IRCC Deputy Minister Transition Binder 2022: Settling in Canada: Settlement and Integration – Overview - July 2022

IRCC’s Settlement and Integration Sector

• The Settlement and Integration Sector combines the policy development and program operations of the Settlement Program to support newcomer integration.

Core Sector Responsibilities (under Assistant Deputy Minister Catherine Scott)

Settlement & Integration Policy - DG: David Cashaback

• Settlement/Resettlement Assistance program policy development
• Funding allocations; outcomes analysis and performance measurement; stakeholder engagement
• Management of the Federal Internship for Newcomers Program

Francophone Immigration & Official Languages (Part VII) - DG: Alain Desruisseaux

• Policy lead for IRCC’s Francophone Immigration Strategy and the Francophone Integration Pathway
• Departmental lead for implementing part VII of the Official Languages Act
• Program development and stakeholder engagement on Francophone    immigration and settlement

Afghanistan Settlement  - DG: Corinne Prince

• Resettlement operations lead for the Afghan commitment and for arrivals under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET)
• Delivery of Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) services and income support for Afghans
• Stakeholder engagement lead (federal, provincial/territorial, non-profit and private sector) on Afghan resettlement support and Ukraine arrivals

Settlement Network - DG: Patricia Wilson

• Grants and Contributions management
• Operational management of the Settlement and Resettlement Assistance Programs
• Delegated Financial Authority over Vote 10 Budget

Sector FTE Count: Approximately 589 staff

• Over 100 in Settlement and Integration Policy Branch
• Over 20 in Francophone Immigration
• Over 12 in Afghanistan Settlement Branch
• Over 445 in Settlement Network, including regional offices
• Over 8 in ADMO

Vote 10 Total Authorities in FY 2022-23

• $1.036B for Settlement Program
• $297M for Resettlement Assistance Program (including Income Support)

The Settlement Program is an essential part of Canada’s immigration continuum, broad in scope and footprint

Since the 1990s, the Government of Canada has funded the delivery of settlement and resettlement services to help newcomers succeed.

Why?

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

What?

• Overseas and in-Canada service 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, as well as participants of targeted programs and pilots (e.g., Atlantic Immigration Program), are eligible for Settlement Program services.
• Government-Assisted Refugees and other eligible clients are also eligible to receive targeted services and supports under the Resettlement Assistance Program.

How Much?

• Increases in Settlement Program due to commensurate growing immigration levels:
  • 2020-21 actuals: $800.9M
  • 2021-22 actuals: $848.2M
  • 2022-23 total authorities: $1.036B

Notes: Services under the Settlement Program are provided in all jurisdictions except Quebec. The Canada-Quebec Accord provides Quebec with an annual grant ($697M was provided in 2021-22) that covers settlement services, resettlement services and administration, for which Quebec is responsible.

Settlement is a “whole of society” endeavour

Successful settlement depends on inputs from many different players.

• IRCC Settlement Program uses a third-party service delivery model
• 500+ settlement providers, and 41 resettlement assistance providers across Canada (outside Quebec)
• 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
  • Health services
  • Social services
• As such, IRCC works closely with provincial and territorial partners and stakeholders to ensure complementarity of services.

Key External Partners and Stakeholders

• Other levels of government (PTs, municipalities)
• Service provider organizations
• Regional settlement umbrella organizations
• Other federal government departments
• Employers
• Francophone Minority Communities

Examples of Advisory Bodies and Working Groups

• FPT Settlement Working Group
• National Settlement and Integration Council
• Newcomer Language Advisory Body
• IRCC Youth Advisory Group
• Afghan Resettlement Steering Committee
• National Steering Committee for Operation Ukrainian Safe Haven
• Comité consultatif national en établissement francophone

Eligible clients have access to a full suite of services

Needs and Assets Assessment and Referral

• Assessing and recognizing a client’s and family’s specific needs and assets, to refer them to appropriate settlement and community services.

Information and Orientation

• Providing timely and vital information to help newcomers make informed choices about their life in Canada.

Language Training

• Providing various types of tailored and structured language training to integrate into
  communities and the labour market, contributing to the vitality of both official languages.

Employment-Related Services

• Preparing newcomers for the workforce and creating links with employers.

Community Connections

• Building bridges between newcomers and their communities to overcome social isolation and create a sense of belonging. Volunteers are critical to success.

Support Services

• Ensuring equitable access to settlement services through child care, transport, translation/interpretation services, and provisions for persons with disabilities.

Indirect services are also funded to help build sector and community capacity

IRCC’s Settlement Program is about helping people succeed

When a newcomer arrives in Canada, there are multiple layers of support awaiting them, matching their needs with their existing strengths.

Settlement services help Li Jie, an Economic Principal Applicant, land in Vancouver on a solid footing.

• Li Jie completes Pre-Arrival services online that help him prepare to move to Vancouver.
• He receives a needs and asset assessment on how to improve his competitiveness in the Vancouver job market. He is then referred to services that can help meet these needs and build on his assets.
• While receiving employment-related services, Li Jie gets resume help and is connected with a mentor. He learns how to best translate his experiences into a competitive application for a promotional opportunity at a software firm.

Settlement services also help Li Jie’s spouse, Li Na, and their children, Li Min and Li Wei, transition to their new life in Vancouver.

• Li Na and her children attend a group Information and Orientation session to learn about Canada’s school system and meet other newcomer families with children of similar ages.
• Li Wei attends a Newcomer Orientation Week and receives support from a settlement worker located in a school.
• Li Na also gets a Language Assessment and begins Language Training to improve her work-related vocabulary in preparation for her job search.
• Support services allow Li Na to drop Li Min off at child care while she attends her language class.

While the economic class is the core driver of Canada’s immigration selection system, settlement services are designed to support the diverse needs of all permanent residents – including spouses, dependents and resettled refugees.

The Settlement Program has been evolving with the changing immigration landscape

The Program is directly impacted by, but also responsive to, immigration selection priorities and levels targets.

• In recent years, higher immigration levels and shifts in Canadian immigration policy have led to increases in the Settlement Program funding envelope, as well as greater diversity in client service needs
• The Program’s last major national Call for Proposals expanded the scope and footprint of settlement services to more rural and northern locations
• It introduced more client-centered and tailored services in targeted areas of need, such as mental health
• It also resulted in significant new investments in Francophone services outside Quebec, to support the vitality of Francophone minority communities

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic may have long-lasting impacts on the Program and on newcomer outcomes. Expanded online delivery models are expected to stay, as the Program continues to modernize, leverage lessons learned from the COVID-19 pivot, and further  improve client-centric services, including to those who face multiple barriers.

The Resettlement Assistance Program

Government-Assisted Refugees 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
• Settlement Program: Ongoing services for all eligible immigrants, with enhanced supports 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)

Privately sponsored refugees (PSR) and blended visa office-referred (BVOR) refugees are eligible for limited RAP services at ports of entry.

Responsive settlement services will be key to supporting an inclusive pandemic recovery

As the Settlement Program continues to evolve to accommodate the continued increase in volume and mix of newcomers in the post-COVID context, some issues will require extra focus.

Increased arrivals of Government-Assisted Refugees

• The number of refugees Canada resettles has increased in the last decade. Refugees often face multiple barriers when settling in Canada, including lower education, lower official language levels and larger family sizes.
• Services offered under the Resettlement Assistance Program provide immediate and essential supports upon arrival in Canada, but refugees are often the highest users of settlement services, as they have more complex support needs.

Next Steps:

• Continue to prepare for the resettlement of increased numbers of refugees, including arrivals from Afghanistan, and address pressures on settlement sector capacity.

Extraordinary supports for those fleeing Ukraine

• To support the settlement needs of Ukrainian temporary residents and their dependents, the Settlement Program’s Terms and Conditions were amended to temporarily extend settlement services to this cohort until March 31, 2023.
• The Resettlement Assistance Program’s Terms and Conditions were also amended to allow for the provision of transitional financial assistance, hotel accommodation and charter flights.

Next Steps:

• Approval of Treasury Board Submission to access funding to provide services to Ukrainian permanent residents and temporary residents, including transitional supports for Ukrainian temporary residents.

The Program also continues to make important contributions to Canada’s diversity and retention objectives

Francophone Immigration

• Increasing Francophone immigration to reach a target of 4.4% of French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec by 2023 and supporting the integration and retention of French-speaking newcomers into Francophone minority communities will require focused efforts.

Next Steps:

• Continue to advance IRCC’s Francophone Immigration Strategy and strengthen Francophone communities’ capacities, including work with settlement partners to support the integration of Francophone newcomers, and the successful implementation of the Welcoming Francophone Community Initiative.
• Work towards the implementation of Bill C-13 for the modernization of the Official Languages Act, which includes the new Policy on Francophone Immigration.
• Development of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-2028 immigration measures ($200M)

Regional and Client-Centered Initiatives

• Specific newcomer populations, such as racialized women and youth, face higher integration barriers. Newcomer retention in smaller regional centres and rural areas (including in Francophone minority communities) is also a challenge.

Next Steps:

• Continue to implement the Racialized Newcomer Women Pilot and wrap-around employment supports for newcomer youth through the Employment and Social Development Canada-led Youth Employment and Skills Strategy.
• Support the Government’s mandate commitment to ensure that immigration better supports small-and medium-sized communities, including via the settlement components of the Atlantic Immigration Program and the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot.

Key Takeaways

• The successful settlement and integration of newcomers is critical to Canada’s economic growth and to maintaining public support for immigration.
• The Settlement Program is inherently nimble and responsive, with the ability to support the government mandate commitments and direct funding and programming to government priorities as they evolve.
• As Canada continues to increase immigration levels and welcome a more diverse mix of newcomers, the Settlement Program will continue to evolve to help ensure strong newcomer outcomes.

Annex A: Settlement Program Funding

In 2022-2023, the Settlement Vote 10 authority will be approximately $1B:

• Base authority funding, which includes:
  • Base settlement funding,
  • Multi-Year Levels Plan funding, and
  • Asylum System funding.

These funds are then invested in each province/territory outside Québec as well as in other targeted purposes (e.g., national tools and training for service providers across Canada)

• The Vote 10 envelope also includes funding for dedicated initiatives, such as:
  • Service Delivery Improvement (SDI) to test new delivery approaches and gain efficiencies
  • Racialized Newcomer Women Pilot (RNWP) to address employment barriers for racialized newcomer women
  • Projects under the Action Plan for Official Languages (APOL) supporting Francophone communities
  • Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) to improve regional newcomer retention
  • Strategy to Prevent Gender-Based Violence (GBV) to enhance targeted settlement interventions
  • 1000 Government-Assisted Refugees (GARS) to resettle vulnerable women and girls
  • Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) funding to support newcomer youth

Annex B: Newcomer Usage of Settlement Services

• In 2020-2021, nearly 380,000 clients accessed at least one settlement service
• Pre-COVID, service usage had increased significantly, up 29% from 2015-2016 to 2018-2019
• The pandemic saw 31% fewer clients  using services in 2020-2021, attributable to the 46% decrease in permanent resident admissions compared to 2019-2020

Unique clients by program Components

• Needs and Assets Assessment and Referrals – 183,853 Clients, of these:
  • 56% Female, 43 % Male
  • 38% Economic Class (of these: 45% Principal Applicants, 55% Spouses and Dependants), 34% Refugees, 20% Sponsored Family, 8% Other
• Information and Orientation – 310,413 Clients, of these:
  • 56% Female, 43 % Male
  • 37% Economic Class (of these: 57% Principal Applicants, 43% Spouses and Dependants), 37% Refugees, 19% Sponsored Family, 7% Other
• Employment Related – 41,281 Clients, of these:
  • 56% Female, 44% Male
  • 56% Economic Class (of these: 61% Principal Applicants, 39% Spouses and Dependants), 25% Refugees, 16% Sponsored Family, 3% Other
• Support Services – 79,872 Clients, of these:
  • 59% Female, 41 % Male
  • 57% Refugees, 22% Economic Class, 17% Sponsored Family, 4% Other
• Language Training – 74,992 Clients, of these:
  • 68% Female, 32 % Male
  • 41% Refugees, 30% Sponsored Family, 27% Economic Class (of these: 32% Principal Applicants, 68% Spouses and Dependants), 2% Other
• Community Connections – 58,674 Clients, of these:
  • 60% Female, 39 % Male
  • 42% Refugees, 38% Economic Class (of these: 35% Principal Applicants, 65% Spouses and Dependants), 16% Sponsored Family, 5% Other

Percentage may not add up to 100%. “Other” category includes Humanitarian category and Not Stated, “Refugees” includes Resettled Refugees and Protected Persons