Environmental perceptions among Indo-Canadian, Sri Lankan Canadian and Filipino-Canadian communities in Surrey, British Columbia

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the perspectives of the environment among Indo-Canadian, Sri Lankan-Canadian and Filipino-Canadian immigrant communities who reside in Surrey, British Columbia. Environmental perception has commonly been defined as awareness of, or feelings about, the environment, or “the way in which an individual perceives the environment; the process of evaluating and storing information received about the environment” (Oxford Reference, 2019). By identifying key stakeholders within these communities, I explored perspectives of environmentalism and concerns for the improvement of the health of the environment, through a series of open-ended semi-structured interviews. The participants in this research demonstrated a willingness to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment. In addition, they acknowledged their lack of awareness regarding consequences of environmentally harmful activities that were occurring during their childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. The findings help identify the issues that prevent inclusive environmentalism in Surrey in these targeted immigrant populations. They could also assist policy makers and environmental programs to implement more effective approaches for raising awareness and promoting more environmentalism among the three diasporas.