Course talk:POLI380SEPT2010Cutler/Survey/Immigration&Multiculturalism

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DISCUSSION

Hey everyone. So I thought we can start off by quickly discussing what kind of data we want to collect. Since we are surveying, I'm guessing we have to draw meaningful comparisons from the data we collect concerning people's perceptions on issues around Immigration and Multiculturalism. Here are two issues we could tackle (everything that has "" around it needs to be conceptualized):

People's opinion on "fairness" within the "Canadian Immigration System" (it would be interesting to compare the perceptions of "ethnic Canadians" vs "immigrants")

Comparing immigrants "quality of life" in Canada to countries they have previously lived in.


Obviously, these are broad topics, but once we have some idea of the direction we want to go, we can come up with some questions. -Chinmay

Hey Lisa and all, I think those topics are a good starting point. I have a specific issue that I would like to delve into. I want to brainstorm a survey question about how Canadians feel about immigrants/citizens outside of Canada using our healthcare (because it's "paid" for). I've previously discussed this topic in one of my other classes and its quite interesting that people will have residence here (and live in Canada for 3 months of the year) just to have our health benefits. I know this question might be veering off topic but I'm open to suggestions as to we can focus it back to immigration. AnniePhung 00:20, 4 October 2010 (UTC)Annie Phung
One more thing: I think a good and basic starting question might be "On a scale of 1 to 5, how accepting/open (this word is open to editing) is Canada's immigration policy? 1 - not accepting 2 - a little accepting 3 - neither/don't know 4 - somewhat accepting 5 - very accepting " AnniePhung 00:26, 4 October 2010 (UTC)Annie Phung

Kirsten Brokop and I [Rebecca Siguenza] were discussing the survey together, hope it is okay that our brainstorming is combined. Here are our thoughts:

We were thinking that a good opening question for this would be whether or not the survey respondents are immigrants and what their ethnic background is. On ethnic background we feel that it’s an important question for the rest of the survey and our category is most conducive to doing so. What are your thoughts [maybe one is more relevant than the other]?

- Are you an immigrant to Canada?
o Yes
o No
- What is your ethnic background?
o Discussion on how to measure this data?
o Perhaps filling a blank
o Maybe a list?

Annie, we think your approach to asking about people’s perception of the Canadian Immigration system might be more effective than focusing on fairness. We feel that fairness holds a lot of value judgment and maybe we should focus more on knowledge of the system in that question. The question is “How open do you think the system is?”We think what you are trying to get at is what people think the system is in actuality and we want to have that measured. We thought this may be another creative option:

- If you were told that Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, would you be surprised?
o Yes/No
o It strips the question from its value judgment and leaves us with what people think the system is like for real. Open/Closed.

We could follow that by getting at their feelings on the system’s effectiveness:

- Do you feel that the Canadian Immigration System is/should be
o Less strict
o Strict enough
o More strict
I think this is a great question to include in our survey. It may help us gauge whether opinions on immigration policy are affected by the person's status (immigrant/non-immigrant). My hypothesis would be that more immigrants would answer that it should be "less strict" and that non-immigrants would lean towards the side of "more strict" or "strict enough". If we ask this question, we can look at the collected data and see if this statement might be true! Anyone have any thoughts about this? AnniePhung 19:38, 4 October 2010 (UTC)Annie Phung
I like the idea of analyzing this data in a immigrant/non-immigrant way as well! --KirstenBrokop 22:09, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Comment on the difference between the two questions above, we wanted to measure what people’s thoughts are about the system and what should happen to it [should it change?]. Lisa, we REALLY like asking about quality of life. We should try to define this more as a group. We think that a measure of Canadian’s perception of immigrant’s quality of life IN Canada vs. immigrant’s quality of life in other countries would be pertinent.

QUESTION: is our focus on immigration into Canada or out of Canada?

- Annie’s comment on Canadian citizens living abroad is a very interesting topic and is an issue in Canada. However, we are just confused as to how to incorporate it into our survey since most of our questions have been more geared towards immigration policy. (thoughts?)

ALSO, we are focusing largely on immigration how does everyone feel about multiculturalism? Does anyone feel strongly about exploring it or not? --Rebecca Siguenza + Kirsten Brokop 01:49, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

- I think the subject of multiculturalism should be explored especially since Canada is known about being a multicultural nation. Since we only have 5 survey questions, I think we should do 3 on immigration and 2 on multiculturalism. What do you guys think? I also think it's important to talk about Quebec's resistance to multiculturalism. NazaninKohan 19:33, 4 October 2010 (UTC)Nazanin Kohan
I agree with conceptualizing "quality of life" more. This can be done with respect to multiculturalism and/or immigration. I also really like Annie's idea bout focusing on the health care system. Here's a question that could have some meaningful data.
- Do you feel you are receiving "better" health services in Canada in the countries you have previously lived in?
- Do you feel that the Canadian health care system is a just system?--ChinmayThakkar 18:09, 4 October 2010 (UTC)


As per Chinmay's question to Annie regarding the focus of our survey questions, my preference is to hone in on Immigration into Canada. It may be easier to come up with questions or possible responses to our survey questions if we do so because there is much information that we can draw on about the Canadian Immigration system. I would like to also ask questions for those that are immigrants, how their personal immigration experience was with specific reference to the year. The immigration experiences of my parents over ten years ago is vastly contrasted with the recent immigration experience of my cousin who came to live with us just under a year and a half ago. Also, how does everyone else feel about open-ended survey questions? If there is a collective decision made to use an "Other" option, I think a "Other: _____" would be a good idea.Thuhuyenngo 18:48, 4 October 2010 (UTC)ThuHuyenNgo


Kirsten and Rebecca, I think you guys have a great point in starting the survey with the question "are you an immigrant to Canada" and also the second question asking about ethnic background but please take into consideration that we're only alotted 5 questions which mean that if we choose to use those 2, that's already about a half of the survey.

perhaps we can figure a way to combine those two questions to be more concise and get more data
For example: Are if you an immigrant? If so what select from the following area of the world which you immigrated from. (Or we can do by groupings of dominant enthinicities)
1. Europe
2. Asia
3. Africa/South Africa
... and so forth.

Also, I feel its important to have questions that both immigrants/non-immigrants can answer, rather than having questions that are only applicable to one or the other. AnniePhung 19:29, 4 October 2010 (UTC)Annie Phung

I agree with Annie Phung, I think our questions should include both sides, immigrants and non- immigrants in order to obtain more information for our data. --RosaKarenSanchez. 20:18, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Hi everyone, I think that Chinmay’s questions need to be more narrowly defined. I propose to make following changes to “do you feel you are receiving "better" health services in Canada in the countries you have previously lived in?”. I think that the question would be more clear if asked as: “are you currently receiving health care services in Canada that have been recommended to you by your health care professional? If yes, do you have more opportunity to access these services than in other countries that you have previously lived?” My survey question is: “in your experience, do immigrants and non-immigrants have equal access to health care services” (1-10 scale perhaps; 1 as definitely, 10 as not at all)-Rachel

If we are going to ask a question involving health care I think this type of wording is much more appropriate. We have to make sure we're measuring health care with respects to, rather than independent from, immigration. PaigeBurnham 20:32, 4 October 2010 (UTC)Paige Burnham

Hi everyone, Looks like there are a lot of good ideas getting passed around, it's going to be tough to narrow it down to only 5! I think multiculturalism is an important part of this section of the survey (hence it's inclusion in the title) & shouldn't be ignored. It's a super relevant & current topic so I think there should definitely be a couple questions devoted to it. Here are a couple recent articles from the Globe & Mail talking about multiculturalism & all of its issues: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/seeking-immigration-review-new-centre-focuses-on-moral-contracts/article1729389/ & http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/multiculturalism/when-multiculturalism-doesnt-work/article1737375/ Might give some more ideas.

I personally would be interested in knowing to what extent Canadians think multiculturalism should go. The recent banning of the niqab in Quebec is an example of a controversial topic involving the restriction of cultural practices. A potential question could go along the lines of:

Cultural expression in the form of religion, dress, the treatment of women should:

-Only be limited if it affects personal/public safety & security

-Should never be limited

-...


This is obviously a very rough question but hopefully you can see what I'm trying to get at with it. Let me know if you think it's relevant & if so how we could improve on it. PaigeBurnham 20:32, 4 October 2010 (UTC)Paige Burnham


I agree with the views above that we should explore multiculturalism in our research. I think a nice way to tie immigration in with multiculturalism is perhaps focusing on the research of why did these immigrants choose Canada out of all the other countries in the world? Especially with the increase in globalization and interracial marriages creating more hybrid and cosmopolitan identities, perhaps the fact that Canada does not have a clear and set "national identity" and its policy of multiculturalism has made people feel it to be a safer and ideal place to live. It would be interesting to see how much of that reason has enticed immigrants to choose Canada or is it due economic or humanitarian reasons? Which is even more interesting if immigrants are choosing Canada over the United States due to economic reasons. I just have a rough draft of a question:

Why did you/your family choose to immigrate to Canada?
1. social reason (multiculturalism policy)
2. humanitarian reason (refugee, escape from political persecution and danger)
3. economic reasons (job opportunities)

Shelley_Lin 20:06, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Shelly I really like your idea of asking the survey participants why they chose Canada, especially if it's because Canada's an enticing place due to the fact of its multiculturalism!

NazaninKohan 01:57, 5 October 2010 (UTC)Nazanin Kohan

"If you are an immigrant, how adaptable to live do you find Canada?"

1. Very Adaptable
2. Adaptable
3. Neutral
4. Not Adaptable at all

--RosaKarenSanchez. 14:23, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Chinmay for moving the stuff :)

Annie, I really like how you squished the question of if you are an immigrant and what your ethnic background is in one because I think both may be relevant in analysis not only here but also in other parts of the survey. Can that (or a closely worded version) be our first question? WOULD ANYONE HAVE ANY OBJECTIONS? If not, should we put it into the course page? Maybe we should keep our "kind of" decided on "pretty sure" questions there?
I also had a question about the original intent of the question you posed about Canadians living abroad, was it to measure levels of immigration as a result of universal standards of health care in Canada, or how Canadians living in Canada (immigrants and non-immigrants alike) feel about Canadian citizens (both those who are immigrants and who are non-immigrants but are not residents) are living abroad and still retaining all of the benefits of citizenship. Both of these issues are very interesting however I am unsure which idea you were originally getting at. (Does anyone have any thoughts on these issues and their relevance as being separate?)
Nazanin, what way did you want to take Quebec multiculturalism? I think that creating a question on perceptions of what a being a unique "nation" means,and entitles Quebec to (or even whether or not they should be given more or less status) in the perspective of BC residents would be useful to analyze alongside a question of whether multiculturalism and/or immigration should be encouraged, discouraged etc. --KirstenBrokop 22:05, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
Hey Kirsten. I don't know how we should tackle the Quebec issue but I still do think that it's an important one. There are two sides of the issue, you can either be pro-Quebec or anti-Quebec. The language legislation of the 1970s made French the official language of the province and the only acceptable language of commercial signs and public transactions. The new immigrants to Quebec were also forced to send their children to French schools. This caused tension between the French, the anglophone and the immigrants in Quebec. On the other hand, Quebec does provide services (ie health, welfare and education)accessible to the anglophone minority in its one language. NazaninKohan 02:19, 5 October 2010 (UTC)NazaninKohan

1. I second that Annie, that is a great way of killing two birds with one stone! I think that should definitely be our first question.

2. Since we are talking about Immigration & Multiculturalism, I am wondering if health care is a subject that may be too off the wall? It definitely has ties to immigration and why people may immigrate to Canada however, given that we only have 5 questions it may not be as relevant as other questions we could ask. [maybe more suited for public policy?]

I agree about the health care thing...I'm not super keen on it. I think immigration/multiculturalism are such broad topics to begin with & having only 5 questions I don't know that we should devote one to health care. PaigeBurnham 03:51, 5 October 2010 (UTC)Paige Burnham

3. Paige,I really like the way you worded the question on multiculturalism and think we should incorporate it into our survey. I also like the idea of having three questions on immigration and two on multiculturalism.

4. we're off to a good start! --Rebecca Siguenza 23:54, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

I was thinking that maybe we can ask the participants what they think about multiculturalism ( found from Canadian Multiculturalism[1])

o It gives all cultural groups a sense of belonging
o It promotes foreign trade
o It will eliminate the 'Canadian' way of life
o Some groups will ultimately gain more than others

What do you guys think?NazaninKohan 02:06, 5 October 2010 (UTC)NazaninKohan

Ooh! I like this. This is soooort of in the same vein as what I was suggesting but much more clearly worded & it covers more ground which is important when we have so few questions. I vote on having something like this as one of the multiculturalism questions. PaigeBurnham 03:51, 5 October 2010 (UTC)Paige Burnham

I think we do have some great leads to good questions, and agree with Kirsten that we should move the ones that seem to get positive responses to the main page (just so we have a clear idea about what we have)

I like Paige's question on multiculturalism. I suggest we make it more specific if the intent is to see how far Canada would go on multiculturalism (I know it was a rough draft that Paige wrote up):

How do you recognize cultural expressions and differences pertaining to such topics as clothing choice, religion, treatment of women, etc.? 1. as something that should be limited indefinitely 2. as something that should be limited only if it affects public security 3. as something that should be recognized as freedom of expression to the extent that it does not violate any other freedom in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom 4. as something that should never be limited

Feel free to edit this question, as I am extra tired and won't be able to think until tomorrow morning.JessicaLuu 21:54, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Hello Group! I have seen y'all's contributions and I want to give my 2 cents. I think it'll be quite interesting to see the perception of immigrants from Canadians' perspective. I personally want to know if Canadians think that immigrants are actually making positive contributions to Canadian economy, and also if Canadians perceive immigrants as a "threat" to consolidating Canadian national identity. Although I personally think my second enquiry is ridiculous but I've heard this kind of opinion from older Canadian men and I want to know if other Canadians share this view. So for example,

1) Do you believe that immigrants are making a positive impact on Canadian economy?

o Strongly Agree
o Agree
o Disagree
o Strongly Disagree
o I don't know

2) Do you agree with the statement: "Canada's immigration policy poses a threat to the consolidation of Canadian national identity?"

o Strongly Agree
o Agree
o Disagree
o Strongly Disagree
o I don't know

Alright... That's it from me for now. Criticize, Comment, and edit please. --JamesBan 18:14, 5 October 2010 (UTC)


I think we're pretty awesome. So i see 4 questions that we can ask, I just wanted to organize it so we can pick at them and make one more!


Are if you an immigrant? If so,select from the following area of the world which you immigrated from.

1. Europe
2. Asia
3. Africa
4. United States
5. South America
6. Oceania (ie. Australia)

Why did you/your family choose to immigrate to Canada?

1. social reason (multiculturalism policy)
2. humanitarian reason (refugee, escape from political persecution and danger)
3. economic reasons (job opportunities)

How do you perceive cultural expressions and differences pertaining to such topics as clothing choice, religion, treatment of women, etc.?

1. should be limited indefinitely
2. should be limited only if it affects public security
3. should be recognized as freedom of expression to the extent that it does not violate any other freedom in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom
4. should never be limited

Do you believe that immigrants are making a positive impact on Canadian economy?

1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Strongly Disagree
5. I don't know


Do you agree with the statement: "Canada's immigration policy poses a threat to the consolidation of Canadian national identity?"

1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Strongly Disagree
5. I don't know

I found that this last question is kind of problematic as we are surveying immigrants but then we are asking if they think that their arrival in Canada causes a threat so that's why I thought James's first question is better. Please edit i probably missed something...

Shelley_Lin 23:26, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

I like the questions above. The only thing I would change is make the first question into a two part question, or add a n/a category. Also, I think the second question is somewhat invasive and may lead to some kind of bias if people decide not to answer it. That's all for now. --ChinmayThakkar 18:58, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Oh I had no idea that we were limiting our sample to immigrants only. I thought we were asking these questions to permanent residents and citizens (both naturalized Canadians and those that were born in Canada) as well. I believe that we could get some useful comparative data if we ask immigrants and citizens on the issue of immigration and multiculturalism. And with regards to my second question, I do agree that the word "threat" is not the most apt word choice. I just thought it was an interesting question to think about because this group of elderly naturalized Canadians (they were once-immigrants who were naturalized long ago) thought that if Canada continues to maintain "lax and lenient" immigration policy and facilitate too much diversity, it will result in fragmented society with no strong sense of Canadian national identity. Although I did not particularly agree that Canada's immigration policy was lax, I did somewhat agree with their opinion that a common sense of Canadian national identity might not be enforced. For one, I do not really know what it means to be a "real" Canadian. I think some evidence of "fragmentation" in Canadian society can be seen with regards to ethnic clustering in urban areas which is contributing to the creation of new "ethnic ghettos" (eg. high concentration of Chinese people at Richmond area etc.)Though you may argue that these ethnic "ghettos" are ghettos by choice rather than compulsion, I think it is an interesting pattern that can be observed in major Canadian urban centres. Well, I was just throwing it out there as a food for thought... --JamesBan 01:10, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey all, I just gave this a read over and had a couple of comments so I thought I'd put them out here tonight, Firstly, thanks Shelley for organizing the questions :) I would like to see another option on the FIRST QUESTION as well because if someone answers no to having immigrated themselves are they not supposed to answer or... not? - can we have them answer NOT AN IMMIGRANT or something like that? This leads into my other comment, I didn't think we were limiting our sample to immigrants either - I think the comparison would make our data analysis richer and allow for more combinations of comparison. So I think the last question is relevant. However, isn't it similar to this question:

- Do you feel that the Canadian Immigration System is/should be
o Less strict
o Strict enough
o More strict
which we discussed earlier? I think they do measure slightly different attitudes but I'm wondering if we have room for them both? Thoughts? --KirstenBrokop 05:03, 6 October 2010 (UTC)


Hey Team, it looks like I'm joining the discussion a little late, but I had some thoughts on the question regarding the strictness of immigration policy. I think we need to be careful to differentiate between immigration as a whole and how it might incorporate the whole refugee issue. That way we can link it together with the 'Why' questions regarding choosing Canada - there is a very real possibility that views among Canadians may be very different when considering refugees vs. economic immigrants and other kinds of skilled labour.User:KathleenTanner 10:10, 6 October 2010

I think we can add "not an immigrant" and "other" category right under other ones.

Are you an immigrant? If so,select from the following area of the world which you immigrated from.

1. Europe
2. Asia
3. Africa
4. United States & Central America
5. South America
6. Oceania (ie. Australia)
7. Other (Pacific Islander etc.)
8. Not an immigrant

Also, I want to add "educational reasons" as a category for question number 2. Considering all factors, I think my family's immigration was for "educational reasons" more than anything. Although you could certainly place that under "social" reasons, I think "education" category is big enough to be separated from other social factors. After all, I think in our sample of UBC students, there could be International Students and students on exchange who might be here in Canada for educational reasons.

Why did you/your family choose to immigrate to Canada?

1. social reason (multiculturalism policy)
2. humanitarian reason (refugee, escape from political persecution and danger)
3. economic reasons (job opportunities)
4. educational reasons

--JamesBan 22:10, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

"How long have you been an immigrant?"

1. one to five years
2. five to ten years
3. ten to fifteen years
4. fifteen to twenty years
5. more than twenty years

"Comparing the country where you come from to Canada, how satisfied are you with the quality of life in Canada?"

1. Very Satisfied
2. Satisfied
3. Neutral
4. Unsatisfied

"If you are not an immigrant, do you think immigration in Canada puts in danger canadian identity?"

1. Yes
2. No

--RosaKarenSanchez. 22:14, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Hi all, everything looks great so far. A shout out to Shelley for organizing those questions, and all of you who helped edit the first question. I think adding the not an immigrant is a great way to allow non-immigrants to answer rather than leaving it blank and it helps with us to categorize those who answer "not an immigrant" as missing in SPSS (not sure if we'll be doing that though, just a thought). I would like to see more questions on multiculturalism as I've notice that many are directed/applicable to immigrants only.

the two questions above about period of time as an immigrant, and if you're more satisfied with quality of life in Canada vs. country you're from ONLY applies to IMMIGRANTS, which means if we use those 2 and my first question, 60% of our survey will be inapplicable if a citizen/non-immigrant was surveyed. Here's an idea for a question which includes both multiculturalism and immigration, PLEASE feel free to edit/give 2 cents.
Do you think Canada's immigration policy affects/contributes our deemed multiculturalism (amount of multiculturalism)?
o yes, it affects/contributes to it greatly
o yes, it somewhat does
o I don't know
o it only affects it a bit
o no, it does not affect/contribute to it at all
Feel free to edit away! AnniePhung 03:32, 7 October 2010 (UTC)Annie Phung


I agree with you Annie, maybe we can think more about including both or just multiculturalism and then depending on the answer the person gives us, "immigrant or non-immigrant", we can proceed with a specific question. For example if someone answers "non-immigrant" we can exclude the questions that only apply to immigrants and use another set of questions. I just think that immigration is a broader topic that includes multiculturalism, so the questions for those multicultural immigrants are easier to formulate with large info and data rather than non-immigrant questions which focus more on feelings. --RosaKarenSanchez. 22:45, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Everyone so far: you guys are doing great stuff here. Keep it up. And other folks: GET INVOLVED! FredCutler 17:49, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey guys, sorry for getting involved so late in the game. So far everything looks really good and well organized. I agree with Annie that it is a good idea to try to keep the majority of questions applicable to both immigrants and none immigrants to get more even data. However, I am not sure if asking if immigration policy contributes to multiculturalism is too leading / obvious a question. (Lisa Danielson)

Annie and Rosa brought up great points about including the other half of the topic in our questions so it reflects better on what data we're trying to gather. I also have a question: is it possible for us to divide a question into two parts, so that we can better identify the school of thought of people who are doing the survey? Like Rosa said, can we divide the question to something like:

Does Canada's immigration policy affect/contribute to Canada's perceived multiculturalism status?
Please indicate your status (circle one): Immigrant Non-immigrant
o Yes, it affects the status greatly
o Yes, it affects the status somewhat
o I don't know what the perceived multiculturalism status is.
o No, it does not affect the status.

Something like that? It is a rough question/edit of Annie's question. I just want to know if something like this (formulating a two-part question) is feasible/practical/pertinent to clarify data we are trying to gather. Let me know your opinions!

Also, Lisa, I think the question is a valid one. I don't think it is a leading question, since the answers we provide are giving people a chance to form a causal relationship/disagree there is a causal relationship between the two. If we were to say: How does Canada's immigration policy affect its multiculturalism status, that would be jumping the gun on their relation to one another. Anyhow, that's my two cents. Feel free to give your opinion. JessicaLuu 00:29, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey group! Everything looks really put together and looks like we are on the right track! Jessica, I like the sound of organizing our survey into two-parts! NazaninKohan 01:56, 8 October 2010 (UTC)NazaninKohan

Hey guys, sorry for not getting involved earlier. The possible questions are looking really good. I'm particularly drawn to the question pertaining to "cultural expression" because it is a topic that is relevant to everyone, immigrant and non-immigrant alike. With that said, if we were to go along with that question, I think that we need to reword choice 3. All the rest of the choices are asking about limitations,and I think that we should edit it to reflect that as well. For example, "Should not be limited as long as it does not impede on another's freedom" or something like that. And to add to that, I think that choice 4 should be reworded to something like, "Should not be limited" because I remember a lecture in class about how "be" and "never" are measuring different things since they're not really opposite of each other or something. Just my two cents. I just really like that question.

I also think that formulating a two-part question is a great idea. It gives us a lot more freedom to phrase a question, and we're able to get more specific responses. I just don't know if we're allowed to do it. Are we? KristianAndres 03:54, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey guys - I moved two questions which I thought we had pretty much decided on over to the course page, hope you all agree that people seemed to have come to a consensus.

Annie, I also like the above question about immigration policy and multiculturalism. I like the edit that Jessica made to it as well, except for two things-
first, I think that a lot of people could be confused as to what "perceived multiculturalism status" is - I think many of us would debate what this actually means and therefore we are asking people who may have never set foot in a political science class or anything near that to decide what that means (does anyone have an edit that would make this clearer?)
second, I think that if we ask the Immigrant, Non-Immigrant question at the beginning we do not need to ask it again and potentially confuse the respondent as well as ourselves when we are analyzing this data (assuming we do at the end) so I would rather just have the first question.
I also think our other multiculturalism question should be something similar to what James and Nazanin have both put out there.
"Do you agree with the statement: "Canada's immigration policy poses a threat to the consolidation of Canadian national identity?"
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Strongly Disagree
5. I don't know"
And
People's thoughts on what multiculturalism does
o "It gives all cultural groups a sense of belonging
o It promotes foreign trade
o It will eliminate the 'Canadian' way of life
o Some groups will ultimately gain more than others"
Is there some way to put these two questions together and get people's opinions on -
- whether immigration and therefore increased multiculturalism (perhaps) is positive or negative for Canada (probably an economic discussion from both sides)
- whether immigration and multiculturalism is positive or negative for Canadian identity
- whether immigration and multiculturalism reduces or increases stratification of our society
I think that a question like this could provide a lot of information in a small amount of space. Thoughts?

--KirstenBrokop 04:19, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

I like your first question! I think I'm gonna go ahead & put it on the course tab if that's alright with you...I'm not sure how that works, I won't sign my name after it cause I don't want to take credit for your question...so feel free to do so if you want. I'm not so sure about the second question though, it's a very broad question (the answer choices are so varied) so I'm not sure how beneficial it would be to ask. Plus what if someone thinks that multiculturalism does all these things? At the very least it would need a "all of the above option" - but that's just me. PaigeBurnham 19:05, 8 October 2010 (UTC)Paige Burnham


Wow it takes awhile to get through all of this but it's good to see everyone contributing. A couple things:

- I really think that EVERY question in the survey should be applicable to immigrants/non-immigrants alike. It doesn't make sense to limit some of the questions to one group or the other. As much as the idea of a different question for immigrants/non-immigrants makes sense, I think it would just be complicating things too much - why not just keep things simple & make them answerable by both in the way they're worded. It looks like we have quite a few questions like that anyways. (We can still keep question #1 because anyone can answer it & that way we can still compare how the 2 different groups answered depending on the answer they gave to #1).

    • TOTALLY AGREE WITH THIS!We should not be limiting any of our five questions to a very specific group of people. Maybe if we had more questions it would be more feasible but since we dont I think we need to incorporate as much of the public as we can. --Rebecca Siguenza 19:16, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

-Is it Wiki-correct for me to just go ahead & delete a question on the course tab? Because #2(Why did you/your family choose to immigrate to Canada?) is not applicable to both immigrants & non-immigrants...Is anyone opposed?

-I say we just try to work on trying to narrow things down, it looks like we have somewhat of a focus so let's just try & keep with what we've got & try to work on asking each question in the most effective way. It would be cool to get 5 questions on that front page!

-I hope what I'm saying doesn't sound too forceful. I'm by no means trying to say that this is what we HAVE to do, it's just how I feel. Feel free to disagree with me!!!

PaigeBurnham 19:05, 8 October 2010 (UTC)Paige Burnham

Kirsten, personally I don't see a way that we could mesh the two questions together although it is a good thought if anyone else has any ideas? I do however think that they are both pertinent and important so maybe we could incorporate them both?

As for the second qustion on the wiki, we might be able to salvage it by adding the why Would you immigrate to Canada for those of the respondents who are non-immigrants. Paige, I'm on the fence about that question. Don't feel as strongly about it not being there at all but would not be upset if it was not included. Either way I think it should DEFINITELY be appicable to both immigrants and non-immigrants if included in our survey.

Also added our question on the "strictness" of the system. I think it's an important one. We should try to get as many questions onto the question tab as we can and then narrow them down from there. It's easier to keep track of our questions that way since the discussion is getting hard to read and get through. [thoughts?] Rebecca Siguenza 19:16, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

Hey guys, everything seems to be progressing on and we have lots of fence-sitters, myself being one, for some of the questions. I think we need a weeding out process. Why doesn't everyone go on the Course page and add an "X" to the questions they feel we should keep and in 2 days we'll see which questions have the most votes and we can eliminate/edit the ones that are least liked/applicable? Does that sound good? I find it hard to read everything and filter through who prefers which question. AnniePhung 21:47, 8 October 2010 (UTC)Annie Phung
Good idea! PaigeBurnham 22:41, 8 October 2010 (UTC)Paige Burnham

I guess when I was thinking about question 2, i just felt that since pretty much everyone in Canada came from another country ex:British settlers, Loyalists from American revolution, (except the Aboriginals, perhaps add this part to question if we were to salvage the question) that it would be applicable. But I understand that it will be exlusive as perhaps many families have settled here for generations and children are born here and feel that they are the true Canadians and not immigrants. SO yeah perhaps we shouldn't include this question as it is too complicated! It's probably a hard question for families that have been here for long time like grandparents are immigrants but their children are born here in Canada. But that was also why I asked if "you or your family". THis is also a question on multiculturalism as we can learn the different reasons that people from different cultures decide to move and come to canada.I changed it: Why did you choose to immigrate to Canada? Or if you are Canadian by birth, why did your family choose to immigrate to Canada?

Shelley_Lin 08:21, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Oh, I see what you're saying Shelley! Sorry I was totally assuming we were limiting immigration to either the parents being immigrants or you yourself being an immigrant - should have read your question more carefully. That being said, I think James' question modified your question quite well to make it a little simpler :) PaigeBurnham 21:23, 9 October 2010 (UTC)Paige Burnham

I think for question two (on the list under the "course" tab), we can simplify it a bit. Maybe something like "Why do you think so many immigrants are choosing Canada over other places?" or "In your opinion, what special aspect of Canadian society appeals the most to the immigrants?" might help us get the answers we need. The answering options might need slight tweaking too I think... Perhaps something like:

1. Canada's tolerance towards diversity
2. Canada's good reputation as a "safe place"
3. Economic opportunities
4. Excellent Education system
5. Canada's natural beauty and spaciousness
6. Protection of Personal Freedoms and Rights (guaranteed by the Charter)
7. Other (bilingualism, existence of family, stable political system)
8. I don't know/ No answer

As always, comment, critique and edit please. --JamesBan 09:43, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

I feel like 'acceptance of' rather than 'tolerance towards' would be more appropriate. 'Tolerating' something sounds like its dealing with something negative and puts a stigma on immigration and the diversity it entails.

James, I think that last question is great especially since you're not asking JUST immigrants (ie. when you ask why you chose to immigrate here), you can gauge all the people we're surveying as it applies to everyone's opinion and not just their experience. Here's some of my editing:

1. Canada's tolerance towards diversity
2. Canada's good reputation as a "safe place" (I'm not sure "good reputation" is fitting, maybe Canada as a generally "safe and peaceful" place is better)
3. Economic opportunities
4. Excellent Education system (I would remove the "excellent" because that seems like a personal opinion of the survery maker", maybe "established education system" or "publicly funded education system")
5. Canada's natural beauty and spaciousness (GREAT ANSWER! We should use this because it gives an option that isn't political or economic but just that people come for the land and its sights!)
6. Protection of Personal Freedoms and Rights (guaranteed by the Charter)
7. Other (bilingualism, existence of family, stable political system)
8. I don't know/ No answer

AnniePhung 17:20, 9 October 2010 (UTC)Annie Phung

To be frank, I think the following question would confuse some of our survey recipients and result in them ignoring the question. Maybe we can think about changing it to something more straightforward. For example, how do you feel bout freedom of cultural expression such as clothing choice, religion, treatment of women. I think this is a great question though, but can easily be expected of racism and thus not honestly answered. Thuhuyenngo 02:30, 11 October 2010 (UTC)ThuHuyenNgo :

How do you perceive cultural expressions and differences pertaining to such topics as clothing choice, religion, treatment of women, etc.? 

           1. should be limited indefinitely 
           2. should be limited only if it affects public security 
           3. should be recognized as freedom of expression to the extent that it does not violate any other freedom in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom 
           4. should never be limited

I also think a good question to pose (so that we don't completely leave out non-immigrants - much of the Canadian population), is whether or not they've ever considered leaving Canada and becoming a citizen elsewhere. Or how they would feel as an immigrant to Canada.

Question: (Applicable to both immigrants and non-immigrants) Have you ever considered moving away from Canada to live elsewhere permanently as a citizen?

1. I will definitely be moving away
2. I have considered it
3. I will will never be moving away

A following question, then, could be: Why have you considered moving away?

1. Career opportunities
2. Family and friends
3. Dissatisfied with government
4. Travel
5. New experiences

I know those aren't the greatest answers, so here's where I'd like some input! Thanks :) Thuhuyenngo 02:30, 11 October 2010 (UTC)ThuHuyenNgo

As per

"Do you agree with the statement: "Canada's immigration policy poses a threat to the consolidation of Canadian national identity?"
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Disagree
4. Strongly Disagree
5. I don't know

I felt as though I had to read this question twice to understand it and based on my survey pool, I'm not quite sure it'll be understood the way it's written. What exactly is "consolidation of Canadian identity? Does that refer to nationalism in the patriotic sense or is it with greater emphasis on national security or could there be another meaning? I think an almost "dummied-down, but more specific" version of this question could be great and very insightful. How about as previously suggested, we all-encompass it with the following question listed above for a greater focus on the attitudes towards immigration in general? Thuhuyenngo 02:30, 11 October 2010 (UTC)ThuHuyenNgo

That's a good point. I do agree with you in that the term Canadian identity is going to be problematic. People have very different ideas as to what the Canadian identity is or even debates on whether it exists at all.

Shelley_Lin 21:25, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

My concern is with the term consolidation as well - what is it consolidating to? What are we trying to get people's opinion about if we use the term consolidating? Are people concerned about not having an easily "consolidated" national identity, or are they concerned that immigration has a negative affect on whatever they view "Canadian identity" to be? This question could possibly be taking in two very different concepts depending on how it's read. I would suggest that we remove the word "consolidation" and just leave it as Canadian identity, because then we don't have to worry about how people would interpret it. User:KathleenTanner 18:23, 11 October 2010


Hi everyone. I would like to contribute by posing two questions that I think are important to ask in regards to immigrants and multiculturalism in Canada. First of all, we've already discussed the fact that it is important to assess the reason for immigration and therefore I'd like to deepen this thought by focussing on immigrants' economic background. What kind of financial background do immigrants have? Is there a tendancy towards them being from a weak economic part of society? Also, I think it is necessary to focus on whether they came by themselves or with a partner or with a family. And last, we could try to assess if the immigrant has already tried to start a new life in a different country before coming to Canada. Question 1 is a little more challenging to pose. It depends on what country we are looking at. Therefore if we'd like to generalize the question, we would have to come up with a fitting measurement. I would appreciate your input on that. Question 2 can be posed as the following:

"When immigrating to Canada, did you come alone or were you accompanied by family or friends?
1. I immigrated alone.
2. I immigrated with a friend/friends.
3. I immigrated with a family member.
4. I immigrated with more than one family member.

Question 3 is there to asses the dynamics of immigration not just towards one country

"Is Canada the first country you have attempted to immigrate to?"
1. Yes, Canada is the first country I've attempted to immigrate to.
2. No, Canada is the second country I've tried to immigrate to.
3. No, Canada is the third/fourth etc. country I've tried to immigrate to.

In reply to the questions above, I really like the idea of focussing more on the economic background of immigrants. By doing that, it allows us to see how big a role immigrants play in Canada's economy and what services need to be provided to new immigrants to Canada. The suggested question 3 is a great question to determine if this was the first immigration for the immigrant. I felt that touching on reasons why an immigrant, if they have attempted to immigrate to other countries, was denied citizenship, but I understand that this would be hard to put in a survey question and might digging a bit too deep in the privacy of interviewee. I just feel that this information would come in handy in further understanding the immigrant population. EmilyLai 19:50, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

Hi Emily, I do like your questions and mine was very similar to yours in that it focused on immigrants. It's probably hard to go and read through our long dicussion but since your questions just focus on immigrants, this leaves out a significant portion of Canadians that we cannot study. Perhaps if we had more than 5 questions and we were able to do an immigrant and non-immigrant survey, those would be great questions!

Shelley_Lin 21:25, 11 October 2010 (UTC) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Questions moved from the front page' if one of these get higher votes we can move them to front!

Why did you or if non-immigrant WOULD YOU choose to immigrate to Canada? --Rebecca Siguenza 19:04, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

1. social reason (multiculturalism policy)
2. humanitarian reason (refugee, escape from political persecution and danger)
3. economic reasons (job opportunities)
4. educational reasons
5. never immigrated, Aboriginal Status Shelley_Lin 21:52, 11 October 2010 (UTC)
--KirstenBrokop 03:46, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

Votes for including qu. 2:X

Q2, the second part...I SUGGEST WE BREAK THIS ONE INTO A TWO PART QUESTION TO MAKE IT MORE CLEAR (Why did you immigrate to Canada? If you are not an immigrant, what would you think would be a good reason to immigrate to Canada?).--ChinmayThakkar 18:25, 9 October 2010 (UTC)
Q2, why not make it even more simple and split the question? a. Are you an immigrant? (if no, proceed to next question) b. what region of the world did you most recently live? --RachaelGoertz 20:36, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

4. How do you feel about Multiculturalism in Canada?

- It gives all cultural groups a sense of belonging
- It promotes foreign trade
- It will eliminate the "Canadian way of life"
- Some groups will ultimately gain more than others

Votes for including qu. 4: XXX

Q4:I THINK THIS QUESTION NEEDS TO BE NARROWED DOWN A LITTLE FURTHER (i.e. How do you feel Canada's multiculturalism has impacted______ (could put something like: cultural sensitivity within your own family).--ChinmayThakkar 18:25, 9 October 2010 (UTC)
Q4: I also feel this question needs to be narrowed, additionally, terms don't seem particularly well-defined by the statements, there is a lot of room for interpretation but also it forces the individual answering questions into 4 distinct categories, none of which they may agree with. --RachaelGoertz 20:36, 11 October 2010 (UTC)
Q4: I also think that the choices need to revised. As Rachael said, we're placing them into 4 distinct categories that are not really general enough for most survey participants to fall under. I know that this might be changing the meaning of the question (and it might not be exactly what the question posted is intended to measure), but something like the categories in Q6 but replacing "affect" with like/dislike would encompass more participants' opinions. I really like the question though. --KristianAndres 00:11, 12 October 2010 (UTC)
Q4: I think that this is closely linked the the 'Canadian Identity' question on the front page, but may the similar issue of clarity of concepts as far as how people feel about multiculturalism/canadian identity, maybe giving more of a scale as opposed to a set of particular options. This problem might be solved with a "comments" section at the end of the survey, much like on the census, where you can say your piece if you feel the need to clarify an answer that you gave earlier. KathleenTanner 18:32, October 11, 2010

6. Does Canada's immigration policy affect/contribute to Canada's perceived multiculturalism status? Please indicate your status (circle one): Immigrant Non-immigrant

- Yes, it affects the status greatly
- Yes, it affects the status somewhat
- I don't know what the perceived multiculturalism status is.
- No, it does not affect the status.
Q6- IF WE ARE GOING TO USE THIS ONE, WE SHOULD CHANGE THE BEGINNING TO "DO YOU THINK..."--ChinmayThakkar 18:25, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Votes for including qu. 6: XXX

9. Have you ever considered moving away from Canada to live elsewhere permanently as a citizen? (still open to editing)

1. I will definitely be moving away
2. I have considered it
3. I will will never be moving away

Thuhuyenngo 02:38, 11 October 2010 (UTC)thuhuyenngo

Q9 I would word it as "Have you ever considered becoming a permanent citizen of another country?"
1. I want to change citizenship
2. I have considered it, but am unsure about it
3. I have considered it and will maintain Canadian citizenship
4. I have not considered it

OR have a sliding scale "With 10 being a definite desire to leave the country and 0 being perfectly content to stay, where would you place yourself?"

It all depends on what you're measuring. It seems that the first answer set would tell us more about the thought-process and the second, simply the likelihood. --RachaelGoertz 20:36, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

Votes for including qu. 9: XX

10. If you have considered moving away, why? (still open to editing)

1. Career opportunities
2. Family and friends
3. Dissatisfied with government
4. Travel
5. New experiences
6. Other

Thuhuyenngo 02:38, 11 October 2010 (UTC)thuhuyenngo

Votes for including qu. 10: XX


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Thuhuyen// I really like the idea of posing to Canadians if they have considered emigration out of Canada because in modern world. Posing this question, I think, may show whether immigrants have really created attachments to Canada or not. In response to your inquiry about what I meant by Canadian national identity, I would say that I meant it as "whatever we Canadians feel distinguish ourselves from the rest of the world." Whether this differentiation springs from our shared attachments to symbolic items like red maple leaf or beaver, or from stereotypical belief that we're "better than American" really depends on a given person that this question is posed to. I think it'll be fine if we ask the question as it is now because our respondents will interpret what Canadian national identity would mean in their own minds and give their answers accordingly. Also when we disclose this information, those who will hear of our results will interpret what the Canadian identity would mean in their own minds and interpret it accordingly. I posed this question out of interest because I simply did not feel that Canadians have universally agreed-upon, solid definition of "a Canadian identity" since many Canadians I've known have provided vastly different answers as to what Canadian identity meant. I am theorizing that part of the difficulty behind the formulation of a concrete, universal Canadian identity might be attributable to the fact that Canada is a mixture of many different cultures with different people constantly moving in and out of the country: constant dynamism of the country itself is causing a constant shift in the way we view our own identity. So if this question was posed to me I would "Agree" that immigration can be problematic to the consolidation of Canadian identity.

Amna///First of all, I think your questions are really interesting in that you are trying to look into the possibility of "multiple" immigration and who may have accompanied our respondents to Canada. However, as discussed before, we cannot limit our sample to immigrants alone and your 2 questions above seem to primarily target immigrant respondents. I think you could certainly throw in "not an immigrant" option into your questions to be inclusive of non-immigrants in your "Is Canada the first country you have attempted to immigrate to?" but I don't think it could work for "When immigrating to Canada, did you come alone or were you accompanied by family or friends?" --JamesBan 22:24, 11 October 2010 (UTC)


I read all of the questions above and realized that there was one question that wasn't asked - "How long did it take to adjust to Canadian society as an immigrant?" 1. 1-3 years 2. 4-7 years 3. 8-10 years 4. More than a decade I immigrated to Canada when I was seven years old and there has been something I have always noticed - the difference of time it took for me to adjust to Canadian society opposed to the time it took my parents to adjust to Canadian society in terms of language, education, etc. Since I came at a younger age, I was able to make new Canadian friends almost immediately and learn English more rapidly. My parents, after 11 years of immigrating to Canada, still take ESL courses and struggle to be part of the english-speaking community. I think age of immigration has a big impact on how immigration affects an individual. I feel like age at immigration and time it took an individual to adjust to Canadian society would have a positive relationship in which, the older the person at immigration, the longer it takes them to adjust to a different culture.

I just want to reiterate James' point above which is that we should try to limit questions that are only applicable to immigrants (excludes non-immigrants from being able to answer). The questions on the course page are great so far and I think instead of adding more questions and trying to filter new ones, we should all work on voting and narrowing/editing the questions we already have. One more thing to add: HOWEVER, If anyone can think of questions regarding multiculturalism, feel free to add it to the course page as I think we need more under that topic. I say this because I just skimmed through the 5 questions on the course page and all of them focus on the topic of immigration and none touch on multiculturalism.AnniePhung 06:46, 13 October 2010 (UTC)Annie Phung

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ RE: Class Survey Draft:

A few thoughts about the rough draft we were emailed today:

Q20: Employment: My concern is that many students also work full or part-time to support their education, and it is not clear where these people should mark themselves. Perhaps there should be one more category for students who are also employed? Q19: What does this have to do with question 72 re. the gun registry? Are they at all related? Or is it a typo? Q56: Government Lie: Perhaps there should be a "Don't Know" option, as many people may not be aware of the background to this particular question. Q58/59: Is there a difference between the two? Q95: I wonder if more people would prefer a "both side equally" because they may not feel that Canada should support one side over the other. --KathleenTanner 21:23 21 October 2010 (

That's excellent Kathleen. Thanks very much. -- Fred FredCutler 21:52, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

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