Student Spotlight: Shervin Ghaem-Maghami
My name is Shervin Ghaem-Maghami (he/him/his) and I am a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. I completed a Master of Public Administration at Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Waterloo. My prior professional experience includes positions in various ministries at the Government of Ontario as well as roles in local government and the non-profit and private sectors.
Tell us about your research.
My research centres on the intersection of global migration and community engagement in urban planning processes, especially as it relates to how the integration of newcomers can be facilitated by way of fostering their inclusion in collective decision-making. This work builds on the findings from an article I recently published together with my doctoral supervisor in Urban Affairs Review, in which we explored the most critical factors affecting the candidacy of immigrants seeking election to serve in local government. One key takeaway from our study was the importance of candidates’ involvement in civic affairs prior to launching their campaigns, with local activism serving as a critical element toward achieving electoral success. In that light, we called on municipalities to dedicate resources specifically to support civic involvement as a means of increasing general political awareness and participation. My current work seeks to shed light on how this is being done in the context of municipally-led community engagement activities. Through the use of case studies in 5 municipalities throughout the Greater Toronto Area, I am exploring how local planners can meaningfully incorporate immigrants into planning processes, how these processes needs to evolve in order to best accommodate newcomers’ strengths and adapt to their particular needs, and how the engagement of immigrant populations in these types of public participation exercises can both facilitate their socio-economic integration and result in more effective and just decision-making outcomes.
Why is this work important to you?
As an immigrant who watched my parents navigate the intricacies of the processes of resettlement and integration following our arrival in Canada when I was a child, my own lived experience has played a significant role in shaping my current research interests. Since my youth, I have also been fascinated by how exercises of community engagement can be meaningfully carried out in order to elicit the valued contributions of their participants, and I was able to study this topic further for my Master’s thesis within the Greater Toronto Area. In addition to this, I deepened both my understanding and my passion for both immigrant integration and public engagement through a number of positions I held with various organizations in the public and non-governmental sectors. Drawing upon my personal, academic, and professional background, I am hoping to shed new light on the ways in which the overall resettlement and integration experience can continue to be improved for newcomers and how community engagement strategies can be designed to allow for immigrant participants to most freely and clearly express their voices such that their opinions can have a more decided influence on public policies and plans.
What book has been most influential on your scholarship?
Immigration is just one of a myriad forms of diversity that municipal governments must plan for, manage, and ideally, embrace, and this book sheds light on how local governments are and should be responding to the challenges and opportunities posed by the increased ways in which difference is manifested in urban settings. As it relates to my particular themes of interest, a couple of the critical insights I have derived from the book include the need for planners to embody cultural competence to best be able to understand and support the populations they are seeking to serve and that local practitioners must be both bold and creative in order take advantage of their unique position and advocate more effectively for the needs of marginalized communities.
Read more about Shervin on his website, find him on LinkedIn, and follow him on Twitter @shervingm. You can also see more of his research on Google Scholar.