DAILY ISSUES FACED BY IMMIGRANT STUDENTS IN CANADA...

General issues that they are facing:

• Lack of friendship

• Lack of information about school-related events

• Lack of information received in terms of pathway and course selection.

• Lack of proper help and support needed

• Lack of opportunities given and voice not being heard.

• Lack of understanding of how things operate

• Being discriminated against and isolated by the rest of the people

Cause of these Issues:

• Different cultural backgrounds, and religious / beliefs that were through by their family

• Does not have the ability to communicate with others including classmates and students

• Unable to fit in with people who already have a group of friends

• Does not have common interests with local student

• Different treatments when dealing with accidents and different behaviours in day-to-day life

Cause of these Issues:

• Different cultural backgrounds, and religious / beliefs that were through by their family

• Does not have the ability to communicate with others including classmates and students

• Unable to fit in with people who already have a group of friends

• Does not have common interests with local student

• Different treatments when dealing with accidents and different behaviours in day-to-day life

Elementary School Student (JK - G8) One specific example: 

• One event that can potentially explain the situation that immigrant elementary students and families is that many immigrant students and parents did not know that pizza can be purchased ahead of time using the school website so it will be delivered to students on Friday every week. The existence of this event is due to the fact that immigrant students and families are not able to receive this new information accurately and on time. Some of the reasons are that the student might not be able to understand the announcement, which is the main source for the student to receive information, and parents might not be able to understand the email that was sent home, or they might not even have or use email and unable to ask and speak out about their question push this issue further. As a result, many students missed this opportunity, this might seem to be a minor thing that is not that big of a deal, but on the other hand, this also reflects the limitation of the information received by the immigrant family. What of the information that was missed wasn’t about pizza, instead it was about a field trip that happens once a semester or a parent-teacher interview to discuss bout the student's behaviour which could potentially be a big deal. 

Secondary School Student (G9 - 12) One specific example: 

• One event that really shows the tricky situation that newcomer secondary school students are facing is related to their course and pathway selection. Most of the counties in the world have their unique education system, for example, the education system in China is completely different from the education system we have here. This could cause the student to have a really tough time understanding the operation of this system and since some of the information they find on search engines might be biased or completely wrong, they are all probably gonna be misled by that in some circumstances. Additionally, as they stepped into this completely new environment, the support from their parents, which has always been there, will potentially decrease the lowest point, which means they are now basically forced to deal with many things on their own for the first time. But the amount of time and energy left for them to complete the listed item is really limited since they only have less than 4 years before stepping into Universities. In other words, the more time they spend on understanding the system, the less time they have on making their decision on their future path, and the less comprehensive and complete their future plan will be. For instance, many immigrant high school student was not able to get into the University program they want because they didn’t know the existence of the “Perquisite courses”, and they will actually miss out on many courses that they are interested in and summer which could really make a big different for some people. Clubs and volunteer opportunities are other things that they might not know about...