CERIS-THE ONTARIO METROPOLIS CENTRE: PHASE III FOCUS
From its very inception in 1996, the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement – Toronto (CERIS) has been committed to meaningful, equitable and productive academic-community collaborations and effective knowledge exchange among its various stakeholders. This commitment is articulated both through The Ontario Metropolis Centre’s governance structure and the very way in which research is undertaken, shared and mobilized by Centre affiliates.
From its very inception in 1996, the Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement – Toronto (CERIS) has been committed to meaningful, equitable and productive academic-community collaborations and effective knowledge exchange among its various stakeholders. This commitment is articulated both through The Ontario Metropolis Centre’s governance structure and the very way in which research is undertaken, shared and mobilized by Centre affiliates.
CERIS’ founding partners created an academic research centre that would differ from other more traditional university-based centres both in its focus on policy- and practice-relevant research and in its partnership between the community and university sectors. To do this, it designed a Governance Board composed of three representatives each of the three founding universities (Ryerson University, University of Toronto, and York University) and one representative from each of the three founding community organizations (Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, and United Way of Greater Toronto). This partnership was later expanded to include representatives from CERIS’ larger Partnership Advisory Committee (now transformed into a Community Partnerships Council), representatives from various governmental departments and ministries at municipal, provincial and federal levels, and Metropolis Project funders.
As the Metropolis Project moved into Phase II, increased emphasis was placed on domains, more pan-Canadian research, and on research priorities articulated by federal partners. CERIS responded to these shifts in emphasis in numerous concrete ways. These include (1) expanding its collaborative network of academics, students, and community and government partners, including across Metropolis centres; (2) expanding pan-Canadian research; and (3) emphasizing research within the Centre’s research domains that focuses on federal partners’ research priorities.
Throughout Phase II, CERIS’ research became more rooted in domain and cluster research networks, more closely integrated with activities at other Metropolis centres, and more focused on overarching policy/practice-relevant research themes and questions. In so doing, it expanded its research agenda and activities to include other Ontario municipalities, engaged with community and government partners in a number of comparative and community-oriented research initiatives, and developed a collaborative pan-Canadian research agenda with researchers at other Metropolis Centers.
CERIS currently has over 186 affiliates. Through its Phase II Request for Proposals (RFP), CERIS research affiliates engaged in collaborative research with over 40 community groups both in the Greater Toronto Area and other parts of Ontario. Illustrative examples of such work includes: Gender, Violence and Health: The Role of Gender Relations in the Ethiopian Community in Toronto; A Community Dialogue on Homelessness Among Immigrants and Refugees in the Windsor/Essex Region. Examples of pan-Canadian research collaborations that involve the other Metropolis Centres include: A Geomatics Approach to Immigrant Settlement Services: The Integration of Supply and Demand over Space and Time (CERIS, IM, RIIM); The New Canadian Children and Youth Study (CERIS, IM, PCERII, RIIM); and Intersecting Barriers to Health for Immigrant Women with Precarious Status (Toronto, Montreal, Halifax). Examples of international research collaborations include: Immigrant, Policy and Migration Systems: An Ethnographic Comparative Approach (CERIS; The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy); Leavers and Stayers: A Comparison of the Health and Development of Ethiopian Children Growing Up in Toronto and Addis Ababa (in partnership with the University of Addis Ababa).
In large part, the success of the Centre can be attributed to high levels of engagement by various stakeholders. The strong relationships and partnerships that CERIS has built with numerous community organizations throughout its eleven year history are key to both our research and dissemination activities. In addition to informal connections and relationships, there are several structured ways through which CERIS ensures that there is continuing dialogue with the community sector. Non-governmental and diverse community groups: participate in the identification of priority research questions for our annual Request for Proposals (RFPs) at our annual Research Retreats; contribute as researchers, research assistants, collaborators and advisors in all CERIS research projects; are engaged as presenters and participants at CERIS’ Brown Bag Seminar Series, Research Forum, and Metropolis Conferences; are co-authors on various research dissemination materials, including CERIS’ Working Papers Series and Policy Matters ; and readily facilitate the effective ‘uptake’ of research findings.
1. Building Upon Strength
CERIS’ mandate during Phase I and Phase II has been to undertake policy-and practice-oriented research on immigration, settlement and integration of immigrants and refugees into the economic, social, political and cultural fabric of the Greater Toronto Area, the Province of Ontario, and Canada more generally. CERIS’ specific goals were:
a) to create an engaged and vibrant community of scholars and community researchers dedicated to research on immigration, cultural diversity and resettlement;
b) to promote innovative multidisciplinary research on the integration of immigrants into Canada’s economic, social, political and cultural life, with particular attention to urban settings;
c) to ensure the development of a new generation of immigration scholars and researchers through graduate student training and mentoring;
d) to disseminate research findings to a wide audience with the intent of generating broad public discussion and debate and to stimulate policy development.
In Phase III, CERIS – The Ontario Metropolis Centre will build upon this solid foundation with a renewed and expanded mandate:
e) to further expand and support a highly productive networked community of academic and community researchers, non-governmental partners, graduate student trainees, policy-makers, practitioners and funders, interested in migration, diversity and civic participation within the Greater Toronto Area and across the Province of Ontario. This re-focusing better reflects the research attention already given by CERIS affiliates to diverse types of migrants (immigrant, refugee, non-status, temporary workers) and migration trajectories, to multiple forms of diversity, as well as to the various spheres of integration needs with attendant mechanisms and outcomes;
f) to further facilitate, support and undertake interdisciplinary policy- and practice-relevant research at the local, provincial, national and international levels through active collaboration across the Metropolis Project network. Throughout Phase I and Phase II, CERIS has funded and supported research projects within both the Greater Toronto Area and secondary migration cities in the province of Ontario, and also initiated and facilitated projects at both the national and international levels. This will be expanded further during Phase III, in closer partnership with the other Metropolis Centres.
g) to initiate additional knowledge exchange and transfer activities across all relevant stakeholders in order to further optimize the ‘uptake’ of research findings for knowledge mobilization among policy makers and practitioners. The focus during Phase I and Phase II has centred on the undertaking of policy/practice relevant research and subsequent attention to ‘knowledge provision.’ In collaboration with its Metropolis partners, CERIS will move beyond this focus on knowledge transfer to also explore new formats and fora that facilitate greater knowledge uptake and mobilization per se.
2) Research Prioritization – Synthesis – Transfer – Impact
CERIS’ research and knowledge transfer objectives in Phase III are as follows:
a) Research Prioritization
CERIS research activities funded through the Centre’s annual Request for Proposals (RFP) will prioritize the follow policy-research areas:
i) Citizenship and Social, Cultural and Civic Integration
ii) Economic and Labour Market Integration
iii) Family, Children and Youth
iv) Policing, Security and Justice
v) Welcoming Communities: The Role of Host Communities in Attracting,
Integrating, and Retaining Newcomers and Minorities
vi) Health and Well-being
The research, dissemination and networking activities developed during CERIS’ Phases I and II under the Education and Community, Neighbourhoods and Housing research domains respectively will continue as important research ‘clusters’ within this revised Phase III Research Domain Structure. This recognizes existing research CERIS affiliate strengths and interests, facilitates cross-domain research initiatives, and will promote additional cross-centre research collaborations with other Metropolis Centres. It is anticipated that similar research clusters will emerge both within and across these six priority research domains to respond to identified policy and practice research needs; this will be both encouraged and supported.
The detailed list of possible research questions provided in the Phase III Memorandum of Understanding will be included in each annual CERIS RFP document, with adjustments made on an annual basis to identify areas not yet covered through CERIS RFP grants funded in preceding years. These lists may be supplemented with additional research questions that identify pressing policy- and practice- relevant research needs developed collectively at CERIS’ annual Research Forum, and also will be further informed by the Phase III Mid-Term Review. This research prioritization will ensure that the identified areas of research needs will be fully addressed over the course of Phase III.
Priority areas identified by CERIS for Phase III will furthermore inform the development of cross-centre research proposals at the national level for consideration by the National Metropolis Committee.
b) Knowledge Synthesis
A key focus for CERIS during Phase III will be an ongoing integrative synthesis of research findings from work undertaken within each of these six policy-research priority areas both by a) CERIS affiliates and b) other researchers and scholars. This emphasis will be integral to each individual CERIS research project, from its initial developmental stages (ie. relevant literature reviews) through to the final reporting of research findings (ie. comparison of results with those of other studies). Such cumulative synthesis will furthermore incorporate research findings recorded in the Centre’s large and always expanding ‘grey literature’ collection housed in CERIS’ Documentation Centre. CERIS Directors and Domain Leaders will work closely with the respective Policy Priority Area Leaders to facilitate the collective integration of cross-site research findings that are responsive to the policy/practice research needs articulated for The Metropolis Project – Phase III.
c) Knowledge Transfer
The key emphasis during CERIS Phase III will be the knowledge transfer of research findings and syntheses for priority research areas as well as more recently completed Phase II research. New initiatives will include the provision of professional training in knowledge translation for Centre Leaders and affiliates, and the involvement of the Knowledge Mobilization Unit at York University in the preparation of one-page briefs. Other CERIS initiatives will include the provision of professional media training to Centre Directors, Domain Leaders, Priority Leader(s) and interested affiliates. CERIS researchers and affiliates will work directly with each of the six Priority Leaders to facilitate timely and effective ‘knowledge uptake’ by policy makers, practitioners, and community partners.
d) Impact
The anticipated outcomes for Phase III include: i). Prioritized research initiatives in six identified priority areas that are directly responsive to pressing policy and programmatic needs; ii). Integrative research synthesis and continued knowledge transfer for CERIS research completed to-date; cumulative synthesis and knowledge translation of Phase III research; iii). Increased knowledge translation (KT) expertise and activity; increased utilization of a wider range of KT tools and strategies to meet the needs of diverse stakeholders; iv). Increased knowledge transfer by CERIS affiliates and mobilization by policy makers and practitioners through regular monitoring and measurement; v). Informed policy development and programming in the area of migration, diversity and civic participation; vi). A critical and sustainable mass of research knowledge and expertise in the area of migration, diversity and civic participation vested in a networked community of experienced researchers and new trainees.
Source: Rummens, J. A., Anisef, P., and Shields, J. (2007). A Renewed Research Agenda on Migration, Diversity and Civic Participation: Prioritization – Synthesis – Transfer – Impact. June 27, 2007.
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