Immigrant Integration: Improving Interagency Collaboration
Research team: Meyer Burstein, Pathways to Prosperity; Stelian Medianu, University of Western Ontario; Victoria Esses, University of Western Ontario
Institutional partners: Conseil Économique & Social d’Ottawa-Carleton; The Majdoub Group Financial Services
Canada’s approach to regulating and managing the admission of newcomers is undergoing a fundamental change. Under the emerging regime, employers and educational institutions will play a far greater role in migrant recruitment, settlement, and integration. Importantly, in these areas, neither employers nor educational institutions necessarily possess the expertise and infrastructure needed to fully respond to and capitalize on the shifting policy and program environment.
Rather than having local employers and educational institutions invest in additional infrastructure and in-house expertise, or purchase services from the private sector, the preferred system-wide solution would be to for Ottawa’s settlement sector – which has already made many of the requisite investments in skills and delivery systems – to supply the needed services.
The aim of this project is to map the commercial exchanges that could be developed between settlement organizations, on the one hand, and employers, educational institutions, and newcomers, on the other. The project will also delineate possible collaborative agreements among settlement organizations with respect to service development and delivery.