Background: The Metropolis Project

The Metropolis Project exists as both an international and a Canadian initiative.  Internationally, Metropolis is a network of policy officials and researchers from more than 20 countries, as well as a number of representatives of international organizations including intergovernmental bodies and NGOs.  An International Steering Committee sets the strategic directions of the international project, facilitates information exchange between members, plans annual conferences, and stimulates international research collaboration. 
 
In Canada, the Metropolis Project consists of 5 university-based Centres of Excellence and a Secretariat based at Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) that manages the project on behalf of a partnership of federal departments and agencies.  The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and CIC jointly provide funds to support the Centres which are located at universities in Atlantic Canada (Halifax and Moncton), Quebec (Montreal), Ontario (Toronto), the Prairies (Edmonton), and British Columbia (Vancouver).  Each Centre has developed an extensive local network of policy-makers, researchers, NGOs and other partners, as well as significant linkages across the country and with the international components of the Metropolis Project.  The Centres operate at arm’s length from government and facilitate policy-relevant research on immigration and diversity.  Some 350 university researchers are affiliated with the centres.

The Project Secretariat in CIC, dedicated to ensuring communication between researchers and government, enables the connection between research and policy that is at the heart of the Metropolis Project.

Over the past ten years the Metropolis Project has built research capacity in the areas of immigration, multiculturalism, and cultural diversity; encouraged a new generation of interested researchers to study these issues; and provided, and continues to provide, a forum for the major stakeholders in immigration and multiculturalism policy to meet and learn from each other.

Six federal policy-research priorities focus the Centres’ research on areas of particular importance to federal policy-making.  These areas are: 

Citizenship and Social, Cultural and Civic Integration — this policy-research priority examines the social and cultural effects of immigration and diversity on Canada and determine the extent to which there are risks to societal well-being, to full participation of the members of these groups as citizens, and to the cohesion of Canadian society overall and in its regions;

Economic and Labour Market Integration — this policy-research priority continues the examination of these phenomena with special attention to the economic impact of immigration and to the changes that a larger and more structured immigrant and minority population has made to the economic consequences of immigration and diversity in their destination communities;

Family, Children and Youth — this policy research priority examines the consequences of migration to Canada for families, children and youth and develops proposals for enhancing their success in the future;

Housing and Neighbourhoods — this policy priority seeks to better understand the relationships between housing, neighbourhoods and integration into Canadian society;

Justice, Policing, and Security — this policy-research priority offers analyses of current trends and conditions, and provides a basis upon which security policy, policing policy and practice, emergency management, crime prevention, justice policy and integration policy can be enhanced;

Welcoming Communities:  The Role of Host Communities in Attracting, Integrating, and Retaining Newcomers and Minorities — this policy research priority examines what public policy instruments can enhance the capacity of Canada, its cities and communities to receive and integrate immigrants, refugees, and minorities and attempts to empirically-determine best practices that can be adapted for use in other contexts.

The national conference will feature plenary sessions in each of these areas.

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