Mais, Julia

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Page 1 of 2The AuthorJulia Mais is Project Coordinator for the Settlement.Org website with the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI). ContactFor further information on this research, please contact: Julia Mais (Julia.K.Mais@gmail.com)  In contrast to the significant body of research focusing on the challenges facing the Filipino community in Canada, Julia Mais’ research sheds light on some of the achievements of Filipino-Canadians.  Her study focuses on the adult children of Filipino immigrants who have met a certain level of “success” as it is conventionally, although perhaps problematically, defined.  High powered Filipino-Canadian professionals such as IT managers, engineers, business owners, commercial actors and marketing executives are rarely visible in most academic literature. The study therefore sought out participants who were em-ployed and who had completed some post-secondary education, with many holding Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees. Mais argues that the educational and career pathways of Filipino-Canadian youth are largely influenced by their social context. Some of the common themes among those who experienced relative “success” were:• High	expectations	from	family.		Many	of	the	participants’	parents	werehighly educated and were very insistent that their children attend post-second-ary education. This expectation was so entrenched that several participants did not consider college or university to be a ‘decision’ but rather a ‘non-deci-sion’. For example, one participant explained: “We kinda knew that we had to go to university, after high school we had to go to university, get a degree and get a good job.” • Prestigious	 grade	 school	 attendance.	 Many	 of	 the	 participants	 hadattended private schools or public schools in neighbourhoods with high so-cio-economic profiles.  Attending these types of schools ensured that youth were surrounded by a predominantly university-bound peer group. It also meant that the school culture and resources facilitated post-secondary trajecto-ries. It is interesting to note that many youth who attended prestigious private schools were not themselves from wealthy backgrounds and often struggled to pay for their post-secondary education. • Positive	peer	pressure.	Many	participants	explained	that	they	felt		pres-sure to keep up with their friends’ educational and professional achievements. For example, one participant explained how the influence of her peers out-Number 5, 2014Filipino Youth Success in VancouverAsia Research BriefPage 2 of 2Asia Research BriefsAsia Research Briefs provide short summaries or perspectives based on research by YCAR Associates. Their purpose is to share insights from aca-demic research with journalists, policy analysts, community leaders and interested members of the public. For further information, or to subscribe to the series, contact: ycar@yorku.ca.About YCARThe York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) is one of Canada’s largest and most active communities of scholars working on East, South and Southeast Asia as well as Asian migrant commu-nities around the world.  The Centre includes faculty, graduate students and research associates from the social sciences, humanities, fine arts, law and business. YCAR facilitates and supports research projects, knowledge exchange and graduate student training, as well as engagement with wider communities in the conduct or dissemination of research.  YCAR is located on York University’s Keele campus.For more information:  www.yorku.ca/ycarEighth Floor, Kaneff Tower              4700 Keele St., Toronto Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3Number 5, 2014weighed the opinion of her parents: “…One of the things that my dad said was you don’t really need to go to university, you can just go and do a trade or something. And I was like, what? I have to go to university, all my friends are in university, I can’t not go to university.” In addition, peers served as vital links to employment and many participants found jobs through networks of friends. Overall, Mais found that the social surroundings of family, educational institutions and peers were key for youth when they made decisions regarding their careers and post-secondary education. Further, she determined that the resources, cultural capital, encouragement, and social connections provided by these contexts effectively facilitated positive pathways to employment and post-secondary education for young Filipino-Canadians.  SourceJulia Mais completed this research in 2012 as a Master’s student in the Graduate Programme in Geography at York University. Her thesis was titled ‘Behind the resume: influences on the educational and employment                                          trajectories of 1.5 and second generation Filipino-Canadians in Vancouver’.  The full thesis is available here:  http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/theses-canada/vol2/002/MR91746.pdf.    

Filipino Youth Success in Vancouver

https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/bitstream/10315/31644/1/YCAR_ARB0005.pdf

Filipino Youth Success in Vancouver

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