Income inequality and opportunities among immigrants in BC

Hey guys,

Here is my 2 cents on this:

3) How would you describe your social/financial status prior to arriving in BC? (1) impoverished (2) lower-middle class (3) middle class (4) wealthy

I think this questions needs a bit more work, especially because we do have many immigrants who come from regions where the state circumstances are really poor, so the class classifications that we're used wouldn't make sense/translate properly. I don't know if it would be effective, since I would assume that most people would cite a positive relationship, but we could ask if they think their financial circumstances have improved. Some people, surely, would indicate a negative relationship as they might be in a lower financial bracket here, having exchanged status for certain freedoms and opportunities that Canada offers.

6) In your local municipality, how many services are you aware of that give immigrants an opportunity to adjust to their new cultural surroundings and meet other immigrants who are new to BC as well? (a) 0 (b) 1-2 (c) 3-5 (d) 5-8 (e) 8-10 (f) Over 10

This question (as well as 4 and 5, but less so) becomes less relevant the longer immigrants have been in Canada. Settlement programs are much more important to someone who got here 6 months ago than someone who has been here for 15 years. Therefore, there is likely to be a discrepancy in the answers because someone who has been here for a long time may not be aware of programs because they don't feel like they need to use them at this point.

Midas - I actually think that we should complicate the regions; wealth discrepancies in some parts of the world (East/West Europe, for example) need to be accounted for, esp when we consider when the immigrants came here. Someone coming over from Britain in '95 vs. Poland in the same time period would have had a completely different background and experience regardless of personal income.