Evidence shows that immigrants face several challenges post migration, impacting their social inclusion. Yet, limited scholarly knowledge exists on older immigrants including Tamils from Sri Lanka. Thus, an exploratory concept mapping (CM) study was conducted in 2017 with 27 Tamil immigrant women and men aged ≥55 years and settled in Toronto, Canada. The aim was to gather their perspectives on factors that help them to feel socially included (focal question). The CM methodology first engaged participants in brainstorming sessions to generate ideas in response to the focal question. Participants then joined sorting and rating sessions and sorted 72 generated items and rated them on a scale of 1–5 for importance and feasibility to initiate a change. Finally, in the interpretation session, participants provided feedback on the visual cluster maps generated through quantitative analysis of the collected data. Participants labelled the seven identified clusters: (a) Services for Employment and Settlement; (b) Financial Independence; (c) Medical System and Senior Care; (d) Adaptation and Integration; (e) Family Harmony; (f) Cultural Interaction and Feeling of Security; and (g) Social Interaction. The clusters one to three were at the top for importance (mean 4.33, 4.22, 4.17) and participants interpreted these as needing policy-level attention (e.g. credential evaluation, hiring practices) and identified the roles of advocacy and community-engagement for community-based programmes (CBPs). The Family Harmony was interpreted as needing ‘work within families’, while CBPs’ culturally sensitive outreach was viewed as valuable. Participant interpretation of other clusters highlighted the role of social networking, trust, belonging, civic engagement and social cohesion through joint working of the community members and CBPs. The findings call for an inter-sectoral and community-engaged approach to strengthen the social inclusion of the community. Future research with a larger sample is needed, especially on early settlement experiences and social inclusion of older immigrants.

中文翻译：

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泰米尔老年移民对社会包容的看法：加拿大的概念图研究

有证据表明，移民在移民后面临着若干挑战，影响了他们的社会包容性。然而，对包括斯里兰卡泰米尔人在内的老年移民的学术知识有限。因此，2017 年对 27 名年龄≥55 岁并定居在加拿大多伦多的泰米尔移民女性和男性进行了探索性概念图 (CM) 研究。目的是收集他们对有助于他们感到被社会包容的因素的看法（焦点问题）。CM 方法首先让参与者参与头脑风暴会议，以产生针对焦点问题的想法。然后，参与者参加了排序和评分会议，对 72 个生成的项目进行排序，并以 1-5 的等级对它们进行评分，以了解启动变革的重要性和可行性。最后，在口译环节，参与者对通过对收集的数据进行定量分析生成的可视化集群图提供了反馈。参与者标记了七个确定的集群： (a) 就业和安置服务；(b) 财务独立；(c) 医疗系统和高级护理；(d) 适应和整合；(e) 家庭和谐；(f) 文化互动和安全感；(g) 社会互动。集群一到三的重要性最高（平均 4.33、4.22、4.17），参与者将这些解释为需要政策层面的关注（例如证书评估、招聘实践），并确定了社区宣传和社区参与的作用-基于程序（CBP）。家庭和谐被解释为需要“家庭内部的工作”，而 CBP 的文化敏感性外展被认为是有价值的。其他集群的参与者解释强调了通过社区成员和 CBP 的联合工作，社交网络、信任、归属感、公民参与和社会凝聚力的作用。调查结果呼吁采取跨部门和社区参与的方法来加强社区的社会包容性。未来需要更大样本的研究，特别是关于早期定居经验和老年移民的社会包容。