IRCC Minister Transition Binder 2021: Settlement and Integration

The Settlement Program

The Government of Canada funds the Settlement Program in accordance with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act objective to “promote the successful integration of permanent residents into Canada, while recognizing that integration involves mutual obligations for new immigrants and Canadian society”

Why?

• Many immigrants and refugees face specific barriers when settling in Canada:
  • Lack of official language knowledge
  • Lack of Canadian work experience
  • Challenges with foreign credential recognition
  • Cultural differences

What?

• Overseas and in-Canada services to help clients:
  • Learn about life in Canada
  • Improve ability in French or English
  • Find employment
  • Form community connections
  • Overcome refugee-specific barriers

Who?

• All permanent residents and protected persons are eligible for Settlement Program services until they become Canadian citizens.
• Government-assisted refugees are eligible to receive targeted supports under the Resettlement Assistance Program.

How Much?

• Program funding has increased with growing immigration levels:
  • 2019-2020: approximately $780M
  • 2020-2021: approximately $835M
  • 2021-2022: $886M anticipated

Note: Figures exclude an annual grant to Quebec, which covers settlement and resettlement services and administration, for which Quebec is responsible.

The Settlement Program – Partners and Stakeholders

Successful settlement and integration involves all levels of government, as well as the private and public sectors and civil society.

• The Settlement Program uses a third-party service delivery model, with over 500 IRCC-funded settlement providers across Canada (outside Quebec) to provide support services and programming to newcomers.
• Other levels of government and civil society actors also provide settlement services, as well as other services essential to newcomer integration, such as:
  • Educational services
  • Employment-related services
  • Health services
  • Social services
• IRCC works closely with provincial and territorial partners and other stakeholders through bilateral and multilateral efforts, to ensure complementarity of services.

Settlement Services

Through IRCC’s largest grant and contributions program, eligible newcomers have access to a full array of high-quality, federally-funded settlement services.

Pre-arrival services

• Helps newcomers plan and prepare to live and work in Canada in advance of their arrival

Needs & assets assessment & referral services

• Thorough assessment to refer newcomers to the right community/settlement services

Information and orientation

• Timely information to help newcomers make informed choices about life in Canada

Language training

• Tailored and structured training to integrate newcomers into communities and the labour market

Employment-related services

• Supports to prepare newcomers for the workforce and create links with employers

Community connections

• Building bridges between newcomers and their communities to create a sense of belonging

Support services

• Child care, transport, translation/interpretation, short-term counselling and provisions for disabilities, to increase equitable access

Indirect services

• Services that strengthen the settlement sector and the communities where newcomers settle

The Resettlement Assistance Program

Given their unique circumstances, government-assisted refugees^{Footnote 1} are supported by the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) upon their arrival in Canada.

Settlement Program

• Pre-arrival services for all eligible immigrants, including refugees

Resettlement Program

• Immediate essential services and income support for government-assisted refugees

Immediate and essential services

• Port of entry services (reception at airport)
• Temporary accommodations
• Assistance finding permanent accommodations
• Links to mandatory federal and provincial programs
• Needs and assets assessments and referrals to settlement and other community services
• Financial and non-financial orientations

Financial support

• Initial start-up costs
• Income support for up to 12 months (or 24 months for high-needs cases)

Settlement Program

• Ongoing services for all eligible immigrants, with enhanced supports for government -assisted refugees

Francophone Integration Pathway

In accordance with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Official Languages Act, the delivery of settlement services supports Canada’s linguistic duality and the vitality of Francophone minority communities.

• The Francophone Integration Pathway consists of a suite of settlement services in French, offered by Francophone communities and aimed at facilitating support, economic and socio-cultural integration, and the creation of ties between newcomers and Francophone communities.
• Annually, IRCC provides more than $50M to Francophone settlement provider organizations, stemming from various funding sources, including the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023.
• The Francophone Integration Pathway is a key initiative to advance the objectives of IRCC’s Francophone Immigration Strategy.
  • Increasing Francophone immigration to a target of 4.4% of French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec by 2023
  • Supporting the successful integration and retention of French-speaking newcomers
  • Building the capacity of communities

Stronger Programming and Innovative Services

Recent immigration levels and the changing immigration landscape have led to cohorts of new settlement clients with increasingly different, and sometimes higher, settlement needs.

The Program is adapting to these new challenges and is well-positioned to accommodate future immigration levels:

Targeted Changes

• Ongoing adjustments to programming and delivery approaches.
• Broader access to remote areas through the provision of virtual services.

Strategic Investments

• Ongoing investments in client-centred programming to address integration barriers, such as the Racialized Newcomer Women Pilot.
• Targeted investments to strengthen Francophone settlement services.

Program Design and Innovation

• Enhanced data collection and new biennial outcomes report to improve ways to attribute results to the Program and measure value-for-money.
• Regional immigration pilots to test the role of settlement services in immigrant retention outside of major urban centres.
• Testing of new approaches and interventions through the Service Delivery Improvement funding envelope.
• Using opportunities to leverage what was learned during the pandemic, pilot programs and the changing mix of clients to consider further improvements to the Settlement Program, including through virtual service delivery.

Pandemic Impacts

COVID-19 impacted settlement service uptake in 2020-2021. However, IRCC supported a rapid pivot in service delivery, accelerating innovation across the settlement sector.

• Early on in the pandemic, IRCC provided funding flexibilities to service provider organizations to lessen administrative pressures and support newcomer access to virtual services.
• Service providers adjusted rapidly to provide service continuity to newcomers by shifting the delivery of most in-person settlement services to online or by phone.
• IRCC also collaborated with the settlement sector, federal partners such as Service Canada and the Public Health Agency, and provinces/territories to ensure that newcomers received critical information in a multilingual format related to government benefits and services.
• Settlement providers have also supported vaccine uptake among newcomers by sharing multilingual information, helping newcomers to register for the vaccine, and hosting pop-up clinics in hard-hit areas.

Newcomer Outcomes

Pre-pandemic outcomes for newcomers to Canada have been generally positive:

• Immigrants and the Canadian-born have had comparable labour force participation, employment and unemployment rates.
• Economic immigrants reach Canadian average employment earnings within five years and have higher net contributions than other immigrant classes or the Canadian average.
• Economic immigrants have similar levels of life satisfaction as Canadian-born individuals.

However, the pandemic has created new challenges:

• Recently landed immigrants, particularly women, have been most affected by the pandemic in terms of negative labour market impacts.
• Recent immigrants are more likely to report adverse mental health than established immigrants.
• Increased newcomer demand for community supports is anticipated, especially by those who experience multiple barriers to integration.

IRCC’s first Settlement Outcomes Report in 2021 also highlighted the following:

• Not all newcomers are able to establish themselves in the same way: some arrive in Canada with greater disadvantages and face increased settlement challenges.
• Gender is a significant factor: settlement program design, such as when and where supports are available, can affect newcomer women’s access to services.
• Support services (translation, child care, transportation) are key to address barriers to success.

Key Takeaways

• The successful settlement and integration of newcomers is critical to maintaining public support for immigration.
• IRCC’s Settlement Program has strong foundations. It is large in scope and footprint, representing most of IRCC’s Grants and Contributions budget.
• Innovative regional programs and client-centred, outcome-driven pilots are important for testing how settlement services contribute to newcomer retention and address integration barriers.
• The impacts of COVID-19 have disproportionately affected newcomers, exacerbating economic and social integration hurdles. Settlement services will be key to supporting an inclusive recovery.
• The Program is already adapting to new realities. There are opportunities to capitalize on the changing immigration landscape and innovations spurred by the pandemic to further improve service delivery and respond to the evolving needs of newcomers.

Annex a: Examples of pandemic supports for newcomers

Enabling Real-Time Newcomer-Service Provider Connections

YMCA of Southwestern Ontario (Windsor)

• This organization has designed a cloud-based, customized client management system to match newcomers with available community resources, allowing community actors to respond in real time.
• During the pandemic, the questionnaire used to assess newcomer assets, needs and referrals to settlement and community services was administered online and updated with COVID-related questions, allowing service providers to more efficiently meet newcomer needs.

Increasing Newcomer Access to COVID-19 Vaccines

Calgary Catholic Immigration Society

• Partnered with the Alberta International Medical Graduates Association to assist with mass vaccination efforts at the Cargill meat packing plant in High River, Alberta, whose 2,100 staff are mainly immigrants.
• Supported staff by navigating language and cultural barriers and translating forms where needed.
• Efforts represented a promising practice of partnerships with employers with a significant number of newcomer staff.

Addressing Newcomers’ Needs in British Columbia

North Shore Immigrant Inclusion Partnership

• This organization worked to respond to a myriad of new and emerging needs of newcomers in the community during the pandemic.
• It secured and distributed tablets and cell phones to vulnerable clients to help them access services and community programs.
• It also conducted a survey to map the impact of COVID-19 on newcomers in the community and hosted a forum for local actors to discuss the results and how to address gaps in services.

Supporting the Pivot to Online Language Training

Avenue.ca, an IRCC-funded online language learning management platform

• This system houses instructional material and tools for instructors of IRCC-funded language programs.
• Responded to the closure of in-person classes by increasing production of on-line training and material.
• This shift allowed instructors to transition to online delivery and newcomers to continue working towards their language goals.
• Dramatically increased the number of active users, from approximately 2,600 before the pandemic, to just under 20,000 across Canada as of April 2021.