Immigrants, like everyone else, age. Given that well over 13 million immigrants have arrived in Canada since 1901 (Statistics Canada, 2001), it is surprising that researchers have largely failed to examine their mental health in later life. This thesis utilizes data from the Canadian Community Health Survey—Healthy Aging (2010) to compare the mental health of immigrants to that of Canadian-born among the population over the age of 60. Anthony Giddens’ (1984) structuration theory provides a theoretical framework which facilitates examination of the complex relationship among various structural and behavioural independent variables. Findings show that connecting immigrant women with health care providers, encouraging healthy behaviours among immigrant men, ensuring nutritional needs are met in Canada, and boosting opportunities for social support are all ways that we can increase life satisfaction and decrease mood and anxiety conditions in our society.

This thesis will provide an argument against the use of immigration detention for asylum seekers. The thesis will critically analyse the law and policy of immigration detention in Canada. It will argue that the current policy of immigration detention in Canada does not comply with international human rights and obligations. The current policy of immigration detention does not reflect the values enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedom, and the policy of mandatory detention should be abolished immediately. Immigration Detention should be a last resort, only enforced after alternatives to detention have been considered. There should be regular reviews of detention, equally applicable to all immigrants, and detention should last for as brief a period as possible.

Immigrants, like everyone else, age. Given that well over 13 million immigrants have arrived in Canada since 1901 (Statistics Canada, 2001), it is surprising that researchers have largely failed to examine their mental health in later life. This thesis utilizes data from the Canadian Community Health Survey—Healthy Aging (2010) to compare the mental health of immigrants to that of Canadian-born among the population over the age of 60. Anthony Giddens’ (1984) structuration theory provides a theoretical framework which facilitates examination of the complex relationship among various structural and behavioural independent variables. Findings show that connecting immigrant women with health care providers, encouraging healthy behaviours among immigrant men, ensuring nutritional needs are met in Canada, and boosting opportunities for social support are all ways that we can increase life satisfaction and decrease mood and anxiety conditions in our society.

The purpose of this research is to understand and measure the integration experiences of Korean immigrants in Manitoba in terms of their social, political, education and employment domains. The primary theory used in this research is social capital. Theories of acculturation, ethnic economy, power and stratification are also used to situate my research. Data was collected using mixed methods comprising a survey of 260 Korean Canadians living in Winnipeg and qualitative interviews with 12 respondents. The analysis shows, among other things, high levels of racism felt by Korean immigrants in Winnipeg. While this perception and daily encounter of discrimination in the community would impede Korean immigrants’ integration into Canada, there also is a strong will to succeed in the community through accessing existing social capital and a willingness to invest in social capital. The contributions made in the development and operationalization of social capital in terms of willingness to invest and social capital mindset are documented. Several program ideas are offered for policy-makers and future research areas have been identified. The development of a political engagement index provides justification for observations made by the social capital theory and immigrant integration literature.

No description available.

This discussion looks at immigration through philosophical debates of democracy, coercion, and autonomy. There seems to be a fundamental contradiction between democratic state's border control and democratic legitimacy. First, I discuss the democratic legitimacy and the need for democratic justifications with the invasion of autonomy.Then, I discuss Arash Abizadeh's argument that border control is coercive and invades personal autonomy, and David Miller's response that border control does not amount to coercion, but is prevention. I conclude border control invades autonomy even if it is not coercive, and thus, democratic justifications are needed. Ultimately, I suggest that open borders should be encouraged because it is the better alternative to what is required of democratic justification for close borders.

The political reform process that gathered momentum in eastern and south-eastern Europe during 1987 and 1988 was accompanied by a growing exodus of ethnic and cultural Germans (Aussiedler) who sought resettlement in West Germany. The Aussiedler were welcomed enthusiastically by Chancellor Kohl as fellow German compatriots who would be a benefit to the economy. The opposition SPD voiced its concerns over the government's motives for maintaining the open-door Aussiedler immigration policy and over the likely integration difficulties. The government sought to respond to public concerns in 1988 by reassessing its Aussiedler policy. It decided firstly to continue the open-door Aussiedler policy (as a constitutional right), secondly to implement an Aussiedler integration assistance programme and thirdly to seek to persuade potential Aussiedler not to emigrate to West Germany. The thesis adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to analysing the government's open-door Aussiedler policy during the period 1988 to 1992, formulating the political and public concerns over the Aussiedler policy into three main research questions. These questions analyse: 1. Whether the government's declared motives for maintaining the open-door Aussiedler policy were justified. 2. Whether the government's optimism over the ability of Aussiedler to successfully integrate into the employment market was justified. 3. Whether the government's policy of seeking to persuade potential Soviet Aussiedler to remain in their country, by negotiating on the re-creation of an autonomous German Volga republic, was viable. The findings for these three main questions allow for an assessment of government Aussiedler policy for the period 1988 - 1992. The thesis argues that there was evidence during the period of study to support the argument that the Aussiedler group was to a degree instrumentalised by the government to serve its own political, economic and nationalistic purposes. Government confidence concerning Aussiedler employment integration proved to be too optimistic, as Aussiedler had specific causes of unemployment. Furthermore, the attempt to negotiate the re-creation of an autonomous German republic in Russia was unsuccessful. The exodus has continued.

Singapore is a country built entirely by migrants. The topic of migration thus forms a very important part of the history of Singapore, in which much research has been done. However, one aspect of the modern migration history of Singapore has not been wellstudied, and that is illegal immigration. Since centuries ago, people have been smuggled on the very waterways that modern Singapore owes its prosperity to. Today, people are still entering and exiting the country clandestinely using the same waterways. However, as technology develops, the methods by which these people use to enter Singapore clandestinely are constantly changing. Regardless of the change in methods, such clandestine migration often involves great danger and hardship for those who dare to embark on the journey, just as the way it was in the past. This is even more so as Singapore turns from a colony to an independent country, and as the independent government increasingly exercises more control on the type of immigrants it allows into its borders to help take the country to greater heights in terms of prosperity. Immigration policies and laws thus become fine-tuned and people who are deemed ??undesirable?? are filtered out. The strict laws did not, however, deter some people from entering the country in search of a good job and a better life. As Singapore gears itself to receive more legal migrants, it must also be prepared to take measures against illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration is therefore a continuous battle between the authorities and the illegal migrants. Through the use of official and unofficial documents and public resources, some of which are not easily obtainable, this thesis traces the development of illegal immigration from a historical context and explores the life of the illegal migrants in Singapore so as to fill in the gaps on an under-studied topic, as well as the change in mindsets migrants-turned-citizens have towards new migrants, in an attempt to use a historical approach to explain the issue of the social phenomenon of illegal migration to Singapore.

The thesis seeks to find evidence to support the assumption that British migrants were the ‘pampered’ and ‘protected’ of the post-World War Two intake of migrants. Contemporary students of historical writing of the migration experience have virtually written British migrants out of the history of this era by such unsubstantiated assumptions. / The assimilationist construct of the 1940s to the 1960s that defined non-British migrants as assimilable, and British migrants as ‘kith’ and ‘kin’ was a vital component in the ideology of governments. It enabled them to carry out a migration programme the extent of which had no precedent in Australian history. Because social participation is vital in the process of admitting new knowledge, the construction of assimilability needed to be developed and legitimated on the basis of shared values. In effect the imposition of ‘new’ information promulgated by the institutions of society needed an empathetic response from the community, for the successful implementation of the programme. If the concept of non-British migrants as being assimilable could be ‘sold’ to the public, then it went without saying that British migrants would be the exemplar of trouble-free assimilation; they were ‘kith’ and ‘kin’. When British migrants did not fit the archetypal mould designed and fashioned for them by others, they had to be redefined for the continuing success of a policy. The thesis examines the experience of British migrants during the assimilationist era and how their settlement was affected by this ideological construct.

The primary aim of this research was to find predictors of psycho-social adjustment of Polish immigrants to Sydney, Australia. There were two sets of independent variables considered: i) personal characteristics, including: intelligence, extraversion, neuroticism, style of attribution and self-acceptance and ii) demographic information, consisted of: age, gender, length of residence, marital status, number of children, educational level, yearly income, immigration status (dependent vs. independent immigration) and residential status. The dependent variables were social (adaptation and assimilation) and psychological adjustment. The hypotheses tested in the study were that each of these personal and demographic characteristics would be associated with adaptation and/or assimilation, and psychological well-being. The two samples (both studies) were composed of more than 200 first generation Polish immigrants who arrived in Australia after 1980. No significant gender differences were found. The internal consistency and principal components structure of Adaptation and Assimilation were examined, and the measures were refined. There were employed standard measurements (i.e. GHQ, BDI, BAI, EPI, ASQ, Raven Matrices and WAIS-Vocabulary) and newly developed measures (i.e. the Social Adjustment Scale and the Self-Acceptance Questionnaire). The general results suggested that psycho-social adjustment was best predicted by three pre-arrival characteristics (extraversion, education and self-acceptance), and post-arrival employment status and length of residence. There were, however, some differences in regard to the particular aspects of psycho-social adjustment. Better adaptation was meaningfully related to employment (income) and education in Study 1, and self-acceptance, employment and extraversion in Study 2; better assimilation seemed to be significantly predicted by education, age of arrival and length of residence (Study 1), and self-acceptance, extraversion, education and age of arrival (Study 2). Psychological [mal]adjustment was best indicated by globality and stability in attributing negative events (Study 1), lower self-acceptance and lack of employment status (Study 2).