Windsor Essex Local Immigration Partnership Report

Windsor City Council has approved the attached report, created by the Windsor Essex Local Immigration Partnership Council.

Integration Strategy
- executive summary
- full report

As noted in our report to Council, CIC has provided additional funding to facilitate further meetings of our Partnership Council to refine the strategic recommendations in preparation for phase two of the LIP initiative.

Mary Ellen Bernard
Project Manager, Local Immigration Partnership
City of Windsor
519 255 5200 Ext 5270
mbernard@city.windsor.on.ca

Peel Region Immigration Discussion Papers

With funding support from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Region of Peel in 2008 commissioned a series of discussion papers on key issues related to immigration.  The completion of these papers was one of several key deliverables under the Region’s Immigration project.  The others include the Peel Immigration Labour Market Survey and the development of ImmigrationPeel.ca, Peel’s immigration web portal.

The overarching purpose of the immigration project is to ensure that that Peel will be a welcoming community for current and future generations of newcomers so that they are able to live, work and feel part of an inclusive and prosperous community.  Specifically, the Immigration project aims at creating a process to ensure the needs of newcomers are addressed in decisions about service delivery, advocacy and partnerships in Peel, including newcomers’ employment needs and the need of the local economy.

The titles of the papers along with a very brief description follow:

* Social Cohesion, Social Exclusion, Social Capital - addresses the dynamics of social interaction among people of different ethnic or racial groups, socioeconomic status and influence, and suggests strategies for effective inclusion.

* Meeting the Needs of Immigrants Throughout the Life Cycle - addresses the needs of immigrants and their families at different stages of their lives, and includes implications for child care and long-term care services.

* From Generation to Generation: Utilizing the Human Capital of Newcomer Parents to Benefit Families - looks at how we can build on the education and skills of parents to better ensure the successful integration of immigrant children and youth.

* Neighbourhood Patterns and Housing Choices of Immigrants - addresses the housing needs of immigrants, the factors that determine where they live and how ethnic enclaves affect, and are affected by, the fabric of neighbourhoods.

* Meeting the Human Service Needs of Immigrants - draws on the main findings of all the other papers to consider their implications for human service delivery in Peel. The paper looks at how existing services can be improved to better meet the needs of immigrants and puts forward specific recommendations that the Region may want to implement.

Each of these papers helps us to better understand the immigrant experience and offers a number of recommendations for how the Region of Peel, other sectors of society (public, private and non-profit) and individuals can help immigrants be successful in their new home and become fully integrated members of society. These recommendations have implications for all Regional services, the Region’s diversity strategy and all public services in Peel.

The immigration papers were presented to Region of Peel Council late last year and are now available on the Region’s website: http://www.peelregion.ca/social-services/discussion-papers.htm

Launch of Welcoming Communities Initiative Website

Dear Colleagues

We are writing to announce the birth of the Welcoming Communities Initiative website at welcomingcommunities.ca and lescommunautesaccueillantes.ca. Our aim is to serve the growing community of researchers, local stakeholders and policymakers who are working to promote diversity and civic potential in second and third tier communities in Ontario and across the country.

As you will see, our site is in its infancy though we hope to mature quickly. At the top of our list of 'improvements' will be to introduce a French language version of the site as quickly as possible and to make good on a commitment to translate all important communiqués and information.

We would welcome your feedback on what works on our site and what doesn't along with any suggestions you may have regarding content, additional features that would add value, things to fix, and links you would find useful. Please use the 'contact us' button on the website to do this.

Best wishes, Vicki and Carl on behalf of Governing Council

TIEDI report: Class enrollment and labour outcomes of immigrants

Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative (TIEDI) has published its latest report on whether enrolling in classes in Canada affects the labour outcomes of immigrants.

The report is available at: http://www.yorku.ca/tiedi/pubreports.html.

Findings from the report include:

Immigrants who have enrolled in at least one university course in Canada take longer to find employment, but are more likely to have higher hourly wages and to work in their field of study than other immigrants.

Immigrants who have completed courses in Canada are less likely, on average, to hold full-time employment than immigrant men who did not return to school, but more likely than immigrant women who did not return to school.

Immigrants who enrolled in classes leading to higher degrees were likely to have taken more time to find their first job following immigration.

Immigrants who had completed classes leading to a high school diploma or had enrolled in other training not leading to a diploma had significantly higher average income per household member than immigrants who
had enrolled in trades or university education or immigrants who had not attended school after immigration.

Immigrant women who did not return to school have less favourable labour market outcomes than immigrant men who did not return to school, or immigrants who enrolled in courses.

Further reports are forthcoming on, among others: the labour outcomes of immigrants by educational attainment and the experiences of immigrants with accreditation.

Peterborough elementary school student populations

We have received some data regarding the profile of elementary school student populations in Peterborough.

The data include:
Percentage of students who live in lower-income households
Percentage of students whose parents have some university education
Percentage of students who receive special education services
Percentage of students identified as gifted
Percentage of students whose first language is not English
Percentage of students who are new to Canada from non-English speaking country
Percentage of students whose first language is not French
Percentage of students who are new to Canada from non-French
speaking country

The full data set is available here

March 25: Dance Around Africa

 

Dust off your dancing shoes because it’s time to dance, this time with live marimba music!

We have invited “The Resolutionaries”, a group of local Peterborough musicians led by Chaka Chikodzi. The marimba is a traditional Zimbabwean instrument that combines sweet melodies with African rhythms.

Date: Thursday March 25, 2010
Time: 7-9:30 pm
Location: Ballroom, Holiday Inn Peterborough
Admission is by donation.

Projections of the diversity of the Canadian population

All growth scenarios considered, the diversity of Canada's population will continue to increase significantly during the next two decades, especially within certain census metropolitan areas, according to new projections of the country's ethnocultural makeup.

By 2031, between 25% and 28% of the population could be foreign-born. This would surpass the proportion of 22% observed between 1911 and 1931, the highest during the twentieth century. About 55% of this population would be born in Asia.

Between 29% and 32% of the population could belong to a visible minority group, as defined in the Employment Equity Act. This would be nearly double the proportion reported by the 2006 Census. The visible minority population is likely to increase rapidly among the Canadian-born, many of whom are children and grandchildren of immigrants.

Full report available here

Presentation: Community Integration in Rural Ontario

At the March 11 meeting of the Peterborough Partnership Council on Immigrant Integration (PPCII), guest speaker, Magdy ElDakiky, Community Economic Development Specialist at OMAFRA, will deliver a presentation on the Community Immigrant Retention in Rural Ontario (CIRRO) project. The project was designed to respond to the rural communities’ growing need to deal with the issue of human capital decline. Magdy will present highlights of this provincial initiative involving 3 case-study communities (Brockville, North Bay and Chatham-Kent).

The subject of immigrant integration will be more comprehensively addressed at the upcoming PPCII conference “Together We Prosper – Practical Tools for Immigrant Integration”.

Date of presentation: Thursday March 11
Time: 1:00pm – 1:30pm
Location: Auditorium, Peterborough Public Library

Presentation materials (pdf format)
- Slides
- CIRRO Infosheet Jan 2009
- CIRRO Infosheet Jan 2010

Edited 12 March
- Peterborough Examiner news article
- Peterborough Examiner video

Conference: "Together We Prosper: Practical Resources for Immigrant Integration"

The Peterborough Partnership Council on Immigrant Integration is organising a one-day conference to provide information to make our community and workplaces more welcoming to immigrants. The workshops will include information on the business case for immigration, how to develop a diversity policy for your organization, diversity training, an introduction to the services and supports for employers, and how to recruit and select foreign-trained professionals.

The conference will take place on Thursday March 25, from 8:30am to 4:30pm at the Holiday Inn. There will be an evening social event from 7-10pm, which is a dance with live Marimba music at the Holiday Inn. Registration for the conference is $25, and includes admission to the evening social event.

You are invited to participate in this conference.
a) The conference poster
b) The conference program
c) The registration form

The deadline to register for the conference is Friday March 19. Your registration is complete only once you receive email confirmation. Space is limited and a waiting list will be kept.

Please forward this information widely.

Funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, with the support of the Eastern Ontario Development Program (EODP), New Canadians Centre Peterborough, Workforce Development Board and member organisations of the PPCII.

NCC Job Posting: Partnership Resource Coordinator

The Partnership Resource Coordinator will be responsible for building partnerships between the New Canadians Centre Peterborough and regional educational institutions. The Coordinator will develop collaborative programs that facilitate settlement services for new Canadian children, youth and their families by providing supports, resources, and programming through the schools.

Applications will ONLY be accepted in hard copy AND IF received by 2pm on March 15, 2010.

Full details available here