IMMIGRATION AND REGIONALIZATION : Future Directions

1
IMMIGRATION AND REGIONALIZATION Future
Directions

• Presentation by Citizenship and Immigration
  Canada,
• Atlantic Metropolis Conference on Immigration
  and Outmigration Atlantic Canada at a
  Crossroads
• Halifax, November 19, 2004

2
Immigrant Settlement Patterns
140,000
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
Halifax
Regina
Québec
Calgary
Victoria
Montréal
Toronto
London
Hamilton
Winnipeg
St. John's
Saint John
Saskatoon
Edmonton
Vancouver
Ottawa - Hull (QC)
Ottawa - Hull (ON)

• Nearly three-quarters of the immigrants who came
  to Canada in the 1990s settled in just three
  census metropolitan areas Toronto, Vancouver and
  Montreal

3
Context

• Immigration an urban phenomenon
• 73 of newcomers settle in MTV
• Demographic pressures
• Ageing population, regional outflows of young
  people, skills shortages
• Increased interest in immigration
• A broader range of communities want to benefit
  from newcomers skills and potential contribution

4
Challenges Involved in Promoting Regionalization

• Provinces, territories need to
• Identify their skills needs
• Involve a range of community partners
• Market themselves and actively recruit
• Ensure communities are welcoming and attractive
  to newcomers, increasing chances immigrants will
  want to settle and remain
• Federal Government can
• Use levers to help encourage settlement in
  smaller centres
• Work with partners and serve as a facilitator
• Facilitate processing to meet local demand in a
  timely manner

5
Federal Commitments to Support Regionalization

• Renewed commitment to regional development in
  October 2004 Throne Speech
• Budget 2003 support for regionalization pilot
  projects
• Budget 2004 investments in enhanced language
  training and immigrant labour market integration
• New deal with cities and communities
• Strategic Framework to foster immigration to
  Francophone Minority communities

6
Key Ingredients to Success

• Greater role for partners in immigration
• PT governments, communities and others, including
  employers and NGOs
• Working together to
• Build local capacity
• Create welcoming environments
• Share expertise and resources
• Ensure necessary supports are in place to attract
  and retain newcomers, e.g.,
• Language training
• Affordable housing
• Education
• Health infrastructure

7
CICs Role

• Regional immigration strategies aim at sharing
  the benefits of immigration more evenly across
  Canada
• CIC to play role of facilitator, bringing
  partners together to identify and help meet
  communities needs
• Focus on communities that have the potential to
  become regional anchors for immigration
• Share best practices and tools
• Provide assistance on marketing and promotion

8
Available Levers

• Provincial Nominee Program
• Programs for Students and Temporary Workers
• Promotion Abroad
• Immigrant Labour Market Integration
• Enhanced Language Training
• Going to Canada Immigration Portal
• Tool Box for Small Centres

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Provincial Nominee Program

• The Provincial Nominee Program makes it possible
  to support the immigration of candidates who meet
  specific provincial needs
• Provinces are better positioned on the ground
  than the federal government to provide for the
  effective integration of these candidates into
  their economy and society
• Useful in tailoring immigration to the specific
  economic, social, demographic or other priorities
  of individual provinces

10
Students and Workers

• Provinces extending their involvement in
  selection to include temporary foreign workers
  and students
• An excellent source of potential provincial
  nominees
• Also offer immediate advantages to employers and
  universities
• Canada supports this growing involvement by
• Endorsing work permit requests
• Piloting approaches to attract foreign students,
  e.g. in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia

11
Student Pilots

• Three approaches to improving student programming
  are being tested
• Extending post-graduation work permits to 2 years
• Permitting off-campus employment during study
• Facilitating immigration processing for students
• Currently agreements on 8 pilots with 6 different
  provinces
• With most, implementation started in 2004
• Too early to draw any conclusions
• Discussions on possible student pilots underway
  with provinces that have not yet entered into an
  agreement

12
Promotion Abroad

• Promotion abroad essential to draw potential
  immigrants to individual communities
• Provinces already active in promotional
  activities
• Federal-Provincial Promotion and Recruitment
  tours in South America (since 2000)
• November 2004 tour in Africa to promote official
  language minority communities

13
Immigrant Labour Market Integration (ILMI)

• 4 Pillars
• Recognition of foreign credentials
• Enhanced language training
• Labour market information on Immigration Portal
• Research

14
Enhanced Language Training

• Provide higher levels of language training
• Levels 7-10
• Provide profession-specific language training
• Deliver training in smaller centres
• Work placement and mentoring

15
Going to Canada Immigration Portal

• Improving accessibility to information and
  services
• Enhancing existing Going to Canada web site
  (www.directioncanada.gc.ca)
• Enhancing existing information, services and
  tools from other sources
• Federal Government, Provinces, Territories,
  Communities, NGOs, SPOs
• Building new information, services and tools
• Providing immigrants with information and
  knowledge required before arriving in Canada

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Tool Box for Small Centres

• CIC funding the development of a tool box or
  guide - to assist small centres in attracting and
  retaining newcomers
• Guide will help communities
• Assess settlement trends, and the strengths and
  weaknesses of the community
• Build realistic plans and strategies and
  implement them
• Network with employers, business and labour
  organizations, and economic development offices

17
Going Forward An Immigration Framework

• At their Nov. 14-15 meeting, FPT Ministers
  launched work on the development of an
  Immigration Framework for Canada
• Framework to serve as the foundation for a more
  responsive 21st century immigration program
• Building on current FPT bilateral agreements and
  on current PT initiatives and strategies, the
  Framework will
• Assist in identifying and linking labour market
  needs to immigration
• Help in efforts to share benefits of immigration
  more evenly across country
• Framework to involve
• Stronger partnerships between federal departments
  and between FPT governments
• Opportunities for increased participation from
  cities and communities, and employers and others
• Next steps
• Framework proposal to be discussed in coming
  months by FPT working group
• Progress to be reviewed by FPT Ministers in June
  2005

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Conclusion

• With current regionalization initiatives and
  Immigration Framework, goal is to build a modern
  and flexible immigration program that works for
  all, including
• Immigrants
• Employers
• Communities, Provinces and Territories
• Canada
• Work underway must be built on
• Stronger collaboration between FPT governments
  and community stakeholders
• An enhanced role for local partners
• A better match between immigrants and local
  demand