A major objective: Fix what the Canadian government sees as a growing economic chasm between locals and many of the immigrants that Canada’s old applicant-screening system selected—a chasm it worries could spark the sort of immigration-related social tension that has flared in other developed countries.

Canada accepts more immigrants per capita than any of the Group of Seven most-advanced economies. The country, which has officially embraced multiculturalism for decades, won mostly praise for how it selects newcomers, particularly through a points system that tries to evaluate an applicant’s ability to thrive economically.

But since the 1970s, pay among new arrivals has increasingly fallen further behind pay of locals. And some Canadians question whether immigrants are integrating well enough into Canadian society.

“I don’t think we can take for granted our relative success in integration,” Jason Kenney, Canada’s immigration minister until July, who oversaw the reforms, said in a March interview. Now minister of employment and social development and minister of multiculturalism, Mr. Kenney through a spokeswoman confirmed his earlier comments but referred further questions to his former department.

The August newcomers were the first under measures that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government deployed in May aimed at attracting immigrants with certain trade skills. The measures also included the revamped points system at the center of the wide-ranging series of changes the government has enacted or pushed through Parliament since mid-2010.

Canada’s new points system places greater emphasis on an immigrant’s fluency in the nation’s two official languages. It weighs how closely applicants’ qualifications match Canadian credentials, whether they have employment arranged in Canada and, in the case of the August arrivals, if they have specific skills in demand, such as plumbing. The system also gauges so-called adaptability: factors such as time spent previously in Canada.

Critics have accused Mr. Harper’s Conservative Party of tilting policy back to benefit European nationalities such as the British and French, whose immigrants once predominated. “There is a strong feeling that this is about keeping people from Pakistan, the Philippines, from India, away,” said Jinny Sims, an Indian-born lawmaker with Canada’s opposition New Democratic Party.

A spokesman for Mr. Harper referred questions to the immigration ministry, Citizenship and Immigration Canada. A spokeswoman for the current immigration minister, Chris Alexander, said he wasn’t immediately available for comment. “Regardless of their country of origin,” she said, “we want to ensure that new Canadians contribute to Canada’s economic success.”

U.S. policy makers have drawn lessons from Canada’s experience. The architects behind the immigration bill drawn up by the White House and a bipartisan group of U.S. senators studied the points systems of countries such as Canada, the U.K. and Australia, said people familiar with the bill’s creation. The bill passed the Senate in June, but the GOP-controlled House has yet to vote on its own slew of immigration bills.

Current and former Canadian government officials were consulted during the bill’s creation, these people said. The Senate plan differs in important ways from Canada’s approach, placing less emphasis on English fluency, for instance. But the U.S. plan follows Canada’s basic model of grading applicants on their ability to fit into the economy and society.

“Much like the Canadian system does in Canada, our points system very carefully weighs the need to make sure Americans get first crack at available jobs but if none take them, allows American companies to find the people they need,” New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat who helped write the bill, said in an email.

The authors also learned from aspects of the Canadian points system meant to encourage greater social integration, said Enrique Gonzalez, an immigration lawyer and former adviser to Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on the reforms. “Assimilation was a measure we picked up reviewing reforms going on to the Canadian and the Australian point systems,” he said.

Canadians for decades have largely embraced waves of immigrants. More than 20% of Canadian residents were foreign-born in 2011, compared with 13% in the U.S. In 2012, Canada allowed 275,887 new permanent residents, about 0.79% of the population; the U.S. granted just over one million green cards, about 0.32% of the population.

But the government now says the old applicant-screening system placed less emphasis on language skills and youth, which research shows help immigrants to compete, and gave points for job qualifications even where they were unlikely to be sought by Canadian employers.

In the 1970s, new immigrants earned 85% to 90% of what the Canadian-born did. That had fallen to between 60% and 70% by 2006, according to a study by the Institute for Research on Public Policy, a nonpartisan Montreal think tank.

One reason, said Arthur Sweetman, an economics professor at McMaster University of Hamilton, Ontario, and an author of the study, is that a bigger proportion of immigrants are those from the developing world, whose generally poorer English and French, coupled with education and training that is often incompatible with job descriptions in Canada, make competing with locals harder.

Europeans accounted for 78% of immigration into Canada before the 1970s, while Asians and Middle Easterners made up 8.5%, according to government statistics. From 2006 to 2011, Asians and Middle Easterners were 57% of arrivals; Europeans made up 14%.

“There is a fear that as immigrants fall behind, social cohesion will deteriorate,” Mr. Sweetman said.

South and Southeast Asians are falling behind fastest. In 2012, for example, 13% of Pakistanis aged 15 and over were unemployed in Canada, against 9% of the wider Canadian population and 4.5% unemployment for Britons in Canada.

By some measures, public opinion also appears to have tilted away from Canada’s traditional open-armed multiculturalism.

Canadians went through a round of soul-searching last year after the high-profile convictions of three Afghan family members who murdered four other members they deemed too Westernized. In a December survey, 70% of respondents said too many immigrants aren’t adopting Canadian values, up from 58% in 2005, according to Environics Institute, a Toronto research group.

“We are reproducing ghettos of immigrants and migrant workers and diluting Canada’s traditional values to accommodate immigrants who will not integrate,” said Salim Mansur, a University of Western Ontario political-science professor and immigrant from India.

In addition to stressing language fluency, the government has bolstered its social-integration efforts. In April, it doubled the size of its guide to aspiring Canadian citizens, which now emphasizes Canada’s historic ties, such as to the British monarchy.

The new guide says Canada won’t tolerate “barbaric cultural practices” such as “honor killings,” forced marriage and “other gender-based violence.” The government in December 2012 banned face-covering garments such as the burqa when immigrants take a citizenship oath.

Mr. Kenney, the former immigration minister, said the government worries about “deepening ethnic enclaves” and that Canada’s immigration overhaul is taking a “hardheaded approach” to the multiculturalism that has been a hallmark of Canadian policy.

—Annabel Symington in Islamabad and Laura Meckler in Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.

Full online article.

One year and one thorough report later, several initiatives are being launched that officials hope move Harper to a place where it’s recognized as an institution that truly values diversity among employees.

“Our goal is to be sure our workforce and student body reflect the demographics of our district,” Harper spokesman Phil Burdick said.

Among the most notable is a new leadership position to help oversee the entire effort. Beginning in January, Michele Robinson, the current dean of business and social science, will serve as special assistant to the president for diversity and inclusion.

The position will be filled by a tenured faculty member on a rotating basis, so Robinson will be free to return to teaching or go for another administrative role after a certain period of time.

“Keeping some fresh energy in that role will be important,” Ender said.

Harper also is developing a teaching fellowship program to recruit Master’s degree recipients who are Hispanic, African American or from other underrepresented groups. Fellows will work with a senior faculty member, observe classes, teach and take part in professional development.

Fellows likely would be at Harper for two years. If a faculty position opens up, they’ll be encouraged to apply or given a recommendation as they seek a job elsewhere.

Ender is working specifically with a couple of universities to develop the program but declined to say which ones until the partnerships are finalized. He hopes the first fellows will start next fall.

Harper currently lacks an adequate pipeline of underrepresented candidates. Diversity in the classroom is vital, Ender said, because it adds to the strength of the institution and the student experience.

“We believe diversity among students in race, ethnicity, culture and preferences is important to help them think and debate and dream,” Ender said. “We need to have that among our faculty and staff too.”

Harper’s initiatives are largely the result of a 12-person task force made up of faculty and staff that Ender assembled to determine how to make matters of diversity and inclusion among employees an institutional priority.

In addition to surveys, a cultural values assessment and an examination of best practices and human resources data, the task force submitted a report to Ender with a set of recommendations over the next five years.

According to the report, the college did make some progress between 2002 and 2012. Diversity among employees rose from 14.4 percent of full-time workers to 20.1 percent, including a 3.5 percent hike in faculty. Within administrative ranks, however, the number fell from a total of eight to six employees.

The task force also described the situation as a “revolving door,” with resignation rates for diverse employees disproportionately higher than overall rates in all but two years. The report noted that the percentages of diverse employees in most employee groups lagged behind demographics of the district’s residents.

In 2010, for example, Hispanics/Latinos accounted for 15.2 percent of Harper’s district but 9.2 percent of Harper’s workforce. Asian/Pacific Islanders comprised 12.1 percent of the district but only 6.4 percent of Harper workers. Those disparities were even more marked at the executive level.

Ender said Harper will form employee support groups for various underrepresented groups similar to those for students. The board of trustees noted that 34 percent of credit students are diverse, compared to 30 percent of district residents.

Other initiatives include implementing an internal marketing and communications plan, issuing diversity “score cards” at the department level and hiring a firm to conduct exit interviews to determine whether feelings of exclusiveness played a role in an employee resigning.

Full online article.

According to a new report produced by DDD and another group that studies Detroit area demographics, Global Detroit, much of Macomb’s foreign-born population has established residency along the Mound/Dequindre corridor in Warren and Sterling Heights. These ethnic clusters also spill over into Shelby Township, Troy and Madison Heights.

Macomb’s melting pot, its ethnic stew, features the largest Albanian population of any county in America. Yet the Albanians and other prominent ethnic groups are largely “invisible” because they are dispersed, according to the Global Detroit/DDD study.

Macomb County has no Chinatown or Mexicantown.

Susan Katulla of Sterling Heights, a Chaldean who came to the United States as an infant, said that the Mound/Dequindre corridor became a settlement location for immigrants and refugees almost by chance. The early Chaldeans — about 400 families in 1987 — were attracted by the jobs and low cost of living in Macomb County.

Many more followed, including refugees fleeing the Gulf War and Iraq War. The most recent estimates indicate 70,000 Chaldeans and other Iraqi Christians live in Macomb County, with 25,000 to 30,000 located in Sterling Heights alone.

“There are businesses in that area that cater to ethnic communities, selling favorite foods, vegetables, spices,” said Katulla, vice chair of the Sterling Heights Ethnic Community Committee. “The people like to have family close to them. They want a place to shop that’s close to them. They want a church that’s close to them.”

Churches are ‘magnets’
For most of the immigrant enclaves, the church is the anchor of the community, the main draw for those seeking a place to live.

The Macedonian and Serbian communities built towering, ornate churches in Sterling Heights. The Sikh community last year constructed a temple, a gurdwara, nearby. The Assyrians, another sect of Iraqi Christians, established a church on Ryan Road in Warren. Filipinos were attracted to that same corridor by the number of Catholic churches, including some with priests that are first-generation immigrants from the Philippines, according to Betsy Henry, president of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce, located in Rochester Hills.

Another big draw is a Filipino cultural and activities center in Southfield and the huge annual picnic at Warren’s Halmich Park in June to celebrate Kalyaan, Independence Day for the Philippines. The event attracts 3,000 to 5,000 Filipinos of all generations.

“Filipinos are very fun-loving, gregarious people. They love to dance and sing,” Henry said.

Many of the recent arrivals to the United States entered on work visas. They are college-educated immigrants who were sponsored under a 3- to 5-year agreement with an employer. A large number have gone into the health care field as nurses or physical therapists.

Steve Tobocman, director of Global Detroit, said that robust immigration strengthens the local economy and creates more jobs, as highly skilled professionals and entrepreneurs make the Detroit area home. The immigration reforms pending in Congress would add to that momentum, he believes.

“People may tend to think of Macomb County as not as diverse as Wayne County or Oakland County, but some of the most concentrated populations of foreign-born immigrants are in Macomb,” said Tobocman, a former state House member who represented southwest Detroit.

Immigrant profile
The Global Detroit/DDD report depicts a flattering picture of the Detroit-area immigrant populace:

* 40 percent of the immigrant population has a bachelor’s or graduate-level college degree, significantly above the educational attainment of local residents who were born in the U.S.

* Two-thirds of foreign-born immigrants own their homes, and 52 percent have become naturalized citizens.

* The average income for this first-generation immigrant group is $61,000 for males and $41,000 for females.

* Foreign-born residents have a higher rate of employment — 90 percent vs. 84 percent for American-born workers — and only 7 percent work in the public sector.

* Immigrants have a much higher percentage of workers in four categories — management, business, science and the arts — than naturalized citizens.

* The foreign-born are much more likely to be married than American-born residents, and half as likely to be divorced.

In Macomb County, six sections — U.S. Census tracts — within the Sterling Heights Mound/Dequindre corridor feature foreign-born populations of 35 percent to 42 percent.

In the surrounding neighborhoods of Sterling Heights, Warren and Shelby Township, several census tracts are highlighted by foreign-born populations above 20 percent.

The assimilation of these newcomers from a vast array of nations falls on the school districts, nonprofit groups associated with particular ethnicities, and organizations such as Global Detroit. Assistance with finding housing, a job and dealing with “culture shock” are offered by numerous groups.

The Mount Clemens-based Interfaith Center for Racial Justice in 2007 launched a rotating, 5-week program of workshops called “Listen, Learn and Live” that teach residents about other cultures and religions. That effort, according to ICRJ Director the Rev. Michail Curro, expanded into week-long summer day camps run by two churches in south Warren for a diverse group of immigrant kids.

At the public schools, the biggest challenge is integrating kids into the American system of education and getting them into an English as a Second Language class.

92 languages
Immigrants in Macomb County schools speak at least 92 languages at home, according to Judy Pritchett, chief academic officer for the Macomb Intermediate School District. Of the approximately 10,000 K-12 students attending sessions known as English Language Learners classes, the vast majority are enrolled in the Warren Consolidated and Utica school districts.

Katulla, the lone Chaldean member of the Warren Consolidated school board, said her district provides interpreters via a two-way phone system to help immigrant parents communicate with teachers.

But the chasm some kids face in becoming functional in American society goes beyond language skills.

“Many of these kids have gaps in their education due to the trauma of war or persecution or family separations,” Katulla said. “We can have an eighth-grader who last went to school in the second grade.”

Parents also receive assistance with English language classes but Katulla said that at the Chaldean Community Foundation, where she works, sad stories abound. She offered the example of an immigrant pharmacist who was working a menial, 12-hours-a-day job and has no time to attend English-learning sessions so he can secure a job in his field.

“Many of these people have so much talent, but they speak no English,” she said.

While Macomb County may not have a Chaldeantown or an Indiantown, it once came close to establishing a Ukrainiantown.

In the 1960s, at a time when just a few big ethnic contingents were concentrated within the county populace, immigrants from Ukraine began migrating north from Hamtramck and surrounding Detroit neighborhoods to Warren, specifically the area at 11 Mile and Ryan.

The construction of St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church was the “magnet” that sparked the exodus, according to Ukrainian community leaders. What followed was a Ukrainian housing complex, two Ukrainian credit unions where the tellers spoke the native language, and the Ukrainian Cultural Center, which features a large banquet room and has hosted former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

About a mile away, near 12 Mile and Dequindre, the remnants of the Ukrainians who had worshipped at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Hamtramck established a K-12 Immaculate Conception school within a shuttered public school building. The high school eventually closed but the elementary school lives on. Over time, several Ukrainian sports clubs for kids have also been formed.

Andrey Duzyj, former president of the Ukrainian Cultural Center, said many of the older Macomb County Ukrainians have died off or moved on. But the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991 sparked a second exodus of immigrants from Ukraine, the former “Captive Nation,” to America in search of economic opportunity.

“They call themselves the ‘new wave’ — and that’s fine,” Duzyj said. “We just want to keep our heritage alive.”

Click here for full article online.

As part of the Mela, the CILHE is calling all TISS students (Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Tuljapur campuses) to send in entries for two competitions:

a. A two- or three-minute audio recording made on any digital device of your choice – the recording could be in a railway station, a bazaar, a street corner, a cafeteria or any other everyday location. Capture an interaction between two or more persons speaking in different languages about any topic. Prepare a poster interpreting what happens in your audio recording. Do remember to add an English translation of the interaction in your recording. Students are encouraged to use free editing software available for both Windows and Linux platforms. Posters can be in English or in any of the three theme languages. Group submissions are encouraged. Submissions over email are accepted.

b. Creation of a new article on any Indian language Wikipedia (preference will be given this time to Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati entries, but other languages will also be considered). Training workshops on editing Wikipedia will be held at each TISS campus during August 2013. Send us details of your Wikipedia entries and mention your Wikipedia UserName in your email.

Click here for online article.

The Kafleys are refugees being helped by the International Rescue Committee. Senior caseworker Daley Ryan says his organization has helped many citizens originally from Bhutan, but with ethnic Nepalese origins. For that reason, Bhutan kicked them out years ago.

“And most of them went to Nepal, and Nepal opened up camps,” Ryan says. “And these people have been living there. They’re without documentation, they’re without citizenship, they’re just living in the camps, some their whole lives. The child you talked to was born in a camp.”

That child, Ayush, is now getting ready for 4th grade. DISD intake specialist April May brings out a gift for the budding scientist, who also likes guitar. It’s a backpack stocked with supplies that the center hands out to its students.

Saroz Kafley came to Dallas because his brother was already here, living in a growing Bhutanese community. He works for Grapevine-based GameStop, and is happy to live life outside of a refugee camp. Today’s intake center visit was a top priority because of Kafley’s emphasis on education.

“It is very important,” he says. “It makes the future.”

DISD will keep the Intake Center open throughout the year to help parents navigate their way around the district and counsel them on other needs that inevitably arise for new students and new immigrants.

Click here for online article.

Librarian’s Choice

Clymer Library, 115 Firehouse Road, Pocono Pines

Choices this week: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss; “The Night Before Kindergarten” by Natasha Wing; “Goodnight Gorilla” by Peggy Rathmann

 Books to Buy

“The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas” by David Almond, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, Candlewick, 2013, 244 pages, $15.99 hardcover. Read aloud: age 9 and older. Read yourself: age 10-11 and older.

Young Stanley Potts had a bit of a rough start. His parents had passed away, but Stan had come to love his Auntie Annie and his Uncle Ernie, with whom he lived. One day, however, Uncle Ernie went totally bonkers, canning fish in their house. He set up a factory and had Stan helping him almost 24/7. The day Ernie went too far with it all, Stan knew what he had to do — he left.

Stan soon took a job with a traveling carnival, first as a helper to Dostoyevsky and his plastic floating “Hook-a-Duck” stall, then as the “next in line” to legendary Pancho Pirelli — the man who swam with piranhas. Stan trained hard, yet what he needed most was to believe in himself.

“Every Day After” by Laura Golden, Delacorte Press/Random House, 2013, 224 pages, $15.99 hardcover. Read aloud: age 8 and older. Read yourself: age 10-11 and older.

Eleven-year-old Lizzie has a great life — loving and supportive parents who believe in Lizzie’s worth and strength, a terrific best friend, and top grades in school. When the Great Depression strikes, Lizzie’s world quickly starts to unravel — her father loses his job and abandons the family, and her mama is so depressed about her husband leaving she can’t take care of herself, nor Lizzie, the house, and paying the mortgage.

Lizzie is determined to keep everything afloat, but she finds that more difficult to do than she bargained for. With the nasty new girl, Erin, determined to see Lizzie’s mom packed away in a mental institute and Lizzie in an orphanage, and the bank determined to foreclose, Lizzie realizes she must make her bravest move of all — ask for help.

Nationally syndicated, Kendal Rautzhan writes and lectures on children’s literature. She can be reached at greatestbooksforkids.com.

Click here for full article online.

What is perhaps most disturbing about this data is the obvious implication: without more persons of color earning advanced degrees, there will remain an inadequate supply of underrepresented minority faculty, perpetuating a lack of diversity across college campuses. To say we are caught in a vicious cycle is a gross understatement.

In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas (2013), which sent the case back to the lower court and mandated a burden of “strict scrutiny” be met in evaluating the use of race in admissions decisions, there may be cause for concern. Increasing diversity at institutions of higher education might prove more difficult; some argue, for example, that the insufficient production of minority doctoral degrees owes in part to the admission process and a lack of financial support. While these variables do indeed contribute to the problem, and thus could render efforts to increase diversity more challenging in a post-Fisher era, now more than ever, we must focus on an oft unspoken culprit, namely, the insubstantial minority applicant pool.

Consider The University of Texas at Austin (UT) — one of the nation’s largest graduate schools and leading producers of doctoral degrees. The applicant pool for programs in the arts and sciences is characterized by a small number of underrepresented minorities. Less than 10 percent of the 20,000-plus applicants to UT’s graduate school are Hispanic, African-American, or American Indian — and this is not significantly different at other major public research institutions.

While factoring race and ethnicity into the criteria considered for student admission and for awarding scholarships and fellowships no doubt makes a difference and, therefore, is a necessary practice, no profound increase in diversity will occur until significant progress is made in convincing talented minorities to pursue graduate study. Nationally, top-notch graduate institutions often play numbers games, competing with each other to redistribute an already undersized minority applicant population.

Why do talented minority students choose not to attend graduate school?

Many admit not giving serious thought to pursuing traditional graduate degrees, preferring instead to enter law, medicine or business, not only because of money and prestige, but also awareness of the societal impact of these pursuits. Underlying this preference is the fact that students from a minority community, or those who are the first in their family to attend college, may perceive withdrawal from the rough and tumble of everyday problems as dereliction. Minority and first-generation students may be very bright and capable of learning at the highest levels, yet feel the tug of social responsibility.

Ironically, graduate education need not be viewed as an insular enterprise devoid of social relevance. At UT “Intellectual Entrepreneurship” (IE) is an innovative vision and model of education that challenges students to be “citizen-scholars.” By engaging students in community projects where they discover and put knowledge to work, as well as requiring them to identify and adapt to audiences for whom their research matters, for 15 years IE has documented the enormous value to society of graduate study.

What does the IE philosophy of education have to do with increasing diversity? IE was devised in 1997 to increase the value of graduate education for all students. Yet we discovered in 2002-2003 that 20 percent of students enrolled in IE were underrepresented minorities, while this same group comprised only 9 percent of UT’s total graduate student population.

Minorities reported that, by rigorously exploring how to succeed, IE helped demystify graduate school. More importantly, students noted that IE provided one of the few opportunities to contemplate in a genuine entrepreneurial fashion how to utilize their intellectual capital to give back to the community — something motivating many minority students.

The spirit of intellectual entrepreneurship seems to resonate with and meet a felt need of minority and first-generation students, facilitating exploration and innovation. IE implores students to create for themselves a world of vast intellectual and practical possibilities, acquiring the resources needed to bring their visions to fruition. Put simply, IE changes the metaphor and model of education from one of “apprenticeship-certification-entitlement” to one of “discovery-ownership-accountability.”

The IE philosophy’s potential to increase diversity in graduate school is best documented by the “IE Pre-Graduate School Internship” begun in 2003-2004. This initiative pairs undergraduates with faculty supervisors and graduate student mentors. Interns work with their mentors and supervisors on research projects, observe graduate classes, shadow graduate student teaching and research assistants, participate in disciplinary activities and explore their futures. Rather than being outsiders looking in or passive targets of recruitment, IE interns function as “anthropologists,” immersing themselves in the day-to-day experiences and activities of graduate school and then interrogating the academic culture in which someday they may reside.

Besides providing useful tools to undergraduates already certain about graduate study and who are committed to a specific academic discipline, the approach taken by most outreach and professional development programs, the Pre-Graduate School Internship is an exercise in entrepreneurial learning: it affords opportunities for students to discover their passions, the value of academic disciplines and the culture of graduate study — something that is not a staple of the undergraduate experience.

Each year, about 70 percent of IE Pre Graduate School interns are underrepresented minorities, first-generation or economically disadvantaged students; approximately 35 percent are Hispanic or African-American. Of the spring 2013 undergraduate IE cohort of 180 students, one third are Hispanic, compared to a university-wide percentage of 18. Similarly, although only 4.5 percent of University of Texas students are African-American, 16 percent of IE students this spring are from an African-American background.

Interns report that, for the first time in their undergraduate career, a “space” existed to reflect upon the role education plays in meeting their goals. IE empowered them to view academic disciplines not as artificial containers in which students are housed, but as lenses through which to clarify their visions and as tools by which their goals might be realized.

Especially exciting is the fact that about 50 percent of IE Pre Graduate School interns pursue graduate study following completion of their baccalaureate degree. No wonder this initiative received an “Examples of Excelencia” Award as top program for graduate institutions in the United States. In the words of Stanford President John Hennessy, “UT’s Intellectual Entrepreneurship project (IE) is a leader nationally. It provides best practices in promoting diversity in the academy, especially in attracting students to the critical areas of science and technology.”

The value of IE as a mechanism for increasing diversity inheres in its capacity to allow students to become entrepreneurs — to discover otherwise unobserved connections between academe and personal and professional commitments. This potential owes to the fact that IE does not segregate intellectual, personal and professional development, as is the case on most college campuses today; intellectual, personal and professional development are linked parts of an entrepreneurial approach to learning.

IE’s potential to increase diversity in the post-Fisher era is not limited to graduate education. Based on a pilot project with local area middle and high school students, we have learned that IE has the capacity to expand the number of underrepresented minority students who attend college.

Going beyond traditional recruitment and affirmative action programs, IE empowers students to discover their passions and produce an entrepreneurial plan enabling them to construct a pathway to college. To increase diversity in a race-neutral era, we must expand the undergraduate applicant pool, and one way to do that is to enable students to see the connections between their professional aspirations and education — something at the core of IE’s approach to education in the past 15 years.

From IE we have learned that to increase diversity, the applicant pool must be expanded; education must be made transparent and relevant. Moreover, entrepreneurial education and experiences must be available for students at all levels, enabling them to discover how education brings their visions to fruition. Entrepreneurial learning begins with students’ curiosities and goals driving their lives, challenging them to own and be accountable for their educational choices and intellectual development.

Richard A. Cherwitz is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies (and in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing) at the University of Texas at Austin and the founder and director of the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium (IE) in the Office of the Vice President for Diversity & Community Engagement (DDCE).

Click here to read the article online. 

Kazepides’ story adds up to his response to the explosion of ethnic enclaves in Metro Vancouver and across Canada’s major cities. It’s also his reflection on such things as the expansion of Chinese-language signs in Richmond and Vancouver.

The prof is author of the recent book, Education as Dialogue: Its Prerequisites and Its Enemies

RELATED: Metro Vancouver: See which immigrant groups growing, shrinking (interactive)

Greeks, Dutch declining. Saudis, Chinese growing

Here is Prof. Kazepides’ story:

When I became a Canadian citizen in 1974 the judge who interviewed me told me that I should make sure to keep my traditions, language and values because in this country we have a policy of multiculturalism.

‘This is what I tell all our new immigrants,’ he said.

When I asked if there was anything else I should do, he replied negatively! I was surprised and said that I would like to say something after he had signed my citizenship papers. He hurried and signed them and then he asked me what was that I wanted to say.

‘Your honour,’ I said, ‘you really surprised me because you failed to tell me one very important thing that I and all other immigrants ought to do.’

Tasos Kazepides told the judge: ‘What you should be telling all new citizens of this province is that they should learn the English language, the laws and history of Canada well so that they can become intelligent and responsible members of this society.’ The judge got back to him a few months later.

‘What is it,’ he asked.

I didn’t want to say what I really felt, so I said:

‘Your honour it is none of your business what I or the other immigrants are going to do with our native language and our traditions. What you should be telling all new citizens of this province is that they should learn the English language, the laws and history of Canada well so that they can become intelligent and responsible members of this society.’

‘Well,’ he said, ‘don’t you know that in this country we have a department of multiculturalism?’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘and it is all unclear, confused and misleading.’

Well, we agreed to disagree and that was the end, I thought…

A few months later, I was invited by the Hellenic Community of Vancouver to give a lecture on the occasion  of a Greek national holiday. There were many officials from the provincial and federal governments present.

I chose to speak on “The Values of Hellenism”, wanting to emphasize those aspects of Greek values that have universal value as opposed to the provincial traditions regarding language, customs and traditions that vary from society to society. The response was overwhelming and when I sat down next to Mike Harcourt he grabbed my notes and, to my surprise, said that my speech was the best he had heard about multiculturalism and he wanted to keep my notes.

What happened afterwards was a little miracle! I saw this little man, who looked vaguely familiar, approaching me with a smile on his face.

‘Do you remember me,’ he said, ‘I am judge ‘X’ and wanted to tell you how grateful I am that you spoke to me so frankly and openly during your interview with me, when you became a Canadian citizen; it made me think about multiculturalism seriously and now I follow your advice during all the interviews.’

Tasos Kazepides
Professor of Philosophy of Education, Emeritus
Simon Fraser University

Click here to read the story online.

By next fall, Savannah State expects to have a new school of education up and running. For the past three years, Dr. Elazer J. Barnette, the person responsible for its launch, has been securing full-time faculty and readying students eager to enroll in the STEM-based teacher preparation program that will offer biology and math with a concentration in secondary education. Looking down the road, Barnette, associate vice president for academic affairs, sees his graduates being snatched up by public schools in Georgia and in demand by corporations in need of those who know science and who can teach.

But for now, says Barnette, ensuring that the school of education is ready in 2014 to meet the rigors of a new set of national standards for teacher preparation and accreditation is at the heart of his efforts.

Over time, as national teaching standards have crept higher, HBCU education programs “have consistently stepped up and met the mark, and this time shouldn’t be any different,” says Barnette, who has spent more than a decade on the Board of Examiners of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, one of the two national accrediting bodies for the field. But as a new accrediting agency churns out standards aimed at improving teacher training and student learning, Barnette and a group of HBCU education deans say they fear the potential consequences such efforts may ultimately have on the continued existence of their teacher preparation programs and even on their institutions.

The Washington, D.C.-based accrediting body, which has operated as the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation since January, was formed in 2010, the result of a merger between the larger National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the much smaller Teacher Education Accreditation Council. For them, the time was right for change. Eyeing the “winds of reform” sweeping through the field of P-12 education, the accrediting bodies set out to do more than unite. In their literature, CAEP officials say they also plan “to show the value we add to the quality assurance, accountability, and the overall performance of the profession.”

Such an undertaking is “huge and complex and will mainly impact the practitioners,” says Dr. Tina Marshall-Bradley, a CAEP commissioner and a professor and associate vice president at Paine College, of the accreditation merger and standards overhaul.

By the time the accrediting body releases its final set of new standards in January 2014 for what graduating teachers should know and be able to do when they enter the classroom, CAEP officials suggest those programs seeking accreditation will have, for the first time, standards that are “leaner, more specific and more outcomes-based.”

This summer, CAEP’s board plans to approve its five proposed standards and sub-standards that include: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge (Standard 1); Clinical Partnerships and Practice (Standard 2); Candidate Quality, Recruitment and Selectivity (Standard 3); Program Impact (Standard 4); and Provider Quality, Continuous Improvement and Capacity (Standard 5). According to CAEP’s schedule, by 2016, new standards will be mandatory for schools and programs seeking their accreditation.

In the past few months, the impending changes to the standards have spurred a group of HBCU education deans and administrators into meetings with each other and with CAEP officials about how to respond while also buffering the mainstay program on their campuses. Together they represent educator preparation programs that graduate more than 50 percent of all Black public school teachers. As proposed, several of the CAEP standards, they say, could negatively “impact the delivery of their educator programs.”

While not in opposition to all of the standards, “our concerns are many,” says Stillman College President Ernest McNealey on behalf of the group of deans organized by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), an umbrella organization for HBCUs and predominantly Black institutions.

With a CAEP commission “heavily weighted with policy folks” and fewer practitioners, Marshall-Bradley suggests it may be the reason why HBCU deans feel some of the proposed standards don’t reflect the needs of their programs and what’s actually happening in the field.

“Based on historical data and if CAEP standards are fully implemented, this could be a likely scenario for HBCU teacher preparation programs,” explains McNealey, who also chairs the NAFEO board. “There will be fewer teachers with credentials from American colleges and universities; there will be an adverse impact on diversity in the teaching force, including gender, social class and race; and there will be a discriminatory stratification of institutions offering accredited teacher preparation programs based on historical advantages having little to do with preparing high-performing teachers.”

Diversity in teaching will still be at the center of standards, contends CAEP President James G. Cibulka. The teaching profession will focus on diverse, high-quality teachers. “We believe that the emphasis on quality and selectivity, coupled with an emphasis on intentional recruitment of a diverse teacher-candidate pool, will play a part in encouraging the best and brightest of all races and ethnicities to pursue careers in education.”

However, says McNealey, “The true test of a program’s quality is the strategies and measures in place that prepare an average candidate to be an outstanding teacher.”

Barnette says he was once one of those students. Soon, admissions standards for teacher training programs may be higher. CAEP will require cohorts of teacher candidates to have a collective 3.0 GPA and scores on national standardized assessments like the GRE, SAT and ACT in the top third. Barnette and others are asking CAEP: Where is the evidence?

“Do you have data to show that my 3.0 person will be a more effective teacher than my 2.5 [teacher]? Is this a research-based predictor based on a student’s ability to teach?” asks Barnette.

Standard 5.3: Quality and Strategic Evaluation is one of the proposed standards being questioned. It would hold preparation programs accountable when students default on loans or if its graduates aren’t hired or choose not to work in schools or elsewhere in the profession in which they trained. These are factors “beyond their control,” McNealey argues. Dr. Boyce C. Williams, senior vice president at NAFEO, agrees. Rolling issues of student loan defaults and graduation rates into the new standards will ultimately hurt HBCUs. The intended targets of the move, Williams suspects, are “the for-profit teacher training programs that won’t likely be the ones that suffer as a result of these changes.”

As a CAEP commissioner, Marshall-Bradley is in a position to influence the outcome of debates over national teacher education standards. But she makes it clear that her role there does not include being a voice for HBCU education programs.

Still, she believes HBCUs “have a lot to be concerned about” as the new standards are finalized. “I’m not sure that these are the standards that are going to ensure that we have teachers that cause all students to learn,” says Marshall-Bradley. “Our community is adversely impacted. It is our children who are not being educated properly, and they also represent the constituent group that we recruit into our colleges and universities.”

But the transition to CAEP, Marshall-Bradley adds, also signals opportunity for the HBCUs. Among them, “forging new and creative partnerships” with other traditional and alternative teacher preparation programs and stepping up their research on what makes a good teacher, something that is just as important as producing a good teacher.”

Click here for the online source.  

Is this the best parenting technique to use?

The best technique to use depends heavily on each particular situation. In certain situations, One Parent One Language is the best technique to use. In others, it may be Minority Language at Home. A few important factors help make this decision:

• Do both parents speak the minority language?
• How much time does each parent have with the child?
• What is the language mix? Are there two languages, three languages?
• What is the community language?

• The above questions are vital to answer before you decide on a strategy. If both parents don’t speak the minority language, it may be tough for a family to do Minority Language at Home. The family member who doesn’t speak the language well will always feel slightly left out in those situations. It also may be hard to struggle through a language while just wanting to talk to your children.

• If one parent has a limited amount of time with the child that may be another indicator that may also indicate that perhaps Minority Language at Home is the correct path. If One Parent One Language is chosen, both parents need to give the child sufficient exposure to the language or it will be very difficult for the child to learn the language to a truly native like level.

MLAH Book

Minority Language at Home doesn’t work real well outside of the bilingual realm. If there are three languages involved it is pretty difficult to do Minority Language at Home. Theoretically one could divide up time between the two non-majority languages and speak those only at home, however from what I have studied on that those obligations seem to be fairly difficult to keep.

• The fourth point, and one to think about, is in regards to the majority language. English is a fairly dominated language in the world and that seeps into raising bilingual children. A minority language of English is easier to maintain than that of basically any other language. Essentially two reasons exist for this:

1. English is a very important language in the world. If English is the minority language, that by default implies that a person isn’t living in an English-speaking country. Non-English speaking countries, or the vast majority, have English language at a younger age than our foreign languages in the United States.

2. The language of Hollywood, music, business, and trade is English. It’s everywhere. Kids in other countries learn English just by watching movies that are subtitled in their language. It’s easy to find materials, it’s perceived as important for the children, and it’s used as a sort of status symbol in some other countries.

Many additional things still need to be considered when deciding to do Minority Language at Home. What do you do when guests come over? Do you switch to the majority language or translate everything for your kids? What about relatives? What if you go on vacation somewhere and are there for a week, is it then “Minority Language at Hotel?”

These questions will need to be worked out; which brings me to my first point. An infinite number of possibilities exists when looking at raising children bilingually. The most important thing is to find one that works with the family structure and that the family can follow consistently.

Whether Minority Language at Home or One Parent One Language, some combination of the two or something completely different is employed, the most effective way to raise bilingual children is to be consistent! There are several great books on the subject… a few of which I personally recommend on the homepage. Get out there and get LivingBilingual!

Jeffrey Nelson via LivingBilingual.com

http://livingbilingual.com/2013/06/04/minority-language-at-home-parenting-technique/  

“You are now, by establishing this TV channel, reinforcing PSM values, values like diversity and universality. You are also greatly improving the possibility for all people in Kosovo to be informed about social, political and cultural developments. And you are sending a powerful signal of tolerance and respect to all groups in society.”

RTK 2’s 50-strong staff includes a strong contingent of journalists, editors, camera operators, film editors and other professionals.

The population of Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, is 90% ethnic Albanian, while Serbs represent the largest minority. Albanian and Serbian are the official languages.

Although the EBU established RTK in 1999 under an international mandate, the broadcaster cannot be a full EBU Member until the International Telecommunications Union recognizes Kosovo as an independent country.

However, RTK benefits from a comprehensive service agreement with the EBU and is a beneficiary of an EU-financed EBU action plan now being rolled out by the EBU’s Partnership Programme.

The plan, part of a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the EBU and European Union in July 2012, is designed to strengthen the public service media of EU accession countries, including Kosovo.

The Partnership Programme will finance an appraisal by France’s National Audiovisual Institute later this year of RTK’s imperilled analogue archive. And it negotiated RTK participation in a conference organized by the South East Europe Digi.TV project in Budapest in April this year.

http://www3.ebu.ch/cms/en/sites/ebu/contents/news/2013/06/kosovan-broadcaster-launches-min.html 

An example of such an immigration policy is the Immigration Act of 1919, which gave the federal government the authority to exclude specific ethnic groups from immigrating to Canada.

The government will not recognize foreign qualifications if the immigrant has no language skills in either English or French.

An easy solution to this problem is teaching the immigrant either of the languages.

This will not only benefit the immigrant but also benefit Canada’s economy.

Many Canadians are not employed and are not aiding in improving Canada’s economy, so what will be lost if immigrants want to immigrate to earn a living? It only aids Canada’s economy.

There are enough jobs in Canada so that both Canadian citizens and immigrants can be employed without any interference with one another.

Not allowing in more immigrants and recognizing their foreign qualifications has been a problem not just recently but ever since the early 20th century.

NISHAD JOSHI, Windsor
Click here to read article online 

In the past year, Hispanics, blacks, Asians and multiracial students all saw their numbers grow in Sioux Falls, while there were fewer whites and Native Americans. As a percentage of total enrollment, there are twice as many students of color in the district now than there were a decade ago.

Teaching those students English so they learn in the classroom is a big enough challenge, Smith said. But turning understanding of the language into the ability to successfully advance from grade level to grade level can be equally daunting.

A 9-year-old who moves from Thailand or South Sudan and never has had any formal education still ends up in a classroom with other children his or her same age. You can’t put 16-year-olds in with 6-year-olds, Smith said.

“In the elementary grades, if a kid comes in as a 10-year-old, they would be expected to be performing as other 10-year-olds do,” she said. “That’s one of our assumptions in the American education system. There would be questions asked if we were automatically putting them in much lower grades. That’s one of the challenges. … how do you know where to place them when they don’t speak the language?”

In the 2012-2013 school year, there were 1,995 students in English Language Learner programs in Sioux Falls, up 183 from a year earlier.

Those in the younger grades tend to do better, Smith said. Much of the learning early on is foundational, “and the younger kids are like sponges,” she said. “They do catch on and catch up.”

A refugee who comes in as a 14-year-old, with little previous schooling, faces greater hurdles. The system assumes they’ve already had eight years of formal education, even though that might not be true.

“Nationally, there are statistics that show drop-out rates for ELL students are higher,” Smith said. “We have not done anything specifically within the district to check our numbers. But you also have to step back and look at what dropping out means. We have students who come in at 16 and learn at amazing rates. They are perfectly willing to stay in school, but free public education ends at 21.”

Like all school districts across the state who work with ELL students, Sioux Falls caught a break during the past legislative session when lawmakers decided to contribute more money to the education of those children.

Districts will assess their ELL students on language proficiency each February on a scale of 0 to 6. For every student who scores below 4.0 on the assessment, the district will receive an additional 25 percent in state support on top of the regular funding formula.

For Sioux Falls, that means an additional $1.8 million to $1.9 million, Smith said. So this coming school year, Sioux Falls will have $2.2 million in state and district money to use for ELL instruction, and another $1.7 million in federal assistance.

“We won’t be adding additional ELL services with that money,” Smith said. “This roughly pays back what we’ve been putting into the program out of our general fund dollars.

“The thing that is important to understand is, we’ve built a strong ELL program that we’ve struggled to pay for for many years. This is first-time money coming from the state. It’s money we’ve needed for a long, long time.”

Written by Steve Young
Full online article.

Speakers of many smaller, less dominant languages may stop using their heritage language and begin using another. For LULs communities, languages are linked to tradition; important for cultural identity and an essential part of a community’s heritage. The intangible heritage of all of human society is diminished when a language disappears. François Alfonsi presented a draft report on Endangered languages and linguistic diversity in the EU to the Culture and Education Committee in April 2013 (Procedure file: 2013/2007(INI)).

EU language policies aim to protect linguistic diversity, which is enshrined in Article 22 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights( “The Union respects cultural, religious and linguistic diversity”), and in Article 3 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (“It shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe’s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced.”).

Measures adopted by the EU for the preservation and promotion of regional and minority languages include:

• financial support to the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages , an independent NGO which promotes and disseminates information about regional and minority languages, and Mercator, a documentation and information network of universities active in research on lesser-used languages in Europe;
• project funding for practical initiatives for the promotion and preservation of regional and minority languages.

Click here to read the full article online 

The elimination of Black teachers from the classroom would not only be an economic loss for those educators, but a disservice to their students and a detriment for the teaching profession, says Fenwick, further sharing Marshall’s troubling words during a town hall event hosted by Howard’s School of Education, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the American Federation of Teachers.

Today, Marshall’s sobering observations have proved true, say experts pointing to the academic and social benefits that come when African-American and Hispanic students attend schools where racial and gender diversity of teachers and staff is high. But that doesn’t reflect the makeup of most urban public schools when “73 percent of teachers are White and 68 percent of principals are White,” Fenwick adds.

Black and other minority children are being taught in deeply racially isolated schools and are more likely to spend their entire K-12 education in public schools without ever seeing or having a teacher of color. In fact, Fenwick says, “This is the most populous generation of African-American children who have never been taught by an African-American teacher or who have never attended a school led by an African-American principal.”

But Amy Wilkins, the College Board’s new civil rights fellow, pointed out at a town hall forum on teacher diversity that “we have our own mess to clean up” as Black educators.

“Some of the most hurtful things that have been said about Black children have come out of the mouths of Black teachers,” says Wilkins to applause. Just because a Black teacher is in the classroom for Black children, Wilkins adds, there is no guarantee that a positive learning experience is taking place or a role model is there.

What’s needed, says Wilkins, the former Education Trust executive, “are teachers who respect our children and who can be ruthlessly demanding” when it comes to expecting the best academically from Black and minority children, as they do from White students.

And as practitioners and schools of education, urged AFT President Randi Weingarten, “We need to do more to ensure teachers better represent the students they teach. This includes thinking differently about recruitment and retention and about how we as a country view teaching.”

HBCUs, which produce 50 percent of the nation’s Black educators, have been doing just that, says Dr. Chance Lewis, who “is tired of the familiar refrain, ‘We can’t find any good Black teacher recruits.’”

They are out there, and the process begins on college campuses, maintains Lewis, the Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Full Professor of Urban Education in the College of Education at the University of North Carolina at
Charlotte.

When Dr. Ivory Toldson surveys the education workforce, he finds that “teaching is the No. 1 profession among Black men with master’s degrees,” but there are less than 2 percent of them in the classroom. Improving their college-going and completion rates makes boosting the professional teaching pipeline that much more complicated, but it can be done, says Toldson, a Howard University professor and senior research fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus. The expected retirement of more than 1 million teachers in the coming years offers a great opportunity for racial and gender diversity in the profession, experts say.

For Black male teachers, though, their journey shouldn’t end in the classroom, Toldson suggests. They have too much to offer.

“It would be a disservice to the profession if they aren’t also used to improve diversity,” or tapped to help educate those concerned about best practices for teaching young Black males, or if they aren’t allowed to provide other quality services that can benefit all students regardless of race or gender.

By B. Denise Hawkins     Click here to read article online.

She said: “We won semi-official status for the Welsh language in Europe in 2008. That was a welcome step and has done a great deal to raise the profile of Wales and our language and culture. But I see it as a step towards achieving real equality, which means full official status.

“Welsh is an official language in Wales and it should have the same status in Europe. This is about equality for all people in the EU. This is the Year of the Citizens and the debate on the future shape of the EU has started in earnest. For me, making all of our languages equal in status is essential to ensuring that people feel that Europe is relevant to them. It is about democracy and justice and I will make this one of the central issues in the European Parliament election campaign next year.”

But Dr Swinburne, a fluent Welsh speaker who was brought up at Llandysul, Ceredigion, said: “Making Welsh a fully official language in the EU would not advance its cause in the slightest. It would, however, entail huge translation costs within European institutions.

“At the Parliament, Welsh translators would have to be employed on shifts at a cost of millions of pounds – largely for the benefit of Jill and me.”

Dr Swinburne said the semi-official status of Welsh already enabled citizens to write to the EU and get a response in the language.

“I’ve spoken Welsh at the European Parliament – all you have to do is give a bit of notice and they’ll arrange for a translation.”

The Tory MEP has recently been the “shadow rapporteur” [lead spokesperson for her parliamentary group] scrutinising an EU report on how to safeguard endangered European languages. The report, written by Corsican MEP François Alfonsi, says urgent action should be taken to ensure such languages do not die out.

It says: “All languages, including those which are endangered, reflect historical, social, cultural and ecological knowledge and skills that form part of the richness of the European Union. Just like biodiversity in nature, the diversity of European languages and cultures is part of the living heritage that is vital for the sustainable development of our societies, and they should therefore be safeguarded and protected against any risks of extinction,”

Dr Swinburne said: “I support wholeheartedly the move to safeguard endangered languages. Languages are not simply a means of communication, but a vital part of culture.

“I believe the way Welsh has been protected over the last 20 years provides very good lessons to other countries about how to safeguard their minority languages.

“Giving Welsh official status within Wales has been very important. It’s a process that began under a Conservative Government with the Welsh Language Act, which obliged public bodies to have Welsh language policies. Having governments formally committed to protecting a language is vital, and I believe Welsh has greater respect now as a result than it had when I was growing up.”

Dr Swinburne said some other European countries had been far less sympathetic to their minority languages: “France has been strongly criticised for its attitude to Breton and the other minority languages spoken within its borders.

“The growth of Welsh medium education has been very good for the Welsh language. I know the recent Census results showing a slight drop in the number of Welsh speakers in Wales was worrying, but I suspect it was more to do with Welsh speakers moving out of the country for work.

“I would like to see the safeguarding of the Welsh language recognised as an exemplar across Europe.”

By Martin Shipton   Click here to read article on-line and responses to the article. 

The English Language Arts Network is right to say that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission should pressure Vidéotron to establish such a channel as a condition of its upcoming licence renewal. If the CRTC fails to do so, it will be committing an injustice against the anglophone minority in Quebec, essentially depriving it of a public space for expression — a space that it deserves.

According to ELAN, the English-language artistic community in Quebec is composed of more than 8,000 people. And the CRTC itself estimates that more than a million Montrealers (including people whose mother tongue is English and those for whom it is not) have a knowledge of English. This “anglophone” community is not too small to merit a community channel. While anglophones are a minority in Montreal, and English is a minority language, both are nonetheless a vital part of our vibrant arts scene.

Canada’s Official Languages Act requires the provinces to respect certain constitutional guarantees with respect to minority-language rights. But the CRTC’s Official Languages Discussion Group has determined that “the Broadcasting Act (takes) precedence over” the Official Languages Act.

Quebecor, the corporation that owns Vidéotron, argues that an English-language television channel is an unnecessary service and expense for such a small community.

Meanwhile, federal Heritage Minister James Moore has just renewed his 2013-18 roadmap in support of linguistic duality, maintaining his government’s engagement in support for the arts and culture in Canada’s francophone community. There are efforts to encourage a minimum of 15-per-cent French-language content as a licensing condition for public and private broadcasters outside Quebec. But there is little pressure being put on Quebec broadcasters to do the same for the anglophone minority here. This is a double standard.

As we have seen with the debate over Bill 14, the issue of language in this province as it relates to rights, access, culture and identity is contentious. But we should be doing more to preserve and promote minority languages.

The CRTC could help by insisting on the creation of an English-language community channel as a condition of Vidéotron’s licence renewal. It is a move that would do a lot to promote the vitality and raise the profile of English-language arts in Quebec.

As Arcade Fire showed in 2011, art can play a unifying role across different languages and cultures.

McGill University communications-studies students Jennifer D’Alimonte, Nicole Coon and Julie Aubin contributed to this commentary.

The Canadian government is taking heed of such stories. And it’s slowly following the lead of some European and other nations in addressing the language minefield.

Jason Kenney, minister of immigration, has been gradually increasing language-proficiency requirements for some immigrants. The changes will have a far-reaching impact.

But, first, what are Canada’s language facts?

The 2011 census discovered more than one in five Canadians, almost seven million people, speak a language other than English or French at home. The most common languages, in order, are Punjabi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish and Tagalog.

In Metro Vancouver, the proportion of residents who don’t speak English or French at home rises to one out of three.

It has been difficult for researchers to access data on the portion of residents who cannot speak French or English, a problem acute among immigrant seniors, stay-at-homes and those functioning outside the wage system.

But an internal 2012 Immigration Canada report, obtained under Access to Information legislation, has revealed what is going on in workplaces.

The report shows a rising proportion of immigrants, more than 600,000, work in Canada in a language other than English and French.

And most of them, 60 per cent, say they cannot carry on a conversation in either of Canada’s official languages.

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The Immigration Canada report said newcomers who cannot work in English or French struggle with lower-than-average incomes and reside in ethnic enclaves, which keeps them in a language silo and economic rut.

One study suggested wages for those who can’t speak English or French are one-third lower than for other Canadians.

In light of such language-driven economic difficulties, as well as those related to health, education and communication among neighbours, it is no surprise that most government-financed immigration-support groups, such as S.U.C.C.E.S.S., strongly urge newcomers to show discipline in the difficult task of learning a new language.

Kenney, for his part, has responded by gradually ratcheting up language requirements for some economic classes of immigrants. But Kenney is not alone among the world’s immigration ministers.

Many of the relatively few countries in the world that accept new immigrants – such as Britain, the Netherlands and Australia – have stricter language requirements than Canada for newcomers.

Three years ago, Britain – announcing an intention to reduce its annual intake of immigrants by more than half, to roughly 100,000 per year – went further than Canada in regard to so-called “family reunification” immigrants.

Britain began demanding that even immigrants who arrive to marry or join spouses will have to meet language-proficiency tests.

“Britain decided that love does not override the language requirement,” said Vancouver lawyer Richard Kurland, a veteran observer of immigration trends who advises the federal government and major corporations.

“And Canada definitely has what Britain is doing on its own radar.”

Any suggestions that tougher language restrictions are “anti-immigrant” or “racist” are easily debunked these days, Kurland said.

Governments everywhere, he said, set minimum-language thresholds for immigrants “to benefit their own country, which is the object of the system.”

In the Netherlands, for instance, politicians approved new laws that demand immigrants from non-European countries be tested before arriving – and after – for their ability with the Dutch language. Failure to meet minimum Dutch-language requirements can lead to deportation.

Meanwhile, Australia began as far back as the 1990s to tighten up its English-language demands. Its policy changes, according to studies, have led to improved economic and social outcomes for more new arrivals to Australia.

With Canada slowly tightening its language requirements, will its next wave of immigrants follow the Australian pattern? Will Canada bring in fewer immigrants from China, South Korea and other parts of Asia? The answer is more complicated than you would think.

With Canada slowly tightening its language requirements, will its next wave of immigrants follow the Australian pattern?

Will Canada, for instance, bring in fewer immigrants from China, South Korea and other parts of Asia?

University of Waterloo professor Mikal Skuterud and his Australian co-author, Andrew Clarke, tried to figure out exactly why the average Australian immigrant now does financially better than the average Canadian immigrant.

As they began their research, the two scholars expected to discover that immigrants to Australia from China and India would do better financially because they were required to first speak English.

But the researchers discovered Australia’s carefully pre-screened Chinese and Indian immigrants do no better than immigrants admitted under Canada’s less-demanding system.

Instead, Clarke and Skuterud found, Australia’s reformed immigration policy led to a shift in the ethnic composition of Australian immigrants.

Growth in immigration from Asia tailed off somewhat. And Australia began getting more immigrants from countries where English is predominant.

For instance, Australia began to receive almost 20 per cent of its immigrants from Britain. (In Canada, less than five per cent of recent arrivals are from Britain.)

Clarke and Skuterud said immigrants from Britain were more rapidly assimilated into the Australian culture and local labour markets, quickly achieving earnings similar to native-born Australians.

With Canada slowly tightening its language requirements, will its next wave of immigrants follow the Australian pattern?

Will Canada, for instance, bring in fewer immigrants from China, South Korea and other parts of Asia?

Will we gather more from countries where English (or French) is either predominant or commonplace – such as Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Kenya?

Kurland, who publishes an immigration newsletter called Lexus, says Canada will definitely start approving more newcomers who are already adept in English or French.

Foreigners who struggle with new languages will give up applying to come here. And citizenship, he said, will more likely be given to people who first arrive as foreign students, who can then prove they know one of Canada’s official languages.

But, unlike what happened in Australia, Kurland’s not convinced Canada’s language-proficiency changes will actually lead to a wholesale decline in immigrants from our top three source nations: China, India and the Philippines.

Canada’s more demanding language-proficiency requirements mainly apply to about 70,000 of the roughly 260,000 accepted each year, he said. They are mostly the newcomers in the economic and skills categories.

For now, those arriving in the family-reunification class are largely exempt.

And given that China and India each have more than one billion people, and the Philippines has almost 100 million, Kurland said those countries will have no trouble turning out 70,000 prospective immigrants a year who know English or French.

Not only will newcomers who speak English or French do better financially in Canada, Kurland said, they will be far less likely to isolate themselves in ethnic enclaves, a trend more exaggerated in Metro Vancouver than anywhere else in Canada.

“The evidence can no longer be ignored,” Kurland concluded. “Language is critical.”

Posted by Douglas Todd.   Click here to access online article.  

This public event will showcase the life experiences of a former live-in caregiver and a group
of Filipino youth living in Canada, separated from family due to the Live-in Caregiver Program
(LCP). Through photographs and descriptions, the participants illuminate their lives as
temporary foreign workers and as members of their transnational families.

Everyone is invited to view the photos, to hear from researchers and community members, and
to engage in a discussion of the issues facing transnational Filipino families and LCP workers.

Online invitation. 

“Language is a central element and expression of identity and of key importance in the preservation of group identity,” the UN Independent Expert on minority issues, Rita Izsák, said as she presented her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Language is particularly important to linguistic minority communities seeking to maintain their distinct group and cultural identity, sometimes under conditions of marginalization, exclusion and discrimination.”

She added that language can be a source of tension since proponents of linguistic rights have sometimes been associated with secessionist movements or have been seen as a threat to the integrity or unity of a State, which has “aggressively promoted a single national language as a means of reinforcing sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity.”

Ms. Izsák, noted, however, that protection of linguistic minority rights is a human rights obligation and an essential component of good governance, efforts to prevent tensions and conflict, and the construction of equal and politically and socially stable societies.

In February, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) urged the use of books and textbooks in local languages to support education in mother tongues. UNESCO said translation into and promotion of local languages supports linguistic and cultural diversity and serves as the foundation for all social, economic and cultural life.

In her report, Ms. Izsák cites the need for education in minority languages, as well as their use in public life, media, public administration and judicial fields, among others.

According to the expert, historical factors such as colonialism have had a huge global impact on languages, resulting in the marginalization of and a rapid decline in the use of indigenous and minority languages, which were often seen as backwards, a barrier to colonial hegemony, or as slowing national development.

“It can also be argued that today globalization, the growth of the Internet and web-based information is having a direct and detrimental impact on minority languages and linguistic diversity, as global communications and marketplaces require global understanding,” said Ms. Izsák.

Independent experts are appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back, in an unpaid capacity, on specific human rights themes.

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