in experiments (e.g., testing materials and videos to provide information to immigrants), as well as the production of professional videos for posting on the P2P website (see below). The Secure Data Analysis and Data Storage Facility will be used to analyze and store confidential data obtained from our government partners (e.g., Citizenship and Immigration Canada) and data collected by the P2P.

Knowledge Mobilization

Pathways to Prosperity is committed to effective knowledge mobilization. To this end, we put considerable effort into enhancing our communication infrastructure in 2013. The bimonthly eBulletin, published in both English and French, now has approximately 2,500 subscribers (up 10% this year), and has received positive feedback on its content, including the regular FactSheet, top media stories, listing of members’ publications and conference presentations, and updates on P2P research and activities.

Over the past year, we have also considerably enhanced the P2P website, which includes French and English sites for each node and for the national hub. We are currently testing a new beta version with more sophisticated functions, which should be in place by early 2014. The website attracts approximately 3,000 visitors per month, coming from many countries, with the most frequent being from Canada, the United States, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and Australia. We anticipate more activity on the regional sites as the regional nodes become more active.

P2P also publishes content on four video channels, which have received over 25,000 views in the past year, with visi-tors from more than 150 countries. These channels include: a channel dedicated to past conferences of Pathways to Prosperity (with presentations from the November 2013 conference to be posted early in 2014); Reflections from the Past – a video interview series featuring former immigration officials and stakeholders focusing on legislative and organi-zational developments of Canada’s immigration policies; the Immigrant Story Bank, focusing on the personal stories of immigrants to Canada; and presentations by members of P2P in the Western Centre for Research on Migration and Ethnic Relations colloquium series.

Of note in terms of knowledge mobilization are discussions currently underway with a media outlet targeting immigrants to publish original content written by P2P members. More details will be available early in 2014.

To cap off the year, Pathways to Prosperity held its first annual pan-Canadian conference in November 2013. Attendance exceeded expectations by over 30% and, based on the feedback we received, we are happy to confirm that the conference was a significant success. We look forward to making this a regular activity of the Partnership, and plan to expand its length and range of topics, as advocated by many of this year’s participants. We will also be taking up some of the other excellent suggestions that we received from this year’s attendees.

Thanks for a great year!
Victoria Esses