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This visualization shows the relations between universities. Each arc represents a project that has people in more than one university.

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• TRS1 1.1 - Population-based Analysis to Inform Policy and Practice

  Uses population-based analyzes and a mixed-methods approach to examine preventable health inequities, in terms of mental health, sexual health, food insecurity, addiction disorders, within Canadian immigrant communities.

• TRS1 1.2 - Community gardening for cultural food security and mental wellbeing: A mixed methods research with newcomer youth and seniors in Canada

  Community-based research project that uses community gardens to examine the relationship between mental health and food insecurity among high risk immigrant groups including youths and seniors.

• TRS1 1.3 - Restorative Storytelling: Using Community Learning for Empowerment Groups to Advance Mental Health Education and Equity with Immigrant Communities

  Group discussions and questionnaires are used to co-create mental health education interventions and identify policy actions to improve mental health equity for immigrants.

• TRS1 1.4 - Transcultural Intergenerational Empowerment and Solidarity (TIES): A Pilot Intervention with Canadian-born and International Educated Health Care Providers (IE-HCP)

  A pilot intervention for the Transcultural Intergenerational Empowerment and Solidarity project that examines how internationally educated health care providers experience integration barriers and discrimination.

• TRS1 1.5 - Blockchain-based Personal Health Records

  Explores how blockchain-based personal health records can be used to systematically capture social technical, functional, and behavioural intentions among underrepresented Canadian populations.
  
  

  Research Rationale and Objectives

   

  The person-centred health model offered through Personal Health Records (PHR) can provide unique opportunities to enhance health service delivery and address many of the public health issues. However, it has not yet received widespread adoption, resulting in not realizing the anticipated benefits of the technology. The rate of PHR adoption by Canadians ranges from 3-4% to 10-12% for different functionalities, which is also markedly lower than adoption rates in other countries such as 19% in UK and Australia. The problem is particularly relevant to underrepresented and more vulnerable groups where access to equitable health and bridging the digital divide is more important. Research shows that privacy and confidentiality of highly sensitive health data are among the most serious concerns, barring individuals from being engaged in PHR and sharing their personal information, particularly since private-sector companies provide PHR solutions. Little is known about privacy attitudes and perceptions of people, particularly those from underrepresented groups, towards blockchain-based PHR and how privacy concerns may contribute to behavioural intentions to disclose and share different pieces of personal health data with different recipients on these emerging platforms.

  In general, the PHR has been introduced as a consumer-centred care model that transforms the role of patients and the way they interact with health providers and other parties involved in the healthcare system. The intention to adopt PHR by chronic disease patients is influenced by patient activation, protection motivation, and task technology fit. User-friendliness has been identified as the most important predictor of perceived PHR usefulness from the perspective of Canadian patients. However, privacy has been consistently identified as a paramount concern of users. PHRs may suffer from privacy challenges due to user mistakes in access management, compromising user information by healthcare providers, vulnerability to outside attacks, and the use of personal health data for proprietary and business purposes. Such concerns along with the sensitivity of personal health data make people wary of embracing PHR systems. The decision to adopt and use PHR platforms is influenced by individuals’ confidentiality and privacy concerns as well as perceived level of privacy control, depending on their prior privacy invasion experiences. Research findings also show that females are more vulnerable to privacy and confidentiality risks. They are more concerned about their privacy and disclosing personal information. Such characteristics even influence the type of online platform that individuals prefer to adopt. Although PHR can provide great benefits for women and the elderly, privacy vulnerability may further impede these groups from adoption and effective use of different PHR functionalities. This implies the need for a deep understanding of privacy attitudes and needs of these groups to be addressed in PHR platforms.

   

  This research is focused on advancing the concept of innovative and resilient communities.  As we explore the range of uses for augmenting traditional PHR using blockchain-based PHR we are also deeply aware of the need for collection and safe sharing of diverse data and advancing inclusive innovation that reduces barriers to economic and social inclusion for immigrants in line with the Bridging Divide objectives.

  *currently under review/validation/revision*

  Research Questions

   

  1. What strategies can be developed to provide enhanced auditability of health data access and sharing, ensuring transparency and accountability for both immigrant and healthcare providers and other stakeholders?
  2. What methods can be employed to educate immigrant and other vulnerable groups about the technical aspects of blockchain-based PHR systems, empowering them to make informed decisions about their health data and its management?
  3. How do different recipients of personal health information within the PHR ecosystem impact an individual's privacy concerns and intentions to share their health data?
  4. How do demographic variables such as age, gender and socio-economic status influence individuals’ privacy attitudes and behaviours in the context of blockchain-based PHR systems?

  The proposed project requires a small multi-disciplinary team of researchers including two graduate students, a PhD researcher, and a web developer.  The research will conform to the overarching mixed-method multi-phase approach that will guide the advancement of research on all the themes presented in the blockchain-based PHR system research project.  This ensures that we systematically capture various, social, technical,  functional and behavioural intentions among underrepresented Canadian populations and ensures the rigour of the analysis as well as the obtained results are consistent across all themes in two phases.

  Phase I – Qualitative empirical analysis –  October 2023 – July 2024

  Semi-structured interviews to expand and explore aspects of blockchain usage for health record management, technical and practical.  The interview protocol will be designed based on a systematic analysis of the literature on privacy risks and behaviours in the IS context in general, along with studies on privacy in the PHR and blockchain domains. The interviewees will be identified and recruited from PHR professionals, health practitioners particularly those serving underrepresented and vulnerable populations, privacy advocates, and digital health experts. We will recruit a sample of 15-20 participants, mainly in collaboration with Alliance for Healthier Communities (AHC).

   

  Phase II – Quantitative empirical analysis – April 2024 – March 2025

  Building on phase I of the study, we will employ a questionnaire-based survey, further considering factors identified through the semi-structured interviews. The conceptual model outlining the constructs and their hypothesized relationships will be developed based on the systematic literature review, theoretical underpinnings of privacy paradox and privacy calculus, and the findings from the qualitative empirical study. For those construct that have been already identified and validated in prior literature, their established psychometric scales will be used for the quantitative survey. Meanwhile any previously-unidentified factors will have new scales crafted as per proper scale development methodologies. We will collaborate with AHC to recruit 800-1000 survey participants from active users of PHR platforms, from a range of underrepresented groups such as women, racialized groups, indigenous Canadians, youth, and elderly people.

  The expected deliverables of the proposed project will consist of collected data, research findings, and the materials provided and disseminated through the knowledge translation activities. The list of deliverable items is as follows:

  1. One journal publication, including a systematic review of the related literature as well as an overview of qualitative, quantitative, and experimental analyses and findings for academic audiences
  2. One white paper, including an in-depth report of the project, approach, findings, and practical implications, mainly for non-academic audiences
  3. One executive summary report, highlighting relevant insights on privacy issues from the user perspective and proposed measures for providers of PHR platforms and blockchain-based digital health solutions.

   

  Holly Gardner

  Mohamad Sadegh

  Dane Vanderkooi

   

• TRS1 1.6 - Singing to Promote Integration, Wellbeing and Resilience

  Inspired by the SingWell project and the BD mandate, this two-part, systematically controlled study examines how choir participation can improve immigrants’ feelings of belonging and assist with language learning.

• TRS1 1.7 - Advancing Health Equity Among Racialized Immigrant LGBTQ+ Older Adults

  This study aims to promote health equity for racialized immigrant LGBTQ+ older adults by examining the sociocultural determinants they face, their experiences accessing senior care, inclusion in research/policy development, and best practices.

• TRS1 1.8 - The Use of Communication Apps with Immigrant Seniors in Long Term Care Homes: What is the State of Evidence?

  This study investigates the role of language communication apps within the long-term care sector in relation to immigrant seniors by conducting a scoping review and disseminating the findings through unique avenues.

• TRS1 1.9 - Transnational health care practices among Afghan, Syrian, and Ukrainian refugee older adults in the Greater Toronto Area

  This study uses a constructivist grounded theory approach to better understand the relationship between transnational health care practices and Afghan/Syrian/Ukrainian refugee older adults.

• TRS2 1.1 - Building on what works: Leveraging and scaling successful strategies for employment integration

  This project uses a mixed-methods approach to examine and evaluate policies related to immigrant employment integration in order to better understand what strategies can help contribute to migrants’ success.

• TRS2 1.2 - Who gets left out? Studying inequitable uptake in settlement and employment services

  This project aims to better understand the barriers that prevent disadvantaged newcomers from access settlement services that would benefit them, focusing particularly on equity, employment, and job readiness.

• TRS2 1.3 - The earnings growth of immigrants: the gender differences for the past 50 years and the role of behavioural influences on human capital investment

  This project uses non-parametric quantitative approaches to better understand historic and projected earnings of immigrants, focusing particularly on human capital investment and gender differences in earnings.

• TRS2 1.4 - Labour market, retirement, public and private pension and related activities of older immigrants

  This project uses quantitative large data sets to quantify and examine poverty, earnings, and public pension receipt among older immigrants compared to various groups of non-immigrants and other types of immigrants.

  As is well known, the 2021 Canadian Census observed that immigrants represent around 23.0% of the population (following the 2021 Census, all relevant statistics refer only to individuals living in private households). What is less well appreciated is that immigrants represent 29.9 % of those aged 65 and over. Put another way, while 18.1% of the entire Canadian population are over age 65, 23.6 % of the immigrant population are in that age category (Statistics Canada 2023). Nevertheless, and somewhat surprisingly, very little quantitative research has been undertaken regarding immigrant seniors and their experiences, especially with respect to labour market activities and their use of pensions including public pensions. This is the case both in Canada and internationally.

  1. How are immigrant status, immigration-specific characteristics such as age-at-arrival and immigration stream, and general characteristics such as age, gender, and education, associated with labour market and public program outcomes including earnings, poverty, pension receipt, social benefit receipt, and the like?
  2. How does the structure of the public pension system influence immigrant choices and activities at ages normally associated with retirement?
  3. Are public pensions and related programs serving the senior immigrant community?

  This project will be quantitative and involve the analysis of large data sets, especially various censuses and Statistics Canada’s Longitudinal Administrative Database. It will quantify poverty, earnings, public pension receipt and the like both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Further, it will examine potential heterogeneity across individuals and families and explore potential behavioural responses to the parameters of the public pension system and any related differences across individuals.

  1. Summaries of initial findings to be shared with stakeholders and policy-makers (hopefully by summer 2024 and ongoing).
  2. Findings will hopefully lead to at least two research papers that will be published as IZA discussion papers (www.iza.org).
  3. These research papers will be submitted to a mixture of peer-reviewed academic journals for potential publications (hopefully starting in 2024).
  4. Findings will be presented in domestic and/or international conferences and other seminars, conferences, workshops to gather feedback and disseminate research. Findings will be communicated to relevant stakeholders, officials at IRCC, and perhaps relevant provincial public servants.

   

  This project is not linked to any existing funded project, but parts of it build on parts of the PhD thesis of Moyosore Sogaolu and James Stutely. It is also related to the broader set of projects in this Bridging Divides theme looking at the Canadian labour market integration of immigrants.

• TRS2 1.5 - The integration of immigrants into Canada’s health care workforce

  This project uses quantitative large data sets to examine existing literature, relevant policies/policy changes, and health workforce issues related to immigrant workforce integration.

  1. There is a well-established literature addressing immigrant integration into the Canadian health workforce, however much of the detailed quantitative analysis is superficial and/or dated.
  2. Many policy changes have occurred in recent years and are ongoing to better integrate immigrants into the Canadian health workforce, but little is known about the progress/success of these initiatives.
  3. Health workforce issues affect not only the immigrants in or seeking to join the health care workforce, but also health care workforce planning and service provision to immigrant and non-immigrant Canadians.
  1. How likely are immigrants to work in various occupations/jobs within the health workforce? This includes the full workforce and not only health professionals. That is, it includes, for example, personal support workers, nurses, physicians, chiropodists and the wide range of occupations working in health institutions and related.
  2. Compared to the norms in each occupation, how likely are immigrants with relevant health credentials working in their trained occupation? How is this changing over time? How does it vary across occupation, source region, time in Canada, place of training, and other relevant factors?
  3. How are regulatory processes affecting immigrants in the health workforce?

   

  This project will be quantitative and involve the analysis of large data sets, especially various censuses, Statistics Canada administrative data, as well as provincial (esp. Ontario – at least at the outset) administrative data. An initial goal will be to update and extend Owusu and Sweetman (2015) but looking for trends over time and taking a gendered perspective. It will also use detailed Ontario regulatory college data to examine registration patterns and (self-)employment characteristics.

  This program is not expected to have a strictly linear timeline since some projects may be completed will others are in an earlier stage and yet others have not yet begun.  Early papers will build on the existing literature and later papers will also serve as foundations for later ones. Having said that, depending upon the findings, there may be as few as two papers. A sex and gender lens will be particularly important to this work given the well documented differences gender differences across health occupations.  Also, country of training will be particularly relevant to some of the analysis.

  1. Summaries of initial findings to be shared with stakeholders and policy-makers (hopefully by summer 2024 and ongoing).
  2. Findings will hopefully lead to at least two research papers that will be published as IZA discussion papers (www.iza.org).
  3. These research papers will be submitted to a mixture of peer-reviewed academic journals for potential publications (hopefully starting in 2024).
  4. Findings will be presented in domestic and/or international conferences and other seminars, conferences, workshops to gather feedback and disseminate research. Findings will be communicated to relevant stakeholders, especially health-related ones, and officials at IRCC, and public servants in both the federal and provincial Ministries of Health.

  This project is not directly linked to any existing funded project, but parts of it build on a CIHR grant that Sweetman holds to look at heterogeneity in physician outcomes by gender, place of training, ethnicity and the like. This program is also related to the broader set of projects in this Bridging Divides theme looking at the Canadian labour market integration of immigrants.

• TRS2 1.6 - Building capacity in SMEs to hire immigrants

  This action research project intends to examine and help erode the barriers that affect the hiring and retention of newcomers within small and medium enterprises. 

  In recent years, there is a surge of highly qualified and skilled immigrants moving to Canada, yet research has suggested that the Canadian workforce may not always be equipped to the hiring of new immigrants (Yanar et al., 2022; Kosny et al., 2020; Liu, 2019). Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are playing a critical role in the Canadian economy as they provide about 90% of employment opportunities in the private sector (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, 2022). Nearly 1.1 million (two-thirds) of the companies operating in the private sector have fewer than 5 employees, and these micro businesses dominate most sectors including construction, professional services, personal services, retail, health care, finance and insurance (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, 2022). SMEs have identified talent shortages, which threaten their competitiveness both with large organizations and global businesses (Business Development Bank of Canada, 2018b) and are also challenged during the employment processes to hire, retain and train talent (Business Development Bank of Canada, 2018a). Often, they lack the human resources professionals and resources needed to support recruitment of highly skilled workers or for training, retraining and upskilling existing employees (Business Development Bank of Canada, 2018b). A study in Quebec shows that 75% of the SMEs surveyed indicated a need to invest in training and retraining their workforce (Saba, & Cukier, 2022). In addition, there is evidence that SMEs often present more barriers to women and diverse employees in part because of their heavy dependence on informal processes for recruitment (Banerjee, Reitz, & Oreopoulos, 2018). At the same time, research indicates that once SMEs hire newcomers they tend to continue to hire them, and there are high profile examples of companies with deliberate and focused strategies aimed at hiring and retaining newcomers (Mo & MacKenzie, 2022).)

  Understanding the gap between the existing immigrant integration services and the needs of
  SMEs in hiring and retaining newcomers, this action research project aims to not only analyse the barriers to hiring newcomers and strategies for eroding these barriers but also to develop tools and training to support SMEs in improving their practices. Building on the SSHRC funded DiversityLeads project that created a series of diagnostic tools for developing strategies to advance equity, diversity and inclusion focused on designated groups (women, racialized people, Indigenous people and persons with disabilities), this project will develop a framework, tools and techniques to better support SMEs in hiring and retaining newcomers by addressing leadership and strategy, human resources and culture as well as the value chain or business processes, and community partnerships

  1. What are the barriers faced by SMEs in hiring and retaining newcomers? 
  2. How can SMEs build their capacities to support and hire newcomers? 
  3. What are models and best practices to support SMEs in hiring newcomers?

  The foundation of the research will be shaped by an overview of existing literature on the support services and programs for SMEs in hiring immigrant workers. The literature review aims to provide the context, research direction and research design guiding this project. This research will use a mixed-methods approach (qualitative and quantitative) to examine the need of SMEs in hiring and retaining immigrant workers and the barriers they are facing. For research methods, qualitative data will be collected through semi-structured interviews, and quantitative data will be collected through surveys. The interview and survey questions will be informed by frameworks for advancing equity, diversity and inclusion strategies - such as the diversity assessment tool - tailored to the context of SMEs and the needs of diverse newcomers. Quantitative data will showcase and assess the capacities of SMEs in hiring and retaining newcomers. Based on the findings, the recommendations and best practices section will be presented to guide SMEs in building capacities to support and hire immigrant workers.
  
  

  Project will be conducted from fall of 2023 (October to December) onto summer of 2026 (July to September) in three phases. The Principal Investigator, Dr. Wendy Cukier, will work with Dr. Mohamed Elmi to lead this project with one current Ph.D. student and one Masters student.

  Timeline

  2023 Oct-Dec

  2024 Jan-Mar

  2024 Apr- Jun

  2024 July-Sept

  2024 Oct-Dec

  2025 Jan-Mar

  2025 Apr- Jun

  2025 July-Sept

  2025 Oct-Dec

  2026 Jan-Mar

  2026 Apr- Jun

  2026 July-Sept

  Phrase 1  (Literature Review, Instrument Design and Ethics Review)

  X

  X

  X

  Phrase 2 (Data Collection & Findings)

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  Phrase 3 (Recommendations and Best Practices)

  X

  X

  X

  X

  Next steps and future deliverables include 

  1) developing an updated theoretical framework/conceptual model that reflects on the new trends and findings of the supports available to SMEs in hiring newcomers (by June 2024); 

  2) engaging knowledge dissemination at at least four academic conferences, ten workshops and seminars to showcase our research findings (April, 2025 - September, 2026); 

  3) developing one toolkit for stakeholders, employers, policy markers that incorporate best practices and strategies in supporting SMEs for better newcomer labour integration (by September 2026); 

  4) producing at least three academic journal articles and submitting to at least one top-ranking journal for publication (by September 2026). 

  Rupa Banerjee, Mohamed Elmi, Tony Fang

  This project is not directly linked to any existing funded project. I am currently working with two international researchers on immigrant issues that focus on skill utilization and economic assimilation of immigrants in host countries. Duleep and Regets and I have been working on American immigrant earnings dynamics for a long time. The methodology proposed in this project is closely related to the empirical approach used in our joint papers (Duleep, Liu, & Regets, 2022; Duleep, Dowhan, & Liu, 2023). 

  An analysis of the human capital accumulation process of the second-generation immigrants and their earning dynamics in Canada will be a potential follow-up project for the second half of the Bridging Divide timeline (2026 -). The population share of the children of immigrants (below age 15) has increased from 26.7% in 2011 to 31.5% in 2016. This future project will provide an intergenerational human capital perspective to look at how immigrants assimilate into Canadian society.

  n/a

• TRS2 1.7 - Entrepreneurship as a pathway to economic inclusion

  This mixed-methods project examines immigrant entrepreneurship and related barriers to integration in order to design and deliver a training program to help newcomers overcome such obstacles.

  Globally, immigrants contribute significantly to international trading (Xu et al., 2019), diversify market products (Wang & Warn, 2018) and increase labour market integration (Lofstrom & Wang, 2019). In addition, immigrants possess substantive international knowledge that may be attractive to host countries (Lodefalk et al., 2022). Despite the danger of failure, researchers have noted that newcomers choose entrepreneurship more frequently than working-age Canadians (Dheer, 2018; Ng & Gagnon, 2020) and that they are pulled as well as pushed to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. Immigrant entrepreneurs are associated with increasing innovation (Picot & Ostrovsky, 2021); entering global and international markets (Baum et al., 2015); and boosting economic growth and employment opportunities (OECD, 2021).

  The number of newcomer entrepreneurs in Canada is growing rapidly — from 205,400 in 2006 to 251,600 in 2018, a 22% increase in 12 years (Business Development Bank of Canada, 2019); and many newcomers to Canada see entrepreneurship as a desirable and flexible career opportunity (Cukier et al., 2017). In addition, there are over 600,000 self-employed immigrants in Canada, and over 260,000 of them have paid employees (Government of Canada, 2022). Nevertheless, immigrant entrepreneurs are of great diversity - there are significant differences among different immigrant populations in terms of education levels, sectors and impacts. An intersectional lens also shows that women play a much greater role in some immigrant communities - for example accounting for almost 50% of South Asian entrepreneurs, 30% of entrepreneurs identifying as Black versus only 0.5% of those identifying as Arab (Statistics Canada, 2022; Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, 2023).

  In addition to improving the social and cultural diversity of Canadian communities, immigrants bring valuable knowledge, skills and experience that contribute to Canadian economic growth (Business Council of Canada, 2022). Immigrants make up about 50% of all STEM degree holders in the country, making their skills crucial to the knowledge economy (Government of Canada, 2023).

  Yet there are many barriers for newcomer entrepreneurs to overcome in Canada, such as access to financing, navigating business networks, language and cultural differences, regulatory and legal requirements (Cukier et al., 2017). Their success is also hampered by various types of discrimination, including bias in competitions and screening processes (Balachandra et al., 2013). While research has suggested immigrant entrepreneurs often face barriers in terms of navigating the Canadian innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, there are increasing numbers of programs ostensibly designed to support them. There is also evidence that entrepreneurship training may not only help immigrants to start a business but can also impart key skills that are transferable to different aspects of integration and labour market participation (Coletti & Pasini, 2023; Irastorza, 2020). By better understanding the diversity among immigrant entrepreneurs and their experiences as well as recognizing entrepreneurship as a viable pathway to inclusion, this project conducts an ecosystem mapping of stakeholders in the space of immigration entrepreneurship supports in Canada. The findings will allow policy-makers to strengthen an already dynamic ecosystem capable of further contributing to Canada’s economic recovery (Kosny et al., 2020).

  • What are the characteristics of immigrant entrepreneurs in Canada? 
  • Can we develop a framework to distinguish different motivations (push/pull) related to different sectors and characteristics?
  • What barriers do immigrant entrepreneurs face in establishing businesses?
  • What entrepreneurship support programs are currently available for immigrants and newcomers in Canada, what are their features and impacts?
  • What are the implications for policy and practice in developing an inclusive entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem for entrepreneurs?

  We will adopt a mixed-methods approach to design and deliver entrepreneurship training which is a pathway to self-employment among newcomers. The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods will be used.

  Stage 1- Mapping the state of immigrant entrepreneurship in Canada: We will use Stats Canada and other data sources to better understand the diversity of immigrant entrepreneurs through an intersectional and sectoral lens.
  Stage 2- Conducting data collection and analysis to identify barriers facing immigrant entrepreneurs. We will collect two principal kinds of data. 1) Surveys, interviews and focus groups with immigrant entrepreneurs in collaboration with major ethnic business organizations (Black Business Professional Association (60% of members are immigrants); Canada Pakistan Business Council, Canada India Foundation, Chinese Professional Association of Canada, Pink Attitude (South Asian Women) and other major demographic groups in multiple languages. 2) Netnography and key informant interviews to identify programs targeting newcomer and immigrant entrepreneurs as well as mainstream business intermediaries, incubators and accelerators to understand programs targeting entrepreneurs and how it responds to their needs.
  Stage 3 - Develop a framework of recommendations: Building on the research we will identify best practices and develop a framework of recommendations for actors in the ecosystem to support immigrant entrepreneurs and will consult with multiple stakeholders on their framework.
  Stage 4- Knowledge mobilization: This stage will use quantitative and qualitative methods to measure immediate and intermediate project outcomes, through Key Performance Indicators. We will also conduct both process and impact evaluations to assess program delivery and ultimate outcomes.

  Dr. Wendy Cukier will lead this project with support from the DI team as well as the IIE-Net co-investigators.

  Timeline

  2023 Oct-Dec

  2024 Jan-Mar

  2024 Apr- Jun

  2024 July-Sept

  2024 Oct-Dec

  2025 Jan-Mar

  2025 Apr- Jun

  2025 July-Sept

  2025 Oct-Dec

  2026 Jan-Mar

  2026 Apr- Jun

  2026 July-Sept

  Stage 1: Mapping the state of immigrant entrepreneurship in Canada

  X

  X

  Stage 2: Conducting data collection and analysis to identify barriers facing immigrant entrepreneurs

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  Stage 3: Develop a framework of recommendations

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  Stage 4: Knowledge mobilization

  X

  X

  X

  Academic Contribution: Contributing to the body of knowledge on the diversity of immigrant entrepreneurs with new approaches to understanding inclusion in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem at multiple levels (macro, meso and micro) across stakeholder groups.  The project will produce at least four research papers, four conference papers, thirty workshops and other forms of KmB (April, 2024 -September, 2026). The project will also produce an edited book on immigrant entrepreneurship (Palgrave MacMillan, September, 2025)

  Lived experience stories and case studies: Narratives showcasing experiences of at least 500 newcomers from Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, and Yukon with  self-employment and entrepreneurship and the factors shaping their success which will support campaigns, such as “See it. Be it” celebrating diverse entrepreneurs as well, potentially, as providing case studies to inform teaching (by December, 2025).

  Policy and Program Development: The development of at least two policy briefs and one programs to support immigrant entrepreneurs.  This will include providing guidance to our extensive network of incubators and accelerators, business intermediaries, immigrant serving organizations and governments at the local, provincial and federal level (by September, 2026).

  Training HQP: The program will offer three students an opportunity to engage in the research process and develop their skills (April, 2024 to September, 2026).

  Wendy Cukier, Marshia Akbar, Ashika Niraula, Aziz Rahman

  The Diversity Institute leads the Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship Network, a SSHRC partnership grant focused on addressing the needs of women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and racialized people in terms of entrepreneurship. The Diversity Institute has led a number of entrepreneurship training pilots such as Women’s Entrepreneurship Hub (WE-Hub), Newcomer Entrepreneurship Hub (NEH), Pursue Entrepreneurship Program (PE), and the Workforce Innovation and Inclusion Project (WIIP) and through the Future Skills Centre has developed and evaluated programs with BBPA, CAMSC, CCAB, Coralus, Mount St. VIncent University, Dalhousie and many others to understand the competencies needed by entrepreneurs as well as the policies and programs that may impede or enable them.  The Diversity Institute has also undertaken customized research for a number of Government funding agencies (iSED, Fed Dev, IRAP) as well as the Department of Finance and Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to better understand approaches to create more inclusive programs.

  n/a

• TRS2 1.8 - EDI in Cybersecurity

  This mixed methods project uses an intersectional approach with census data and semi-structured interviews to better understand the immigrant talent shortage within the cybersecurity sector.

• TRS2 2.1 - Leveraging ADT in skills training, labour market entry, and employer support

  This project aims to explore the implications of integrating ADT into skills training programs for newcomers and investigating its potential to bridge the skills gap.

  Most studies of immigrant employment integration are grounded in human capital theory (HCT) (e.g., Borjas, 1994; Chiswick & Miller, 2009; Clarke & Skuterud, 2016), which assumes immigrants’ labour market disadvantage stems from a lack of host country-relevant skills. Accordingly, the majority of empirical studies of employment integration focus on how immigrants’ individual attributes and behaviours determine their employment outcomes (e.g., Fuller, 2015; Hou & Picot, 2016; Tverdostup, & Paas, 2019). Even after all individual factors are accounted for, however, immigrants face differential outcomes in the labour market relative to native-born workers (Adamuti-Trache, Anisef, & Sweet, 2013; Li & Li, 2013; Skuterud, 2010). This calls for analysis, and we argue for the need to examine the role of employers in immigrant integration.  The inability to accurately assess foreign credentials, a lack of understanding of foreign work experience and bias in employment processes can all contribute to inequitable outcomes for newcomer jobseekers and employees (Banerjee, Reitz, & Oreopoulos, 2018; Banerjee et al., 2021).   At the same time, employers face challenges in recruiting and retaining staff that have the skills they need. Recent data from Statistics Canada show that 36% of Canadian businesses reported labour shortages at various skill levels (Statistics Canada, 2022).

  With the growth of the use of Advanced Digital Technology (ADT), particularly AI and machine learning, in the labour market, experts and executives are warning that bad data and biased predictive models could have a significant negative impact on equity-deserving groups, such as immigrants (Bergamini. 2023). Nevertheless, ADT can also have a transformative role to bridge the gap between newcomers' skills and labor market demands. This research aims to explore the various implications of integrating ADT into skills training programs for newcomers, and investigating its potential to bridge the skills gap. It will also study the job search strategies of newcomers in the economic class, particularly in relation to the use of ADT with the aims of: understanding the strategies employed by newcomers in the economic class in their job search process, exploring the use of ADT in the job search process, and obtaining feedback from participants on the efficacy of ADT in providing entry into the labour market.

  Skills Gap and the Role of ADT: Newcomers often face challenges in integrating into the Canadian labor market due to a skills gap (Cukier, et al., 2023). The 2016 consensus shows that 52% of recent immigrants have at least a bachelor’s degree (compared to the 24% of Canadian-born) (Lane, & Murray, 2019). However, compared to Canadian-born, immigrants demonstrated a lower level of reading skills (Bélanger, & Vézina, 2017). Similarly, literacy skills are much lower among immigrants in comparison to Canadian-born individuals (Bonikowska, et al, 2008). A recent skills test shows that the average numeracy score of immigrants was lower in comparison to Canadian-born (250.7 versus 273.8) (Cukier, & Stolarick, 2020). According to the Information and Communication Technology Council (ICTC) (2016), 40% of Canada’s ICT workers are immigrants, which is a much higher share of immigrants than in any other profession. However, employers often perceive skills such as problem solving, communication and collaboration reveals challenges for newcomers (The Information and Communication Technology Council, 2021). Whether real or perceived, such skill gaps result in difficulties for immigrants to integrate into the Canadian labour market. Using ADT and AI-driven learning platforms can help assess their skills and provide tailored, flexible, and up-to-date skills training for them. Research funded by the Future Skills Centre and Deloitte identified a range of ways in which ADT can support the recruitment, upskilling and reskilling process ranging from online competency framework tests, learning management systems, adaptive learning systems and more (FSC, 2020). FSC has also funded pilot projects to test new approaches including pre-arrival testing, skills development and “nudging” programs using ADT.

  Addressing Bias and Discrimination: Discrimination and unconscious bias from employers can  be a barrier  for newcomers' equal access to job opportunities . ADT has the potential to mitigate these biases by anonymizing applicant information, and focusing evaluation on skills and competencies rather than origin, ethnicity, or other demographic factors (Polli, 2019). Virtual skills assessments and simulations can provide employers with unbiased insights into newcomers' capabilities, thereby promoting equitable hiring practices and improving diverse workplaces (Houser, 2019).  At the same time, AI systems can reify biases baked into algorithms based on historical data. Screening systems and competency testing purported to objectively assess “soft skills”, such as Lumina Spark, can embed cultural biases and disadvantage newcomers.

  Streamlining Skills Assessment and Credentialing: Traditional credentials often pose barriers for newcomers due to differences in recognition in Canada (Ghadi et. al., 2023; Thomas, 2021) and other countries (Damelang, Ebensperger, & Stumpf, 2020). ADT can change skills assessment processes by providing verifiable, adaptable, and up-to-date proof of skills attainment (Ciari, et. al, 2021). This approach empowers newcomers to showcase their skills and experiences, bypassing challenges associated with foreign credentials.

  Adaptive learning, upskilling and reskilling: Recent work also explores ways in which technology can facilitate the upskilling and reskilling and development of employees with Learning Management Systems as well as adaptive learning paced to meet individual needs (Harrington et. al, 2020).  This has particularly potential for immigrants across skills groups but especially for language learning as well as microcredentialling (Diversity Institute, 2022).  While employers such as Danby have been celebrated for their commitments to supporting skills development for newcomers with on the job language training (Danby,2023),,new technologies offer opportunities to augment, scale and connect individual initiatives (Focus Canada and Learning Upgrade, 2023).

  Potential Risks of Applying ADT: While the potential benefits of ADT in skills training are substantial, there exist potential risks such as reinforcing digital divides due to unequal access to technology, or the dehumanization of training experiences in a virtual environment (Giermindl et al., 2022). This research seeks to critically analyze and address both the potential and the  risks of ADT to ensure responsible and equitable deployment.

  This project shifts the focus from individual immigrant behaviors and attributes to organizational policies and processes.  Specifically, we aim to understand are interested in whether and how integrating advanced digital technologies into recruitment, selection and talent management systems may facilitate or impede hiring immigrant workers.

  • What are the ways in which ADT is or can be used used in the recruitment, assessment, upskilling and development of talent?
  • Specifically:
  • How do advanced digital technologies embedded into Human Resource Management systems affect employment opportunities for immigrants? This question investigates the ways in which digital platforms, online job marketplaces and technology-driven talent management systems influence immigrants' access to a broader range of job opportunities.
  • How do digital platforms facilitate skills recognition and validation for immigrants? Investigating whether and how digital tools can bridge the gap between foreign qualifications and local job requirements is essential for understanding how technology can streamline the process of skill recognition and validation.
  • What challenges and opportunities arise from the integration of digital technologies in the recruitment, assessment, upskilling and development of talent? In what ways can ADT mitigate or reify bias and discrimination in the hiring and promotion process? How can these processes be improved to account for implicit bias?
  • What are the potential advantages and challenges associated with the application of ADT and how can we ensure inclusive practices to support newcomers and immigrants? 

  By addressing these research questions, this project seeks to uncover how employers’ use of the advanced digital technologies affects immigrant employment outcomes. By examining their effects on skills development, credential recognition, recruitment, selection and career development, this study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how technology can shape more inclusive and efficient immigrant employment integration in the modern digital age.

  The research will employ a mixed-methods approach, combining both qualitative and quantitative methods.

  Stage 1 (Y1): Stage 1 will focus on research designnand data collection. We will also create a detailed research plan outlining the timeline, resources, and responsibilities during this stage. The first step will be a comprehensive literature review to understand the landscape of ADT’s application to recruitment, screening, training and development and the implications for newcomers and immigrants. During this phase we will also design our qualitative and quantitative data collection processes, obtain REB approval for the research instruments (i.e. surveys, interview guides, focus group protocols), and start participant recruitment. We will conduct semi-structured interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders, including technology providers and employers to better understand the use of these tools and based on this will apply an EDI analysis to identify areas of concern. We will also interview newcomers job seekers to assess their experiences, challenges, and perceptions related to the use of ADT in skills training. Stage 2 (Y2): During this stage we will continue data collection and analysis. The research will utilize a qualitative approach, employing semi-structured interviews and content analysis to gain in-depth insights into the experiences, perceptions, and practices related to the integration of digital technologies by employers and their effect on immigrant integration.  We will interview both immigrant workers/job seekers and employer representatives. Through convenience and snowball sampling techniques we will identify, recruit and interview immigrants from diverse industries, skill levels and backgrounds.  We will employ purposeful sampling to find and select HR professionals and other key informants involved in talent management and recruitment processes within organizations. One-on-one semi-structured interviews with immigrants and employer representatives will allow us to investigate topics such as digital platform usage, perceived impact, challenges, and recommendations.  In addition to this, we will also collect and analyze relevant documents, such as recruitment policies, diversity and inclusion guidelines, and digital platform interfaces, to gain insights into the operationalization of digital technologies. We will utilize thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns, themes, and nuances across the interview data. Themes will be derived deductively from the research questions and inductively from emergent patterns. Our analytical approach will allow us to conduct a comparative analysis across different participant groups (immigrant job seekers and employees, HR professionals and other employer representatives) to identify commonalities and variations in perceptions and practices. For quantitative data we will use statistical analysis and for qualitative data we will perform thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes. At this stage, we will also conduct case studies to analyze specific cases where ADT can be implemented in skills training programs and AI-Powered platforms (e.g., BRIDGE; HRSG; whatfix; officevibe; HIGHMATCH; Worklytics; etc.). These case studies will involve detailed analysis of program design, implementation strategies, participant feedback, and outcomes. Comparisons will be made between traditional training methods and those incorporating ADT to assess the added value. We will then synthesize insights from all the collected data and draw connections between ADT's impact on closing the skills gap, reducing unconscious bias, skills assessment, and credential recognition.

  Stage 3 (Y3): Stage 3 will focus on interpretation of data and dissemination of research results. During this stage, we will finalize research reports, presentations, and academic papers and disseminate findings through conferences, and academic publications. Depending on the findings and implication we may produce a special issue compiling the results.

  Working with a post doctoral fellow, one PhD student and three master students. Drs. Banerjee, Cukier, George and Liu will lead this sub-project.  Employer organizations  including the Ontario Chamber of Commerce,  Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Councils will be invited to collaborate, as will an immigrant employment organization such as ACESS, Skills for Change, COSTI and technology experts including Magnet, Deloitte, Accenture and others.

   

  Timeline

  2023 Oct-Dec

  2024 Jan-Mar

  2024 Apr- Jun

  2024 July-Sept

  2024 Oct-Dec

  2025 Jan-Mar

  2025 Apr- Jun

  2025 July-Sept

  2025 Oct-Dec

  2026 Jan-Mar

  2026 Apr- Jun

  2026 July-Sept

  Stage 1: Research design and data collection

  X

  X

  X

  X

  Stage 2: Data collection and data analysis

  X

  X

  X

  X

  Stage 3: Knowledge mobilization

  X

  X

  X

  X

  The outcomes and deliverables of this research project would include a range of tangible and intangible results that contribute to the understanding of the topic and its practical implications:

  • One or two reports outlining the research objectives, methodology, findings, recommendations, and conclusions, which will provide an in-depth analysis of the impact of ADT on skills training for newcomers (by September, 2024).
  • At least four academic papers which will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals, presenting the research's significant findings, methodology, and implications (October, 2024 to September, 2026).
  • At least ten conference presentations and panel discussions to engage with peers, and foster discussion and feedback  (October, 2024 to September, 2026).
  • At least ten workshops and seminars to share insights with practitioners, policymakers, and training service providers  (October, 2025 to September, 2026).
  • One national conference (two days) on ADT in skills training for immigrants for academia, immigrant support services, policy makers, and training service providers.
  • One mapping of the current programs and policies in Canada that support the newcomers’ integration in the labour market (September, 2024).
  • About 20 detailed case studies showcasing successful implementations of ADT in newcomer skills training programs around the world, and providing concrete examples of the technology's effectiveness (by September, 2025).
  • One or two policy briefs with detailed suggestions for policymakers, training providers, employers, and other stakeholders on effectively leveraging ADT to address skills gaps and discriminations against newcomers (September, 2026).
  • Digital Media Content:  accessible digital content, such as infographics, podcasts or short videos, to disseminate key findings and insights to a broader audience. (September 2026)
  • Workshop/webinar: a webinar will be developed for employers to discuss the findings from the study and also to provide insights on how advanced digital technologies can be leveraged to better integrate newcomers in the workplace. (September 2026)

  Wendy Cukier, Rupa Banerjee, Usha George

  This project is an extension of a study that Dr. Banerjee is currently undertaking with colleagues at Toronto Metropolitan University (Drs. Sadaf Mustafiz, Cherie Ding and Imogen Coe).  In that project, we are developing a scalable talent acquisition platform with equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) best practices embedded in it, through which Canadian companies can access and hire industry-ready new talent on a just-in-time basis across the country. The talent acquisition platform is being developed using model-driven software engineering (MDSE) methods and tools. We believe this recruitment platform can be a key tool to improve skilled immigrant labour market outcomes by connecting newcomer talent with employer needs.  The proposed sub-project builds on this existing study by examining the overall impact of advanced digital technologies on employers’ ability to successfully integrate newcomers.

  The Diversity Institute and Future Skills Centre have conducted several projects led by Wendy Cukier and a cross national team related to skills gap, skills training, and digital transformations. Technology-enabled innovations in the skills and employment ecosystem with Deloitte (Harrington et al., 2020) outlined a framework for the use of technology through the recruitment, retention and upskilling journey. This project will be augmented from the existing projects to critically examine the use of ADT targeting immigrant jobseekers, shedding light on not only the effectiveness of ADT but also the potential risks it might bring to the space. Pathways to Employment, a comprehensive strategy through the Future Skills Centre offers a range of evidence-based services and tools for employers including the Diversity Assessment Tool and App, the Magnet Recruitment and Job Matching Platform and the Learning Management System for Small and Medium Enterprises with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

  n/a

• TRS2 2.2 - Digital upskilling and reskilling newcomers: Effective design and implementation of competency-based programs and wraparound supports for newcomers

  This project reviews the current state of digital skills training programs for Canadian immigrants by examining labour market gaps, factors related to sector under-employment, and training program design.

  Research suggests that there is an ongoing challenge about the skills mismatch, particularly with respect to digital skills in Canada (Harrington et al., 2020). This gap is particularly pronounced for newcomers and immigrants, who often are recruited because of their technical skills but remain under-employed (Cukier et al., 2017). While new technologies are transforming the ICT sector, the demand for digital skills remains critical across all industries in Canada (ICTC, 2021; Cukier & Anani, 2022). Research by the Future Skills Centre has identified three clusters of skills that are critical: digital skills, transformation skills, and socioemotional skills, which indicates high needs of soft skills in the labour market. (Harrington & Cukier, 2022). Research also suggests that technology can bridge the skills gap with five different functions: 1) enhancing skills development and education; 2) facilitating access to skills; 3) conducting skills assessment; 4) addressing skills gaps; and 5) optimizing skills utilization (Harrington et al., 2020). 

  Research shows that immigrants face multiple barriers when accessing and participating in the skills and employment training as well as in the labour market. For example, a study identified systematic barriers both at the societal and organizational level in skills training programs that are considered to be innovative and effective (Itano-Boase et al., 2021). On the other hand, digital divide, which refers to disparities in access to technological resources due to factors such as race, ability, or socio-economic status, is particularly posing a challenge for immigrants who want to participate in online skills training, which increased dramatically during the pandemic (Environics Institute, Future Skills Centre, & Diversity Institute, 2021). In addition, devaluation of international credentials and bias in the education and employment system, discrimination based on accent and language skills, and discrimination based on “fit” continue to be prevalent barriers that immigrants in Canada face (Ng & Gagnon, 2020). 

  To support equity-deserving groups to overcome these barriers, skills and employment services started to introduce effective design and implementation of competency-based programs and wraparound supports (Cukier, & Mo, 2023; Harrington, et al., 2020). However, the effectiveness and impacts of these approaches are still unclear. Building on the prior research, this project aims to review the current state of  digital skills training programs targeting immigrants and newcomers in Canada.

  • What are the specific digital skill gaps in the labour market with respect to employer needs and talent?
  • What factors account for the under-employment of newcomers with engineering and technical skills in demand across sectors?
  • What forms of effective design, especially using competency-based approach and wraparound supports, currently exist in digital skills training programs targeting newcomers? What are their features (including wraparound supports) and impacts? 
  • What are the models and features of effective programs to transition newcomers into digital roles?

  The foundation of the research will be shaped by an overview of existing literature on the upskilling, reskilling services and programs for immigrants and newcomers. We will adopt multi-method approaches to explore employer’s digital skills needs, based on current labour market information and also assess the newcomers job seekers’ digitals, transformation, and socioemotional skills level. This project will also consider the role of wraparound support for newcomers with pathways to employment, upskilling in their current jobs, or reskilling for new jobs. Drawing on both consultation and existing industry research on skills competencies and training methods, this project will provide insights into the factors shaping the design and implementation of effective upskilling and reskilling approaches. The research will rely on Labour market information (including vicinity job advertisement data) as well as industry reports and key informants employers and industry associations to understand the demand issues. We will also use multiple methods including netnography and interviews with newcomersand intermediaries to better understand the barriers faced by newcomers in accessing employment commensurate with their skills.  Building on previous research for ESDC we will also build a database of current digital upskilling programs including those targeting newcomers, their features and evaluation results (if any). Again, key informant interviews will help us understand the features of these programs and their relationship to employment. Dr. Wendy Cukier will lead the project.

  Timeline

  2023 Oct-Dec

  2024 Jan-Mar

  2024 Apr- Jun

  2024 July-Sept

  2024 Oct-Dec

  2025 Jan-Mar

  2025 Apr- Jun

  2025 July-Sept

  2025 Oct-Dec

  2026 Jan-Mar

  2026 Apr- Jun

  2026 July-Sept

  Phase I Design

  X

  Phase II: Data collection and Analysis -

  X

  X

  X

  X

  Phase III Knowledge Mobilization

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  • One systematic literature review of Labour Market Information on digital skills trends, demands and employer needs (by June, 2024)
  • One analysis of the experiences of newcomers with employment in digital roles (by December, 2024)
  • One mapping and review of existing digital upskilling and reskilling programs and its impact on newcomer employment (by December, 2024)
  • One  logic model that conceptualizes the ways in which digital upskilling and reskilling programs bridge newcomers and employer needs and identification of what works with attention to curriculum design and delivery as well as wraparound supports that enable the engagement of a wider range of participants. These include career coaching to help participants solidify their job search skills and work placement, in which we will work with employers to match participants to the employers’ (by December, 2024)
  • At least ten workshops or seminars to share knowledge with employers, policy makers, intermediaries on the implications, for policy and practice entry-level hiring needs (by September, 2026). 
  • At least three academic papers which will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals, presenting the research's significant findings, methodology, and implications (January, 2025 to  September, 2026)

   

  • At least four conference presentations and panel discussions to engage with peers, and foster discussion and feedback (January, 2025 to  September, 2026)

   

   

  Wendy Cukier, Ebrahim Bagheri, Murtaza Haider, Eddy Ng

  This project is connected in part to several projects including a SSHRC funded study of Digital Skills and a project funded by ORF-RE on Women in Technology (with an intersectional lens) and another with the Women in Communications and Technology. It also connects to the vicinity data and LMIC projects which detail labour market trends as well as FSC funded programs targeting newcomers including IECBC, ISANS, ICTIC, ADaPT, nPower and more. Our  Foundational and Transferable Skills of Racialized Canadians and Newcomers (2023) report addressed the knowledge gaps about the foundational and transferable skills of racialized and immigrant Canadians. Our Digital Transformation of Government: Addressing talent gaps and the needs of an Inclusive Workforce (2022) report provides another approach which identifies a set of principles for solutions to fill skills gaps and proposes how the Government of Canada can build a long-lasting digital transformation skills solution. The Digital Skills and Skills Gap (2023) report reviews English- and French-language literature in Canadian and international contexts on the discussion around digital skills, the digital skills gap, and the digital divide in Canadian society and abroad.  This project also will help inform our OCC LMS project –led by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC), along with project partner Magnet, and funded by Future Skills Centre aimed at addressing the needs of employers. This project is also connected to the report in which we partnered with Deloitte to examine the issues around digital transformation and the adoption of ICT within the government of Canada. Within this project we reviewed trends in digital skills and opportunities for the federal government to attract and retain the talent it needs to support digital transformation and the barriers facing equity deserving groups particularly newcomers. 

• TRS2 3.1 - The Impacts of AI and other Automation Technologies on Business and Immigrant Workers in the Post-COVID Era

  This project focuses on the accelerated use of automation and AI as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on quantitative and qualitative data to assess the resulting change in the workforce and its impact on immigrant workers.

  The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic led to short-term disruptions by lockdowns, and spurred long-lasting transformations in global lifestyles, business practices, and labour market dynamics through accelerated use of remote work, increasing use of automation, and AI measures. In fact, automation and AI are recognized as one of the driving forces that shape our work, workplace, and workforce after the pandemic and in the future (Loewen & Lee-Whiting, 2022; Petropoulos, 2021). Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data we will assess how organizations responded, how they learned to respond and recover, and finally how they aim to thrive post-pandemic.

  As immigrants account for 27.7% of the core-aged Canadian labour force in 2021, and they are disproportionately distributed in the retail, accommodation, health care, professional and technical services, and construction sectors (Statistics Canada, 2022), these changes will have long-term impacts on immigrants’ labour market integration. What this means for immigrants and the responses by stakeholders including employers, settlement agencies, and all levels of government, needs to be analysed and studied with interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral approaches. We will employ a mixed methods approach, facilitating a holistic systemic analysis to comprehensively address the impact of these transformations on immigrant workers and businesses and provide a nuanced understanding of the interactions between various factors.

  1. What are the medium and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses?
  2. How will AI and automation affect the work, workplace, and workers?
  3. Who are the new actors (e.g., private sector and software companies that develop these digital platform apps), and how can they respond to these changes in labour governance and especially migrant labour governance?
  4. How are business operations and business needs in labour and skills shifting due to AI and automation?

  This sub-project will consist of a literature review targeting what occupations become redundant due to AI and automation, analyzing the impact of AI and automation on immigrant integration, examining the occupational distribution of immigrants compared to non-immigrants to assess vulnerability and opportunities and how certain occupations will be affected (clerical, secretary, accounting services, professional and technical services, etc.). Additionally, this sub-project will address the learning process of employer organizations during the response and recovery phases, including the increasing use of AI and other automation technologies, the main motivations for such organizational changes, how they affect organizational productivity and employee performance and how they aim to thrive post-pandemic. These factors need to be matched with previous business analytics regarding the impacts and experiences of workers, particularly immigrant workers. The literature review will consist of qualitative and quantitative analysis of employer and immigrant worker perceptions on how AI will affect immigrant integration. This sub-project will also draw from an existing project funded by Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) involving a representative employer survey and in-depth follow-up employer interviews on their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Employer responses include implementation of remote work, use of digital technologies, development of new products and services, and new methods of deliverability. Additional analysis will be conducted on how these employer responses affect immigration patterns using a case study method.

  Literature review: 2023 Q4 and 2024 Q1

  Interview and case study design: 2024 Q1

  Ethics application: 2024 Q2

  Interview data analysis: 2024 Q3, 2024 Q4, 2025 Q1, 2025 Q2

  Case study: 2024 Q4, 2025 Q1, 2025 Q2,2025 Q3

  Report and policy brief: 2025 Q3, 2025 Q4, 2026 Q1

  Knowledge mobilization: 2025 Q2, 2025 Q3, 2025 Q4,2026 Q1, 2026 Q2, 2026 Q3

  The knowledge obtained upon completion of this sub-project will be published in academic journals in immigration, labour economics, and management fields. Larger reports will be created as well, and digestible formats will be posted on social media and Dr. Fang’s Jarislowsky Chair website. Findings will be presented at the National and International Metropolis Conference, P2P Conference, Jarislowsky Chair Annual Conference as well as a community forum and various immigration workshops for knowledge mobilization and community engagement. In most formats (other than, for example, journal articles) the findings will be geared towards policy makers, service providers, and immigrant themselves. Deliverables will consist of:

  • A research report with the summary of methodologies and the main findings;
  • Research findings to be published in peer-reviewed journals;
  • Policy and practice recommendations for business and settlement agencies/providers in order to improve immigrant attraction, integration, and retention;
  • A knowledge mobilization plan for the use and understanding of the research by the general public.

  Marshia Akbar, Xingfei Liu, Rupa Banerjee, Wendy Cukier

  This sub-project is connected with current ongoing projects such as the ACOA-funded Atlantic Policy Research Initiative Examining the Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Business Conditions, Labour Market Dynamics, Workplace Practices, and Organizational Performance in Atlantic Canada project, the SSHRC Explorer Project on Immigrant Retention, and the Diversity project entitled “Improving labour force participation and labour market outcomes of the under-represented groups in the Newfoundland and Labrador natural resources sector” funded by Memorial University’s Harris Centre.

   

   

  This project will also contribute to the projects of our collaborators, including TMU’s Rupa Banerjee and UBC’s Suzanne Huot, on digital technology and AI on the immigration process. Lastly, it will assist policy makers and settlement agencies, and other immigrant service providers, such as IRCC, ANC and ARAISA, in understanding these dynamics.

• TRS2 3.2.1 - Exploring new configurations of work and mobility - Redefining quality of work within new configurations of work and mobility

  This project investigates digital migrant work and migrant workers using digital platforms, examining how these diametrically opposed situations occasionally overlap and create new meanings for quality of work.

  Advanced digital technologies are shaping both the future of work and the future of migration in multiple ways. On the one hand they may create new opportunities for remote work, shifting the way in which global talent is recruited, selected and managed and opening up opportunities of remote work to people located in far-away places and/or to digital nomads. They may thus act as a sort of equaliser of opportunity or as a lever for achieving a better work-life balance. At the same time, such technologies may create and exacerbate precarious and atypical working conditions, including those presented by digital platforms on the gig-work economy (e.g., Uber and Taskrabbit). In other words, advanced digital technologies may give rise to diametrically opposed phenomena. They may lead people to decouple their residence from their work, keeping the work stable but the person moving between places (notably becoming a voluntary digital nomad). But they may also lead to the opposite case where migrants who establish themselves at a new place, find local work that is though mediated by a technology app, hence creating again a disconnect between place of residence and the place of work where the app becomes the (virtual) workplace.

  The platform economy offers opportunities to earn an income without needing to overcome common employment barriers (e.g., credential recognition, local work experience) by using platform-based mobile applications and thus may be particularly appealing to immigrant workers. Despite potentially being able to secure forms of gig work more quickly however, platform workers are often categorized as self-employed and do not have access to typical protections such as sick leave or occupational health and safety precautions. Studies have highlighted ways that platform work, despite being highly flexible, generates specific forms of precarity (Lam & Triandafyllidou, 2021). This is problematic for immigrant populations in particular as the proportion of immigrants engaged in forms of platform-based work is much higher than that of the Canadian-born population (Jeon et al., 2021).

  Issues related to platform and remote work may be experienced differentially by immigrants given their positionality within the labour market (Chowhan et al., 2021). Studies have shown that racialized immigrants in particular had lower job prospects and earnings when compared to non-racialized immigrants in Canada (Lightman & Good Gingrich, 2018; Fitzsimmons et al., 2020). Given the potential high flexibility of gig work with relatively less oversight and regulation, it is of interest to understand how immigrants weave this form of employment into their everyday lives and navigate occupational balance across all things they need, want and are expected to do (e.g., language learning, volunteering) (Backman, 2004; ILO, 202; Wagman & Håkansson, 2019). Further, it is important to understand how workers, and immigrant workers in particular, are framed within discourses on the platform economy given their potential marginalized position within Canadian society generally and gig work more specifically (Lam & Triandafyllidou, 2022).

  1. How is quality of work perceived and defined by migrant (and local) workers engaged in the gig economy? And by digital nomads?
  2. Are there differences among workers in relation to their citizenship and/or migration status, world regions of origin/destination, racialized/ethicized labour?
  3. Are there differences among sectors (platform work requiring physical presence such as ride hailing, delivery, domestic, care, and remote work for platform workers or digital nomads not requiring physical presence) in the workers’ definitions and perceptions of quality of work in the gig economy?
  4. What new concepts are needed to make sense of these new work realities? For instance, the notion of solidity vs. liquidity (as used by Zygmunt Bauman in his work on liquid modernity) or concepts pioneered by Manuel Castells and Anthony Giddens on networked communities and existential (in)security?
  5. How can quality of work be assessed in the atypical employer-labour relations that characterize the gig economy?
  6. Can workplace be completely decoupled from place of residence? And what are the implications for tax, welfare, citizenship/belonging and for migration management?
  7. How can we provide for supports for migrant workers in the platform economy as well as for digital nomads? What kind of work and welfare policies are required?

  The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, bringing together policy analysis, stakeholder interviews, interviews with workers, stakeholder consultations, digital ethnography with the help of LinkedIn. Please note that part of the work on Digital Platform workers has been done as part of the QUAGO project.

  PHASE 1: Months 1-6 (Sep 2023 to Feb 2024)

  • Literature review and analysis of digital nomad visa policies around the world.
  • Literature review and analysis of policies on digital platform workers in Canada and selected countries such as the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Germany.

  PHASE 2: Months 7-14 (Mar 2024 to Oct 2024)

  • Stakeholder interviews on digital nomad visa policies with policy makers and intermediaries arranging for digital nomad paperwork, providing accommodation and co working spaces etc.
  • Stakeholder interviews on digital platforms – with activists, with digital platform representatives, with experts (approx. 25 for each of the two areas)

  PHASE 3: Months 15-24 (Oct 2024 to Sep 2025)

  • We aim at conducting 25 interviews in 4 metropolitan areas (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary) including interviewees with different socio-demographic characteristics (N=100) as regards digital platform workers including both migrants and locals (Canadian-born).
  • Digital ethnography through Linkedin and 75 interviews with digital nomads – 20-25 that are Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents (located abroad), approx. 50 of various nationalities located abroad or in Canada, of which at least 20 from countries with weaker passports.

  PHASE 4: Months 24-30 (Sep 2025 to Mar 2026)

  • Write up of at least 4 papers for peer refereed journals.
  • Drafting of a policy brief on quality of work.
  • Editing of a Special Issue or edited book on these topics.

  PHASE 5: Months 24-36 (Sep 2025 to Aug 2026)– specific to the Digital Platform Workers part of the project

  We will develop the criteria for assessing the quality of work offered by digital platforms based on the Fair Work initiative of five principles: fair pay, conditions, contracts, management and representation. We will tailor these international principles to apply to the Canadian reality, in consultation with workers and other stakeholders (lawyers, unions, experts, provincial and federal authorities including Economic and Social Development Canada (ESDC)). The final product will be an online assessment tool that ranks the different platforms in terms of their practices that will guide both the prospective worker and the prospective customer. The online tool will be accompanied by a Toolkit on how to use it. This phase will also include a social media campaign to spread the word among both (prospective) workers and customers of these platforms.

  At least 4 papers in international peer-refereed journal - by summer 2025

  At least one, possibly 2 policy briefs - by fall 2025

  An online assessment tool for general use - by summer 2026

  A Special Issue or Edited Volume - by spring 2026

  Team members: Anna Triandafyllidou, Suzanne Huot, Laura Lam, Hari KC, Marshia Akbar, Aziz Rahman

  PhD students involved: Nick Dreher, Georgiana Mathurin, Souhail Boutmira.

  Connected to the Platform Pathways project and to the QUAGO project on quality of work.

  The project seeks to understand the work conditions and decision-making processes of migrant workers who are engaged in platform-based work (such as Uber, Lyft or Taskrabbit), with a deeper dive into those in digital care and domestic work platforms. We explore how platform work impacts the labour market integration process for migrants, whether migrants find opportunities for success within this employment structure, or if platform work emerges as a trap to their overall immigration and settlement experience. We also explore how quality of work is interpreted and understood by platform workers. Additionally, we focus on the gendered dimension of platform work as migrant men and women engage in different types of platform-based employment.

  It also relates to research being developed on Digital Nomads at CERC Migration with Hari KC and Nick Dreher.

• TRS2 3.2.2 - Exploring new configurations of work and mobility - Managing occupational balance in platform and remote work

  This project examines texts and discourses related to immigrants’ experiences in the platform economy to better understand how immigrants manage their occupational balance during platform engagement and remote work.

  1. What are the discourses shaping the platform economy?
  2. What contextual factors shape the occupational experiences of immigrant workers within the platform economy?
  3. How does engaging in platform and/or remote work reconfigure traditional borders and boundaries (e.g., between home and work, between nation states) in immigrant’s lives?
  4. In what ways do platform and/or remote workers navigate ‘occupational balance’ among the different revenue-generating occupations they engage in (e.g., balancing traditional jobs with gig work as a ‘side hustle’, along with other life roles and responsibilities, such as parenting, etc.)?

  This project will examine discourses about gig work and explore the experiences of immigrants working in different facets of the platform economy as well as those employed in remote work.

  We will meet the objective of studying the everyday occupational experiences of immigrant platform workers to understand how they perceive and navigate their employment and daily routines when engaged in ‘non-traditional’ forms of work and aim to understand these in relation to contemporary and dominant discourses on gig work.

  We will begin by identifying relevant documents to include in the analysis by searching the websites of dominant platforms in the Canadian gig economy (e.g., Instagram, Uber, DoorDash, TikTok, Fiverr, Upwork, etc.) to select documents and texts, including for example blog posts, community guidelines, reports, and user policy documents. We will also search for governmental and regulatory documents. This search will include documents produced by G7 members as some nations/regions (e.g., United States, European Union) have produced documents on the platform economy that may inform the Canadian context. We will also search for documents produced by relevant bodies such as the International Labour Organization. These selected documents will be analyzed through a critical discourse analysis approach to identify dominant themes and subjectivities constructed through the texts. There is a potential to extend this project to include coverage of the platform economy within Canadian news media (e.g. CBC News, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, National Post) but this would likely be added to the second half of Bridging Divides (2026-onwards) as this would enable us to examine how findings from the current period may be taken up by media in the future as the platform economy continues to evolve.

  We will also conduct interviews with immigrant platform/remote workers from across Canada. The structured approach will enable comparative analysis across the involved sites of data collection (e.g., large urban centres, smaller cities, from a range of provinces). Questions will address participants’ motivations for getting involved in this time of employment, address their experiences of this work in detail, and also consider their perspectives on the future (e.g., what do they anticipate will be the outcomes of this employment strategy). Questions will also move ‘beyond the individual’ (Gerlach et al., 2018) to examine broader contextual factors participants understand as shaping their experiences and will also consider ways that families navigate income generation at a household level. Maximum variation sampling will be used to recruit participants from across the four main types of businesses in the platform economy (CRA, 2021):

  • Gig economy, referring to short-term or short-contract-based work through platforms (e.g., Crowdsource, Upwork).
  • Sharing economy, referring to the type of business that uses personal assets, such as a home or car to earn revenue (e.g., Airbnb, Uber, Doordash).
  • Peer-to-peer, referring to selling goods and services (e.g., crafts, child care) from one person to another through platforms (e.g., Facebook Marketplace, Amazon).
  • Social media or social influencers referring to use of social media platforms to earn income through advertisement revenue, subscriptions, product placement or promotion (e.g., YouTube, Instagram).

  This project will also consider the experiences of immigrants involved in remote work. While they may be employed in a more traditional labour market role, the specificities of remote work may also shape immigrants’ occupational balance in unique ways.

  Timeline

  2023 Oct-Dec

  2024 Jan-Mar

  2024 Apr- Jun

  2024 July-Sept

  2024 Oct-Dec

  2025 Jan-Mar

  2025 Apr- Jun

  2025 July-Sept

  2025 Oct-Dec

  2026 Jan-Mar

  2026 Apr-Jun

  2026 July-Sept

  Ethics & literature review

  X

  X

  Discourse analysis

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  Stage 1 - Interviews

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

  Stage 2 – Arts-based mobilization

  X

  X

  X

  X

  X

   

  • Arts-based mobilization of interview findings (e.g., creation of graphic narratives) (between July 2025-Sept 2026).
  • A full day research event focused on sharing findings and developing recommendations for specific audiences (e.g., immigrant platform/remote workers, employment and settlement service providers, policy makers) (by March 2026).
  • Findings will be published across at least two peer-reviewed articles, one focused on platform work and one focused on remote work (one by Sept 2025 and one by Sept 2026).
  • Findings will be shared at varied disciplinary conferences as the sub-project develops; likely a mix of national and international conferences such as Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities or Metropolis International to share preliminary and ongoing findings (in Spring of 2024, 2025 and 2026).
  • The results will inform subsequent methods to be adopted in a related project during the second half of the Bridging Divides timeline (2026-onward).
  • Coordination will occur with institutions involved in Bridging Divides to facilitate additional knowledge mobilization at the local scale.

  Anna Triandafyllidou

  Aziz Rahman

  Marshia Akbar

  This project is connected to Huot’s SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant (2023-2024). This one-year study is being completed in partnerships with Options Community Services in Metro Vancouver. The study entails conducting interviews with up to 30 immigrants working across various platforms in the gig economy. It also includes up to 12 interviews with key informants, such as employees of settlement and employment agencies who support immigrants’ labour market integration into Canadian society. Data collection for this study is nearing completing and analysis is ongoing. The sub-project funded through Bridging Divides will build upon the findings of this initial, smaller scale study, and expand recruitment to develop more deep and nuanced understandings of the motivations for engaging in gig work, experiences of that work, as well as anticipated outcomes of this work (e.g., social mobility).  

• TRS3 1.1 - Ethnic Diversity and Neighbourhoods

  This project uses census data and other pre-existing data to better understand the dynamics of ethnic diversity in neighbourhoods and how it affects integration and social infrastructure, especially in smaller cities.

• TRS3 1.2 - Welcoming Communities and the role of religion

  This project uses interviews and other qualitative methods to better understand governments’ evaluation of immigrant reception/integration and how faith-based communities aid with migrant integration.

• TRS3 1.3 - Neightbourhood-based community gardens and Food security

  This community-based participatory research project explores how community gardens can be used to support high-risk immigrant groups with good security and mental health.

• TRS3 2.1 - Suburban Placemaking: Ethnic Retailing, Social infrastructure, and Migrant Well-being

  This project uses census data, interviews, case studies, photovoice, and digital storytelling to better understand migrant placemaking outcomes and how infrastructure can improve quality of life for migrants.

• TRS3 2.2 - Indigenous People and Immigration

  The study uses qualitative methods (including key informant interviews) to explore the relationship between Indigenous people and their perspectives on immigration and immigrants.

• TRS3 2.3 - Immigration, Social Infrastructure, and Relationship Formation

  This project examines social infrastructure, relationships (friendship and romantic), and immigrant integration using mixed methods including quantitative analysis, case studies, interviews, storytelling, and longitudinal qualitative research.

  This project takes a whole-of-society approach toward integration to understand the multi-directional processes of relationship and friendship formation. Friendships are at the core of immigrant experiences, and there is more complexity in friendship than in traditional assimilation approaches (Lauer 2023; Lauer & Yan 2021). Deepening our understanding of friendship formation processes will contribute to a complex understanding of social integration.

  Social infrastructure contributes to integration on a local scale through the initiation and maintenance of social relationships (Lauer 2021). This project explores the potential of friendship emerging from participation in social infrastructure. The concept describes the physical places (or the spatial composition of neighbourhoods that guide interactions in a community (Klinenberg 2018; Latham & Layton 2021; Small and Adler 2019). Examples include public spaces like local parks and public markets, commercial establishments such as cafes and restaurants, and community organizations like libraries, churches, and neighbourhood houses. In these places, people come together, often for extended periods while engaged in shared activities. This activity allows for relationships to form and persist. Robust social infrastructure fosters contact, mutual support, and collaboration among friends and neighbours (Klinenberg 2018:5). The concept has roots in the study of public spaces (Jacobs 1961; Whyte 1980; Lofland 1989), local establishments or “third places” (Oldenburg 1989), and community organizations (Chaskin 2001; Small 2009a; Marwell and McQuarrie 2013; Lauer 2021). Social infrastructure builds cross-boundary integration when spaces attract a diversity of people and civility exists that encourages getting along (Lauer 2021, 2022; Anderson 2011; Hiebert 2002). Research on diverse contexts, for instance, has found that community organizations are anchors for making boundary-crossing friendships when they attract diverse participants (Lauer, Wong & Yan 2023; Lauer 2022; Yan & Lauer 2021).

  Mediated social infrastructure describes the formal structuring of interaction in social infrastructure. I have developed this concept by building on the work of organizational embeddedness in sociology (Lauer, Wong, & Yan 2023; Small 2009; Marwell and McQuarrie 2013). Mediated social infrastructure can include a mothers’ group meeting at a local park or a pub quiz at a local bar. It is found across social infrastructure contexts, but the concept draws particular attention to the work of place-based community organizations as producers of social integration.

  The activities, programming, and goals of community organizations are designed by staff and organization leaders. They bring people together into repeated interactions, often for extended periods with a shared focus of attention. Structured interactions like this promote the building of meaningful connections (Feld 1981; Feld & Carter 1998) and resemble what psychologists call situational mechanisms for friendship formation (Fehr 2008). Exploring how community organizations actively structure situational dynamics will provide insights into segregation and integration processes in social infrastructure contexts.

  Community organizations include an institutional dimension made up of formal and informal rules and practices that guide staff's day-to-day practices and the interactional dynamics of members (Marwell and McQuarrie 2013). These institutional dynamics introduce schema and narratives concerning integration that guide what kind of relationships are possible within the social infrastructure context.

  Research Questions

  1. How do mediated processes within social infrastructures contribute to immigrant friendship formation and integration? When do mediated processes contribute to friendships that cross boundaries of language, ethnicity, immigration status, religious differences, age and gender?
  2. Where do mediated social infrastructure processes come from? How do place-based community organizations structure interactions? How do narratives and organizational practices about immigration and integration guide interactions and relationship formation?
  3. How do participants at place-based community organizations tell their own stories of connection and friendship?

  The research design adopts a comparative case study approach informed by community-engaged research practices. It employs mixed methods, including in-depth interviews, digital storytelling, and longitudinal qualitative research.

  Case Studies. The project will examine three distinct types of place-based community organizations – social service agencies, arts and cultural organizations, and leisure sports clubs. Bloemraad et al. (2022) make the case for studying organizations in migration research. Their focus is on immigrant organizations, those with an immigrant-focused mission, with immigrant leaders and with a majority of immigrant participants (see also De Vita, Roeger, and Niedzwiecki 2009; Hung 2007; Cordero-Guzman 2005; Cortes 1998; de Graauw, Bloemraad & Gleeson 2013). Taking a whole-society approach, this project will examine immigrant experiences in organizations outside this definition – those without an immigration-specific mission or newcomer leaders.

  Phase 1 (Sept 2023-Sept 2024): This phase of the project will primarily include the preparation work prior to entering the field and collecting data. This will include, 1) a scoping review of immigrant experiences in organizations without immigration-specific missions and without immigrant leaders, 2) Initial conversations with community organizations about the project and the development of a formal understanding of the collaborative elements of the project, 3) an examination of public and archival materials related to the place-based organizations that are the focus of the project, and 4) an analysis of the General Social Survey Cycle 35 addressing identity, participation, and social networks.

  In-depth Interviews. The project collects in-depth, semi-structured interview data with two sets of key informants. The first set of interviews will be with leaders and staff of the organizations. These interviews will contribute to understanding the mediating practices of the organizations and the schema and narratives about relationship formation that are part of the context. The second set of interviews will be with newcomer participants and members of the organizations with experience of friendship formation and maintenance. Sampling successes, these interviews will explore how participation creates pathways to friendship and how these friendships are practiced in and outside the organization.

  Digital Storytelling. The project will support digital storytelling workshops at each of the organizations. These workshops will address questions of participation and friendship identified by participants and that are explored in the in-depth interviews.

  Phase 2 (Sept 2024-Sept 2026): This phase of the project will primarily include the collection of in-depth interviews and the creation of digital stories. This will include, 1) developing and doing a pilot test of the interview guides, promoting the project and recruiting participants, 2) conducting interviews, 3) translating and transcribing interviews in preparation for analysis, 4) developing a digital storytelling workshop, and 5) implementing the digital storytelling workshop at the participating organizations.

  Qualitative Longitudinal Interviews. The project will adapt longitudinal techniques commonly used in psychological examinations of friendship formation to track newcomer relationship formation over time (Hall 2019; Hays 1984, 1985; Bahns et al. 2017; Saramaki et al. 2014). We will recruit new members at the community organizations, conduct baseline interviews, and track participation and relationship processes over time. Psychologists emphasize quantitative measurements of closeness and time (days, hours) invested in friendships. Sociologists are more likely to use qualitative approaches. Newcombe (1961) classically examined the friendship and network dynamics of university student housemates over one term. Krackhardt (1990) similarly examined social ties among co-workers in the same office space. Most recently, Small (2019) examined the support networks of students over their first year of graduate school.

  Phase 3 (Sept 2025-Sept 2027): This phase of the project will include the collection of longitudinal data. This will include: 1) Recruitment of new members at the community organizations, 2) Conducting baseline interviews with new members, 3) Conducting three follow-up interviews at 6-month, 12-month, and 24-month intervals, 4) translation and transcription of all interviews.

  Phase 1 (Sept 2023-Sept 2024): This phase of the project will primarily include the preparation work prior to entering the field and collecting data. This will include, 1) a scoping review of immigrant experiences in organizations without immigration-specific missions and without immigrant leaders, 2) Initial conversations with community organizations about the project and the development of a formal understanding of the collaborative elements of the project, 3) an examination of public and archival materials related to the place-based organizations that are the focus of the project, and 4) an analysis of the General Social Survey Cycle 35 addressing identity, participation, and social networks.

  Phase 2 (Sept 2024-Sept 2026): This phase of the project will primarily include the collection of in-depth interviews and the creation of digital stories. This will include, 1) developing and doing a pilot test of the interview guides, promoting the project and recruiting participants, 2) conducting interviews, 3) translating and transcribing interviews in preparation for analysis, 4) developing a digital storytelling workshop, and 5) implementing the digital storytelling workshop at the participating organizations.

  Phase 3 (Sept 2025-Sept 2027): This phase of the project will include the collection of longitudinal data. This will include: 1) Recruitment of new members at the community organizations, 2) Conducting baseline interviews with new members, 3) Conducting three follow-up interviews at 6-month, 12-month, and 24-month intervals, 4) translation and transcription of all interviews.

   

  Scoping review submitted/published in a peer-reviewed journal.

  • Scholarly paper based on in-depth interviews submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.
  • Presentations at scholarly conferences in sociology and migration studies.
  • Training of students through research experience and participation in the Infrastructure and Integration (I²) Lab.
  • Research briefs written in lay language for key audiences of importance to community partners such as internal staff and staff and leaders of other community organizations, local municipal and provincial policymakers, civil society funders, and the local public.
  • Knowledge exchange events developed in collaboration with community organizations. Based on past experience, these events are best developed in collaboration with community organizations in order to best meet their goals. Previous examples include a leadership forum targeting specific audiences.
• TRS3 3.1 - Climate Change and Migration

  In response to the global climate change crisis, this project examines Canadian policies and definitions related to climate refugees to better understand how climatic factors affect refugee claims.

• TRS3 4.1 - Housing Market in Digital Twin for What-if? Analysis

  This project examines the connections between migrant housing needs, spatial dynamics, social infrastructure, and housing supply to develop prediction models for housing supply and demand-related behaviours.
  

• TRS3 4.2 - Is Immigration Responsible for the Current Housing Crisis in Canada?

  This mixed-methods project interviews experts and analyzes varieties of data to better understand the relationship between immigration and the Canadian housing crisis with respect to related public rhetoric.

• TRS3 4.3 - The Impact of Home Ownership and Mortgage Policies on Immigrants's Experience of Migration and Integration in Toronto

  This project examines real estate investments and home ownership practices among immigrants and intermediary actors using ethnography, quantitative data, analytical maps, and photographic surveys.

• TRS3 4.4 - Housing for International Students

  This mixed-methods project uses quantitative census data analysis, policy review, interviews, and other methods to interrogate the obstacles and opportunities afforded to Canadian international students within the housing market.

• TRS3 5.1 - Observing Migrants' Usage Patterns of Cyber-Physical Infrastructure

  This project uses preference surveys and other data to develop a deeper understanding of the cyber-physical service infrastructure needs, commercial and social activities, and usage patterns of Canadian migrants.

• TRS3 5.2 - Understanding Migrants' Usage Patterns of Cyber-Physical Infrastructure

  Building off project TRS3 5.1, this project uses descriptive and diagnostic methods to better understand existing usage patterns, needs, and opportunities regarding migrants and urban cyber-infrastructure.

• TRS3 5.3 - Modelling Migrants' Cyber-Physical Infrastructure Usage Behaviour

  Building on projects TRS3 5.1 and TRS3 5.1, this project develops mathematical models of migrant behaviour in terms of their decision-making and supply-demand interactions when using urban infrastructure.

• TRS3 5.4 - Digital Twin for What-if? Analysis

  This project uses multi-agent microsimulation and system dynamics approaches to develop digital twin and visualization tools that can be used for detailed what-if? analysis by decision-makers, planners, researchers, and others.

• TRS3 5.5 - Data-and-Services Platform for Services to Newcomers

  This project will develop a Data-and-Services platform to enable data owners and collectors to advertise their datasets and support potential data users to easily find and assess the usefulness of available data.

• TRS3 6.1 - Federal-provincial/territorial Immigration Agreements

  Uses a mixed-methods approach to study Alberta’s and Ontario’s immigration agreements and municipal budgets/debts to understand what portion of debt can be attributed to the cost of services provided to newcomers.

• TRS3 7.1 - ADT and emerging smart infrastructure pilots

  Multiple pilot projects will be developed to showcase ADT solutions and emerging smart infrastructure technologies in providing on-demand, high-availability services to better analyze adoption patterns, migrant perceptions, and goals accomplished.

• TRS4 1.1 - Citizenship and Belonging in a Globalised and Digitalised World

  This project explores the past ten years of changes affecting physical and virtual migration by reviewing relevant alliteration and seeking analytical and theoretical advancements.

  The 21st century is marked by accelerating technological innovation, intensified economic globalisation and the reshaping of geopolitical relationships. These processes bring about critical technological, economic, and political changes that are closely intertwined with a transformation in social relationships. A common element that permeates this ‘great transformation’ (Polanyi, 2002) of the 21st century is the role of human migration (Castles, 2010; Vertovec, 2021) in its different forms and facets. Today migration is not always nor necessarily spatial or physical, it can also be virtual/digital. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how people can be trapped by closed borders but may also work remotely or connect and mobilise in very different locations as if they were physically present. Beyond the economic implications of remote work, it is pertinent to reflect on how such complex migrations – physical and virtual – influence our sense of identity and belonging as well as our citizenship policies and practices.

  1. How can we analyse and codify these developments from our theoretical perspectives on national identities and nationalism and on national and post-national citizenship? 
  2. What kind of atomised or collective identities will emerge among (transnational) diasporas at destination or ‘digital migrants’ at origin? 
  3. What kinds of claims are made and are they different from the past?  
  4. Do we need to invent new conceptual frameworks and forms of membership?
  5. How are such processes affecting the quality and even the very nature of democracy and democratic and civic participation? 
  6. What is the role of advanced digital technologies in these processes and particularly how do social media and new forms of communicating and connecting affect these processes?
  7. What are the new avenues (e.g., social media, visual arts, digital storytelling) for immigrant agency and community advocacy that will have an impact on policy and societal changes?
  8. How can we challenge the data-driven convention of policymaking and ensure digital justice and a human-centered approach when using ADT to advance our understanding of citizenship and belonging? 

  This sub-thematic area aims to explore the transformations that have been happening in the last 10 years and their impact on physical and virtual migration and the conundrums or contradictions that these create. It will then discuss how theories of nationalism and citizenship including for instance the theories of everyday nationhood (Fox & Miller-Idriss, 2008; Skey, 2009; Skey & Antonsich, 2017) plural vs neo tribal nationalism (Triandafyllidou, 2020), transnational nationalism (Kastoryano, 2018) or multicultural nationalism (Modood, 2019) can inform our thinking of identity, in the Canadian as well as in the global context and from comparative perspectives.

  Research on this topic will be mainly desk research reviewing relevant literature on the following topics, criticising such literature and seeking analytical and theoretical advancements. The below is a proposed list of broad topic allocation. 

  • Citizenship and how it is evolving today: Yasmeen and Phil
  • Nationalism and identity and how it is evolving: Anna
  • Integration and how it is being shaped: Anna, Mireille, Antoine
  • Democracy and citizenship and diversity: Daniel and Vince
  • Contestations of citizenship and belonging: Ethel (and John Carlaw from CERC)
  • Advanced digital technologies and how they affect citizenship: Ebrahim, Anna and Anatoliy (also Alice Massari from CERC)
  • Social media and citizenship/identity: Anatoliy and Anna
  • The role of diasporas and how it is evolving in an increasingly globalised and digitalised world: Yasmeen and Phil. The role of digital arts, digital storytelling, and other visual methods/technologies in immigrant agency and community advocacy: Zhixi

  PHASE 1: Months 1-12 (Sep 2023-Sep 2024)

  Write up of draft papers, a workshop to discuss them, and a Special Issue to be submitted to the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies.

  Completion of the Where We Stand project that is currently underway at CERC migration (Cyrus Sundar Singh, Nicole Lee, and Anna Triandafyllidou). This project uses digital storytelling as a way of approaching the relationship of newcomers and Indigenous peoples to the land – this land – and the land of origin for the newcomer migrants. The Where We Stand project is ongoing and will be completed in March 2024. Following at the heels of this in Phase 2 we will further consider the role of the arts, creative writing and digital storytelling in addressing migrant integration within the context of Truth and Reconciliation.

  PHASE 2: Months 10 to 22 (June 2024-June 2025)

  At a second step Anna in collaboration with Zhixi would commission two types of smaller projects. Using the arts to reflect on the new forms of identity, belonging and citizenship – working with film-makers for digital storytelling, with digital artists and generative AI, and with oral storytellers to generate a digital exhibition that will invite to reflection on new forms of citizenship and belonging in the 21st century. Anna plans to develop this in collaboration with Dr Cyrus Sundar Singh, a TMU graduate and acclaimed film maker who has been working with Anna already for 3 years. Please see also our Future Mig project brief (Appendix 1) – we are applying for a PDG. Zhixi is interested particularly to develop a photovoice/digital storytelling project to underscore experiences of citizenship and belonging in various sized Canadian cities within different socio-economic and geo-political contexts. This can lead to a digital exhibition combined with in-person events.

  PHASE 3: Months 22-30 (June 2025-Feb 2026)

  Bringing together the results of Phase 2 and envisaging that the Special Issue will have been published in 2025, we would use this time to reflect on those results and on taking in the results of other research sub-topics in the Citizenship theme to come up with new research questions and next steps on how to conceptualise citizenship and belonging in the 21st century. This sub-topic would aim to provide the theoretical backbone of the broader Citizenship theme so I expect that there would be new topics and questions emerging from the other sub-topics that would feed into here.

  A workshop with original papers - Spring 2024

  A Special Issue in an international peer-refereed journal - Submission fall 2024, Publication early 2025

  A digital exhibition and possibly also an in-person event of digital and artistic works on the topic - Summer 2025

  A research agenda for next steps - end 2025/early 2026

  Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Phil Triadafilopoulos, Ethel Tungohan, Daniel Rubenson, Antoine Bilodeau, Mireille Paquet, Zhixi Zhuang, John Carlaw, Cyrus Sundar Singh, Alka Kumar

  Includes an upcoming Workshop on the Future of Human Mobility. (If anyone among BD people is interested, you are most welcome to join, please email Anna)

  A Partnership Development Grant: FUTUREMIG – we are submitting with Ebrahim in early November. Dr Alice Massari from CERC is also involved.

  As the future of international mobility remains uncertain, the theory and practice of future studies emerge as a powerful tool to imagine plausible futures and rethink our understanding of human mobility. FUTUREMIG– The Future of Mobility and Migration Partnership aims to imagine the future of migration in a scientific yet imaginative and creative way through a methodologically robust thought experiment based on human and AI-generated foresight. FUTUREMIG brings together 7 research teams with diverse backgrounds in Artificial Intelligence, Future Literacy, Migration and migration governance, and Visual Arts, representing 7 different geographical areas around the world and 4 civil society and arts organisations to enable cutting-edge collaborative future thinking and research. By creating a space for exchange and collaboration among researchers, artists, AI engineers, professionals, and migrants, the project will foster a dynamic community dedicated to understanding and shaping the future of migration. FUTUREMIG will offer opportunities for cutting-edge foresight thinking on international mobility and migration and a critical and self-reflexive comparison of human-based and AI-generated foresight. More specifically, the project has three objectives: 

  • To form an international, transdisciplinary, and cross-sectoral partnership for research on the future of human mobility, including neo-nomadism, migration, refugees, and community displacement. 
  • To apply and test future studies methodologies in academic research. FUTUREMIG will adapt futures studies' toolkits to engage with different stakeholders in academic knowledge production.
  • To test the limits and potential of generative AI in rethinking the future of human mobility. 

  A project on Contestations of Migration and Belonging led by Dr John Carlaw of the CERC (John just received an IDG grant and Ethel Tungohan is also involved)

  The goal of this project is to identify and examine the current state of narratives and politics of migration and belonging in Canada amidst and emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. This period has featured rapidly shifting policies, discourses, and understandings of belonging and who is “essential.” It has also sparked civil society responses to the inequalities and risks experienced by migrants and immigrants. Examining such discourses and approaches is expected to reveal much about the contemporary political migration landscape.

• TRS4 1.2 - Individual and Structural Barriers to Citizenship Acquisition

  This project examines the decline in Canadian citizenship acquisition and its potential connections to the increase in bureaucratic obstacles and inequitable access to naturalization among migrants. 

• TRS4 1.3.1 - Content of Citizenship - Narratives of Citizenship

  Uses a mixed-methods approach to conduct an in-depth analysis of state-sponsored narratives of citizenship that intend to socialize newcomers to Canada into being “good” citizens.

  Citizenship holds meaning that goes beyond mere legal status (the analytical focus of Citizenship Theme 4.1.2 Individual & Structural Barriers to Citizenship Acquisition). It is also the expression of a collective identity, grounded in a shared sense of belonging to a particular national community, and made visible in the iconography of national anthems, flags, currency, and postage stamps. The bounded solidarity of citizenship can be grounded in a shared history, culture, or political values (Brubaker, 2004). It ranges from narratives that are deeply rooted in longstanding cultural and linguistic histories to more recent political adaptations such as Canadian multiculturalism (Kymlicka, 2015).

  The narratives of collective identity at the heart of citizenship’s symbolic dimension are transmitted over the life course through societal institutions such as schools and the military (Weber, 1976).  For new citizens, naturalization ceremonies serve as a means for incorporation into the national community as they pledge allegiance to their adopted country. For these newcomers, cultural orientation and language classes, citizenship study guides and tests, and naturalization ceremonies serve as both formal and informal education mechanisms for the transmission of the narratives and values underlying national identity.

  These depictions of citizenship, however, have to be understood as an ideal type that, for many, is far removed from lived experience. For one, narratives of a shared national identity as a source of belonging and solidarity obscure longstanding dynamics of exclusion that operate along hierarchies of intersecting social group memberships such as gender, race/ethnicity, religions, and class. These axes of stratification produce inequities in both access to citizenship and minorities’ affective sense of belonging (Abu-Laban, 1998; Ellermann, 2020a; Elrick & Winter, 2018; Korteweg & Triadafilopoulos, 2013; Triandafyllidou, 2023). Second, narratives of citizenship don't align seamlessly with historical realities; instead, they often shape a highly selective form of patriotism. In settler states such as Canada, for instance, narratives of national identity remain silent on the nation’s constitution through colonialism (Abu‐Laban, 2020; Coulthard, 2014; Ellermann & O’Heran, 2021; J. Green, 2017).

  This project will provide an in-depth analysis of state-sponsored narratives of citizenship that seek to socialize newcomers into being “good” citizens.

  What are the state-sponsored narratives of Canadian citizenship?

  • What is distinctive about these constructions of Canadian identity, both over time, and as compared to other countries (such as Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States)?
  • What can account for change in conceptions of citizenship and the “good” citizen over time?  Do these narratives change in relation to external trigger events? 
  • Does the ideological orientation of governments influence conceptualizations of “good” citizenship?
  • Do we see significant differences among governments composed of parties of the Left or Right?
  • Are there particular value orientations that emerge and then recede, replaced by others?
  • What, if anything, holds constant over time?
  • How pluralistic are conceptions of citizenship at any given point in time?
  • To what degree is citizenship constructed in a relatively inclusive or exclusive manner?  How are the histories of different groups treated, including in relation to settler colonialism, and in relation to other historic harms (e.g. those relating to war, ideology or migration restrictions)?
  • Do narratives of citizenship confront the nation’s human rights violations? 
  • What is the treatment of Truth & Reconciliation/colonization? Is racism acknowledged?
  • How do newcomers engage with these narratives of citizenship? 
  • How do these narratives shape their understandings of citizenship and sense of belonging?
  • How do governments communicate their narratives of citizenship – from paper booklets, ADTs, social media – and does messaging differ across media?  

   

  • Discourse analysis
  • Community-engaged research
  • Participant observation
  • Interviews
  • Focus groups
  • Photovoice

  Phase 1: September 2023 – September 2024: Literature review | Canadian discourse analysis | Canadian fieldwork planning

  • Literature review.
  • Discourse analysis: For a preliminary list of Canadian text sources (citizenship, cultural orientation, and ESL) to be analyzed, see Appendix 1.  Years covered yet to be determined.
  • Planning for Vancouver and Toronto fieldwork, including development of MOUs with community partners.

   Phase 2: September 2024- August 2025: Canadian fieldwork | Fieldwork data analysis | Comparator case discourse analysis

  • Fieldwork in Vancouver and Toronto community organizations who offer citizenship/ESL/cultural orientation classes (observing in-person and virtual classes, conducting focus groups with participants, conducting individual or group interviews with instructors, follow-up with participants after naturalization).
  • Elite interviews with IRCC officials and staff at Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks.
  • Coding of observational/interview/focus group data.
  • Discourse analysis of documents for comparator case/s (TBD: Germany, UK, US, Australia).

   Phase 3: September 2025 – March 2026: Comparator case fieldwork | Fieldwork data analysis

  • Fieldwork for comparator case/s
  • Paper submission to CMS or TMU Working Paper Series and, subsequently, to peer-reviewed journal (Canadian document analysis findings) (fall 2024).
  • Paper submission to CMS or TMU Working Paper Series and, subsequently, to peer-reviewed journal (Canadian fieldwork findings) (fall 2025).
  • Submission to peer-reviewed journal of an article manuscript based on comparator case fieldwork findings (tentative) (summer 2026),
  • Knowledge mobilization sector events in both Vancouver and Toronto: e.g., 2026 AMSSA BC/Yukon Summit (spring 2026).
  • Knowledge mobilization community events with newcomer participants and partner organizations in Vancouver and Toronto (spring 2026).
  • Publication of one episode of CMS Global Migration Podcast (summer 2026).

  Phil Triadafilopoulos

  Lisa Brunner

  Belonging in Unceded Territory Project (SSHRC PDG, PI Ellermann, 2020-2024)

  As part of this project, we have run 30+ interviews with organizational leaders as well as 14 dialogue circles with newcomers, Canada-born participants, and Indigenous participants to critically explore meanings of belonging on the unceded Indigenous territories that are occupied by the city of Vancouver. The project offers a place-based critique of common understandings of citizenship and belonging that fail to engage with the realities of colonization.

• TRS4 1.3.2 - Content of Citizenship - Naturalization Ceremonies

  Uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the impact of citizenship preparation materials and naturalization ceremonies on new Canadian citizens’ conceptions of their national identity.

  Citizenship holds meaning that goes beyond mere legal status (the analytical focus of Citizenship Theme 4.1.2 Individual & Structural Barriers to Citizenship Acquisition). It is also the expression of a collective identity, grounded in a shared sense of belonging to a particular national community, and made visible in the iconography of national anthems, flags, currency, and postage stamps. The bounded solidarity of citizenship can be grounded in a shared history, culture, or political values (Brubaker, 2004). It ranges from narratives that are deeply rooted in longstanding cultural and linguistic histories to more recent political adaptations such as Canadian multiculturalism (Kymlicka, 2015).

  The narratives of collective identity at the heart of citizenship’s symbolic dimension are transmitted over the life course through societal institutions such as schools and the military (Weber, 1976).  For new citizens, naturalization ceremonies serve as a means for incorporation into the national community as they pledge allegiance to their adopted country. For these newcomers, cultural orientation and language classes, citizenship study guides and tests, and naturalization ceremonies serve as both formal and informal education mechanisms for the transmission of the narratives and values underlying national identity.

  These depictions of citizenship, however, have to be understood as an ideal type that, for many, is far removed from lived experience. For one, narratives of a shared national identity as a source of belonging and solidarity obscure longstanding dynamics of exclusion that operate along hierarchies of intersecting social group memberships such as gender, race/ethnicity, religions, and class. These axes of stratification produce inequities in both access to citizenship and minorities’ affective sense of belonging (Abu-Laban, 1998; Ellermann, 2020a; Elrick & Winter, 2018; Korteweg & Triadafilopoulos, 2013; Triandafyllidou, 2023). Second, narratives of citizenship don't align seamlessly with historical realities; instead, they often shape a highly selective form of patriotism. In settler states such as Canada, for instance, narratives of national identity remain silent on the nation’s constitution through colonialism (Abu‐Laban, 2020; Coulthard, 2014; Ellermann & O’Heran, 2021; J. Green, 2017).

  This project will examine the impact of naturalization ceremonies, including the use of advanced digital technologies (ADT), on new citizens’ conceptions of their adopted national identity.

  1. What is the impact of Canadian naturalization ceremonies on new citizens’ understanding of citizenship and national identity?
  2. What is the affective impact of Canadian naturalization ceremonies? Do they enhance new citizens’ feelings of belonging?
  3. Is there a differential impact depending on whether ceremonies are in person or virtual, if oaths are self-administered or not? If ceremonies include Indigenous elders?
  4. How does this compare with other countries, such as Germany?
  • Survey
  • Interviews
  • Focus groups

  Phase 1: September 2023 – September 2024: Literature review | Building research partnerships| Survey design

  • Literature review.
  • Building research partnerships with IRCC and Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC).
  • Decide on comparator case, build partnerships.
  • Design of survey to be administered to naturalizing individuals, distinguishing between types of ceremonies (in-person, remote, self-administered oath, ICC enhanced ceremonies, including Indigenous elders).
  • Explore with ICC possibility of using Canoe APP (cultural access pass) for additional surveying of permanent residents (connect to Project 1 of the subtheme).

  Phase 2: September 2024- August 2025: Canadian Fieldwork | Data analysis 

  • Field Canadian survey.
  • Data analysis.
  • Elite interviews with citizenship judges, elites charged with developing ceremonies.
  • Interview data analysis.

  Phase 3: September 2025 – March 2026: Comparator case fieldwork | Comparator case analysis

  • Field comparator case survey.
  • Survey data analysis.
  • Elite interviews for comparator case.
  • Interview data analysis.

   

  • Paper submission to CMS or TMU Working Paper Series and, subsequently, to peer-reviewed journal (Canadian case) (fall 2025).
  • Workshop on changing narratives of citizenship in Canada and beyond (spring 2025).
  • Paper submission to CMS or TMU Working Paper Series and, subsequently, to peer-reviewed journal (Comparator case findings, tentative) (summer 2026).
  • Knowledge mobilization sector events in both Vancouver and Toronto: e.g., 2026 AMSSA BC/Yukon Summit (spring 2026).
  • Presentation to IRCC (spring 2026).
  • Publication of one episode of CMS Global Migration Podcast (summer 2026).

  Phil Triadafilopoulos

  Vince Hopkins

  Mireille Paquet

  Lisa Brunner

  Sandra Schinnerl

• TRS4 1.3.3 - Content of Citizenship - Putting Deservingness into Question

  This project draws on legal, psychological, sociological, and political science  perspectives to better understand who is seen as deserving and undeserving to belong in terms of the Canadian refugee adjudication process.

  Most refugee claimants who are denied Canada’s protection are rejected because the adjudicator who heard their claim did not believe them (Evans Cameron 2023). While other pathways to naturalization may remain open to claimants whose claims are denied for other reasons, a finding that they have lied to the Canadian authorities typically shuts every door.

  These credibility rejections rest on the adjudicators’ common-sense assumptions about how people think and act, e.g., what people will remember, how they will respond to danger. Some of these assumptions run contrary to the best available evidence from cognitive psychology (Evans Cameron 2023; Herlihy et al 2010). While the proportion of false rejections caused as a result cannot be quantified, “if decision makers disregard established scientific findings, it seems likely that their conclusions will be neither robust nor reliable” (Herlihy, Turner & Evans Cameron, forthcoming).

  The PRE Project continues the work of evaluating the assumptions that researchers have identified as underlying adjudicators’ deception inferences (n=c.50) (Evans Cameron, Herlihy & Hynie, forthcoming; Skrifvars 2023; Dowd 2018).

  1. When, why, and to what extent are these assumptions challenged by the findings in the relevant social scientific literature?
  2. This project also investigates a new category of inference that has been identified as important in the decisions of other decision-makers (Evans Cameron, Rehaag and Friesen, forthcoming). Are unacknowledged ‘Appearance, Presentation and Demeanour’ inferences motivating Canadian refugee status adjudicators, and if so which ones (Rehaag & Evans Cameron, 2020; Evans Cameron, Rehaag & Friesen, forthcoming)?
  3. The use of social scientific evidence in refugee hearings raises novel and fundamental legal-theoretical questions that refugee law has not addressed. The Project seeks to develop a principled framework for the ethical use of this evidence in this context. What legal principles and norms should inform the use of social scientific evidence in assessing a refugee claimant’s credibility?

  PHASE 1: Months 1-17 (May 2023-Sep 2024)

  In the first days of this project, the team met with the heads of the Canadian Refugee Board and with the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges (IARMJ) and successfully engaged them in working with us on this project.

  Over the coming year, psychology researchers will complete and submit for publication in a ‘law and psychology’ journal the first systematic review of evidence evaluating an assumption identified in the refugee law literature (the assumption of ‘metacognition’ – that people understand and can accurately describe their own mental processes; Evans Cameron, Herlihy & Hynie, forthcoming). 

  An interdisciplinary (psychology/law) team will run a study to gather information about how legal actors who represent claimants at their hearings perceive Canadian adjudicators’ use of 'Off-the-Record' inferences, including the APD inferences identified by Rehaag, Evans Cameron and Friesen. The team will conduct semi-structured interviews with these legal actors (lawyers and consultants). The tech team will develop text analytics tools (e.g. topic models, document clustering techniques) to help with this task, by facilitating organization and access, and possibly by adding meta-data to the interview content. By the fall, the team will submit the findings of this study for publication in a Canadian refugee studies journal (e.g. Refuge).

  In Summer 2024, the team will begin to conduct a case law analysis of judicial responses to 'Appearance, Presentation and Demeanour' findings in the refugee status decisions in Canada and selected international jurisdictions. This article will be submitted for publication in a law journal in Winter 2025. 

  PHASE 2: Months 17 to 29 (Sep 2024-Sep 2025)

  In the second phase, legal researchers will develop the framework that will guide the process of translating social scientific findings into evidence to be used in refugee hearings. In the winter, the legal team will submit the article for publication in an Evidence Law journal.

  In Winter 2025, the team will submit an application for a one-year IDG (SSHRC) to fund the development of the first batch of a series of 'field consensus' papers that uses the newly developed evidence law framework to present the consensus position of psychology experts internationally on specific questions relevant to credibility assessment in refugee hearings.

  In the spring 2025, the team will hold an interdisciplinary workshop to explore the challenges of credibility assessment in the new virtual context. The team will present the data from the study of legal actors’ understandings and the case law analysis. The psychology team will consider the consequences of these findings and the tech team will explore digital solutions for helping claimants to present their evidence over video, overcoming barriers to being seen/understood posed by the digital format. Participants in this workshop will include refugee claimants; legal actors (Refugee Lawyers’ Association, Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, Department of Justice); shelter workers; Canadian evidence, refugee law and ‘non-verbal communication’ scholars; and representatives from the Refugee Board, the UNHCR, the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges.

  PHASE 3: Months 26-41 (Jun 2025-Sep 2026)

  If the team's IDG application is successful, in the Summer and Fall terms, the team will prepare several 'field consensus' papers, including conducting new systematic reviews of selected assumptions. The tech team will use digital technologies to compile databases of the 'field experts' on each topic who we will contact to co-author the papers. Otherwise, the team will prepare a single paper on a selected topic and submit it for publication in the International Journal of Refugee Law. In Winter 2026, the team will seek to present these materials, and this Project, to the members of the IARMJ at the Association’s World Conference in Spring 2026.

  In Summer 2025, the tech team will begin work on a digital platform to disseminate these digests to refugee claimants and their counsel (e.g. website, dynamic dashboard). This platform will be ready to go live by Spring 2026.

  In Fall 2026, the team will submit an IG application to fund the remainder of the Project’s work: the psychology team will continue to evaluate the assumptions that have been identified in the literature (c.50 to date) or in the APD study, and to publish their findings; the interdisciplinary team will use these reviews to produce 'field consensus' papers, using the new evidence law framework; and these papers will be distributed via the Project’s digital platform, and also hopefully be taken up by institutional actors.

  See above

   

  • Meetings with IRB and IARMJ, Spring 2023
  • Data collection ('Off-the-Record Inferences' study), Fall/Winter 2023/24
  • Article ('Metacognition' scoping review) submitted to a ‘law and psychology’ journal, Spring 2024
  • Article (Off-the-Record Inferences) submitted to refugee law journal, Fall 2024
  • Article (legal framework) submitted to evidence law journal, Winter 2025
  • Article (case law analysis) submitted to law journal, Winter 2025
  • IDG application, Winter 2025
  • Workshop (Credibility assessment in virtual hearings), Spring 2025
  • Article or articles (‘field consensus’) submitted to refugee law journal, Summer/Fall 2025
  • Digital platform live, Spring 2026
  • Presentation to IARMJ, Spring 2026
  • IG application, Fall 2026

  Investigating Deception Findings in Canadian Refugee Status Rejections: Legal Inferences and Psychological Assumptions

  Project Lead: Hilary Evans Cameron

  Research team: Jane Herlihy, Michaela Hynie

  Contact: h.evanscameron@torontomu.ca

   

  The Effects of an ‘Appearance, Presentation or Demeanour’ Instruction on Refugee Status Decision-Making and Decision-Writing

  Project Lead: Hilary Evans Cameron

  Research Team: Sean Rehaag, Katrina Friesen

  Contact: h.evanscameron@torontomu.ca

• TRS4 1.3.4 - Content of Citizenship - Building Relations through Storytelling

  "Building Relations through Storytelling” is an Indigenous-led project focused on non-extractive, land-based work rooted in Indigenous epistemologies. The research honors territorial protocols and prioritizes giving back to the community by facilitating the gathering of traditional knowledge to be passed on to future generations. 

  Vancouver is built on the unceded lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. Researchers who are not Indigenous to these lands cannot speak in the name of the territorial nations and do not know what best meets the needs of their communities. Neither can they define what reparations will best facilitate the healing from genocide and colonization, and what steps are necessary for the building of better relations between newcomers, Canadian-born settlers, and the People of this Land. But we know that the sites on which we work and live are on unceded territories. We recognize our responsibility to the People of the Land and the Land and Waters themselves, which manifests itself in our efforts to honour these sites and make space for the revitalization of place-based ancestral knowledge and ways of being.

  "Building Relations through Storytelling” is an Indigenous-led project focused on non-extractive, land-based work rooted in Indigenous epistemologies. The research honors territorial protocols and prioritizes giving back to the community by facilitating the gathering of traditional knowledge to be passed on to future generations.  

  The project is led by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Hereditary Chief Chepximiya Siyam Janice George.

  Chief Janice George will invite all 16 hereditary chiefs of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation to participate in talking circles, where they are invited to share origin stories and reflections on land stewardship. By reclaiming familial chieftainship stories from the land and educating non-Indigenous community members on the importance of being a respectful guest—rather than a settler who perpetuates colonial dynamics—this project supports Sḵwx̱wú7mesh self-determination and aims to foster stronger relationships between newcomers, Canadian-born settlers, and the Squamish Nation.

  This study will culminate in the creation of a docuseries and a children’s book. These resources will empower the Squamish Nation’s hereditary chiefs to share previously less accessible knowledge with current and future generations. The docuseries will be made available not only to the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation but also to settlement and community organizations for use in their programming for newcomers and settlers to support reconciliation. The children’s book is designed for use in the classrooms of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh elementary school and for children and family audiences more broadly.

  The project also includes a three-part weaving workshop for settler participants, facilitated by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh master weavers and Chepximiya Siyam’ Chief Janice George and Skwetsimeltxw Willard ‘Buddy’ Joseph. Participants engage with the traditions of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh weaving and produce their own piece of weaving. During the workshops, Chief Janice George and Elder Buddy Joseph discuss the profound significance of woven robes in ceremonial practices, emphasizing their symbolic importance within Sḵwx̱wú7mesh culture, as well as their place in contemporary First Nations society. They share insights into how weavers draw inspiration from the land, incorporating natural elements and landscapes into their designs. This enriches the participants’ understanding of the deep connections between the weaving techniques they were learning and the broader cultural and spiritual practices of the community.

   

   

  Sḵwx̱wú7mesh hereditary chiefs will be invited to reflect on the following questions:

  1. What are the Squamish Nation families’ traditional leadership stories?
  2. If there was something you wanted children to know in seven generations, what would it be?
  3. How can uninvited guests best show respect and care for the land?

  Indigenous-led, community-engaged research

  Talking circles and oral history

  Arts-based methods

  Documentary film making

   

  Phase 1: Indigenous-led art workshop | spring 2024

               Ethics application | summer 2024

  Phase 2: Fall 2025: Training of Squamish Youth researcher | Recruitment of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Elders | Interviews or talking circles with Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Elders | Transcription

  Phase 3: Spring 2024 | Recruitment of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh illustrator | Docuseries production

  Phase 4: Summer 2025: Book publication | Community celebration | Podcast production

  Phase 5: Fall 2025: Development of research agenda for next steps | Outreach to Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Elders for taking the project to their communities| Exploration of Indigenous-led Augmented Reality Origin Stories tool

  Weaving workshop                                                                                                   Spring   2024

  Publication of children’s book on Squamish Origins Stories

  (at the request of Chepximiya Siyam - Chief Janice George)                                          Spring 2025                           

  Documentary series on project (tentative)                                                                  Summer 2025

  Community celebration                                                                                             Summer 2025

  Journal article                                                                                                          Spring 2026

  CMS Global Migration Podcast episode                                                                        Fall 2025

  Augmented Reality tool (tentative)                                                                            Fall 2026

  This is an Indigenous-led project. Antje will serve as Project Lead for the purpose of project planning, coordination, and administration, with all content development led by the elders.  All BD communication goes via Antje only.

  Chepximiya Siyam’ Janice George (Hereditary Chief of the Squamish Nation) and Sussan Yáñez (Mapuche Cultural Facilitator)

   

  Belonging in Unceded Territory Project (SSHRC PDG, PI Ellermann, 2020-2024)

  As part of this project, we have run 30+ interviews with organizational leaders as well as 14 dialogue circles with newcomers, Canada-born participants, and Indigenous participants to critically explore meanings of belonging on the unceded Indigenous territories that are occupied by the city of Vancouver. The project offers a place-based critique of common understandings of citizenship and belonging that fail to engage with the realities of colonization.

   

  Depending on the success of this project, we would like to offer the same opportunity to elders of the Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations in subsequent years.

• TRS4 2.1.1 - ADT in Immigration Governance - Digital Platform Modernization and Transformation in Canada

  This project will document and analyze the process of development of the Digital Platform Modernization and Transformation project, currently unfolding since 2021 at IRCC.
  
  

   

  Type of deliverables	Calendar
  Presentations: We will present research findings at academic conferences, workshops, and seminars to disseminate knowledge and gather feedback	Spring 2024: Congress-CPSA Spring 2025: ISA
  Open access reports: We will produce open access reports of our findings and disseminate them to stakeholders.	July 2026
  Journal articles: We will produce at least two articles per project to be submitted to a top-ranking migration journal from the results of this project.	3 articles to be submitted between the end of 2024 and the end of 2026

   

   

   

• TRS4 2.1.2 - ADT in Immigration Governance - Settlement Sector Organizations and Advanced Digital Technologies’ Adoption

  This project examines how the rise of ADTs affects the Canadian settlement sector and uses survey research to maximize knowledge transfer activities among Canadian settlement organizations.
  
  

• TRS4 2.1.3 - ADT in Immigration Governance - Data Ethics Protocols for Immigrant Serving Organizations and Newcomer Privacy Protection

  This mixed-methods project aims to examine privacy and data security in the context of ADTs, immigration service organizations, and newcomers in Canada, particularly focusing on medium and large sized cities.

• TRS4 2.1.4 - ADT in Immigration Governance - Advanced Digital Technologies and Immigration Governance in Comparative Perspectives

  This project explores how ADTs have become integral to Canadian immigration politics and uses text-as-data approaches, qualitative content analysis, and process tracing to generate knowledge about how ADTs act as resources for governing immigration.

• TRS4 2.2 - The Digitalization of Immigrant and Refugee Service Provision: Impact on (Im)migrants and Refugees and in Relation to Broader Integration Processes

  This project analyzes how ADTs affect contact between immigrants and the settled population and its mainstream institutions, and also compares the effects of ADT-based contacts with “traditional” types of contacts.

• TRS4 2.3.1 - Advanced Digital Technologies and Temporary Migration Decisions

  This project documents the producers of ADT-based information targeting temporary migrants and considers how ADT-based information has affected strategic decisions about immigration in Canada.

• TRS4 2.3.2 - The Role of ADTs in Mediating Migration Decisions and Their Impact on Expectations about Life in canada - ADT and migration industries in Canada

  This project uses interviews, online ethnography, qualitative and quantitative analysis to generate new empirical data on immigration decision-making processes for new immigrants in Canada and develop new theories of immigration decision-making.

• TRS4 2.3.3 - The Role of ADTs in Mediating Migration Decisions and Their Impact on Expectations about Life in canada - Learning in the Wild Behaviours: Migrants Seeking Information Through Social Media

  This project uses surveys, experiments, interviews, and social media analysis to explore how newcomers engage with different types of social media platforms performing information retrieval search and connective learning.

  1. How are ADTs used by the different actors encompassing Canada’s migration industry to promote it as a destination?
  2. How is information distributed using ADTs by aspiring and current immigrants in Canada to make migration decisions?
  3. How is Canada and immigration to Canada represented in the content diffused through official and non-official ADT-based media?
  4. Do prospective migrants actively use ADTs and particularly social media to find information, connect and support their migration project?

   

  The study will use a mixed-methods approach. We will use:

  1. Semi-structured surveys
  2. Interviews with policy makers, staff at nonprofit organizations and newcomers to Canada
  3. Publicly available posts and metadata from social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, YouTube, and Telegram

   

  PHASE 1 (Literature Review and Project Planning): Months 1-6 (Sep 2023 to Feb 2024)

  1. We will conduct a literature review that will survey completed studies on migration, information search and social media usage.
  2. We will also conduct a methodological survey that identifies gaps in existing methodologies to study migrants, how well placed is social media data to studying information search behaviors among migrants and develop new ways to utilize social media data to understand information search among migrants.
  3. Develop novel methods (i.e., online experiments) to better understand how migrants process vital migration and settlement information online.
  4. We will develop the survey and interview instruments, research ethics review.

  PHASE 2 (Data Collection): Months 7-12 (Mar 2024 to Aug 2024)

  1. We will conduct 5 interviews with staff working at internet regulatory bodies across Canada on policies and protection of migrants online (including social media content).
  2. We will conduct 25 interviews with nonprofit organizations located across Canada that provide information to migrants online and offline, but also have an objective of protecting their online privacy and security.
  3. We will conduct 1,000+ semi-structured surveys, online experiments and 75 interviews with migrants regarding their usage of social media platforms, how they use the platforms, what information they search for, barriers they might face, and how useful is the information.
  4. We will collect data from social media platforms (i.e., X (formerly Twitter), Reddit and YouTube) on migration-related topics discussed online to understand salient issues and key contributors behind such content.

  PHASE 3 (Data Analysis): Months 13-18 (Sep 2024 to Feb 2025)

  1. Since the data that is collected in this project comes from different sources, including online experiments and social media platforms, it is important that the methods we employ to analyze this data uncover important patterns.
  2. The online experiments will be conducted alongside the semi-structured interviews which will capture important demographic, migration and online usage information, but also randomize actual social media posts to identify how migrants (compared to non-migrants) process true/false information, the context of posts and interactions with posts. Analyzing experimental data will follow best practices from past research on randomized and partially controlled settings.
  3. Big data that is collected from social media platforms, that includes textual posts and metadata, but might include rich media formats such as audio, images, gifs and videos, cannot be analyzed using traditional methods. We will adopt machine learning techniques to process the large volume of data.

  PHASE 4 (Writing): Months 19-24 (Mar 2025 to Aug 2025)

  1. Prepare 4+ papers for peer refereed journals.
  2. Prepare a special issue.

  PHASE 5 (Knowledge Mobilization): Months 25-36 (Sep 2025 to Aug 2026)

  1. Organize a workshop with academics, staff at nonprofit organizations, internet regulatory bodies and government to share findings, discuss issues and develop recommendations.
  2. Prepare a policy brief with recommendations for how to improve protections for online migrants.
  1. A workshop with original papers Fall 2024
  2. A Special Issue in an international peer-refereed journal Submission end 2024
  3. Publication late 2025
  4. A research agenda for next steps end 2025/early 2026

   

  1. Anatoliy Gruzd
  2. Anna Triandafyllidou
  3. Mireille Paquet
  4. Usha George
  5. Phil Triadafilopoulos
  6. Marshia Akbar
  7. Ashika Niraula

  The Virtual Bridge Project: Delivering Settlement Services Through Social Media
  Social media use is widespread around the world, and that includes use by individuals who are in the process of migrating to a new country. Research shows that as many as 80% of immigrants to Canada as well as Canadian born use social media. Further, the Service Provider Organizations (SPOs) that help newcomers settle in Canada believe social media could improve how they connect with, and support, newcomers. Despite this alignment in principle, only 7% of services of SPOs are delivered digitally. This research project aims to analyze the potential for Service Provider Organizations (SPOs) to deliver settlement services through social media channels and applications, and to equip SPOs with the knowledge and capabilities that will enable them to increase their digital support to newcomers.

  Project 1: Advanced Digital Technologies and Temporary Migration Decisions

  A growing number of individuals are admitted to Canada through temporary permits, especially as workers and students. This heterogeneous population experiences a different information environment than Canada’s traditional “ideal” permanent economic migrants and face unique challenges to access correct information on opportunities, program rules and life in Canada. This sub-stream will document the producers of ADT-based information targeting these migrants, the content of that information and consider, in two cases, how ADT-based information has affected strategic decisions about immigration in Canada.

  We will target three important countries of origin in South and Southeast Asia: the region of Kerala in southern India, Nepal, and the Philippines. All three are among the top 10 countries/regions of origin of both permanent residents and international students for Canada.

  We will work in partnership with the Institute for Migration and Development (IIMAD) in the region of Kerala, Kathmandu University or the Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility (CESLAM) (to be confirmed) and one partner (to be confirmed) in the Philippines, as well as through interviews with temporary migrants in the GTA region of Canada.

  This project will rely on interviews with temporary migrants in Canada, qualitative and quantitative content analysis of digital platforms such as Facebook, You Tube, WhatsApp, Instagram and WeChat and on the implementation of a survey of aspiring and established migrants in Canada.

  Project 2: ADT and migration industries in Canada

  The government of Canada and a growing number of non-governmental actors are involved in promoting Canada as a destination for temporary and permanent settlement. This includes professional recruiters, mobility agencies, lawyers, public and private employers as well as universities. In the past, much of this work was done through in-person activities such as fairs and recruitment events and using print or traditional media. This project will document how ADTs shape the organization of Canada’s migration industry, how the actors involved in promotion use ADTs, and how their work produces different representations of life in Canada for aspiring migrants. This project will use interviewers, online ethnography and qualitative and quantitative content analysis.

  Project 3: Learning in the Wild Behaviours: Migrants Seeking Information Through Social Media

  Digital technologies and social media play a vital role in helping migrants to connect based on shared interests, common identities and beliefs, and cultural affinities with greater ease than ever before. From the rise of language training videos to app usage among refugee networks, to the growing visibility of online diaspora communities, we can see that migration processes are being shaped by the internet at various stages of a migrant’s journey.

  There are many ways that migrants learn socially in an online setting. They are learning through interactions (i.e., connective learning) with other newcomers or those who are more established in Canada. They might also learn by observing others’ interactions online (Haythornthwaite, 2019). In the case of pre-arrival newcomers, potential applicants, or refugee and asylum seekers on the move, they are physically disconnected from information sources or have few opportunities to search for reliable information about life in Canada, employment, routes or immigration processes.  In these cases, learning from online connections and communities is an accessible way to find personalized information.

  Even the process of searching for information is a form of learning. By searching, migrants learn about their own search processes, refine their search skills, or develop new search habits (Marchionini, 2018). As search technology advances (such as advances in search engines, in web indexing, and in search querying) each iteration of search querying and information retrieval becomes narrower and instantaneous. Which also narrows the time between search and learning for migrants that are seeking time sensitive and personalized information to their unique situations.    

  Newcomers to Canada use social media as much as Canadian-born but in different ways (Monteiro, 2022). Newcomers tend to prioritize information about government services, share with family and friends, follow current events, and connect with ethnic, religious or professional communities. But seeking job market and education information are just as important and impactful. They might use ‘traditional’ social media like Facebook for instance to both find information about settlement service providers and connect with family and friends whom they already have a close relationship with. Similarly, they might use X (formerly Twitter) to search/ask for information from  Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s official handle (Gintova, 2019), or to participate in conversations about home country politics (Chekirova, 2022; Kozachenko, 2021; Mercea, 2018). LinkedIn is being used by migrants to connect with professional communities and seek job or learning opportunities. And, Reddit is being used to search for personalized information and advice from a community of newcomers with concerns, and established immigrants who have had similar experiences as them.

  The landscape of social media is fast evolving and so is the use of social media by newcomers.This project aims to explore the ways in which newcomers engage with different types of social media platforms performing information retrieval search and connective learning.

  The research questions this project will ask are as follows:

  1. What are the features or factors that shape migrants’ usage of different types of social media platforms for seeking information or building networks (e.g. gender, ethnicity, language, age, location of settlement, etc.)
  2. What is the connection between in person and online seeking of information and networking? Which one comes first and what is the interaction between the two?
  3. What types of information are migrants seeking and learning from online connections and communities?
  4. What are the main concerns of newcomers when using social media?
• TRS4 3.1.1 - Dominant and Alternative Narratives on Immigration in Canada - Migration Narratives and Counter-Narratives in the Social Media Sphere

  This project focuses on analyzing observed data from social media to better determine the factors affecting virality of dis/misinformation content related to global human mobility.

  Under this theme, we will focus on the analysis of observed data from social media (digital trace data). We will select popular platforms that offer automated means (such as APIs or Facebook’s CrowdTangle platform) to access publicly available comments in a systematic way. Analyzing multiple platforms will allow us to study diverse public groups, community structures, and platforms. To account for users’ privacy expectations, the data collection and analysis will be guided by the Social Media Data Stewardship framework developed as part of Gruzd’s Canada Research Chair initiative and social media privacy research, Tri-Council Policy on Ethical Conduct, the Association of Internet Researchers’ Internet Research Ethical Guidelines and the Ethics Board requirements at the participating institutions.

  1. What types of migration-related narratives are shared on different social media platforms?
  2. What is the prevalence and impact of online hate speech and discrimination targeting migrants and refugees? What strategies are employed by individuals and communities to counteract such discourse on social media?
  3. How does information and misinformation related to immigration spread through various online networks? What is their potential impact on public perception and policy debates?
  4. How are social media platforms used by different interest groups to influence policy debates around immigration?
  5. How do immigrants use social media to build connections between their home and host cultures and express their identities?

  We plan to identify several relevant case studies. Once each case study is identified and digital trace data is collected, we will use the Social Network Analysis (SNA) to assess how populism, hate speech, and/or (dis-)misinformation content travel across various accounts and platforms on social media. We will use this analysis to determine the impact of the social network structures, communication patterns and platform affordances on the speed and reach of the content in question. SNA is a leading method for studying online social interactions at the group level (see, for example, Del Valle et al., 2020; Gruzd, 2009; Gruzd & Haythornthwaite, 2013; Gruzd & Hodson, 2021; Gruzd & Rehberg Sedo, 2012). SNA focuses on the way individual behaviour is defined in relation to actions by others and is an effective mechanism for studying collaborative and non-collaborative processes in online communities, such as shared knowledge construction, information sharing, influence, and support (Gruzd & Wellman, 2014). In a social network, there are nodes that represent group members and ties that connect people by means of various relations. In our case, these relations will represent communication patterns (who replies to whom); for example, Twitter users may be viewed as nodes, and the messages shared between them are ties. Rather than focusing on friendship networks, we rely on communication networks to reveal exchanges among online participants regardless of whether they know each other.

  • PHASE 1 (Literature Review and Project Planning): Months 1-6 (Sep 2023 to Feb 2024)
  • PHASE 2 (Data Collection): Months 7-12 (Mar 2024 to Aug 2024)
  • PHASE 3 (Data Analysis): Months 13-18 (Sep 2024 to Feb 2025)
  • PHASE 4 (Writing): Months 19-24 (Mar 2025 to Aug 2025);
  • PHASE 5 (Knowledge Mobilization): Months 25-36 (Sep 2025 to Aug 2026); The goal is to produce a public report and organize a series of public engagement events with academics, nonprofit organizations, internet regulatory bodies, social media platforms, and policy makers to share findings, discuss issues and develop recommendations.
  • Submit 2+ papers for peer refereed journals and conferences (2024-2026)
  • Produce 2-3 public reports, each focusing on different aspects of this research area (e.g., misinformation, socialization, agenda settings, etc.) (2024-2026)
  • Organize a digital methods workshop for other scholars in the area (2024)
  • Develop a research agenda for next steps (2026)

  Yasmeen Abu Laban, Stein Monteiro, Ashika Niraula

• TRS4 3.1.2 - Dominant and Alternative Narratives on Immigration in Canada - Narratives of Racism and Anti-Racism Mobilization

  This project seeks to understand how anti-immigration discourses take place in a pro-immigration political context by conducting discourse analysis and in-person qualitative research techniques.

  The foundations of the settler-colonial Canadian state rest on racial exclusion. Racial exclusion can be witnessed through immigration programs that have historically preferred the entry of European settlers over those of migrants from ‘non-preferred’ countries (Triadafilopoulos, 2012). Such racial exclusions can be seen through policies that explicitly limit the entry and the presence of racial communities in the country (e.g., the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Komagata Maru incident) and that treat racialized Canadian citizens as “internal foreigners” during times of duress (e.g., the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War) (Dhamoon & Abu-Laban, 2009). Yet, racial exclusion also operates in covert ways. Racial inequities can emerge from discretionary policy decisions made by bureaucrats (Banting & Thompson, 2021), whose ideas of “liberal universalism” when making policy decisions end up creating racial inequities. For example, when deciding on immigration admissions, bureaucrats whose judgments regarding the economic admissibility of immigrants are measured through criteria such as educational attainment, work ethic and skills which inadvertently become proxies for racial assimilability (Elrick, 2021)(see also (Li, 2001). Scholars have also noted that even though race is no longer used as a formal criterion for admission in Canada, “racialized forms of differential exclusion” persist within immigration programs like International Mobility Programs (Vosko, 2022). 

  The interplay between more blatant forms of racism and hate in Canada, and more hidden manifestations, thus merits further study.  The paradoxes of having 96% of white and non-white Canadians believing that “racism is terrible” on the one hand, and 65% of non-white Canadians experiencing racism on the other, need to be contextualized, particularly in a polarized political environment where xenophobic, anti-immigrant rhetoric has increasingly become pervasive. Online hate speech targeting racial communities, for instance, has become commonplace (IPSOS 2021), as are rising reports of targeted hate crimes against specific racialized groups, including Black, Indigenous, Asian, and Muslim communities, which seems to have escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic (Triadafilopoulos & Rasheed, 2020; Tungohan & Catungal, 2022). Such hate speech, fueled in part by populist political rhetoric that were espoused by Conservative and neo-Conservative political parties in Canada, amplified visible minorities feelings of racialized exclusion in the country (Carlaw, 2020; Kwak, 2020). In response, social justice organizations led counter-mobilization efforts that seek recognition of everyday and institutional experiences of racism, but also the amelioration (if not the outright abolition) of economic, political and social structures and practices (e.g., bordering and detention policies, policing) that contribute towards their marginalization.

  The questions that we seek to investigate fall under the larger context of how anti-immigration discourses take place in a pro-immigration political context. We are keen to explore contemporary anti-immigrant narratives and ask where and how opponents of Canadian immigration policy mobilize in an institutional context marked by a strong pro-immigration consensus among major political parties. This line of research builds on previous and ongoing work on Canadian exceptionalism in immigration politics, which demonstrates that, for the most part, major Canadian political parties (LPC, CPC, NDP) agree on the maintenance of an expansive immigration policy and opt to not politicize immigration policy in parliamentary debates and during elections. There is also broad agreement on the need to strictly control irregular migration, including asylum flows, and this issue does, at times, generate greater political salience. For the most part, however, Canada’s major political parties maintain agreement on immigration and do not politicize overall levels of immigration, immigration programs, or policies directed toward settlement and integration. 

   

  Research Questions

  1. Given the absence of anti-immigration discourse in official, parliamentary politics, where is opposition to immigration and immigrants expressed?
  2. Is there a “racial subtext in Canada’s immigration discourses,” (Li, 2001) when immigration-related policies are discussed in Canadian parliamentary debates, by major political party leaders, and by ministerial decision-makers?
  3. To what degree do Canadian anti-immigration narratives resemble and borrow from those in other countries?
  4. To what degree is there coordination, via advanced digital technologies (ADTs), among anti-immigration advocates across borders?
  5. What types of counter-mobilization efforts exist fighting against racist, anti-immigration rhetoric?
  6. What coalitions have been forged across different movements to counter these discourses?

  There are three interrelated components to our proposed research. First, we will provide a critical discourse analysis of possible racial subtexts in Canadian parliamentary discussions on immigration, federal party platforms and party leaders’ speeches, and press releases to understand whether and how race is understood vis-á-vis immigration policies. Although at the surface, Canadian policymakers are ‘pro-immigration,’ studies have shown that certain types of immigrants are preferred. Crudely put, diversity is celebrated, but only certain kinds of diversity (Abu-Laban et al., 2023; Tungohan & Careless, 2023). By focusing on the types of racial subtexts found in discourses, our project will show how race and belonging is understood with the Canadian nation-state.

  
  Second, we will assess the pervasiveness of anti-immigration narratives in online fora, including but not limited to social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, etc.).  We plan to systematically analyze anti-immigration discourse in the forums to determine the degree of coordination and organization among online, anti-immigration actors and groups. We also seek to chart the range of such opinions, which we presume range from relatively sober comments about numbers and program preferences to out-and-out xenophobic hatred and racism. Given the growing intersection of debates in the media and online regarding the role of immigration in Canada’s housing and healthcare crises, we will also probe the degree to which immigration is being blamed for these and other policy failures. In addition, we plan to systematically analyze counter-discourses promoted by social justice, anti-racist and pro-immigration movements to see the prevalence of such sentiments and whether and how these ideas gain traction between various ‘progressive’ movements. There are a range of various methods we can use to support data collection, ranging from desk research involving content analysis of social media sites, virtual ethnography, network analysis and digital multimodal walkthrough methods (Stewart et al., 2023).

   

  Third, we will conduct in-person qualitative research using ethnography or, if immersion proves to be too challenging, participant observation, one-on-one interviews, and focus groups. We will explore if, when, and how anti-immigration actors and their anti-racist, pro-immigration counterparts organize. For example, we anticipate attending anti-immigration rallies or meetings and talk to people there or interview candidates from the People’s Party of Canada to determine the degree to which anti-immigration sentiment was a force in the party (and not just a reflection of its leader, Maxime Bernier’s, personal views). We also anticipate attending rallies and events held by organizations such as “No One is Illegal”, the “Migrant Workers Alliance for Change,” and the annual International Migrants Day rally to understand activist counter-mobilizations. In other words, the research could combine desk work dedicated to analyzing anti-immigrant discourse online and fieldwork (interviews, ethnography, possibly even focus groups). In many countries, anti-immigrant rallies and meetings generate counter mobilizations; it would be interesting to see whether that is true in Canada as well.

  Phase One (Months 1-12, Sept 2023-Sept 2024)

  Phase One will involve desk research on current and up-to-date academic work on these topics, looking also at similar research being undertaken in other countries. This time will also be spent understanding the most efficient and the safest approach to undertaking research on anti-immigration actors, given the sensitivities of the topic. We will explore the viability of different online modes of data collection. By Spring 2024, we hope to convene a workshop with researchers sharing the results of their studies on anti-immigrant, extremist groups, with part of the workshop discussing best practices for conducting such work.

   

  Phase One will also involve creating a database of parliamentary discussions on immigration, federal party platforms and party leaders’ speeches, and press releases to understand possible racial subtext. We will hire an RA to start compiling these documents, starting from 2014 (right after the current Liberal government was elected) and continuing until the present.

   

  Phase Two (Months 10 to 22, June 2024-June 2025)

  Phase Two will involve data collection. At this point, we would have finalized our desk research, and will be commencing our one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. At the end of 2025, we hope to begin coding, analyzing, and compiling our results on the ‘critical discourse analysis’ component of our work. In partnership with migrant justice organizations, we will have a community event disclosing the results of our research on racial subtexts in immigration policymaking, using this event as an opportunity to be in dialogue with community members with advocacy projects geared towards anti-racist work. We will, at the end of 2025, publish two peer-reviewed journal articles on phase one of our work.

   

  Phase Three (Months 22-30, June 2025-February 2026)

  Phase Three will bring together the results of all three interrelated components of our program. We will use this time to reflect on the larger question of whether and how race is understood in similar and in different ways in the present political era, and link this to the broader themes of citizenship and belonging. We will be submitting articles on the results of parts two and three of our project to journals such as Ethnic and Racial Studies, Citizenship Studies, and International Migration Review.

  Expected Outcomes

  A workshop on research on anti-immigrant, right-wing extremism   Spring 2024

  Community event on results of ‘racial subtexts’ research                 Winter 2025

  Paper on ‘racial subtext’ research                                                  Submission Fall 2024

                                                                                                    Publication Spring 2025

  Papers on parts 2 and 3 of project                                                 Submission Summer 2025

                                                                                                    Publication Winter 2026

  John Carlaw, Phil Triadafilopoulos

  This project is connected to, “Contemporary Paradoxes and Struggles of Migration and Belonging in Canada,” a SSHRC Insight Development Grant (John Carlaw, PI, Ethel Tungohan, Co-I) based at CERC that aims to “develop new knowledge concerning the state of Canada’s battleground of migration and belonging.” The project outline is given under Theme 4.1.1

• TRS4 3.2 - The Role of ADTS in Driving Polarization in Liberal Democracies - How do migrants acquire party attachments?

  This study develops experimental designs to measure if newcomers to Canada acquire a sense of party identification after exposure to political parties’ communication to determine the most influential types of information and information technology.

  Decades of political science research have demonstrated that an individual’s immediate social milieu, in particular their family, has a profound impact on their party identification (Brader et al., 2013; Campbell et al., 1980; Green et al., 2002; Huddy et al., 2015; Hyman, 1959). Party identification in turn is one of the most important aspects of political socialization and integration into the political system. However, it is clear that migrants and other recent newcomers to a political system do not pick up party identification by the time they enter the electorate–this goes both for young people aging into politics and migrants who have recently arrived to a new system (Dalton & Wattenberg, 2000). Although party identification is among the most widely studied topics in public opinion research, to date, researchers have not attempted to integrate the many existing theories of partisan formation into a systematic experimental research program investigating how partisan attitudes develop in the wake of different political messages–this lack of research is even more evident in studies of party identification among new citizens, migrants, and ethnic minorities.

   

  Guided by leading theories of party identification, this study will develop experimental designs to measure if newcomers to Canada acquire a sense of party identification as a result of exposure to information and persuasive messages about different parties. These messages will be developed and presented in a randomized panel survey experiment in Canada, which will track respondents over time in order to gauge the immediate and persistent effects of message content. We will work with media consultants to put together messages using real content from parties in Canada. In all these cases, 

  individuals will acquire verified information about Canadian political parties, information that may convince them to support one party over others. 

   

  The objective is to determine what types of information and what kinds of information technology are most influential. The literature has proposed several such types: information about how the parties have performed in office (Fiorina, 1981; MacKuen et al., 1989), where they stand on policy issues (Carsey & Layman, 2006; Franklin & Jackson, 1983; Jackson, 1975), which kinds of social groups tend to side with one party or another  (Green et al., 2002; Lenz, 2012; Sevi, 2021), and the attributes of leaders (Bittner, 2011; Broockman & Butler, 2017; Dewan et al., 2014; Garzia, 2014; Harris, 1954; Hayes & McAllister, 1997). Our research project aims to address the causal effect of messages inspired by these theories, thereby shedding light on which theories of partisan formation are more powerful in explaining the acquisition of party identity among newly arrived individuals. In so doing, we advance the long-standing debate about how individuals form partisan identification by proposing a new methodological approach combining experiments with panel data.

  See above.

  We build on existing research on party acquisition but depart from their design by adopting an experimental approach. We propose to study how and why newcomers in general and young ethnic minorities, in particular, in Canada form party attachments. We will implement an internet panel survey, with 3 waves of interviews. We will recruit individuals from Canada who are pre-screened to be unaligned with any party and are recently arrived immigrants. In wave 1, subjects will be asked general questions about their interest in politics, evaluations of the political leaders and their sociodemographic characteristics. In wave 2, respondents will be randomly assigned to one of the treatment groups using a “zoom laboratory” or in person lab; after exposing participants to randomly assigned information (and modes of information delivery) about the parties, we will measure whether they acquired a party identification, the outcome variable. Finally, in wave 3, we will measure the outcome a second time. There will be sufficient time between each wave to wash out priming or anchoring effects. Most existing lab and survey experiments measure the outcomes immediately after the stimuli. We believe it is important to track participants over time to examine if the effects endure (Chong & Druckman, 2010).

  Existing hypotheses on party identity acquisition–providing information about the parties’ issue stances, their record of performance in office, profiling party leaders or their supporters’ background, or leader characteristics–provide an opportunity to vary the message, messengers, and the frequency with which these messages are communicated. In addition, we will randomize the mode by which these messages are delivered to study if certain types of information technology have particular effects. In principle, doing so will allow us to manipulate the script, images, messengers, and mode.

  To summarize, we know that party identification is a powerful orientation and is very stable in adulthood, but there is almost no experimental work on how newcomers to a political system acquire party identity. Our research differs from existing studies, which rely exclusively on observational data. Although these studies have shown correlations over time and between respondents between partisan change and evaluations of party performance, platforms, personae, and social imagery, they fall short of establishing a causal relationship. By randomly assigning messages, we eliminate the possibility of spurious correlations due to reverse causality or omitted variables.

  • Year 1: We have hired three graduate students to work with us for this year. They are assisting in applying for ethics and in collecting all party platforms in Canada (going back to 1945) in digital formats. Going forward, they will assist with consultations with NGOs and political parties, in order for us to design our treatments and pilot our study. This will consist of doing research on parties’ issue stances, their record of performance in office, profiles of party leaders and their supporters’ background, and creating professional videos.
  • Year 2 we will implement the experiments, collect, and analyze the data for Wave 1 and Wave 2. This will be the full launch of our study.
  • Year 3 we will collect and analyze the data for Wave 3. We will write up the results and submit them for publication.

  Our main academic outputs will be articles in top political science journals. Our model and analyses will be highly relevant for vast scholarly literatures on party politics, voter behaviour and representation. It will also be of interest to political parties and the lay public. Parties are a key component to the democratic process. We know from existing literature that non-partisans are less likely to participate in elections and that there is a recent decline in party membership and attachment. This decline is most pronounced among young voters and young ethnic minorities, who are also underrepresented in legislatures. Our findings may provide parties with actionable steps they can take to build attachment among newly eligible voters. Ascertaining the independent impact of different types of information will not only advance the academic literature, but it will have practical implications to develop campaigns to mobilize voters and integrate newcomers politically, as party identification is an important source of political engagement.

  We anticipate presenting research at conferences beginning in 2025 and continuing steadily after that. After vetting our papers at academic conferences, we will submit them for publication in leading political science journals. Likely venues include the Canadian Journal of Political Science, the American Journal of Political Science, the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics and Political Psychology. We anticipate submitting our work in late 2025 and our initial plans include 2-3 journal articles.

  Daniel Rubenson, Vince Hopkins, Phil Triadafilopoulos

  This project is related to–and an extension of–an ongoing set of studies on partisanship among young Canadians, being developed by Rubenson, Sevi and Green. There is a SSHRC Insight Grant application going in for this. The project is also related to Rubenson’s ongoing involvement in the Canadian Election StudyCanadian Election Study (CES) and the Consortium and Electoral DemocracyConsortium and Electoral Democracy (C-Dem), both of which he is co-PI of. The ongoing CES data collection, not only during federal election campaigns but also the between election “Democracy Checkup” surveys and the various provincial election studies provide opportunities for leveraging survey sample for this study.

• TRS4 4.1 - Observatory on Immigration and Immigration Discourse (acronym: IDIO)

  This project develops a collaborative Observatory that studies immigration discourse (found in government documents, news reports, social media posts, and other immigration-related documents) in a real-time environment using AI methods.

• TRS4 4.2 - Training in software Voyant

  This project aims to identify the training needs of UofA Bridging Divies staff and develop/offer online workshops regarding Voyant Tools - a text analysis and visualization environment that can study unstructured discourse.