English Language Learners work just as hard as other students learning a second language in B.C. schools. The difference is kids learning English don't get credit for their hard work.

That's the message of a new report and online campaign launched today by the Fresh Voices Advisory Team, a group 14 immigrant and refugee youth living in British Columbia, brought together through a project co-sponsored by the Vancouver Foundation and the Representative for Children and Youth.

The report, Fresh Voices from Long Journeys: Insights of Immigrant and Refugee Youth, was written after two years of consultations with immigrant and refugee youth, starting with a summit held in Vancouver in October 2011, which brought 100 refugee and immigrant youth together to talk about the issues they faced as young newcomers to B.C.

Smaller meetings with young immigrants and refugees were held in Nanaimo, Prince George, Langley and Victoria in 2012. In all over 200 youth were consulted, their issues condensed into 16 recommendations outlined in the Fresh Voices report.

Many recommendations call on the Ministry of Education directly, including making English Language Learning (ELL) courses count towards a high school Dogwood diploma; providing special credit for students who speak additional languages at home; and offering specific programs and services for immigrant and refugee students, especially young girls and LBGTQ youth.

Other recommendations are aimed at all levels of government, such as speeding up family reunification processes; providing all youth and children access to healthcare and education; and putting more immigrants and refugees on decision making bodies.

"We hope that government will listen to the recommendations and through a process of further collaboration, we will move into the implementation," said Advisory Team member Diego Cardona.

The Advisory Team also launched Make-it-count.ca, an online petition asking the education ministry to "recognize the hard work and dedication of migrant students learning English and credit English Language Learning (ELL) classes towards high school graduation." They plan to deliver it to the ministry in December.

Cardona, a Grade 12 student who came to Montreal from Columbia in 2005 and to Vancouver in 2007, says the group expects the ministry to implement the ELL credits by the end of the year at the latest.

"We think that is something very reasonable that we could get in the next week, in the next few weeks. We don't think it should take more than a month or two to get," he said.

No embargoed copies of the report were given to any ministries, but Cardona says representatives from every provincial ministry that deals with refugee and immigrant youth, as well as some school board representatives, were present at the 2011 Vancouver meeting, and the additional meetings in 2012. Citizenship and Immigration Canada was also present at the Vancouver meeting.

Cardona said the three levels of government were all aware of the issues these recommendations address before the report's release today.

"We don't exactly have an idea of a (implementation) timeline (for the other 15 recommendations). So our expectation will be that within the next six months, but we do understand that maybe government institutions or agencies might want to have an extended conversation with us about those," he said.

*The Tyee contacted the Ministry of Education and was told the ministry had received the report and was reviewing the recommendations. The ministry is currently undergoing a review of the province's graduation requirements, a process it started September 2012. They expect new graduation requirements to come into effect in the 2014/15 school year.

*Updated: 1:03 October 2, 2013

Katie Hyslop reports on education and youth issues. Follow her on Twitter.