Grade 3 students create comics about immigrant stories

Grade 3 students in a social studies class in Toronto have created comic strips about immigration using an online tool.

The stories were gathered through online personal interviews, and the comic background was designed using Pixton, an online comic-maker.

One of the students, Adya Bhartia, interviewed a close family friend she calls Aunt Ludivine, and decided to write the comic about the process of writing the comic.

Find out if you are eligible for any of Canada's immigration programs

Bhartia felt as though creating the comic was a learning experience for her, and found that she and Aunt Ludivine had some similarities, because Bhartia too is an immigrant.

“My favourite thing about Canada was the really kind people,” Bhartia told CTV News, “The people who are really polite, try and help you. I really like that, and my aunt also liked the same.”Bhartia’s teacher, Ian Lawrence, was surprised that students approached the assignment in different ways.

“One student, Adya, she went with making a comic about the whole process of making the comic, very meta, which is really cool,” he said.

“Another student just did a whole story from the perspective of his grandfather from Yugoslavia all the way to the process of immigrating to becoming a Canadian citizen. Very different process, but very cool comic as well.”

Lawrence himself made a comic as an example to his students. The comic was about his mother’s immigration journey from Macau, to Hong Kong and then to Canada where she worked as a Public Health nurse.

Canada is a popular destination to immigrate to, with tens of thousands of people invited to apply for permanent residence so far this year, despite travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Find out if you are eligible for any of Canada's immigration programs