How Canada is helping newcomers integrate into communities
From: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
Image credit: News Canada
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) works with many partners to support the delivery of services to newcomers to Canada through its Settlement Program.
These initiatives help newcomers integrate into Canadian communities.
Through the Settlement Program, IRCC funds:
• Many different services that support and benefit newcomers.
• Indirect services that help enhance the knowledge and capacity of the IRCC-funded settlement community to improve newcomer outcomes.
Regular settlement programming is enhanced by initiatives that address specific community, sector and newcomer needs.
Initiatives include the Racialized Newcomer Women Pilot, formerly known as the Visible Minority Newcomer Women Pilot.
Many newcomer women, and especially racialized women, can face barriers, including gender- and race-based discrimination, a lack of community and social supports and a lack of self-confidence resulting from a long absence from the labour market.
The Racialized Newcomer Women Pilot helps racialized newcomer women in Canada overcome the many barriers they may face when entering the work force or advancing their career.
Service Delivery Improvements funding. Established in 2017, Service Delivery Improvements funding invests in projects that provide insights on program design and sector improvements, to collect information to support future settlement programming. Based on this information, IRCC is able to make better choices about future settlement programming and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the settlement program.
IRCC funds short-term projects (one to three years) that focus on testing new ideas to deliver settlement services.
It recognizes the significant value that comes from projects that provide best practices, identify lessons learned and encourage service improvements that can be applied across the settlement sector.
The Official Languages Action Plan (OLAP) – Francophone integration pathway helps newcomers settle and thrive in French and make a positive contribution to Canadian society and Francophone minority communities.
The Francophone integration pathway supports OLAP from pre-arrival to citizenship.
Pre-arrival settlement services. Pre-arrival settlement services provide selected permanent residents, including refugees, with accurate, relevant information and support so that they can make better decisions and start the settlement process before they arrive in Canada.
This includes helping them prepare for employment while still abroad and arrive more equipped to integrate into Canadian society.
Pre-arrival services help permanent residents navigate through their transition from pre-departure to in-Canada resettlement (for refugees), and find settlement supports and services.