Challenges Facing Children and Youth Newcomers to Canada’s Education System
Students will compose a Newcomer Children and Youth in Canada Term Essay. To do so, they will select a particular topic and compose an essay that answers the following research question:
How effectively have institutions and actors in Canada supported newcomer children and youth in the country?
The list of topics to choose from may include the course topics; law, settlement services, identity, education, health, poverty, and social exclusion. They may also be a topic that is not listed here, but be sure to consult with the instructor first. Recognizing that many of these topics intersect, it is certainly possible and understandable to include a few. But be sure to strive to focus on one particular topic generally and how that topic may relate to an additional topic. For instance, if the overall topic is on newcomers and settlement services, it is perfectly understandable to include how settlement services assist newcomer children and youth in educational support. The goal is to maintain a focus on the role of settlement services while acknowledging how they impact education.
This assignment will be 8 written pages in length. It will be written in Times New Roman size 12 font and double-spaced. It will include a title page and reference page. It also requires references using the APA citation guide Seventh Edition which you can follow on the course Blackboard page. The paper should include at least 7 academic sources (books, journal articles) and 10 sources in total.
In preparing your response, students will require following a formal academic essay format:
(i) An introduction with a topic sentence, background context, thesis and framework.
(ii) Three body sections that include a sub-topic sentence advancing the thesis (point), academic evidence (proof) and analytical discussion (explanation).
(iii) A conclusion that rephrases the thesis, highlights each of the sub-topics and concludes the overall argumentation. A more detailed example is provided below.
Research Question
Question – How effectively has Canada supported newcomer children and youth in relation to the law?
Introduction
Introductory Topic Sentence – Canada projects itself as a country that upholds a legal commitment to multiculturalism in welcoming newcomers, including children and youth, to the country.
Background Context – From a global vantage point, there is definitive evidence to support the contention that Canada’s immigration process includes many positive features. Nevertheless, there are also a number of legal practices which significantly undermine the welcoming narrative that Canada tells itself and the world. This is particularly evident in the case of unaccompanied minors to Canada.
Thesis Statement – Therefore, this paper will demonstrate that Canada is significantly violating the rights of unaccompanied minors to the country.
Framework – Such circumstances will become evident by exploring the legal rights of unaccompanied minors upon arrival to the country, the detention that they experience, and their rights to a refugee hearing.
Body of the Essay – Requires 3 sections that may include 2-3 arguments per section. Below is 1 argument example within 1 body section.
Section # 2 – Detention of Unaccompanied Minors
Point – The rights of unaccompanied minors to Canada are significantly violated by the experience of detention that they often go through.
Proof – The practice of detaining unaccompanied minors is a direct violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), including Article 6, the Best Interest of the Child (Denov and Fennig, 2020, 138).
Explanation* – As a signatory to the UNCRC, Canada is obligated to uphold the articles agreed upon within the international legislation. It is designed to advance a base level of children’s rights standards across the globe. By failing to account for the detrimental impact that detention can have on an unaccompanied minor, Canada is failing to uphold the universal rights that all children are entitled to. If the country aims to advance a welcoming ethic to newcomers, it is vital that it does not undermine the rights of unaccompanied minors as doing so clearly demonstrates a failure to support the rights of newcomer children and youth in relation to the law.
Conclusion*
It has become clear that the experience of newcomer children and youth to Canada experience significant violations of their legal rights. This essay has aimed to demonstrate the realities of such circumstances highlighting their arrival, detention, and hearing experiences. For instance, upon arrival, it has been shown that many newcomer children and youth may feel a sense of criminalization when making a claim for asylum is a perfectly legal process that they are entitled to. Over the course of their detention, there are significant limitations to their well-being including the . Finally, during hearing experiences, children and youth may not have the ability to participate to the extent that they wish. These three areas for exploring children, youth, and the law certainly challenge the overarching assumption of Canada’s welcoming nature calling for the absolute necessity to improve the rights of unaccompanied minors.
Challenges Facing Children and Youth Newcomers to Canada’s Education System
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
Challenges Facing Children and Youth Newcomers to Canada’s Education System
Introduction
Adopting multiculturism in the 1970s and 1980s has put Canada at the forefront as an instigator of multiculturalism as an ideology. The creation of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was a major step towards advancing the awareness of multiculturalism, making Canada one of the most multicultural countries globally. Canada believes all citizens deserve equal treatment and respect, often emphasizing the need for cross-cultural understanding and racial harmony. Canada has been praised for opening its doors to immigrants (Triadafilopoulos, 2021). While the European countries struggle to prevent immigrants, the Canadian government continues to seek immigrants and implement programming for refugees and asylum seekers. Encouraging newcomers to Canada is an important component of immigration policy. Canada represents a country of newcomers from different backgrounds, languages, and identities. Since Canada is expected to continue reopening its borders and international travel, newcomer youth will likewise increase as a subset of newcomer arrivals in the nation.
Background Context
Considering its favorable policies toward newcomers, there is enough evidence to demonstrate that Canada is friendly toward immigrants. While the country projected itself as a haven for newcomers, immigrants face significant challenges, which undermine the welcoming narrative Canada displays to the world, especially on unaccompanied minors. The UN High Commission on Human Rights demonstrates that nearly half of all refugees are minors (Hodal, 2016). Children and youth who move to other countries as refugees come from nations of conflict where important events like schooling have been disrupted. When newcomer children and youth eventually come to Canada, they face numerous challenges that negatively affect their health and well-being. Due to the refugee and immigrant experience in resettlement, newcomer children and youths, unlike their adult counterparts, face physical and mental health challenges (Gyan, Chowdhury & Yeboah, 2023). Hence, despite Canada projecting itself as an example to other developing nations regarding immigration policies, the nation continues to violate the rights of minors.
Thesis Statement
The paper delves into the challenges newcomer children and youths face while integrating into the Canadian education system. It seeks to demonstrate that despite Canada being at the forefront of accepting immigrants, it has been reluctant to check on the integration process of newcomers to the school system.
Framework
The challenges newcomer children and youths face in Canadian schools will become evident by exploring discrimination in schools, limited access to resources, and deviant behaviors. Through these three factors, the paper will indicate that Canada has not integrated newcomer children and youths smoothly into the education system.
Discrimination in Schools
Newcomer children in Canada face discrimination while integrating into the education system through language barriers, stigmatization, and stereotypes. Language barriers make it challenging for newcomer children to integrate well into the education schooling system in Canada. In extensive research, Oikonomidoy (2015) identified that newcomer students to Canada faced various forms of discrimination, including social, cultural, religious, and linguistic, limiting their utilization of services and adversely impacting their integration process. In the same study, participants expressed frustrations while trying to socialize and study alongside their peers (Oikonomidoy, 2015). Most children come to Canada with limited or no proficiency in English or Spanish, which are widely spoken in Canada. Because of the language barrier, children and youth struggle to communicate with teachers and other students. The newcomer learners have difficulty understanding the class materials, participating in class and group discussions, and accessing the support they need to navigate the school system.
The inability to speak English or Spanish or any other language spoken in school fluently causes stigmatization as the newcomer children and youth appear less intelligent than their Canadian-born peers. Tutors can also make assumptions that because the newcomer students have language challenges, they have limited abilities. Selimos et al. (2018) reported that newcomer youth from racialized backgrounds indicated that they were often met with low expectations by instructors who may be stereotyping them, which has negative implications on their self-esteem. Instead of the teachers allowing the newcomer students more time to learn English or any other instruction language, they tend to assume that the learners cannot perform well. Teachers are expected to support all learners and provide an even playing ground in the classroom where all learners can excel. However, stigmatization from the teachers continues to make newcomer students unable to compete effectively with their native-born Canadian counterparts (Lara & Volante, 2019).
Discrimination against newcomer children and youth also manifests in stereotypes against them. A majority of the newcomers are from backgrounds that differ significantly from the mainstream Canadian culture. The cultural differences create misunderstandings between teachers and classmates. In most cases, the teachers and native Canadian learners develop stereotypes against the newcomers. Since newcomers are more likely to struggle with language and cultural differences, teachers and peers tend to develop stereotypes against them, like low academic ability. Teachers and administrators may assume that all newcomer students must be placed in lower-level classes even when qualified for higher programs. Additionally, newcomer students may be stereotyped as coming from low-income families and being financially disadvantaged. When the newcomer children or youth are refugees or asylum seekers, teachers and fellow students can consider them poor and less desirable as friends. Such stereotypes can lead to discomfort and isolation, adversely affecting their academic performance and social life.
Limited Access to Resources
Newcomer children and youth face the problem of accessing important resources and services in schools. Coming from other countries, these learners need extensive support to help them transition successfully and settle down in the new environment. However, while resources are available to facilitate their transition to the Canadian system, they tend to be limited.
Firstly, the newcomer students get limited language support. Since the newcomers come from different languages, the schools tend to have limited resources needed to give the learners specialized attention to learn English or any other instruction language. Services like English as second language classes and tutoring tend to be limited since most schools do not have the resources to support such a program comprehensively. Language barriers slow down the newcomers’ integration process into the Canadian system.
Secondly, newcomer students get limited mental health support. Immigrating to Canada for children and youths has challenges like stress and trauma. Some newcomers come from war-torn countries where they have experienced violence firsthand. The transition process from their home countries to a new culture comes with traumatic experiences. As a result, newcomer children and youths need support to deal with the stress and trauma experienced in Canada. Unfortunately, accessing mental health support can be problematic due to language barriers and a lack of ...