Notes
Gaps identified
Employment:
• Earnings of newcomers involved in various sectors of the economy, and the influence of Edmonton’s boom and bust cycle on this.
• Experiences of economically successful immigrant groups and the strategies that worked for them to transition out of low-income socioeconomic levels.
Health and wellness:
• General, oral, and mental health of many newcomer subgroups, such as recently arrived refugees, LGBTQ+, family class and economic class immigrants, twice migrants, and international students.
• The impact of contextual factors, such as patterns of health at the source country, immigration circumstances, various socioeconomic factors, and the availability of psychosocial and support resources.
Youth engagement and community safety:
• The nature or influence of possible relationships among immigration, foreign policy, terrorism, global events, and domestic security.
• The participation of diasporas and transnational communities in radicalization processes.
• Other factors that promote radicalization.
Settlement process:
• How demographics in Edmonton’s old and new neighbourhoods are changing in light of increasing number of newcomers and minorities.
• Strategies immigrants and refugees employ to gain access to housing.
• The social, economic and/or health conditions of immigrants that may be related to their spatial concentrations.
Community organizations
Edmonton Local Immigration Partnership (E-LIP) Council
Key recommendations
Need for documenting experiences of successful immigrants and refugees, factors contributing to gang activities and radicalization and the effects of changing nature of neighbourhoods.
Researchers must design sound and generalizable smaller studies using multiple methodological approaches.
Need for studies with large sample sizes, preferably using large national and local databases.
Doing comparative studies of Edmonton with other Albertan and/or other Canadian cities.
Need for studies that involve both academic scholars and practitioners in the field.
Integration timeline
At what point during the integration process the study was conducted?
NA
Location
Edmonton, Alberta
Key findings
At least up until 2014, newcomers to Edmonton suffered from higher unemployment rates and were assigned to temporary jobs despite the region’s booming economy.
The health literature primarily focused on the maternal health of immigrant women, the general health of youth, the oral health of immigrant children, and HIV infections and mental health of elderly immigrants and members of certain immigrant groups in Edmonton.
Cultural and psychological barriers, and layered stigma kept newcomers from accessing appropriate help and services.
The issue of immigrant youth engagement in criminal and gang activities is largely attributed to identity issues, feelings of belonging (or lack thereof), poverty, and pre-migration violence and trauma.
