What socio-demographic and self-identified factors impact the sense of belonging among immigrants to Hamilton?
Project Description:
The Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council (HIPC) conducted a survey of immigrants in Hamilton in June 2023. About 700 immigrants responded to the survey, including permanent residents, refugees, refugee claimants, temporary foreign workers, international students, and Ukrainian temporary residents. The survey was aimed at understanding the diverse experiences of immigrants across a wide range of topics including education, employment, income, housing, service use, settlement supports, challenges, and supports, belonging/isolation, discrimination, contributions, and more. HIPC has analyzed the data, released a report, and shared findings with its partners. Our partners would like us to further explore the findings around sense of belonging. Our data shows a large proportion of immigrants report a strong sense of belonging despite reporting high levels of feelings of isolation, experiences of discrimination, and challenges around housing, cost of living, income, and employment.
There is an opportunity to unpack this by exploring/analyzing the existing immigrant survey data that HIPC has at its disposal and by collecting more qualitative data through interviews and/or focus groups with immigrants in Hamilton. We are interested in understanding the facilitators and barriers to a sense of belonging among immigrants in Hamilton, how immigrants define “sense of belonging,” and what other socio-demographic factors are correlated with sense of belonging. HIPC’s strategic plan (2021-2025) collective impact goal is to ensure that more newcomers in Hamilton feel a sense of belonging, and this project will aid us in measuring and achieving this goal.
Intended Outcomes:
The deliverables from this project will include
1) a full report with detailed findings from the data, literature review and methodology
2) a summary report.
We expect the first deliverable to be used internally by HIPC staff and to share with other Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs). The second deliverable will be widely shared by HIPC and should be a public-facing document in plain language.
The summary report will be widely shared through HIPC’s communication channels. Findings from this research will also be shared with the HIPC’s partnership council and social inclusion and community engagement committee in a more targeted way to generate discussion on actions HIPC and its partners can take to better promote sense of belonging among the newcomer and immigrant populations in Hamilton.
City Staff: Mohammad Araf, Program Officer
Additional City Staff: Sarah Wayland, Senior Project Manager, HIPC, and Natasha Martinez, Community Relations Coordinator
Instructor: Karen Balcom, Faculty of Humanities, McMaster University