Immigrants have been coming to Canada for centuries, adjusting and changing their languages, habits, dress, foods, and values in the process. They have also shaped and continue to reshape the language, habits, dress codes, foods and values of Canadians. The changes challenge everyone, new settlers as well as the people who came here earlier.

Canadians are becoming increasingly aware of the challenge immigration poses for adults, but we tend to forget that one in five children below the age of 15 in Canada was either born abroad or born into an immigrant household. Like all mothers and fathers, immigrant parents have high hopes for their children. Canada also expects a lot from immigrant youngsters. Expectations for immigrant and refugee youngsters out-run the development of policies and practices to help ensure their fulfillment.

The New Canadian Children and Youth Study (NCCYS) is a national study of about 4,000 children and their families from sixteen different ethnocultural communities across Canada. The NCCYS is a longitudinal study of children’s physical health and mental health, and of the factors that affect children's health, growth, development and fulfillment of their potential. The NCCYS will provide a knowledge base for effective policy and practice.

Canada is committed to developing a National Children’s Agenda. If that agenda is to achieve its important goals, it must pay attention to immigrant and refugee children, to their particular challenges, and to the capacities they need to develop in order to convert challenge into opportunity.