King's professor presents at international conference

Dr. Bharati Sethi, Assistant Professor in King’s School of Social Work, presented two papers as a first author and moderated a team work shop at the International Metropolis Conference 2019, held in Ottawa and Gatineau from June 24-28, 2019.

Dr. Sethi is the recipient of grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). One of the important aspects of receiving and utilizing the grants is to undertake the process of knowledge translation by disseminating research findings to the public for the greater benefit of the community. The following were the presentations by Dr. Sethi at the conference that were part of this dissemination process:

• Transnational Caregiving Employees: A Systematic Review of Literature (with Dr. Nazia Bano, and Dr. Allison Williams) focuses Transnational Caregiving Employees (TCEs) who reside and work in Canada, while simultaneously providing care to parents, adults living with a disability, and children who live in their home country and aims to address gaps in examining how cultural, historical, and religious/spiritual elements influence the economic, social, education, and health and well-being of TCE’s.
• The Role of Social Inclusion in Aging Well of Older Immigrants (with Dr. Sepali Guruge) looks at the significance of social inclusion in promoting Aging Well of older immigrants in Ontario.  
• Aging, immigration and transnational care circulations: Canadian contrasts (where Dr. Sethi was workshop coordinator and worked with Dr. Sepali Guruge, Dr. Huda Bukhari, Dr. Min-Jung Kwak and Dr. Margaret Walton-Roberts) explores the healthcare challenges of immigrants in Canada (healthy aging, accessibility) and assesses the degree of transnational healthcare utilization as a potential solution to such health needs and barriers in place.

“Having the research papers accepted was humbling. The workshop provided me an opportunity to work with senior and very accomplished scholars. The papers were very well received, especially Transnational Caregiving Employees: A Systematic Review of Literature, an extension of my postdoctoral work with Dr. Allison Williams. The study on transnational Caregiving Employees I will be engaged in the next five years is to my knowledge the first study on this topic in Canada,” says Dr. Sethi.  “There was a lot of interest from international speakers on this subject as globalization and global migration has changed the face of caregiving as care is not restricted to one space). Employers in Canada will have to pay attention to the experience of immigrant/refugee transnational caregivers and create policies for work-life balance and to retain these highly skilled employees. While men are now also providing care, it was clear that caregiving remains gendered and cultural.”

Hosted by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the International Metropolis Conference is the largest annual international gathering of experts from around the world representing academia, government and civil society in the fields of migration, integration and diversity.  Attending the conference gave Dr. Sethi the opportunity to meet and gather information about similar work being done across the world, with scholars in attendance from Singapore, China, Australia, India, Germany, etc. and as well as all over Canada.

For more information on the International Metropolis Conference, please visit www.InternationalMetropolis2019.ca.