Thank you.

I would like to first begin by thanking the committee for having us here.

My name is Annie Hsu. I am a Daughter of the Vote representing Don Valley North today, a riding with one of the highest percentages of ethnic Chinese in Canada, as well as a riding where half our residents speak a language other than English at home. I am proud to be a Chinese Canadian woman speaking to you about my experiences.

When I came to Canada in 2011, my language and cultural barriers just seemed unsurmountable. In school I became the target for harassment and bullying. I remember one day a classmate grabbed and quickly covered my entire forearm using black Sharpie before I could even form a response. Not long after that incident, a group of boys would always throw my backpack around while mocking my request for them to stop until my backpack would end up in the garbage can.

Although I loved the performing arts since childhood, drama classes became unbearable after a male classmate verbally assaulted me with derogatory comments on my culture and my sex. In fact, I dreaded going to any classes and began to skip recess or lunch to avoid people.

Social isolation ultimately triggered a lot of anxiety on my mental health, and at the age of 12 I had depression. This is not just my story. This is one variation of the gloomy reality for many adolescent and youth newcomers to Canada.

In the 2015 study that surveyed Asian youth in the GTA, 12% of the youth participants—the majority of them being first-generation immigrants—said they had seriously considered suicide. A 2018 study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that immigrant and refugee youth in Canada are more likely to visit the emergency room for mental health reasons than those born within the country.

Amidst debates on immigration policy around the world, the critical issue of the integration of newcomer youth and refugees has not attracted much-needed attention. Suddenly integrating into a new community is a particularly challenging process for all of us with language and cultural barriers. Compounding these challenges, newcomer youth are commonly exposed to discrimination and oppression. Social exclusion significantly impacts our mental health, academic performance and ultimate access to quality education.

In 2017, I established Bridge the Heart, a youth-led, non-profit organization that provides peer-to-peer support for newcomer youth through mentorship, civic engagement programs and skills training in Toronto. We work to ensure that newcomer youth have the knowledge, skills and experiences they need to succeed in school, to effectively engage in our communities and the political process, and to achieve our full potential.

Every day I work with young people who share similar experiences with these issues that are rarely openly discussed or addressed by the government. I understand that the Government of Canada settlement program, recent proposals for a new settlement and resettlement assistance program and a recent new allocation of funds for pre-arrival services continue to improve the support for immigrants and refugees. However, I see the urgent need for the provision of support designed specifically for youth newcomers who are not only entering a new community, but also a critical stage in their lives in discovering their identity.

I urge this committee and the House to consider a youth-focused policy approach, and to invest in local programs that foster connections between youth and their new communities, and help them gain the language and cultural knowledge they need to succeed academically and in employment while keeping in mind the important different experiences and needs for youth from different places of origin, immigration classes, socio-economic backgrounds and many more.

I think it is so imperative that we proactively invest in newcomer youth now and into the future rather than passively implementing reactive measures, before it is too late to ensure their ongoing engagement with the community.

As a Chinese Canadian woman, I am grateful for a country that values our people's diversity as our strength, but we have a lot more to do.

Thank you.

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