The Ontario Grade 10 Civics curriculum reflects Canada’s desire for good citizens. Since Canadian schools have a diverse population, many of whom are immigrants, civics education students from diverse cultural backgrounds deserve attention. This study examines how young Chinese immigrant students who came to Canada experienced the transition from Chinese conceptions of the “good” citizen that they learned in China to Canadian ones. This thesis specifically probes students’ perception of civic responsibility, civic participation, and critical thinking conveyed in the Chinese and Canadian civic education courses, and asks how, if at all, do participants perceive their experiences as Chinese immigrants affecting their Canadian citizenship education experiences? The study included in-depth interviews with Ontario Chinese immigrant students who attended civic education classes at least in Chinese elementary schools and subsequently moved to Canada before the required Ontario grade 10 civics course. The findings generally demonstrate different experiences of Chinese and Canadian citizenship education and indicate Chinese immigrant students’ educational and cultural backgrounds are significant factors influencing their Canadian civic education experiences. These findings have important implications for guiding future Canadian citizenship education practices by better understanding the interests, needs, and values of Chinese immigrant students.

This thesis addresses four Canadian immigrant English-language prose writers in order to identify commonalities and differences in their literary representations of the immigrant experience over time. While origin and ethnicity factored in the selection of writers so as to ensure diversity, the primary selection criterion was to obtain a significant historical range, from the 1830s to the present. The writers selected are: Susanna Moodie, an immigrant from England in the mid-19th century; John Marlyn, an immigrant from Hungary in the early-20th century; Michael Ondaatje, an immigrant from Sri Lanka via England in the mid-20th century; and Rawi Hage, an immigrant from Lebanon via the US in the late-20th century. I conclude that there are significant similarities among the works of all four writers, generally attributable to their shared experience of being immigrants, and equally significant areas of divergence, generally attributable to the development of Canada, with Moodie and Marlyn on one side of an important watershed in the mid-1950s, and Ondaatje and Hage on the other. All four write extensively of the experience of the immigrant with a fundamental similarity in their depiction of isolation, non-belonging and dislocation. Over time, the representations of isolation have become more complex, mirroring the increasing diversity and complexity of Canadian society. The mid-1950s shift in Canadian immigration policy from preferred British, US, and Northern European immigration to multinational immigration has resulted in increased diversity of both the Canadian immigrant population and Canadian literature. While the environment of the immigrant to Canada changes, one constant has been and is likely to continue to be a sense of dislocation, non-belonging and isolation, of being an uninvited outsider, or survenant. Canadian literature has reflected this reality consistently for almost 200 years and will no doubt continue to do so.

This thesis addresses four Canadian immigrant English-language prose writers in order to identify commonalities and differences in their literary representations of the immigrant experience over time. While origin and ethnicity factored in the selection of writers so as to ensure diversity, the primary selection criterion was to obtain a significant historical range, from the 1830s to the present. The writers selected are: Susanna Moodie, an immigrant from England in the mid-19th century; John Marlyn, an immigrant from Hungary in the early-20th century; Michael Ondaatje, an immigrant from Sri Lanka via England in the mid-20th century; and Rawi Hage, an immigrant from Lebanon via the US in the late-20th century. I conclude that there are significant similarities among the works of all four writers, generally attributable to their shared experience of being immigrants, and equally significant areas of divergence, generally attributable to the development of Canada, with Moodie and Marlyn on one side of an important watershed in the mid-1950s, and Ondaatje and Hage on the other. All four write extensively of the experience of the immigrant with a fundamental similarity in their depiction of isolation, non-belonging and dislocation. Over time, the representations of isolation have become more complex, mirroring the increasing diversity and complexity of Canadian society. The mid-1950s shift in Canadian immigration policy from preferred British, US, and Northern European immigration to multinational immigration has resulted in increased diversity of both the Canadian immigrant population and Canadian literature. While the environment of the immigrant to Canada changes, one constant has been and is likely to continue to be a sense of dislocation, non-belonging and isolation, of being an uninvited outsider, or survenant. Canadian literature has reflected this reality consistently for almost 200 years and will no doubt continue to do so.

Utilizing the longitudinal component of the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) (1994/1995-2000/2001), designed to collect comprehensive information on the health status of the Canadian population and related socio-demographic information, differences in health status between immigrants and non-immigrants (i.e., native-born individuals) were explored. Specifically, the analysis investigated how chronic conditions influence the health of immigrants, the role of stress and mental health upon immigrant health status, and the influence and role of previously underrepresented variables such as age and arrival cohorts on foreign-born health status. The conceptual approach of this project draws upon a 'population health' perspective, which suggests that the most influential determinants of human health status are non-medical in nature, but rather can be identified as the social and economic characteristics of individuals. Analysis was completed through the use of ordinary least squares stepwise regression and logistic stepwise regression in association with descriptive stochastic methodologies. Analysis of the mental health and stress variables suggests that, contrary to what has been expressed in literature in the past, both immigrants and the native-born do not perceive stress, distress, or depression to be major problems or health concerns in their lives. Furthermore, the analysis indicated, as was expected, that older immigrants are at greater risk of developing more chronic conditions relative to younger groups, and that arrival cohorts, the period in which an immigrant entered the nation, do exert a considerable influence on the health status of the foreign-born. Surprisingly, this analysis indicates that the Healthy Immigrant Effect (HIE), which proposes that recent immigrants, regardless of country of birth, tend to be in better health than the Canadian-born population upon entering the nation, may be more apparent than real, especially when investigating mental health and stress conditions amongst the foreign-born. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)