Participating Cultural-Linguistic Communities

This program has a multicultural focus. The intent is to create solutions that are transferable to people from Canada’s many cultural-linguistic communities.

To reach this multicultural goal, five cultural-linguistic communities were invited to participate in this program.

• Somalia (Somali)
• India (Punjabi Sikh)
• Poland (Polish)
• China (Mandarin)
• Latin America (Spanish)

Criteria used for selecting the five cultural-linguistic communities were:

• Demographics across sites (both newer and established communities with sufficient numbers)
• Geographic distribution of world region of origin
• Differences in migration experiences (immigrants versus refugees, voluntary versus forced migration)
• Visible minority status
• Present or previous collaboration with CREHS and CURA partners

The research component of the program compared the perspectives of people from these cultural-linguistic backgrounds, recognizing that there are significant differences within and between such groups. The research also considers similarities and differences across site (Waterloo Region, Toronto) and by gender.