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

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)