Madam Chair, I've spoken about the big three barriers: language, foreign work experience, and foreign qualifications. There are a number of other barriers that immigrants face when they come to Canada. One is a sense of isolation and a lack of a community, so to speak. It has been our experience that they struggle to build personal and professional networks, and part of our settlement programming has been targeted in that area. I think it may help to explain the difference between the outcomes for privately sponsored refugees and government-assisted refugees. Privately sponsored refugees have slightly better outcomes than government-assisted refugees in the first instance because they're coming with a community that's prepared to support some of their needs and there is better community support around it. Isolation is a key issue as well.
On February 19th, 2015. See this statement in context.