IRCC Minister Transition Binder 2019: Settlement and Integration

The Settlement Program

The Settlement Program supports the successful settlement and integration of newcomers.

Why:

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

What:

• Since the 1990’s, the Government of Canada has funded settlement and resettlement services for newcomers to help them overcome these barriers.
• Programming addresses the needs of clients prior to their arrival, and throughout their settlement journey. For government-assisted refugees, there are additional supports through the Resettlement Assistance Program to help them get on their feet in the first few weeks after arrival.

Who:

• All permanent residents, protected persons and participants of target pilots (e.g., Atlantic Immigration Pilot) are eligible for Settlement Program services.
• Government-assisted refugees and other eligible clients also receive support through the Resettlement Assistance Program.
• Settlement is a “whole-of-society” issue that requires involvement of the newcomer, as well as the communities in which they settle, in order to achieve successful integration.

How Much:

• Increases in Settlement Program funding due to growing immigration levels:
  • 2019-2020 $779,000,000
  • 2020-2021 [Redacted]
  • 2021-2022: [Redacted]
• Note: All figures exclude grant to Quebec.

Partners

• Other levels of government, employers and civil society also provide settlement services, as well as other services essential to a newcomer’s integration, such as:
  • Educational services
  • Health services
  • Social services
• IRCC works closely with provincial and territorial partners and stakeholders to ensure complementarity of services.

Settlement Services

Settlement services provide an important base for all newcomers’ success (permanent residents and protected persons).

Needs (and Assets) Assessment and Referral

• Assessing and recognizing a client’s and family’s specific needs and assets, to referring 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 Assessment and Language Training

• Providing tailored and structured language assessment and training to integrate into communities and the labour market. Can take time, based on newcomers’ abilities.

Employment-related services

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

Building Community Connections

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

Support Services for Newcomers

• Eliminating barriers and ensuring equitable access to settlement services through childcare, translation, transport, and interpretation services.

Indirect Services

• Programming that builds sector and community capacity to support the coordination of high-quality settlement and integration programming and services.

How the Resettlement Assistance Program fits

Given the unique circumstances and conditions for refugees, the Resettlement Assistance Program supports government-assisted refugees and a small number of other eligible clients outside of Quebec when they first arrive in Canada.

Settlement Program
Pre-arrival services (all eligible immigrants including refugees)

Resettlement Assistance Program
Immediate and essential services and income support

Settlement Program
Ongoing services (all eligible immigrants)

Immediate and Essential Services

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

Financial Support

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

Increased Use of Settlement Services

In 2018-19: Nearly 520,000 clients accessed at least one settlement service, a 13.5% increase in clients served from 2017-2018 and a 22% increase since 2016-2017.

Unique Clients by Program Components^{Footnote *}

Needs Assessment and Referrals

• 249,453 clients, of these:
  • 55% Female
  • 43% Economic Class
    • 44% Principal Applicants
    • 56% Spouse and Dependants
  • 29% Refugees
  • 21% Sponsored Family

Employment Related Service

• 51,097 clients, of these:
  • 54% Female
  • 55% Economic Class
    • 58% Principal Applicants
    • 42% Spouse and Dependants
  • 27% Refugees
  • 17% Sponsored Family

Support Services

• 134,224 clients, of these:
  • 59% Female
  • 51% Refugees
  • 27% Economic Class
  • 19% Sponsored Family
  • 60% Interpretation
  • 42% Transportation
  • 27% Translation
  • 16% Care for Newcomer Children

Language Training

• 102,674 clients, of these:
  • 66% Female
  • 38% Economic Class
    • 30% Principal Applicants
    • 36% Spouse and Dependants
  • 64% Refugees
  • 30% Sponsored Family

Information and Orientation Services

• 422,647 clients, of these:
  • 55% Female
  • 42% Economic Class
    • 42% Principal Applicants
    • 58% Spouse and Dependants
  • 31% Refugees
  • 22% Sponsored Family

Community Connections

• 88,610 clients, of these:
  • 57% Female
  • 43% Economic Class
    • 40% Principal Applicants
    • 30% Spouse and Dependants
  • 70% Refugees
  • 14% Sponsored Family

Settlement Landscape – Higher Immigration Levels

• Higher immigration levels, as well as increasing complexity of client needs and the settlement landscape is leading to increases in the settlement funding envelope.
• Future settlement funds will be determined alongside the options for the 2020-2022 levels plan. Based on the current multi-year plan and assuming admissions targets are similar in 2022, anticipated investments [Redacted] and, [Redacted].

Settlement funding and immigration levels

Text version: Settlement funding and immigration levels

Years	Immigration levels by calendar year	Settlement funding by fiscal year
2015-2016	N/A	$589,800,000
2016-2017	296,346	$666,300,000
2017-2018	300,000	$738,500,000
2018-2019	310,000	$777,300,000
2019-2020	330,800	$779,000,000
2020-2021	[Redacted]	[Redacted]
2021-2022	[Redacted]	[Redacted]
2022-2023	[Redacted]	[Redacted]

Increasingly Complex, Diverse and Evolving Funding Streams

In 2019-2020, IRCC is investing more than $779,000,000 to support the settlement needs of newcomers, outside of Quebec, and is divided as illustrated below.

The Canada-Quebec Accord is a quasi-constitutional agreement covering settlement, resettlement and administration responsibility. The Accord can only be amended or terminated by the mutual consent of Canada and Quebec.

In 2019-2020 the Grant to Quebec is estimated to be $559,400,000.

Newcomer Outcomes

Newcomers to Canada are experiencing positive outcomes but more can be done.

• Recent research shows some positive outcomes for newcomers to Canada over time:^{Footnote **}
  • Immigrants and the Canadian-born have comparable labour force participation, employment and unemployment rates.
  • Economic class principal applicants 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 the Canadian-born.
• However, outcomes are not as strong for all immigration categories:
  • Refugees and family class immigrants take longer to reach Canadian average employment earnings.
  • Use of social assistance by members of the Family class increases over time, and remains high for refugees.
  • Visible minority newcomer women show the lowest median employment income ($26,624) compared to non-visible minority newcomer women ($30,074) and visible minority newcomer men ($35,574) (Census 2016).
  • Fewer refugees reported being in good health compared to economic class immigrants and the Canadian-born.

Stronger Programming and Innovative Services

Increasing the diversity of clientele has led to stronger programming and innovative, outcomes-based services.

New Settlement Vision for the Program

• Created a shared understanding and unified purpose for settlement and integration in Canada amongst all stakeholders.

Stronger Programming

• Multi-year investment for visible minority newcomer women pilot to support employment and career advancement.
• Significant investment through the Official Languages Action Plan to increase Francophone immigration, support settlement and retention of French-speaking newcomers and ensure the vitality of Francophone communities (e.g., Welcoming Francophone Communities Initiative).
• Reduced the number of clients waiting for language training.

Innovative Pilots

• Funding over 100 service delivery improvement projects to test new innovative delivery approaches for improved effectiveness.
• Testing new models of working with employers to fill regional labour shortages (Atlantic Immigration Pilot and Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot).
• Welcoming Francophone Communities Initiative launched to test how funding decisions can support local needs and bolster Francophone immigration.

Outcome-Based Services

• Dedicated resources to advance analysis of outcomes with a focus on better ways to attribute results to the Program, and measure value-for-money.

Challenges and Opportunities

• Challenge:
  • Rising immigration levels and higher-need newcomers (e.g., previous trauma, low literacy) exerting pressure on Settlement Program services.
• Opportunity:
  • The Multi-Year Immigration Levels Plan enables better forecasting of Settlement Program funding allocations and more time to plan the delivery of high-quality settlement services.
• Challenge:
  • Continued scrutiny over how public funds are invested and the return on this investment (i.e. immigrant outcomes).
• Opportunities:
  • Opportunities exist to establish new ministerial priorities based on sound evidence and demonstrable need.
  • While it is difficult to measure program effectiveness, the Department has dedicated resources and a plan to generate outcomes analysis, and is testing new interventions to find efficiencies.
• Challenge:
  • Societal expectations are higher to support vulnerable newcomers.^{Footnote ***}
• Opportunities:
  • Increasing outreach to employers will build innovative partnerships to increase labour market traction for newcomers.
  • Investing in sector capacity-building to address the needs of newcomers facing multiple barriers.

National Call for Proposals 2019

There is flexibility built into the programs to allow for emerging needs, and future intakes to fund new priorities, such as the Service Delivery Improvement fund.

• The National Call for Proposals is the main mechanism for soliciting projects/programming proposals from third parties.
• Launched in February 2019 is the culmination of analysis, consultation and co-planning.
• Funding priorities focused on sustaining the strength of the program while encouraging partnerships and innovation, and addressing client needs.
• Nearly [Redacted] over five years will be invested in Settlement Program and Resettlement Assistance Program services (excluding Quebec) starting April 1, 2020.
• A total of 824 projects were approved (784 for the Settlement Program, 40 for the Resettlement Assistance Program).
• Applicants were notified of decisions on August 9, 2019 and negotiations with successful applicants began shortly thereafter. Approximately [Redacted] of new agreements have been signed.
• Negotiations have been paused since September 11, 2019, to respect the “Caretaker Convention” during the election period.

Total Investments (by Province and Territory, excluding Quebec, in millions of dollars)

Recommended Projects

Settlement program: 784 projects
Resettlement assistance program: 40 projects

National Projects

• Settlement Projects: 46 projects
  • Total: [Redacted]
• RAP Projects: 2 projects
  • Total: [Redacted]
• Yukon: 4 projects
  • [Redacted]
• Northwest Territories: 7 projects
  • [Redacted]
• Nunavut: 1 project
  • [Redacted]
• British Columbia: 125 projects, 3 RAP projects
  • [Redacted]
• Alberta: 100 projects, 5 RAP projects
  • [Redacted]
• Saskatchewan: 51 projects, 5 RAP projects
  • [Redacted]
• Manitoba: 55 projects, 3 RAP projects
  • [Redacted]
• Ontario: 335 projects, 16 RAP projects
  • [Redacted]
• Newfoundland: 10 projects, 1 RAP project
  • [Redacted]
• New Brunswick: 26 projects, 3 RAP projects
  • [Redacted]
• Prince Edward Island: 8 projects, 1 RAP project
  • [Redacted]
• Nova Scotia: 16 projects, 1 RAP project
  • [Redacted]

Key Takeaways

• The successful settlement and integration of newcomers is critical to ensuring public support for immigration.
• The Canadian approach to immigrant selection, settlement and integration is recognized as a role model for successful migration management.^{Footnote ****}
• In general, newcomers are doing well and contributing to Canada, but there are opportunities to improve as well, especially in the case of refugees.
• Through high-quality settlement programming, immigrant success in Canada will continue to advance.
• Integration in Canada is a two-way street involving a commitment on the part of newcomers to adapt to life in Canada and on the part of Canada to welcome new people and cultures.
• A briefing on the call for proposals will be scheduled.
• [Redacted]