Posted by Dr. Wu on / 0 Comments
From October 21-23, 2015, Dr. Wu attended the 8th Biennial Settlement Conference organized by Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies, in Edmonton, AB, Canada.
A number of federal and provincial governmental organizations, immigrant servicing agencies, community service agencies and other related organizations within the province of Alberta and throughout Canada convened and shared their research, program, experiences, strategies, innovations and successes regarding improving settlement services for immigrants and creating sustainable communities.
The current European refugee crisis has put the plight of refugees into the public eye. As a longstanding country that welcomes immigrants, Canada has been playing an important role in international refugee settlement. The newly elected Prime Minister-Designate of Canada, Justin Trudeau, has promised during his campaign, to settle 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada by the end of 2015. Excluding war and political causes, the global effects of climate change and disaster, as well, dramatically contribute to the mounting numbers of refugees and immigrants. Hence, much of the settlement of refugees and immigrants is closely related to (hu)man-made and natural disasters and world-embracing crises.
Immigrant servicing agencies and organizations usually offer services that address the challenges that immigrants and refugees face during their process of engagement with the communities in the host country. This endeavor, which has dominantly focused on the social aspect, such as settlement counseling, information and referral, and social diversity promotion, is built upon the existing physical built environment, with a hope of establishing inclusive and welcoming communities. They do not commonly engage social issues that enter into the community’s physical planning and development. Thus, my research concentrates on how to engage immigrants and refugees into the actual physical planning process of community development, aiming to create holistic development plans for inclusive and welcoming communities.