Play by the Rules: Racialization and Mental Health of Chinese Canadian Youth

For many Chinese-Canadian youth, the pandemic was not just a health crisis, but a period of intensified racialization that damaged their mental well-being and hindered their access to support.

Anti-Asian racism is not new, but the COVID-19 pandemic amplified its reach and intensity and had a direct and damaging impact on the daily lives and mental well-being of Chinese-Canadian youth. In response, many have developed strategies to navigate the rules of racism to overcome discriminatory encounters at the expense of their emotional and mental health. Dr. Carla Hilario and her colleagues examine these experiences and strategies, highlighting youth’s struggles with racialization and the barriers that make professional mental health services feel out of reach.

“We must not mistake the resilience of youth for a positive outcome. Enduring racism is a painful, lifelong burden—not a rite of passage.”

Carla Hilario

Assistant Professor, UBC School of Nursing

Key Findings

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese-Canadian youth experienced an increase in racism. These encounters became more frequent, “blatant,” and “violent” than their previous experiences.
Chinese-Canadian youth referred to a set of “rules” to navigate racism, including ignoring it, confronting perpetrators, educating others, or even going along with it to preserve relationships—often at a personal and emotional cost.
Experiences of racism led to feelings of loneliness, anger, and a decreased sense of self-worth. Some affected youth faced barriers to mental health care, including a lack of providers who can understand their experiences with racism.

Recommendations

Mental health services can prioritize psychological safety for racialized youth by promoting and providing culturally safe care. Without it, individuals experiencing discrimination will not necessarily be able to access and/or receive the support they need.
Healthcare institutions can implement mandatory anti-racism training to better equip service providers working with youth. All institutions serving racialized youth need the tools to identify and address barriers to care and inclusion.

Implications for Current Events

A recent University of Ottawa survey has sounded the alarm on Canada’s national youth mental health crisis. Results show that racialized and Indigenous communities suffer disproportionately higher rates of depression and anxiety than their white counterparts. Racial discrimination was found to be a key driver, with the survey warning that chronic exposure can impair the overall health and academic or workplace outcomes of racialized youth. While the survey data confirms the link, the survey does not address how racialized youth navigate daily experiences of racial discrimination and their mental well-being.

Dr. Carla Hilario and her colleagues’ research provides a deeper understanding of these lived experiences. Focusing on the experiences of Chinese-Canadian youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, their study reveals the strategies that youth developed to negotiate and overcome anti-Asian racism. The research documents the profound psychological toll of racialization—like anger and isolation—to the coping mechanisms they built through mutual support. Ultimately, Dr. Hilario and her colleagues emphasize that these experiences with racism have a lasting negative effect on youth mental health and their access to care. They encourage healthcare professionals to recognize the impact of racism and to conduct anti-racism training to support racialized youth.

About the Authors

Carla Hilario (RN, PhD) is a nurse scientist, Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar, and Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan. Dr. Hilario’s research examines the structural and social determinants of young people’s health, including migration as a determinant of mental health outcomes and access to health care services for newcomers, immigrants, refugees, and racialised young people.

Capri Kong is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. She holds a BA degree and a Master’s degree from the University of British Columbia. Her current research studies the characteristics and dynamics of friendship networks among first- and second-generation immigrants and their influence on immigrants’ sense of belonging and integration into Canadian society.

Original Research

Ng, Isabella, Carla Hilario, and Jordana Salma. 2025. ““If I Stay Quiet, the Only Person that Gets Hurt is Me”: Anti-Asian Racism and the Mental Health of Chinese-Canadian Youth during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Canadian Journal of Nursing Research 57 (1): 33-46.

Document details

This publication is part of the CMS Migration Insights Series. The research briefs synthesize peer-reviewed, published academic research by CMS affiliates.

Two-Step Immigration Selection and Post-Admission Earnings

MYPEER: Implementation and Evaluation of an App to Improve Sexual and Reproductive Health Among Immigrant Adolescents in Canada

Project Overview

MYPEER, is a mobile app designed with immigrant adolescents using Community-Based Participatory Action Research and Human-Centred Design. Grounded in behavioural theories. It offers engaging, expert-reviewed content on puberty, contraception, STIs, gender identity, and healthy relationships. It also helps users find inclusive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services by filtering options based on language, accessibility, and 2SLGBTQIA+ friendliness. This study aims to assess the feasibility and acceptability of MYPEER as an SRH intervention among immigrant youth in Alberta and British Columbia, helping to inform scalable solutions for inclusive SRH education across Canada.

The project objectives are:

Evaluating recruitment and enrollment processes across diverse communities;
Monitoring participant retention and engagement over time;
Assessing the practicality and clarity of survey tools and app usage metrics;
Estimating preliminary changes in SRH knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors;
Calculating effect sizes to inform sample size planning for a future RCT.

Research Questions

How effective are the recruitment and enrollment strategies in engaging immigrant adolescents from diverse communities in Alberta and British Columbia?
To what extent do participants remain engaged with the MYPEER app and complete follow-up assessments over the study period?
Are the survey tools and app usage metrics practical, culturally appropriate, and clearly understood by immigrant adolescents?
What preliminary changes in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours are observed among users of the MYPEER app, and what are the estimated effect sizes to guide future RCT planning?

Research Design and Methodology

This is a single-arm, pre-post feasibility study conducted over 15 months in Alberta and British Columbia. Participants will receive access to the MYPEER app and will be followed over a 6-month period to evaluate engagement and potential changes in outcomes.

Collaborators

UBC School of Nursing & Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre (SARAVYC)

Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Saewyc (Professor & Distinguished University Scholar, Director, School of Nursing)

University of Alberta

Project Leader: Salima Meherali (Associate Professor & Associate Dean International, Faculty of Nursing)

Outputs

Digital tool

"MyPeer" free mobilie application. Available on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/mypeer/id6569217492

Project Status

This project is currently in the Planning phase.

Keywords

Immigrant adolescents, Sexual and reproductive health, digital tools, community-based participatory research

Discover other Bridging Divides projects

Discover other UBC projects from the Bridging Divides research program.

This research was undertaken thanks in part to funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

Integration Starts Abroad: How Technology Shapes Displaced Newcomers’ Integration in Canada

For many displaced newcomers, integration into the host country is a complex process. Increasingly, newcomers use online platforms and transnational social connections to prepare their settlement and integration both before and after arrival in Canada.

Displaced newcomers are using digital tools and social networks to secure housing and jobs before arrival—a process of transnational early integration. Research by CMS affiliates Sophie Xiaoyi Liu and Dr. Aryan Karimi with Afghan refugees and displaced Ukrainians reveals that while this strategy accelerates pre-arrival resettlement, it also exposes them to misinformation and online hostility.

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“We show that many newcomers, such as Afghan refugees and displaced Ukrainians coming to Canada, are already building employment, housing, language skills, and community support through digital and transnational networks before they arrive—redefining how integration takes place.”

Sophie Xiaoyi Liu

Doctoral Candidate, UBC Sociology

Key Findings

Displaced newcomers use digital technology to support their resettlement before arriving in Canada. Information about employment, housing, and government services comes from websites and online personal connections.
Social media provides essential immigration information, but also exposes newcomers to misinformation and potential discrimination. This can exacerbate psychological health risks and migration anxieties for displaced newcomers.
Many displaced newcomers rely on trusted family and friends in Canada to overcome integration barriers. While newcomers used online platforms, their lack of references in Canada made it difficult to secure housing and jobs without the support of trusted individuals already in Canada.

Recommendations

Governments should provide comprehensive pre-arrival and post-arrival integration information on official websites. This can include information on services and NGO resources to ensure refugees have reliable settlement information.
Policymakers should subsidize early language training for refugee newcomers, funding courses inside and outside Canada to remove early integration barriers.

Implications for Current Events

February 2026 marks four years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that forced millions of Ukrainians to seek safety abroad. Canada is one of the major destinations for displaced Ukrainians after introducing the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET), which offered accelerated temporary status for displaced Ukrainians. By April 1, 2024, the program received nearly 1.2 million applications and approved over 960,000. After obtaining travel authorization, the next challenge for Ukrainians is navigating integration from a crisis zone to a new life in Canada.

Sophie Xiaoyi Liu and Dr. Aryan Karimi, in their new research, studied the integration experiences of both Afghan refugees and displaced Ukrainians in Canada. They found that refugees seek to secure housing and employment before they even arrive in Canada, a phenomenon they described as transnational integration. To do that, many refugees used a mix of official government portals, social media platforms, and social connections in Canada to secure these essentials from overseas. However, their widespread use of digital tools also sometimes exposed them to misinformation and anti-immigrant hostility, complicating their integration into Canada.

About the Authors

Sophie Xiaoyi Liu is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of British Columbia, specializing in the sociology of law, race/ethnicity, and migration. She examines how knowledge of and experiences with the law shape the ways marginalized groups engage with legal practices in the North American context. Her dissertation examines pathways to justice for hate incident victims in Canada, with a particular focus on the experiences of Asian minorities. She employs diverse methodologies to explore these issues, including survey experiments, in-depth interviews, and computational text analysis.

Aryan Karimi is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. He studies migration and refugee flows, the role of ethnic and racial boundaries in assimilation practices, and the daily lived experiences of racialized refugee and diasporic communities. His research engages with immigrants/refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, with particular attention to the links between pre- and post-migration experiences and the broader transnational legacies that shape migration.

Original Research

Liu, Sophie Xiaoyi, and Aryan Karimi. 2026. “Refugee Integration Goes Transnational: Afghans and Ukrainians Prepare for Integration in Canada Before and After Arrival.” Global Networks 26, no. 1: e70042.

Document details

This publication is part of the CMS Migration Insights Series. The research briefs synthesize peer-reviewed, published academic research by CMS affiliates.

Not All Immigration Paths Are Equal: Some Immigrants Thrive, While Others Struggle, in Canada’s Two-Step System

Can Words Shift Views? How Policy Communication Shifts Support for Low-Skilled Immigration

Canada needs both high-skilled and low-skilled immigrants, but public support for immigration favours the highly skilled. This creates a dilemma for the Canadian government to balance public opinion with essential labour needs.

The gap in public support between high- and low-skilled immigration presents a major challenge for Canadian policymakers. To address both immigration priorities and labour shortages, the Canadian government needs to build more public consensus. CMS affiliate Dr. Vince Hopkins and his colleagues investigate how policy communications can shift public opinion and increase support for low-skilled immigration.

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“To build the consensus needed for Canada's economic future, policymakers need to move beyond the skill-level divide. We need to address public concerns by clearly articulating how a balanced, skilled immigration system benefits the nation as a whole.”

Vince Hopkins

Assistant Professor, UBC Political Science

Key Findings

While Canadians are generally supportive of immigration, this support is conditional on immigrants’ skill level. 75% of respondents supported the entry of more high-skilled immigrants, compared to only 22% supported welcoming more low-skilled immigrants.
Attitudes toward high-skilled immigration are not easy to change. Even when respondents were presented with the potential economic downsides of high-skilled immigration, their support remained high.
Positive framing about low-skilled immigration can increase support for allowing more low-skilled immigrants. When the economic benefits of low-skilled immigration are communicated clearly and positively, support for this group significantly increases.

Recommendations

Governments can develop clear, direct, and positive policy communication regarding the economic contributions of low-skilled workers to build public support for expanding low-skilled immigration policies.
Governments can also reduce public uncertainty by clearly communicating how a balanced system of both high-skilled and low-skilled immigration can bring economic benefits to the country as a whole.

Implications for Current Events

In early January 2026, Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey reported employment declines in both high-skilled and low-skilled sectors. Professional and technical services dropped by 0.9% (18,000 jobs), while accommodation and food services lost 1.0% (12,000 jobs). The utilities sector—essential for electricity and waste management—fell by 3.0%. Lower employment does not necessarily mean “fewer jobs,” especially when baseline demand is relatively stable. Rather, it implies a reduction in the number of available workers needed to provide everyday services and maintain infrastructure.

This is where immigration policy, and specifically a balanced intake across skill levels, comes in. Yet, public opinion tends to lean toward high-skilled immigrants. To examine this divide, Dr. Vince Hopkins and his colleagues examined how policy communications can shift public support toward low-skilled immigration. While Canadians have a strong preference for high-skilled immigrants, when the public is presented with clear, positive information about the economic benefits of low-skilled immigration, support for this group increased. This suggests governments’ communication of the concrete economic contributions of low-skilled immigrants can garner more favourable public opinion for lower-skilled immigrants.

About the Authors

Vince Hopkins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. He is interested in Canadian politics, with an emphasis on applied social policy. He examines how political and psychological barriers prevent citizens from accessing the services they need. His current research aims to improve the take-up of employment and integration services among jobseekers, young adults, and newcomers.

Original Research

Hopkins, Vincent, Andrea Lawlor, and Mireille Paquet. 2024. “How do Immigration Policies Affect Voter Support for Low-Skilled Immigrants? Evidence from a Survey Experiment.” The International Migration Review.

Document details

This publication is part of the CMS Migration Insights Series. The research briefs synthesize peer-reviewed, published academic research by CMS affiliates.

Unlocking Talent: Rethinking Immigration and Entrepreneurship Policy for International Students in Canada

Overlooking Lived Experiences: Access to Asylum & Canada’s Safe Third Country Agreement

Canada’s Safe Third Country Agreement limits who can seek asylum in Canada.

As access to asylum narrows in the United States, Canada’s continued reliance on the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) has drawn renewed attention. CMS affiliate and Law Professor Efrat Arbel traces STCA legal challenges from 2007 to 2023 to reveal how the courts erroneously focus on the way the law appears on the books, rather than how it operates on the ground.

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“As Canada moves towards enhanced border restrictions, it is imperative for stakeholders to understand how the law actually operates at the land border, and to pay attention to the lived experiences of the people who cross it.”

Efrat Arbel

Associate Professor, UBC Peter A. Allard School of Law

Key Findings

The Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) limits access to refugee protection in Canada by disallowing asylum seekers who arrive from the United States from seeking refugee protection in Canada.
Asylum seekers at the Canadian land border are almost always returned to the U.S. The agreement assumes that asylum seekers have access to protection in the United States. Canadian law offers few, if any, meaningful legal avenues through which to contest returns.
Canadian appellate courts have not sufficiently addressed the realities of asylum seekers who reach Canada’s borders. Ongoing STCA challenges, including at the Supreme Court of Canada, have mischaracterized the agreement’s impacts and overlooked lived experiences.

Recommendations

As the legal challenges to the STCA continue, Canadian courts should evaluate the agreement’s legal validity by reference to how it operates in practice. This process should examine how the STCA operates on the ground, paying attention to lived experiences.
Courts should consider how asylum seekers’ positionality and vulnerabilities shape access to legal remedies. Without this, the STCA’s operations and effects cannot be fully understood.

Implications for Current Events

It has been one year since U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” (EO 14159). Since then, the United States has ended asylum processing at all U.S. ports of entry, increased enforcement against noncitizens, increased deportations, and revoked other forms of humanitarian protection – like Temporary Protected Status – for those both seeking protection and individuals who had already been granted humanitarian protection.

UBC Professor Efrat Arbel’s research shows that under the STCA, asylum seekers are routinely turned back to the U.S., with almost no chance of accessing asylum or other forms of legal protection in Canada. The recent changes in the United States’ refugee determination laws provide yet more proof that the United States is not a “safe” country for refugees and should not be designated as such under Canadian law.

About the Authors

Efrat Arbel is an Associate Professor at the UBC Peter A. Allard School of Law. Her research is focused on Canadian immigration detention, refugee protection, and border governance. She has published widely in these fields. Her research has helped shaped law and policy in Canada and has introduced creative tools to advance legal education and public engagement.

Marjorie Rugunda is a PhD student in the department of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. She holds a BA degree from Rhodes University, South Africa and a Master’s degree from the University of Calgary. Her current research studies how institutions within Africa represent entrenched colonial legacies that shape contemporary social and political relations in (post)colonial contexts.

Original Research

Arbel, Efrat. “Border Trouble: Critical Reflections on the Canada–US Safe Third Country Agreement Litigation.” International Journal of Migration and Border Studies 8, no. 3–4 (2024)

Document details

This publication is part of the CMS Migration Insights Series. The research briefs synthesize peer-reviewed, published academic research by CMS affiliates.

Selective Welcome: How Race Shaped Immigration Policy in the U.S and Europe

Racial hierarchies intersect with immigration policy to shape who belongs—and who doesn’t—in the U.S. and Europe.

Current immigration debates in the U.S. and Europe are frequently framed as discussions on who is deserving of entry and settlement. It is historical laws rooted in racial bias, however, that shape contemporary policies and political discourse on these divides. Dr. Terri Givens examines the historical link between race and immigration, which is crucial for creating fairer systems going forward.

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“We continue to see the impact of immigration policy today that excludes people from certain backgrounds. We need to continue to pay attention to these kinds of inequities.”

Terri Givens

Professor, UBC Political Science

Key Findings

U.S. and European immigration policies have been shaped by racial and ethnic categorization. After the U.S Civil War and World Wars I & II, Global North governments increasingly targeted groups they considered racially or culturally undesirable.
In the early 20th century, U.S. immigration policies were influenced by eugenics—the belief that some races were biologically superior. These ideas led to policies which favoured Northern and Western Europeans while limiting immigrants from Southern Europe, Africa, and Asia from migrating into the U.S.
After World War II, European countries recruited migrants from former colonies to rebuild their economies. Initially welcomed as labourers, these migrants often faced discrimination and remained socially isolated, reinforcing racial boundaries.

Recommendations

Governments should eliminate nationality-based quotas and reassess temporary labour recruitment programs to ensure they do not disadvantage migrants from formerly colonized countries.
They should adjust their current immigration policies to address racial discrimination in entry, settlement, and citizenship processes.
Governments should develop programs that safeguard migrants’ rights and combat racial discrimination in immigration processes.

Implications for Current Events

On May 12, 2025, the Trump administration welcomed 59 white South African Afrikaners as refugees at Dulles Airport, citing claims of racial persecution. At the same time, the administration has expanded large-scale deportations and humanitarian protection revocation for Haitian migrants and asylum seekers. These decisions are not an isolated action. Rather, they are part of a broader pattern in which the Global North countries extend protection to specific groups while intensifying restrictions on others. These contrasting responses reinforce longstanding hierarchies over who is framed as deserving of immigration and who is not.

These contemporary examples offer only more evidence of the enduring legacy of racially motivated immigration policies. Terri Givens’ book, The Roots of Racism: The Politics of White Supremacy in the US and Europe, emphasizes how recognizing the historical use of immigration laws to maintain racial hierarchies can inform and even later produce stronger, more equitable, and inclusive immigration policies going forward.

About the Authors

Terri Givens is a Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia and a CMS affiliate. With a distinguished career that includes leadership roles as Vice Provost at the University of Texas at Austin and Provost of Menlo College, she has made significant contributions to higher education and scholarship. Dr. Givens is the author of several influential books, including Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides and The Roots of Racism: The Politics of White Supremacy in the US and Europe.

Original Research

Givens, Terri E. The Roots of Racism – The Politics of White Supremacy in the US and Europe. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2022.

Document details

This publication is part of the CMS Migration Insights Series. The research briefs synthesize peer-reviewed, published academic research by CMS affiliates.