In a previous blog we started to explore ‘best practices’ in mentoring programs from around the world. In today’s blog we would like to introduce to you some interesting research work by Mikael Hellstrom and Patrick von Maravic from the University of Alberta. In their paper “Why has integration in the labour market worked better in Canada than in Sweden and Germany?” they argue that it’s not the size of funding that makes the difference but how the public sector itself is organized.
They found that the ‘top-down management’ structure, which is typical for Sweden and Germany, kept many immigrant community actors outside of the integration process. The ‘bottom-up’ management structure in Canada on the other hand makes it possible to have community involvement in immigrant policy decisions and service provision.
In Canada, immigrant serving organizations play an important stakeholder role in the community by creating a bridge into the immigrant integration process.
You can connect and watch a summary of the research that was presented at the recent Annual Conference for Canadian Political Scientists in Victoria, BC.
What do you think? We would love to hear your comments.