Immigrant Children in Toronto Have More Mental Health Problems than Newcomer Children in Other Canadian Cities

Newswise — More immigrants settle in Toronto than in any other Canadian city, but that decision may be adversely affecting their children's mental health, finds a national study led by Ryerson University. “As an immigrant-receiving country, Canada spends a great deal of effort making sure that we select well-educated and skilled immigrants but, after they arrive, we tend to forget about them," said Professor Morton Beiser, the study’s lead author and a Professor of Distinction in Ryerson’s Department of Psychology. "Neglecting the emotional health of immigrant and refugee children is not only unjust, but counter-productive. Emotional problems also make it difficult for children to integrate and make friends, thus increasing the risk of developing mental health and social problems later in life."

Beiser and his co-authors surveyed 2,000 immigrant children and their families from Hong Kong, mainland China and the Philippines who settled in Canada during the 10 years before the study’s inception.

They found that immigrant children living in Toronto, followed by newcomer children in Montreal, exhibited more mental health problems than their counterparts living in other cities. According to the researchers, feelings of being marginalized by the larger community, poor quality of neighbourhoods and poor relationships between home and school explained Toronto's relatively poor showing.

As for immigrant families in Montreal, further investigation showed that these children’s mental health issues may be attributed to their parents’ lack of fluency in French. “One possible explanation,” said Beiser, “is that children learn their adopted home’s language more quickly than their parents, so they have to do things like negotiate with landlords, or act as interpreters at the doctor's office. This kind of role reversal can be stressful for these kids. "

The researchers also discovered that children in families from mainland China were mentally healthier than children in Hong Kong and Filipino families. "There's nothing inherent in ethnicity that creates mental health risk," Beiser said. "We think that the ethnic differences we found are due to different patterns of migration. However, this finding does require more investigation."

Not surprisingly, the researchers confirmed that factors that negatively impact immigrant families also jeopardize their children’s mental health. These include a mother's lack of fluency in one of Canada's official languages, parents' experiencing resettlement stress and familial encounters with prejudice and discrimination.

"The situation we face in Toronto may well be a result of the general neglect of immigrant issues in Canada, and perhaps also the legacy of uninformed policy decisions that jeopardized the situation of immigrants and their families in Ontario in recent decades," said Beiser. "Seeing what hasn't worked can provide important lessons for policy makers and all levels of government.”

However, regions in Canada can learn from each other's successes, Beiser said. The study found that immigrant families living in the western provinces were enthusiastic about their home-school relationships. “Vancouver and the Prairies probably have something to teach the rest of Canada about how to provide the kinds of welcoming neighbourhood, school and community environments that immigrant families and their children need."

The study, recently published in the October issue of the journal, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, is part of a larger national study led by Beiser, called the New Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS). This ongoing study is a longitudinal investigation of the mental health of 4,000 immigrant and refugee children living in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. Some 30 investigators from universities and research institutions across Canada are working on the NCCYS under Beiser’s leadership. The other lead investigators for the NCCYS are Jacqueline Oxman-Martinez, Université de Montréal; Joanna Rummens, Hospital for Sick Children; Lori Wilkinson, University of Winnipeg; Linda Ogilvie, University of Alberta; David Este, University of Calgary; and Robert Armstrong and Anne George, University of British Columbia.

Funding for the NCCYS was provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Heritage, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Health Canada, Justice Canada, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, Alberta Learning, B.C. Ministry of Social Development and Economic Security, B.C. Ministry of Multiculturalism and Immigration, Conseil Québécois de la Recherche Sociale, Manitoba Labour and Immigration, and the Montréal, Prairies and Ontario Metropolis Centres of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement.

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