Immigration is, at present, one of the hot topics of discussion in Calgary and across the nation, yet the reality is that pushing past the punditry and into proof is difficult.
Addressing the need for high-quality, real-time research into immigration issues in Calgary is the aim of a new Centre for Immigrant Research (CIR) from The Immigrant Education Society (TIES)
TIES made the announcement that they would be transforming their research and programming development department into CIR during the Pathways to Inclusion Conference held at the Central Library on April 24.
“It means we’ll continue, of course, with the good work we have been doing but also with the scale-up activities and wider sharing of our research findings,” said Dr. Sally Zhao, President and CEO of TIES.
“The academic world is doing a lot of research, and a fantastic job they have been doing—we are doing research in partnership with them, but real-time research is lacking.”
As an example used by TIES, the length of time to get funding to do research in a purely academic setting, funding that has been recently provided to research Ukrainian emigres coming to Calgary is already two years out of date.
“We hope to get more funding from government and also funding bodies to conduct much-needed research, to provide best practices, and also service gaps to the service providers so they can in a timely manner to and initiate some activities to accommodate needs,” she said.
The transformation of TIES research department into a full-fledged research centre came about as a shared vision between Dr. Zhao and the late Vice-President of Research at TIES, Dr. Cesar Suva, who died in 2022.
Dr. Zhao said that the vision for the centre goes back to 2018, and since that time has resulted through the research program at TIES, over 20 projects and nearly 30 publications.
An example of how previous research has gone on to influence programming for immigrants included the Health Minds program, which was a joint partnership between TIES and the University of Calgary in 2018 that examined the emotional wellness of immigrants to the prairie provinces.
That program became TIES Health Minds, which has provided certified counselling, mental health information, and workshops to address social, cultural, language, and economic barriers faced by immigrants.
Research to be community-focused
Kreisha Hilario, Project Lead for the Centre for Immigration Research, said that a major focus for the new centre would be on upending the traditional research methodology of top-to-bottom focus and instead start to provide community-centric research that immediately impacts the needs of immigrants.
“Having community-based research and having that participatory action methodology, we’re bringing the voices of the communities to inform us what kind of programs they need, and they want,” she said.
She said that the research would still maintain a high rigour, but would also be flexible to include qualitative and quantitive research methodologies.
A current research project was an intervention through Voices in the Arts, which aims to understand the immigrant youth experience for members of the 2SLGBTQIA+, their social lives, and the complexities around gender-based violence and intersecting cultural identities, Hilario said.
“We saw that there’s a gap for newcomers or immigrants, and, and that’s very scary because this intersection of populations, it’s a taboo in their culture. So they don’t have that space to talk about that kind of concept,” she said.
“Giving them the safe space to talk through the intervention, through research is really something groundbreaking.”
She said that other research focuses on low-income, low-education clients so that TIES can better address the needs of those individuals.
Dr. Zhao said that the current research focuses of CIR, which is on the emergent needs of vulnerable populations specifically around digital literacy, language learning, food security, mental health, and climate change mitigation, were likely to evolve along wth the centre over time.
“Going forward, you never know right? And with emerging needs, we can always adapt our research and try to find some best practices and service gaps, and try to make sure our research funding will benefit more organizations and more populations in the future,” Zhao said.
Currently, said Dr. Zhao, the CIR employs 20 staff including researchers and contractors, with a goal to expand that number.
She said that the reaction to the transition to a research centre had been well received by TIES partners ahead of the public announcement.
“We got a lot of support, overwhelming support. For example, you see the Calgary Public Library is providing the beautiful space for us to have the [Pathways to Inclusion Conference], so we can spread the word and let people know about the good news,” Zhao said.
“All my sector colleagues are coming to this afternoon to the town hall in support as well. We’ve received overwhelming support from all the colleagues and partners, and we’re hoping to get the same support from the funding bodies as well in the future.”
For more information on TIES research, see www.immigrant-education.ca/resources/research-studies.
