National Settlement Conference 2
(Calgary - October 2-5, 2003)
Strengthening our Settlement Vision
The Small Centre Strategy
The Regional Dispersion & Retention of Immigrants
New Initiatives
Beyond arrangements for employment and all the attributes of a welcoming
community, there are a number of innovative ideas that might be employed
to attract immigrants and to retain them for the longer term. Set out
below are a number of creative initiatives that are being tried or talked
about, as smaller centres seek to stem decline or to add to population.
Provincial Nominee Programs
Some provinces now have the capacity, devolved from Ottawa, to exercise
a measure of control over the Economic Immigration stream. [27]
By making aggressive use of the Provincial Nominee initiative and staffing
its government department appropriately, Manitoba currently accounts for
most of the arrivals to Canada under the program. It is a model that would
be instructive for others seeking to do the same. Manitoba has successfully
attracted thousands of applications under its program, exceeding both
its entitlements under negotiated federal arrangements and its capacity
to process, despite a sizeable and qualified staff. This has allowed Manitoba
to select as a priority applicants with jobs lined up and with family
links to the province, thus increasing the likelihood of their retention.
The Group-of-Five Concept
Under the existing Group of Five program (of the Private Sponsorship
of Refugees Program), five qualified individuals have long been permitted
to sponsor to Canada a refugee or refugee family. The concept has worked
well. It has been suggested that this technique could become one aspect
of Provincial Nominee Programs where desired by the implementing province.
This would have to be negotiated with Ottawa as a component of a province’s
program.
The Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program
This program is a largely untapped resource for participating communities
to attract newcomers. For years, far fewer refugees have arrived in Canada
by this route than would be allowed under federal government targets.
While there have always been many faith-based organizations with the power
to sponsor, the diversity of Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAH) in Canada
has grown significantly in the past five years, with many more SAHs supported
by specific ethnocultural communities. The Community Sponsorship Program,
a new initiative under the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program, makes
it easier for small organizations to sponsor refugees without having to
set up a whole new infrastructure as an SAH.
Groups have sponsored the arrival of many refugees into Manitoba. These
were primarily “family linked” (that is, nominated by relatives),
with a built-in propensity to remain because their family was already
established there. This sponsorship has become a significant component
of the province’s immigration program. The City of Winnipeg recently
joined this initiative, setting up a $250,000 assurance fund to back faith-based
and community groups undertaking the risks of family-linked sponsorships.
[28] These concepts are
available to be implemented by any smaller centre under existing policies
and targets of the federal Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program.
Government Sponsorship of Refugees Program
This program, run by the federal government, brings approximately 7,500
refugees to Canada each year. These are assigned to various centres historically
and demonstrably equipped to receive them. Any changes to current allocation
procedures in order to benefit self-identifying small centres would require
extensive multilateral negotiations. This is a source, however, that participating
communities may wish to explore.
International Students and Temporary Workers
While the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act did not fulfil earlier
expectations that International Students and Temporary Workers would be
given special access to immigration procedures, it is still too soon in
the life of the new legislation to see whether such will develop. This
is an area to be monitored and for which future lobbying may be appropriate.
It would seem that persons admitted as students or temporary workers,
and who therefore remain in a particular locale for some time and develop
some roots, might be more likely to stay there if they were later admitted
as immigrants. The investment already made in them by the education system
or by employers, as the case may be, also makes a compelling case for
retaining them in Canada.
Considering again the importance of employment to the attraction and
retention of newcomers: the Temporary Worker program brings the employer
into the process from the start and provides the essential job ingredient.
Safeguards in the program ensure both the existence and the need of the
job in the participating community. The practical limitations on the employee’s
mobility required by the program, ensures retention in the community.
At the same time, these new workers must be safeguarded against abuse
and exploitation; if there is a change in the employment conditions, the
worker must not automatically lose status. Policies should be changed
to allow special access to subsequent immigration procedures by Temporary
Workers because the mechanism brings together the essential elements of
a successful immigrant attraction and retention program in the participating
community. [29]
Financial Incentives
Financial Incentives (1)
Provinces that want to attract and retain newcomers could consider special
provincial income tax deductions for those moving in, spread, for example,
over three years. This could fairly and advantageously apply to migrating
Canadians as well as to immigrants.
Financial Incentives (2)
A stepped refunding of Canadian immigration fees (now paid by the arriving
immigrant) by municipal or provincial jurisdiction over three years might
have appeal as both an attracting and a retaining strategy. This stratagem
could also be applied to travel and moving costs, either refunded gradually
in cash or allowed as provincial tax deductions (the least administratively
complex option). Of lesser cost to funding governments might be the establishment
of revolving loan funds, though these would bring their own administrative
costs.
Financial Incentives (3)
Some provinces, by reason of their “have-not” status, receive
federal transfer payments. These may find that the annual increment in
these payments for each additional resident significantly exceeds (whether
in year one or cumulatively over successive years) the costs of settlement?whether
those costs are defined in the current manner or expanded by new cost-of-program
commitments, as outlined above. There might be a business case for spending
on advertising to attract immigrants, for financial incentives to both
attract and retain them, and for enhanced settlement services in the welcoming
community. [30]
Social Contracts and Alternatives
The concept of “social contracts” was recently introduced
by the federal Minister for Citizenship and Immigration, Denis Coderre.
During the summer of 2002, he floated the idea that immigrants could contract
to settle for a term in designated areas as an additional way of responding
to and meeting selection criteria, much in the manner that temporary foreign
workers (under the long-established program) are now tied to an area or
job by the limitations of their employment-related visa. If people were
tied to a designated community for two or three years, many would tend
to put down roots in their adopted community and would be more likely
to stay. This creative idea, while popular in smaller centres, has been
met with some controversy, even characterized as “un-Canadian.”
But despite the so-called “mobility rights” guaranteed in
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, there seems to be no legal
reason not to admit persons on a temporary visa and later to grant them
permanent resident status when the visa’s conditions have been fulfilled.
It has been pointed out that assessing consequences (like deportation)
for failure to comply with the conditions of a visa would result in more
problems. [31] A more generous
Temporary Worker program, and a smooth process for conversion of visas
to permanent residency status, might accomplish the same result without
the controversy. Because such a strategy would involve two federal departments,
Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Human Resources Development Canada,
this would require an over-arching immigration policy.
Marketing
Marketing a community is tempting in an era of electronic communication,
Web sites, and Canadians’ ease of travel to alluring destinations.
It should be approached with a degree of caution lest the emissaries be
overwhelmed with enquiries and unable to fulfil expectations of those
seeking admittance to Canada by whatever means or through whatever door.
Target marketing is a more logical option, and should be based upon a
full knowledge of Canada’s immigration rules and the community’s
ability to have its candidates fall within them. Because retention is
also the goal, “truth in advertising” should be watchwords,
and employment should be available, along with the key supports already
outlined in this paper. Any plan of action that begins by attracting newcomers
must culminate in their integration within the fabric of the community,
to remain and build a new life.
Where the interest in increasing immigration is driven by specific labour
market needs, employer corporations often do their own marketing and promotion
to recruit new workers. It is vital that the efforts of receiving communities
be part of an overall plan to receive the new immigrants, not only into
a corporate workforce but also into their life. The need for labour is
not always driven by the industrial or service sectors; it frequently
focuses on the more generalized recruitment of professionals and skilled
immigrants. Once again this points to the importance of understanding
the real employment environment for those arriving with such skills and
professional accreditations.
Index
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[27] Quebec has long had this capacity
in significant measure for all aspects of immigration, by separate agreement
with Ottawa, and has constructively used its capacity to promote regionalization
within the province. Provincial Nominee Programs exist in a number of
provinces. Back
[28] The Manitoba Interfaith Immigration
Council, which administers the program for the Manitoba Refugee Sponsors,
can offer more information. Back
[29] One creative way to make a Temporary
Worker into a permanent resident is to link the program with the Provincial
Nominee Program at the appropriate time. Back
[30] A cautionary note should be introduced
here. The impact of secondary in-migration on settlement agencies needs
to be monitored in receiving communities that might not be funded in sufficient
measure for the extra client load. Settlement funds are not transfer payments
that “move” when the newcomer moves. Back
[31] Concern has also been expressed that
if federal dollars for settlement services are finite, regional dispersion
of immigrants thus contrived might remove a portion of federal funding
from existing agencies that depend on it, especially in the big cities.
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