National Settlement Conference 2
(Calgary - October 2-5, 2003)
Strengthening our Settlement Vision
The Small Centre Strategy
The Regional Dispersion & Retention of Immigrants
Welcoming Communities
A welcoming community is obviously an important factor in retaining any
newcomer. Beyond employment, the hospitality offered in the new and perhaps
very strange environment will have a profound affect on successful settlement
and retention. This factor affects all members of the family, whether
they are bound for the workplace, school or life at home.
The Canadian Settlement Sector is skilled in this area and has experience
and knowledge to offer the wider community as challenges are identified
and strategies developed.
The notion of a hospitable community extends beyond a friendly welcome
and neighbourly attitudes. It reaches into the fabric of community attributes
and available services. The following areas recognize challenges to hospitality
and identifies some initiatives that can be undertaken so that newcomers
can feel that they have come to a welcoming community. [16]
Housing
It is becoming increasingly difficult for people with limited financial
resources to find acceptable, appropriate and affordable housing in many
Canadian communities. This is the situation most immigrants face when
they arrive, and their difficulties are compounded by unfamiliarity with
the local housing scene and an understanding of how to access it. This
is an area where it is crucial for communities to help newcomers with
a positive transition, so that they can feel welcomed, safe and happy
in their new community. The inevitable uncertainties associated with the
early weeks are magnified if housing becomes an issue. This could threaten
the successful integration of the newcomers and could make it unlikely
that they will stay in the community. Through experience with refugees,
settlement agencies are often best equipped to handle this issue. They
could be mandated to provide the service to all classes of arriving immigrants.[17]
Newcomers may be able to move into public housing in communities where
it exists depending on its current availability. Community housing offers
good standards of maintenance despite a low rent structure, plus a number
of supportive programs, including community kitchens and play groups,
which help immigrants integrate into the community. Public housing authorities
should be sensitive to the diversity in family composition and family
practices, especially when they define policies on the size of housing
allocation and on household composition. Public housing authorities need
to develop anti-racism strategies within housing complexes as well as
within the corporation.
Settlement agencies and community information centres usually have links
to housing information as well as information and links to many community
services and community organizations. [18]
Initial Accommodation
Welcoming communities can become more attractive if they overcome another
housing-related issue that often imposes hardship on newcomers. Upon their
arrival, “Economic Class”[19]
immigrant families must usually seek out and pay for hotel accommodation
at market rates. Canada has its own criteria for the amount of money each
immigrant family is expected to have when they arrive, and this amount
is interpreted flexibly by case-processing officers abroad. The required
amounts are generally not large and can be depleted quickly by the high
cost of hotel living in Canada. If a community is not able to offer temporary
accommodation, [20] it
might consider offering subsidies to local hotels so that newcomers will
not run out of funds during their initial settlement period.
Medical Services / Other Social Services
Most arriving immigrants are unlikely to have known anything like the
wide range of government-funded services available in Canada. We should
not assume that newcomers have a knowledge of these services and their
availability. This is another area where community response becomes imperative
so that newcomers will not be denied access to services they may need
just because they are uninformed. Settlement agencies are best equipped
to disseminate this information, but mechanisms may need to be developed
to connect newcomers with these agencies. [21]
Communities may wish to consider adding a “triage” approach
to the initial medical assessments and needs of newcomers, so that selected
practitioners may develop the special knowledge and skills needed to deal
with situations that are unusual in Canada, and to work with interpreters.[22]
This may require additional financial support for community facilities
and services.
Education
Immigrants must acquire the local language if they are to integrate and
meet their social needs. This means that welcoming communities must receive
and integrate children within the school system. Additional resources
may have to be allocated for the instruction of English or French as a
Second Language. Some schools with familiarity in receiving newcomer children
have successfully instituted “buddy systems” or “Kiddie
Host” programs. [23]
For best results, arrangements for adult ESL and FSL programs should emphasize
continuous open intake and flexible hours, transportation assistance and
child care support, as well as a good system for evaluation of prior learning
so that students can enter a program at the appropriate level.
Immigrants who want to enhance their education and skills should have
access to facilitated admittance as appropriate, and no barriers such
as child care, transportation, and availability of student loans in circumstances
where they are available to the general population. Canadians know that
learning can be a life-long process, and that there are both formal and
informal educational processes; newcomers should be encouraged to understand
and adopt this approach.
Access to Arts, Cultural, Recreational and
Leisure Programs
Availability of arts, cultural, recreational and leisure programs does
not necessarily mean accessibility, for they may be beyond the means of
the newcomer. Yet these programs represent a unique integrating opportunity
and a normalizing influence that could allow newcomers to become a part
of the culture around them. Facilitated access may therefore be necessary
to make these programs more available. [24]
Accessibility may also mean sensitivity to cultural practices. Municipal
governments that fund these programs could require them to provide free
admission for a certain number of newcomers. The tickets could be distributed
through responsible service-providing organizations and community groups
(such as United Way agencies). Most performances play to a partly empty
house, and promoters are interested in larger audiences and in developing
new audiences. So this becomes a win-win situation. [25]
Cross-cultural and Anti-racism Resources
Welcoming communities should concede that cultural misunderstandings
and racism may arise; they should identify resources and put strategies
in place to deal with such possibilities. Preventive information and programs
are desirable. A number of Canadian communities already have such strategies.
[26] Some have adopted
anti-racism policies and strategies as a matter of public policy and to
affirm their objectives of recognizing and sustaining diverse communities.
The conspicuous implementation of these policies by a municipal organization
offering services can provide a model for the private sector in the community.
Service-providing organizations in many communities have experience in
working cross-culturally and with sensitivity to differing cultural practices.
Some police departments have undertaken specialized training. The federal
Department of Canadian Heritage is an excellent resource for information
and assistance. Participating communities that feel they lack capacity
and experience in these areas may also seek out the regional resources
available to them. A community need not have all of these things in place
before it seeks and invites newcomers; they can be developed once the
community is committed.
Volunteer Support Programs
One example of a volunteer support program is the Host Program, which
began as a federal initiative in the mid-1980s primarily for the benefit
of government-assisted refugees. It linked Canadian volunteers with a
newcomer family in a relationship of friendship and support. Where the
program was properly structured and implemented, it achieved remarkable
success. Detailed manuals and volunteer training programs were developed;
these materials remain available. Many small communities organize and
provide volunteer support in a variety of ways as a natural outgrowth
of their community spirit. Welcoming communities could benefit from volunteer
support programs for arriving newcomers (whether immigrants or migrating
Canadians). Such programs could smooth the integration of new arrivals
into the community, and the resulting friendships make it more likely
that they will stay. Experience has shown that successful volunteer programs
are usually led by paid facilitators.
An additional benefit of a volunteer support program is that it teaches
an important Canadian value to newcomers who on occasion come from countries
and cultures where the concept of volunteering is not so well understood
or differs in significant ways from the common practice in Canada.
Index
Next...
[16] A new handbook on refugee resettlement
has been published (October 1, 2002) by UNHCR and the Victorian Foundation
for Survivors of Torture, an Australian NGO. Several Canadians assisted
in the development of this book. Entitled "Refugee Resettlement:
An International Handbook to Guide Reception and Integration", the
handbook is intended as a resource to help in the development of sound
programs for integration of resettled refugees. Many of the handbook’s
suggestions have application to the reception and integration of other
classes of immigrants as well. It is available on the Web site, www.unhcr.ch.
Back
[17] While settlement agencies exist in
many participating communities, they have usually been created with the
primary goal of assisting in the resettlement of refugees for historic
reasons. Their funding may be tied to existing work levels, and their
current resources may be insufficient for an expansion of their mandate
to include more newcomers. This problem bears addressing so that equitable
services can be provided to all. In some participating communities there
may be no existing Settlement agency, and the community may therefore
need either to create one or to task some compatible agency with the additional
duties. Back
[18] The Lakehead Social Planning Council
in Thunder Bay is an example of one such community resource. Back
[19] Also includes Provincial Nominee arrivals.
Back
[20] Winnipeg’s International Centre
is planning to open one such facility for the inexpensive temporary accommodation
of arriving immigrants. Back
[21] Knowledge of who may be arriving in
a participating community, whether from abroad or from within Canada,
is not automatic. Privacy issues interpose barriers to full and timely
information about arrivals. This is a dilemma that participating communities
must address in ways practical to their situation. Back
[22] The Bridge Community Health Clinic
established in Vancouver in 1994 as a collaborative venture, is a good
example of an effective initiative. Back
[23] A manual for one such program (“Ambassador
Program”) has been developed by Manitoba Interfaith Immigration
Council, 397 Carlton Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3B 2K9. Back
[24] The PRO Kids Program (Positive Recreational
Opportunities) in Thunder Bay provides subsidized spaces in city-run and
other community activities, sports, music and recreational organizations
for children of low-income families, and is often accessed by newcomer
families. Back
[25] If this type of program were extended
to Social Allowance recipients, there would be less chance of a backlash
in some parts of the community that could jeopardize the successful integration
and acceptance of newcomers. Back
[26] Calgary is an example of a city with
a community race relations program. Back
| 
Multimedia Centre