Lisa Ruth Brunner & Guofang Li
WPS 2022/4
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Abstract
In higher education-migration, or edugration, immigrant-dependent countries attempt to retain international post-secondary students as ‘skilled’ foreign workers and ‘ideal’ economic immigrants. However, higher education’s role as an immigrant selection actor in this process has been largely overlooked. In this paper, we use Bourdieu’s conception of capital to consider the relationship between Canadian (1) higher education institutions’ international student admission criteria, and (2) criteria of key economic immigrant programs which subsequently target these pre-selected international students. Our findings indicate a misalignment between the two selection processes, highlighting a potentially exploitative and relatively unregulated policy arena governing international students as they attempt to acquire the necessary capital to qualify for permanent residency.
KEYWORDS: higher education, international students, economic immigration, capital, edugration
Hongxia Shan, Elena Ignatovich, Siyi Cheng, Agnes d’Entremont and Thomas Tannert
WPS 2022/3
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Abstract
Higher education institutions in Canada have witnessed a surge in the number of international students and mature immigrant students. Research has established a positive correlation between attending higher institutions and immigrant and international students’ labour market outcomes. It is, however, not known how attending higher education may have worked to advance people’s professional careers. Neither do we know how the increasing number of students with migratory experiences may have impacted higher education and professions in terms of knowledge and practice. Drawing on a qualitative study with immigrants with engineering backgrounds who attended postgraduate studies in Canada, this paper provides some insights into these questions. In particular, it sheds light on the unique position that postgraduate studies occupy in the life trajectories of the respondents, the ways in which they benefited from the programs, as well as the impacts they brought to the engineering profession. Special attention is paid to the features of postgraduate programs that enabled the respondents to expand both their professional and life opportunities and the existing knowledge and practices within the engineering profession. Theoretically, the study benefits from a practice-based conception of immigrant as “distinctive knowledge practitioners”. Empirically, the study brings together life history research and situational analysis.
KEYWORDS: postgraduate studies, immigrants, engineering, international students, life history, situational analysis
Lucy Warrington & Benjamin Bryce
WPS 2022/2
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Abstract
The internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War has been a muchresearched topic, and it has become more present in Canadian public memory thanks to the active efforts of Japanese Canadians since the 1970s to seek redress from the Federal Government. This article seeks to add to this discussion the importance of recognizing the range of carceral experiences in Canada during the war. Both academic research and popular memory of Japanese Canadian “internment” often unconsciously promote uniformity in prisoners’ experiences. This obscures the gendered nature of wartime incarceration and discourse. Men and women were often separated; only male Japanese Canadians were sent to Ontario road camps. Age and class were also crucial in forming carceral sites, as only young men were sent to road camps, and wealthier Nisei could afford to live in ghost towns in the BC interior to avoid forced labour, underlining how the degrees of immobility depended on one’s affluence. Despite the popular perception that road camps were voluntary, the Canadian-born men labelled “enemy aliens” were nonetheless imprisoned.
KEYWORDS: enemy aliens; Japanese internment; carceral sites; Nisei; Schreiber-Jackfish road camp
Manlin Cai & Yue Qian
WPS 2022/1
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Abstract
In light of the growing racialized immigrant population in Canada and advances in dating technologies, this study examines Chinese immigrants’ partner preferences and partner selection processes through the lens of online dating. We draw on in-depth interviews with 31 Chinese immigrants who have used online dating services in Metro Vancouver to search for different-sex partners. Chinese immigrant online daters show strong preferences for dating Chinese. They emphasize permanent residency status and similarity in age at arrival when evaluating potential partners. Given their preferences, Chinese immigrants strategically choose the dating platforms they primarily use. Men exhibit higher selectivity in their preferences and choices of platforms. Notably, platforms catering to Chinese users create “digital enclaves” where Chinese immigrant daters congregate. The findings illuminate the intersection of race, gender, immigrant status, and age at arrival in shaping divergent experiences of partner selection and immigrant integration in the digital era.
KEYWORDS: integration, Chinese, gender, immigration, partner selection, online dating
“How has exposure to COVID-19 affected prejudice and discrimination towards refugees and migrants? While there have been several early studies of individual attitudes and behaviors in response to the pandemic, this research has almost all been limited to advanced economies in the Global North. We know very little about the impact of COVID-19 on everyday life in the Global South, where weaker healthcare systems and preexisting inequalities likely exacerbate negative health, economic, and social outcomes. Our proposed study will examine whether Colombian citizens have shifted their attitudes towards migration.
For this study, we conduct a panel survey (pre- and during COVID-19) in Colombia. In fall 2019, we conducted face-to-face surveys with about 1,000 Colombians on their attitudes about Venezuelan migrants. In winter 2021, we re-interview the same respondents using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). We assess how their COVID exposure has changed their attitudes, especially in light of the additional strain presented by COVID-19 on public healthcare systems and other public services as well as on the labor market. ”
Research Partners
Yang-Yang Zhou, UBC
Margaret Peters, UBC
Danial Rojas Lozano, UBC