Boxing champ Ina Menzer (right) trains with students at the Bonifatius school in Menden, Germany. Photographer: Frank Saul

The “Alle Kids sind VIPs” campaign is an initiative of Bertelsmann Stiftung and was launched in conjunction with the 2008 Carl Bertelsmann Prize, which addressed the topic “Integration through Education - Fairness for All.”

The “All Kids Are VIPs” campaign invites German students between grades 5-12 to submit project ideas on how they could improve integration at their schools.

By prompting students to think about solutions to these issues, the campaign heightens awareness and sensitivity to the challenges that immigrants students face and empowers the students to find ways that they can help create a more welcoming environment for newcomers.

School children submit their ideas to the Alle Kids Sind VIPs website - as text, pictures or in video format! When winning ideas are selected, celebrity ambassadors (Germans of migrant origin themselves) are invited to an exciting launch event. Child-friendly ‘ambassadors’ include sports heroes such as the footballer Mario Gomez, the actress Susan Sideropoulos and TV presenter Daniel Aminati and Shary Reeves.

The Bonifatius School in Menden, Germany, was among the recent winners. Competing against the over 100 schools that took part, students in Menden organised a sports festival for children at St. Maria’s, a local kindergarten. The sports festival allowed children from immigrant families to improve their German in a playful and uninhibited way through games and physical activity. Three time boxing world champion Ina Menzer, a celebrity ambassador for “All Kids Are VIPs” also came to train with the students and talk about her childhood experiences as an immigrant.

“I know how it is to have to keep your fists up and be strong no matter what,” she explained. “When my family arrived in the city of Mönchengladbach from Kazahkstan, I was 10 and couldn’t speak a word of German. Only by working hard and having a lot of self-discipline was I able to make it. That’s what I’d like to give these kids: the ambition and perseverance that go hand and hand with being a good boxer.”

Cities of Migration will be watching for updates from this exciting student-led program.

• For related ideas on empowering young people, please see:
  • Montreal, CA: “Play it Fair”
  • Birmingham, UK: “Meeting, Mediating and Mentoring: The Power of Peer Mentoring”
  • Chicago, US: “Youth on Stage: Real People, Real Stories, Real Community”
  • Oldham: UK: Peacemaker: All People, All Communities
  • Paris, FR: Narratives of Belonging

As a mental health cultural interpreter for the Toronto based Afghani community, Julia Ghani sees her work as a form of bridge building: working with the community to build understanding across cultures, generations, language and traditional stereotypes.

Her work is part of a pilot program called “Adopting Mental Health Services for Newcomer Families” designed to address the mental health needs of the Afghani community in the city of Toronto.  The pilot program is being run by Diversity in Action Scarborough (DIAS) and in partnership with The Psychology Foundation of Canada.

Mental health issues are difficult for all families - but this stress can be further aggravated in certain newcomer cultural communities. For those who may have experienced traumatic events, language barriers can make it even more difficult to describe or contextualize what they are experiencing. Many feel reluctant or unwilling to accept help for what is often considered to be a personal problem, or a private family issue.

To create community support for the program, Diversity In Action, launched an extensive community outreach program in 2009. Newspaper and magazine articles and news features as well as TV and radio ads in the local ethnic press were all part of a strategy to challenge traditional thinking around mental health and highlight the availability of accessible information and services through cultural interpreters.

Unlike technical language translations, Julia assists clients and professional therapists by providing the cultural context of family roles and expectation. She speaks with parents to help them understand the unique stresses that their children are experiencing (and vice versa).  As well, as an ambassador in the community, Julia actively works to help the Afghani community understand that mental health is a medical issue.

The pilot project is now being reviewed as a potential model for the Tamil and Mandarin speaking community in Toronto. That is one more bridge that Julia has helped to build across communities.

Contact the DIAS pilot project, Adopting Mental Health Services for Newcomer Families.

Related Good Ideas on health issues:

• Hannover, Germany: MIMI-With Migrants, For Migrants - Intercultural Health in Germany
• London, UK: Dealing With Diabetes - The Maslaha Project
• Sheffield, UK: Accommodate Sheffield - Better Together
• Vancouver, Canada: Promoting Healthy Living In Multicultural Communities

Second generation learners are a litmus test for integration success. The educational achievement of the second generation relative to their native peers tells a compelling story of how some communities are succeeding and others are falling behind.

This month we profile Good Ideas in the area of education. We look at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), winner of the prestigious international 2008 Carl Bertelsmann Prize, and the canton-wide success of the QUIMS program from Zurich, also nominated for their work in city schools in Switzerland.

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) was recognized by the Carl Bertelsmann Prize in 2008 for its exemplary work in promoting social integration and improving equal learning opportunities at its schools. According to data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) the TDSB has successfully closed the average achievement gap between second generation students of immigrant origin and their Canadian peers.

In Zurich the QUIMS program is tailoring supplementary teacher training and classroom support to the needs of school communities in areas of high diversity (40%+). Their targeted ‘quality standards’ approach improves academic outcomes in the classroom and promotes social cohesion within Swiss communities.

Educational outcomes do not tell the whole story. Matriculation to post-secondary education, for example, doesn’t always mean higher rates of success in accessing the labour market, as the TIES research program at the University of Amsterdam has shown.

In Canada, young second generation women are more successful than their native peers, earning higher grades and higher wages. But this is not true of their male counterparts, where lower labour market outcomes for visible minorities may point to lingering forms of racial discrimination in Canadian workplaces; see Statistics Canada report.

But the data is less important than what we choose to do with it. The good news is that individual families, communities and institutions are using school, sport and other everyday activities to ensure that no one and no child is left behind.

Browse our Good Ideas in Integration collection for ideas and inspiration for your community!

• Frankfurt: “School For Mama and Me!”: Language Lessons For Parents
• Toronto: Making Their Mark: Educational Opportunity for Young Refugees
• Cardiff: Language from the Law: The Cardiff E.S.O.L. Police Project
• Auckland: Walking School Bus
• Toronto: Jump Math
• Singapore: Tuition Program for International Students

Housing and employment, visas and banking, schools and hospitals, or a soccer pitch for week-end recreation? Where to start when you need help settling into a new neighbourhood and job ?

Bringing services together under one roof, applying reliable service standards and ensuring open access to everyone (regardless of status) is the operating principle and genius of Lisbon’s One Stop Shop. Better yet, centralized One Stop Shop services are available to all city residents, and not just migrants.

The One Stop Shop model streamlines services to immigrants into one  service location. This helps integrate migrants into both city life and work much faster and with less frustration and fewer false starts.

Lisbon was not the only migrant receiving city who thought this was a good idea.   Migration experts conducted a Europe-wide search to find the best model for immigrant service delivery and it was this Lisbon One Stop Shop model that they selected.

How it Works

The One Stop Shop is a simple idea at the hub of a complex range of services and community needs.

At a One-Stop Shop in Lisbon, over 30 different services are available in one location, including the social security and inland revenue offices, judicial services, banking services and everything you need to know to connect to local government offices. Information is available on schools and the national sports institute, as well as on the electricity and water board. One Stop Shop visitors can do everything from buying internet services to applying for a national health card.

The location and hours of operation permit maximum accessibility, including proximity to urban parking, public transport and extended opening hours (8h30 - 20h00; and Saturday opening).

The convenience of the One Stop Shop service centres also attracts non-immigrants to these locations. This helps “mainstream” city services and promote the healthy development of diverse neighbourhoods and inclusive communities.

Language and cultural mediators are also available for additional practical help and to provide better information on the rights and duties of immigrants in EU Member States. As such, these mediators provide an essential link between government, public institutions and immigrants. This furthers the integration of both immigrants and the receiving society by addressing the two-way challenge of integration in a sensible and flexible way.

More than it seems…

Not only immigrants, but also employers and public institutions benefit tremendously from short, simple and transparent procedures for the application and acquisition of work and residence permits, family certificates, and so on. When these services are delivered correctly and with fairness, a powerful message of respect and dignity is communicated.

As well, this experience of welcome is key to well-integrated communities, according to Rinus Penninx, the coordinator of the IMISCOE Network of Excellence on International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe, and lead reviewer of the INTI One Stop Shop project: ”In open and inclusive societies, immigrants are welcomed as citizens-to-be.”

Reliable access and accurate information helps build trust in local government and public institutions. Trust promotes attachment and a sense of belonging, both important steps towards active civic engagement and participation.

Success

In 2005 the original National Immigrant Support Centres won first place in the Best Practices in the Public Sector Awards in the category of service provision, and was featured as an example of best practice in the European Commission’s Handbook on Integration for Policy-Makers and Practitioners.  The Common Agenda for Integration (2005) defined the ‘one-stop-shop’ as a priority initiative in strengthening the capacity of public and private service providers to interact with migrants from outside of Europe. In 2007, the original Support Centre in Lisbon was averaging nearly 750 users a day (270,212 annually).

From September 2007 to February 2009, the High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue (ACIDI) in Lisbon was funded to coordinate the EU-INTI programme to study and further develop the One Stop Shop model (OSS). The OSS Project included eight country partners in seven EU member states involving partnerships between various Government offices, agencies and non-governmental organizations to examine the feasibility of developing a handbook for replicating the One-Stop Shop model in cities across Europe.

Indeed, a major achievement of the EU-INTI project is the Handbook on How to Implement a One-Stop-Shop for Immigrant Integration, launched at the final conference of the project in Lisbon on 6 February 2009. Happily, this excellent guide to developing your own One Stop Shop is also available for download in German, Greek, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.

An interview with Ulrich Kober, Director, Programm Integration und Bildung at the Bertelsmann Foundation.

Each year the Carl Bertelsmann Prize honors innovative ideas and exemplary solutions to pressing social issues from Germany and internationally with the mandate of learning from the best examples in the world.

In 2008, the prize was focused on the theme, “Integration depends on education.” The Bertelsmann Foundation carried out an international search to identify the practices and approaches that are the most successful at increasing equal opportunity in schools for the children of immigrant families and, by doing so, promoting the children’s integration within their adopted country.

Click here to read about the 2008 winner of Carl Bertelsmann Prize.

1. Like Cities of Migration, the Bertelsmann approach is about cities learning from other cities. When did Bertelsmann first start looking outside Germany for ideas and what led to this approach?

Well, after WW II, Reinhard Mohn, the founder of the Bertelsmann Foundation, spent time in the US as a prisoner of war. In addition to being impressed by what he experienced overseas, it also led to his view that the new post-war Germany could and should learn from the world at large. In fact, “To Learn From The World” was the title of his last book.

And so, the Bertelsmann Foundation has always had a deliberate focus on how the success of international practices could be used to address the challenges Germany is facing.

The annual Carl Bertelsmann-Prize honours those international models that inspire social innovation in Germany. For instance, in the field of integration and education, Germany must adopt policies that reflect our new reality of Germany being a country of immigration. At the moment, Germany has a lot to learn from countries that better integrate migrant and newcomer children in the educational system and this was one of the reasons why the 2008 Carl Bertelsmann Prize was awarded to the Toronto District School Board for its outstanding educational equity policy.

2. Education systems and curriculum requirements vary enormously from city to city and can have a huge impact on the classroom experience. With all these differences, does it make it difficult to actually apply a practice that may have worked in Toronto to the situation in Germany?

Indeed, the process of transferring a model from one specific context to another is always tricky.

It ’s true that education systems vary a lot - the German school system is a multi-track system with tracking (or streaming) beginning at the very early age of 10 years.

In contrast, the Canadian system is comprehensive. In Germany, the regional or local level of government is not as important or involved in the education system as it is in Canada, since German cities are responsible for the maintenance of the school building but not in charge of curricula or teaching staff.

However, German cities like Berlin or Hamburg face similar integration challenges as Toronto and so, the way Toronto faces these challenges is highly inspirational for them.

Having said that, it is clear that the solutions must be adapted to fit into the German context - and that ultimately, they will be different from the answers given in Toronto. In Toronto the belief in integration through education is supported by a Canadian climate of valuing diversity and a national “multicultural” consensus.

There is no such thing in Germany.

The country has been ´- until very recently - reluctant to integrate migrants. Migrants were seen as “guest workers” that would return to their countries of origin and not as residents or Germans.

This viewpoint is what framed the national and regional discussion. And so, the change that we hope to encourage in Germany is really a change in mental models and not just introducing new teaching methods or pumping more money in schools with a high proportion of migrant children.

3. In your experience, what are some of the common issues that schools with high newcomer and immigrant populations face - regardless of city and geography?

I see two common issues: language and social capital. Language acquisition is the key to integration. All cities and countries need to establish effective systems and programs for migrant students to learn the new language.

Migrants also lack social capital in the new environment - meaning, they often don’t have relevant professional contacts, networks and friends and so need effective systems for social support.

4. What have been some of the successes that you have been able to bring back to Germany?
The German educational system has been undergoing deep changes over the last years. The OECD’s global evaluations, the PISA’s (Programme for International Student Assessment) have really helped to open up the country to international experiences.

Some of the changes that we’ve seen implemented in Germany include the extension of the school day which has been helpful for migrant students. Another idea, that was also inspired by international best practice and adopted in almost all German states, is to test the language ability of all four year old children. Students that need additional support are identified early and so, by six when they start school, have been given the opportunity and means to catch up.

Our global research and international involvement has also raised the profile of this issues nationally. Through our recommendations, we have also been able to engage a broad range of German stakeholders. For instance, the state commissioner for integration spoke at the event when the Carl Bertelsmann Prize was awarded to the Toronto District School Board. I was recently invited to the commission for schools of the parliament of Northrhine-Westphalia, (the largest German state), to discuss ways to improve immigrant integration in schools.

Last autumn I was invited to international commission of the Stuttgart council to speak about the integration of migrant children. These are just three examples which show that our work is perceived at a national level, the state level and the regional level.

5. What do you see as the most significant challenge to immigrant integration in education?

In Germany, it is the gap between migrant students and native students. According to the PISA studies, by the age of 15 migrant students currently lag two school years behind their native peers. As a result, the proportion of migrant students that enter university is much lower than the proportion among their native peers. Furthermore, the proportion of school leavers among migrant students is much higher and the proportion of those finding a place in the vocational system is much lower. These gaps have to be closed and at the same time the bar for all students in Germany has to be raised.

6. Is there a key message you would like to share about what needs to be done to move this agenda forward?

The key message is that every child - regardless of his social or ethnic background - matters and has to be enabled via the educational system to develop its potential. Individual support by teachers and schools is the key to deliver equity and excellence in education.

7. Good ideas aside, of all of the cities you’ve looked at and travelled to, what would you most like to bring back to your home city?

Well, When we want to Stockholm, Sweden we spoke to a principal in a neighborhood populated exclusively by refugees from Asia, particularly Afghanistan. We asked her whether she had problems with head scarves in her schools. Yes, she answered, they needed MORE head scarves especially among teachers … we were stunned because in some states in Germany teachers with head scarves are not allowed to teach. In Toronto we saw signs with the slogan “Diversity is our strength” - in Germany people think that diversity is causing trouble. These Swedish and Canadian examples could help Germany to develop a new approach to immigrant integration in the education system.

Read more about Bertelsmann Foundation.

Social cohesion. Scanlon Foundation and Monash University have released the second round of a major longitudinal survey on social cohesion in Australia. This research is focused on monitoring how Australia will maintain the “immigration with social cohesion” success story of the last five decades as the country travels towards 30/50, i.e., a population of 30 million projected for 2050. Download the 2009 Social Cohesion Summary Report. For the 2007 population forecasting report from the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering, see “30/50 The Technological Implications of an Australian Population of 30 Million by 2050“

Education. Understanding the school experiences of young people facing racism who are from Indigenous, migrant or refugee backgrounds is the subject a new report from the Foundation for Young Australians and the Institute for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University. The study focuses on the role local schools play in fostering “values and behaviours that contribute more directly to building a diverse and dynamic nation” and makes recommendations for systemic change. See, The impact of racism upon the health and well-being of young Australians.

Immigration reform. On 8 February 2010, the Australian Ministry of Immigration and Citizenship announced major changes to the General Skilled Migration program.  Australia will dump 20,000 low-skilled migrant applications to re-focus its immigration intake on high-skilled jobs critical to the economy. The switch will be a blow to Australia’s overseas student education sector, the country’s third largest export earner worth $13 billion.  Read all about it in the Sydney Morning Herald or in Reuters India.

Celebrating Diversity. Australia celebrates National Harmony Day on 21st March 2010. Since 1999, thousands of local schools, community groups and organisations across Australia have hosted Harmony Day events.  This year, businesses and workplaces across Australia  are invited to explore the 2010 theme, “Express Yourself,” over lunch!  Everybody’s favourite import, food, is at the heart of the Scanlon Foundation’s highly successful “Taste of Harmony” campaign (March 15-21) which celebrates diversity and common values at work.

Earlier this month, The Globe and Mail, Canada’s pre-eminent national newspaper, recognized the top 10 Nation Builders of the Decade.

Ratna Omidvar, the President of the Maytree Foundation (the lead foundation behind the Cities of Migration project) was honoured for her influence and impact in shaping the Canadian approach to and understanding of immigration.

Other Nation Builders included the inventors of the Blackberry and globally acclaimed writer Margaret Atwood.

From the national citation:

“One of the remarkable features of Canada’s last decade is the degree to which a widespread consensus on immigration has taken hold. Ratna Omidvar, a leading advocate for settlement and integration, has been particularly influential in nudging Canada toward this new consensus.” (The Globe&Mail)

Ratna’s success in building a consensus owes much to her focus on the economic argument: when systems and other barriers result in the underemployment of immigrants, Canada, and especially Canadian cities, loses billions from our economy. Her logic and practical solutions have resonated with the highest levels of Canadian government and business.

The Toronto Region Immigrant Council (TRIEC) was created by Maytree to break the cycle of immigrants being overlooked for jobs because they lack Canadian experience. The program resulted in over 5000 skilled immigrants finding jobs and the endorsement of the CEO’s of one of Canada’s largest national banks and insurance companies.

Similarly, Maytree’s practical public policy suggestions such as pre-immigration orientation on Canadian culture and labour markets are being implemented by Canadian offices overseas. The recent guarantee by the national government to evaluate the credentials of foreign-trained professionals within a year of their arrival also bear the influence of her work.

For more on recent Maytree work on immigration reform in Canada: see, Adjusting the Balance: Fixing Canada’s Ecomomic Immigration Policies and Fast, Fair and Final: Reforming Canada’s Refugee Sysytem.

More about The Maytree Foundation

Established in 1982, Maytree is a private foundation that promotes equity and prosperity. Its focus is on the reduction of poverty in Canada, with a particular focus on immigration, integration and diversity.

Maytree believes that immigration and integration must work both in the short term and in the long term. The short term is about basic settlement needs and participation in the labour market; the long term is about a broader sense of participation and inclusion in Canadian society. This is a matter not simply of individual effort by the immigrant, but must be accompanied by institutional change. In other words, inclusion is a two way street that leads to social cohesion, nation building and citizenship.

Maytree programs and funding areas include:

Major poverty reduction initiatives: The Caledon Institute of Social Policy and the Tamarack Institute.

Immigrant employment: The Toronto Region Immigrant Council (TRIEC) and ALLIES.

Leadership: DiverseCity onBoard, one of 8 urban leadership programs in the DiverseCity initiative.

Educational Opportunity: The Maytree Scholarship Program.

Diverse Voices: Diaspora Dialogues.

For more about the Maytree Foundation, visit the Maytree website.

To live inside an inclusive community means removing the concept of the “other”  and re-framing how people think. When commonalities outweigh difference, it’s easier to get on with the game, whether you are in the playground or sitting in a corporate board room.

 Cultivating empathy and a sense of fair play in children reduces social intolerance, bullying and other forms of discrimination and helps take the “other” out of the equation. Working in conjunction with the city of Montreal, the NGO Equitas, has developed an educational toolkit that uses games to teach children to focus on their commonalities and not their differences.

Games, the ordinary tools of childhood.

The Play It Fair! Program is designed for children and youth between the ages of 6-12 and is being used at summer day camps and after school activities. Part of its success comes from using children’s innate and common interest in what is “fair” in games to prompt the development of this same attitude in all aspects of their lives.

Related Good Idea:

• Berlin: Dolls and Diversity: Fighting Prejudice with Empathy
• Munich: Buntkicktgut! Integration Through Sports

Luck Mervil

Nowhere is this more true than Montreal, home to the largest Haitian community in Canada. Between 100,000 and 140,000 residents of Canada’s largest French-speaking city were born or have family in Haiti. 90% of all Haitians in Canada live in the province of Quebec.

Haitian immigration to Montreal is part of the first wave of modern francophone immigration to Quebec. Large scale migration from Haiti to Montreal accelerated in the early 1970s when politics shifted the balance of power from anglophone to francophone Quebec. Until then, immigrants gravitated to Montreal’s Anglophone community and the English language.

The historical and symbolic importance of the Haitian community is not lost on one of Montreal’s most important institutions -the Montreal police force. After the devastating earthquake, Montreal police responded quickly to a local community in distress, providing assistance and building trust in a community that will soon be integrating a new influx of family survivors and homeless refugees.

Through Operation Koudmen, from the créole word meaning “coup de main” or helping hand, 61 of 105 Montreal police officers of Haitian origin have been assigned to new temporary support roles working exclusively within Montreal’s Haitian community. Officers like Lyonel Anglade  were instrumental in organizing fellow officers to launch Koudmen because he understood how much the community needs this show of of support. Anglade spends time visiting local Haitian community centres and churches to assess on-going community needs and to look for ways the police can help, both today  and in the weeks ahead.

Before the disaster, Quebec already had 2,000 people from Haiti approved for immigration. This number could increase significantly with a humanitarian provincial decision to widen immigration eligibility for members of extended families of Haitian origin.

Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada

Notable Canadians of Haitian origin include the Right Honourable, Michaëlle Jean, Canada’s Governor General, who arrived in Canada in 1968 as a refugee and went on to build a successful career in public broadcasting before taking public office. Jean is Canada’s first Governor General of Caribbean origin, and the third woman to hold this position.

Other prominent Haitian Canadians include Luck Mervil, the popular Quebecois celebrity and Haitian-born singer-songwriter, who organized a special benefit concert on Jan. 21 for victims of the earthquake; novelist, Dany Laferrière; and Samuel Dalembert, a professional basketball player who plays center for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.

Source: Local Cop’s New Beat (Montreal Gazette, January 22, 2010)
Source: The Haitian Community in Canada. (Statistics Canada, 2007)

Local solutions to national issues: skilled Immigrants and the Canadian labour market.

Current concerns about the state and future of the economy is a common issue among global cities. In Canada, that includes the role that skilled immigrants will have in securing Canada’s economic growth.

According to Canada’s Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, “The reality is that immigrants could account for virtually all labour force growth in Canada within the next decade.”

Baby boomer retirement and a skills deficit in the current labour market means that Canada will have as many as 425, 000 jobs opening up and employers will be looking for skilled immigrants to fill these jobs.

However, even when skilled immigrants are available to meet demand, a gap remains between the skills that many newcomers have to offer and the number of job offers they actually receive. For instance, between 50 and 60 per cent of Canadian newcomers are working in fields other than what they trained for. Further, two-thirds of skilled immigrants report they have been told they will require further education in Canada in order to obtain professional jobs here (Citizenship and Immigration Canada).

Recommendations for the reform of Canada’s policies on skilled immigration and related issues were recently tabled by Naomi Alboim, Maytree Policy Fellow, in Adjusting the Balance: Fixing Canada’s Economic Immigration Policies.  The report recommends that the federal government articulate a national vision for economic immigration in which a revised Federal Skilled Worker Program becomes the priority.

Addressing the skills gap

Skills recognition is one of the issues, but there are others. Immigrants often lack the professional or personal networks that enable them to hear about or be considered for opportunities.

In Canada, organizations like the Toronto Regional Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) are trying to overcome this barrier by connecting skilled immigrants with their employed counterparts to help build their social and occupational capital.

In Montreal, short term mentioning is offered by the Montreal Board of Trade to help introduce immigrants to smaller and mid-size companies that may not be aware of the market for skilled immigrants. The program also offers support for employers to help them retain diverse talent.

Overcoming the challenge of the skilled immigrant gap in Canadian cities, will also be easier when corporate leadership becomes more reflective of the city population and workforce. DiverseCity onBoard is a Toronto based program that is working to do this by “match making” pre-screened, qualified candidates from diverse communities with board opportunities with organisations and agencies from across the city.

For a recent analysis of diversity in city leadership in Toronto, please see the DiverseCity Counts project, a three year benchmarking study that sets high expectations for urban leadership in Canada’s economic capital.

The Government of Singapore has introduced a Tuition Grant Scheme (TSG), to help international students subsidise the high costs of technical and university education. The policy is part of an overall strategy to both recruit and retain international students to Singapore.

With a population of 4.5 million and an extremely low birth rate, Singapore, needs immigration to remain economically competitive. The TSG is part of a larger economic strategy to become a “talent capital of the global economy.”

A government economic review panel recommended a target of 150,000 foreign students by 2012 - more than double the 2005 figure of 66,000 - estimating that this would not only create 22,000 jobs but also raise the education sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product from the current 1.9 percent (S$3 billion or US$1.9 billion) to 5 percent.

Singapore is taking the lead on building the international student market. Founded in 2002, the Global Schoolhouse initiative has helped to build up the Singapore Education brand-name. By combining Asian school systems with Western education styles, Global Schoolhouse has attracted foreign universities like INSEAD, Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts to set up operations in the city. Today, Singapore is home to 16 leading foreign tertiary institutions and 44 pre-tertiary schools offering international curricula. It’s goal is to have 150, 000 students targeted by 2012.

In exchange for TSG support, international students are requires to sign a Tuition Grant agreement that requires them to work in Singapore for a minimum of 3 years after graduation.

Cities of Migration is particularly interested in the policies and initiative that will follow from the TSG program - specifically, what will Singapore be doing to insure that international graduates are able to both find employment and then integrate into the society to the degree that it become “home” and they ultimately decide to stay.

As patterns of migration become more fluid and immigrants often cycle through a number of cites, Singapore’s lessons in retaining global talent, is something we will watching closely.

Related Good Idea We are Watching:

Helsinki: Moving international talent from university to employment

A Taste of Harmony celebrates Australia’s “hotpot of cultures” through the joy of food. For a week in March, at the end of an Aussie summer, workplaces across Australia - big and small, and from every industry - are encouraged to gather their colleagues together for a tasty multicultural lunch.

Designed to coincide with Australia’s national Harmony Day,  A Taste of Harmony is a week-long campaign that uses the office lunch hour to celebrate the increasing cultural diversity of Australian workplaces

Employees bring in dishes that reflect either their cultural background or their favourite ethnic foods.  The result?  Colleagues and office mates are brought together to experience and enjoy new cultures, as well as raising office morale and contributing to a more engaged workforce.

Why it works

Susie Babani is Group Managing Director, Human Resources, at ANZ, someone who has always championed diversity issues, “…but if there’s one thing I’ve learnt in my career, it’s this - when you start to frame diversity in terms of its business benefits, you start to get momentum.’

The effective management of cultural diversity in the workplace helps Australian businesses maintain a competitive advantage and respond to the challenges of globalized markets and a changing customer base.  Research has found that diverse teams operating in inclusive workplaces are better at innovation, problem solving and creating new products.

For Peter Scanlon, of the Scanlon Foundation, the diversity advantage is also a national asset: “A Taste of Harmony gives all Australian businesses the opportunity to recognise and celebrate cultural diversity with the aim of achieving greater understanding and appreciation of what has, and continues to be a key strength of our nation.”

It’s hard to resist

Its a simple idea that’s having a big impact. More than 60,000 Australians shared diverse lunches in 2009, and 500 Australian businesses have already registered to participate in the 2010 campaign. It doesn’t hurt that top celebrity chefs are lining up to act as event ambassadors and provide inspiration… as well as online recipes.

Participation in A Taste of Harmony is free and simply requires workplaces to register online to receive a promotional package designed to help support individual events in the workplace and create a celebratory atmosphere for the lunch on the day. The pack contains a poster, napkins, balloons and table toppers and is supported by online ideas, feedback, downloads and games as well as a gallery of images from 2009.  The campaign website offers a database of recipes as well as the opportunity for feedback and connection.

Leading companies such as Deloitte, ANZ, Heinz, Australian Industry Group, Emcorp Solutions and Mitchell Communication Group have signed on as key sponsors and campaign champions. These are businesses that recognize a culturally diverse workforce helps interpret and meet the needs of a growing customer base in new and international markets. At ANZ bank, for example, workers represents 134 cultural backgrounds, speak 91 languages and follow 84 religions.

A Taste of Harmony is an initiative of The Scanlon Foundation, a philanthropic organisation dedicated to support the creation of a larger, cohesive Australian society.

Who’s afraid of math?

Forget the stereotypes of who can and cannot do math. The philosophy behind the JUMP Math program is that every student has the potential to think mathematically and can excel at math class, including the most disadvantaged children, and those facing the greatest learning challenges.

JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Mathematics Prodigies) mathematics is a teaching programme developed in Toronto by Canadian author and mathematician John Mighton that has shown that success in mathematics  helps develop the confidence and the cognitive abilities that children need to do well in all other subjects.

“We strive to increase children’s chances of success, to reduce socio-economic disparities, to engender a sense of belonging and, most importantly, to endow voiceless children with opportunity.”

Classroom results show that even at-risk students using JUMP Math receive a performance “jump” that raises their academic achievement and puts them close or on par to mainstream standards.  It also improves their scholastic confidence and personal expectations.

How Jump Math succeeds

The JUMP Math program is based on a step-by-step approach to learning that begins with confidence building exercises and methods that minimize the differences between students. As with language learning or music, students master the basics using meaningful cognitive practices and, with success, soon acquire the joy, confidence and creativity to move ahead.

Mighton believes the JUMP Math approach helps reverse stereotypes about mathematical ability that can sideline poor students and lower expectations for their potential to learn and be successful. When all students are viewed as equally capable of learning and succeeding at math, argues Mighton, children feel more confident, less excluded and the classroom dynamics improve.   Success ultimately contributes to more educational opportunity –and less inequality in student outcomes.

Since its founding, JUMP Math has caught the attention of teachers, researchers, and school board officials across Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Toronto. Project managers and participating schools have taken great care to track and evaluate student outcomes and classroom impact.

Toronto teacher,  Mary Jane Moreau, started using the JUMP program in her grade 5 class. At the time, student scores on a standardized computation test ranged from the 37th to the 75th percentile. After a year of JUMP, she says, “all but one were in the 91st-to-the-99th percentile.”

Going global, with confidence

Now Jump Math is on the move, testing its methods and taking its succes to classrooms outside Canada.

In 2006, JUMP Math implemented a UK pilot in Lambeth, an inner-city area of London which is the third neediest borough in England and where 79% of the school population is from diverse (BME) groups. Over a three-year period, Lambeth has seen a 7% rise in its national test scores in mathematics, moving from close to the bottom to within two points of the national average.

Based on JUMP Math’s success in Lambeth, the program was recently recognized by the UK Department for Education and Skills in “What Works with Children with Mathematical Difficulties.” Lambeth has been awarded a grant by the London Challenge to make JUMP Math available to more students in Lambeth and other boroughs.

Research at the Vancouver School Board in 2007 reports that teachers also experience increased confidence in their teaching abilities after using the JUMP Math program. What’s more, teachers observed an increased experience of social inclusion among students. The program helped students develop more confidence and fostered “a sense of connection or belonging to the larger group.”

Jump Math is a good example of how good ideas can lead to success reaching well beyond the original proposition. This innovative program helps students enjoy math while levelling the field of opportunity in education –so that no child is left behind.

A surprising journey

Dr. John Mighton is an award-winning playwright and writer  who completed his Ph.D in mathematics and now teaches at the University of Toronto. He began JUMP Math as a student after he himself almost failed his first year of calculus.  A passion for math and his personal belief that we all have mathematical potential led Mighton to found JUMP Math as a kitchen table tutoring group in 1998. Today Jump Math is a charitable organization operating internationally from Toronto.

Mighton has combined research in cognitive science and case-study evidence from the classroom to train teachers and produce free teaching guides that demonstrate how any student can master fluent mathematical literacy given the right kind of practice.

You can read more about Junp Math and the work Mighton has done to dispel classroom myths about learning in his books, The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child and The End of Ignorance .

The 2010 International Cities of Migration Conference: An Opportunity Agenda For Cities

The Hague (Netherlands), October 3-4, 2010

The 2010 Cities of Migration International Conference is a two day event designed to bring together international city leaders and immigrant integration experts in a productive dialogue on one of the most important global challenges facing cities today: the integration of urban newcomers.

The Cities of Migration agenda is unambiguously positive, stories of successful immigrant integration, unusual actors, inclusive communities and urban prosperity. We are using the evidence of local urban success to build a new consensus on the benefits of migration and integration.

We invite you to join us for stimulating speakers and a strategic conversation on how to re-frame the issues and engage urban leadership on this essential dimension of city prosperity and growth.

Conference Programme and website are coming soon.

Crosswalk to International Metropolis
Additional workshops and panels will run concurrently with the 15th International Metropolis Conference in The Hague, October 4-8, 2010.

Registration:

Online Registration will open in May.

For additional information, please contact: citiesofmigration2010@maytree.com

On January 19th, the Cities of Migration and the Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) joined the cities of Chicago (US) and Turin (Italy) to explore how public / private partnerships can help cities achieve their integration goals. The event had a fantastic online turn-out and we were joined by participants from the cities of Austin, LA, Philadelphia, San Jose, Budapest, London, Madrid, Calgary, Dublin and others.

The speakers included Daranee Petsod, the Executive Director of GCIR, Clare O’Shea, Senior Planner from the Village of Mount Prospect, Chicago, and Luca Cianfriglia, Director, “The Gate Project” of Turin.

For the complete city success story, see their Good Idea profiles at CitiesofMigration.ca:

Chicago: The Chicago Community Trust partnership involved three municipal governments within the larger Chicago region. The funding model was designed to address the needs of growing newcomer communities while securing wider investment from both community and private sector stakeholders to build local capacity for the long-term.

Turin: The Gate Project at Porta Palazzofrom the City of Turin is an urban regeneration initiative that uses a flexible, participatory approach to community development. With a wide platform of public and private participation and support, the city of Turin has transformed The Gate from a pilot project into a local development agency that integrates a committment to poverty and crime reduction to the primary goals of social inclusion and sustainable urban renewal

To view the complete webinar including the Q&A portion, visit: Municipal Action on Integration or access just the power point presentation.

Highlights from the discussion included:

• What are the benefits and risks of partnering with local government ? Some of the benefits discussed include: leveraging government infrastructure, longevity, credibility and reach. Some of the risks? The political agenda driving the decision, the risk of a change in leadership (and accompanying shift in the political agenda) and accountability.

• Tips for effective public/private partnerships from the City of Chicago included:open communication, cultivating a network of relationships, the importance of credibility, sustainability and the need to educate elected officials and community.

• Porto Palazzo shared their multi-stakeholder success story; highlights included: the importance of mixing the formal with the informal, including reaching out to informal networks and community leaders ; and creating the opportunity and space for casual programming; for example, Sunday language classes in the piazza in Italian, Arabic, Chinese , Romanian …and Italian!

For more Good Ideas on Public and Private partnerships, see also:

• Boston (US): From Boston’s Back Streets to Mainstream Success; and
• Stansted (UK): Bringing People to Jobs: Runways to Work Programme