Other factors can exacerbate the stress of dealing with survival issues for newcomer families. They may live with a precarious immigration status and the knowledge that their lives in Canada are tenuous.
They are often learning English which affects their ability to function and interact with the community (including their children’s school) at the most basic level. Dialects may vary, too, and make effective communication more challenging. Accessing information provided by the school may not be possible, and often mediated by their children, with more or less success. They are also learning about an entirely new system in a new culture, and they may not have the confidence or necessary information or cultural understanding about the school’s organizational structure that would allow them to ask appropriate questions and develop know-how.