Post-high school pathways of immigrant youth : Parcours de jeunes immigrants après l'école secondaire

In many ways, Toronto is a precursor of the demographic change the rest of the province (and Canada) will experience within a few years as immigrant youth become the majority of the school-age population. [...] This variety of available educational pathways reflects broader shifts in the timing of the transition to postsecondary institutions during the life course and the age at which young people complete school and enter the labour market (Louie, 2007). [...] The literature on the role of education in immigrant settlement is characterized by incremental and situated analyses to which the present study contributes by examining the high school experiences and post-high school pathways of immigrant youth enrolled in the Toronto District School Board. [...] These realities include the population of Toronto, the ages of its citizens, birth rates, immigration, income and poverty levels, the labour force, residential development, and the support for and aspirations of the children that live within the boundaries of the TDSB. [...] More recent analyses of the student population in the TDSB (Yau and O’Reilly, 2007) shows that 30 per cent of Grade 7 and 8 students were born outside of Canada and 42 per cent of Grade 9 to 12 students were born outside of the country.