Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Jan. 30th, 2019

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

We're going to begin with your presentation, and then we'll go to Ms. Choo from Alberta.

Next, we will hear from the representatives of the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité Canada.

Mr. Cecchetto, the floor is yours.

[Matthew Cecchetto]

My name is Matthew Cecchetto. On behalf of the International Organization for Migration, I would like to thank you for this invitation to discuss how the United Nations organization for migration provides pre-arrival services for refugees through the Canadian orientation abroad program.

I would like to show you a short animated video featuring the story of a refugee family and their resettlement journey. lt outlines the plight of refugees and the International Organization for Migration's role in essential aspects of the resettlement and integration process.

[Video presentation]

As the members of the standing committee saw, in addition to travel assistance and pre-departure health assessment services, IOM provides pre-departure orientation sessions to refugees selected overseas by the Canadian government for resettlement.

IOM has been funded by the Canadian government since 1998 to provide pre-departure orientation to refugees via the Canadian orientation abroad program, and has provided orientation to over 127,000 refugees. IRCC recognized that no other organization has the infrastructure, experience or capacity to deliver pre-arrival orientation services to refugees worldwide at a comparable cost, and chose to enter into a targeted service agreement with IOM for the next 4.25 years.

IOM believes pre-departure orientation is integral to the success of resettlement programs. Unlike economic immigrants, who choose to move to Canada, no one chooses to be a refugee. Some refugees may lack knowledge of Canada, which leads to high levels of anxiety, misperception, and unrealistic expectations. These expectations may not only cause stress to the newcomers upon their arrival but may also put pressure on service providers who work to help them adapt and adjust to life in their new communities.

COA sessions provided by IOM's multilingual, multi-ethnic facilitators help refugees anticipate integration challenges and ease their transition into Canadian society. Some of the topics addressed in the orientation include pre-departure preparations, housing, health, money management, the role of settlement service providers, education, cultural adaptation, and rights and responsibilities. COA sessions last anywhere from one to three days, depending on the setting, on the level of need, and on practical and security considerations. COA sessions are conducted in the participant's mother tongue or with consecutive interpretation. Travel and accommodation allowances are provided to refugees who travel long distances or who may be in precarious financial situations. Meals and childminding are provided free of charge during the COA sessions. These services help promote inclusion and equality and address some of the barriers refugees may face when accessing pre-departure orientation services.

IOM works closely with Canadian counterparts to develop curricula with key messages that are integrated into tailored resources and supporting activities. Refugees learn best and the lessons are more meaningful when the activities are experiential and highly participatory. While accurate information about Canada is relevant, it is equally important to build productive attitudes for successful adaptation, including proactivity, self-sufficiency and resourcefulness.

By empowering refugees to become self-sufficient and culturally knowledgeable upon arrival, pre-arrival services such as the Canadian orientation abroad service also indirectly contribute to improving the public perception of refugees in receiving communities.

In IRCC's rapid impact evaluation of the Syrian refugee initiative in 2016, the department cited that the lack of COA due to logistical issues meant that the basic information Syrian refugees were expected to have upon arrival had to be provided in Canada, making their initial resettlement stages even more difficult, so we have two recommendations for pre-arrival services from IOM.

First, refugees are resilient and positively contribute to Canadian society. Their outcomes improve when they are provided services that are tailored to their needs. All newcomers require support, but for refugees some needs cannot be met by services designed for other categories of immigrants. IOM recommends that IRCC provide appropriate and equitable funding to refugee-specific pre-arrival services and open consultation on the funding levels of these programs.

Second, IOM offers a portfolio of tried and tested services to facilitate the orderly migration of refugees to Canada. IOM recommends that the IRCC proactively plan refugee processing in order to support resettlement stakeholders to achieve better outcomes for the refugees we serve.

Mr. Chair, I sincerely thank the standing committee members for their time. I would be happy to answer any questions they may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to go to Ms. Choo, who is in Alberta.

It's nice to see you again, Ms. Choo. Thank you for joining us by video conference. You have about seven minutes to talk about S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and about your pre-arrival services as well.

[Queenie Choo, Chief Executive Officer, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon.

My name is Queenie Choo and I'm the CEO of S.U.C.C.E.S.S.

I'd like to start off by thanking you for the opportunity to contribute to the committee's important study on settlement services, particularly on pre-arrival.

S.U.C.C.E.S.S. is one of the largest non-profit immigrant and refugee service agencies, with over 30 service locations that support newcomers from 150 countries. We are very unique because we deliver the entire continuum of settlement services from pre-arrival to port of entry to post-arrival in Canada. S.U.C.C.E.S.S. settlement services benefited over 48,000 newcomers last year.

Let me begin by sharing the experience of one of our clients.

Leanna is a skilled worker from the Philippines and she has a background in IT and worked as a business analyst. She was approved to immigrate to Canada last year, but she was worried about her career prospects in Canada. She wasn't familiar with the Canadian labour market, didn't know how to enter the IT sector again, and was concerned that her years of expertise and skills would be lost. S.U.C.C.E.S.S. pre-arrival services, AEIP, provided Leanna with individualized service to help her develop her career plan, along with her knowledge and skills, to succeed in Canada's IT sector. They also connected her with the national IT sector council so that she could enhance her professional connections.

As Leanna was planning to move to Vancouver where the IT sector is thriving, the pre-arrival service also connected her to S.U.C.C.E.S.S.'s post-arrival settlement services in Vancouver. As a result, Leanna was able to seamlessly transition from pre-arrival to post-arrival services. Once she arrived in Vancouver, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.'s settlement services, ISIP, continued to help her establish her new life in Canada. S.U.C.C.E.S.S. provided her with continual career coaching as she applied for jobs and attended interviews.

As she had already started the process prior to arriving in Canada, Leanna achieved results quickly. I'm very happy to tell you that after just two months in Canada Leanna received not only one but two job offers. She is now working again as a business analyst at a major financial institute, continuing to build on the career she had started in the Philippines.

As you can tell from Leanna's story, her settlement journey started off with S.U.C.C.E.S.S.'s pre-arrival services through our Active Engagement and Integration Project, AEIP. Since 2008, our pre-arrival services have accelerated newcomers' settlement and integration processes by providing early information to support newcomers in making informed decisions and taking action to achieve their settlement goals.

Currently, AEIP is delivered through service centres in China and South Korea, through outreach across China as well as online globally to India, the Philippines and other countries to support newcomers who have been selected by IRCC to immigrate to Canada and are now at the stage of preparing to move to Canada.

Our pre-arrival services include information and orientation about various aspects of life in Canada; early support with foreign credential recognition, career planning and job search; opportunities to connect with Canadian employers, even before departure; and bridging to post-arrival settlement services in whichever community they choose to settle in.

Some of the benefits have been, for example, that newcomers are engaged earlier in the settlement process; that they are better prepared for the Canadian labour market; that they have a clearer understanding of different communities across Canada; and that there is a strong uptake of settlement services in Canada as newcomers are informed about and connected to services in the pre-arrival stage already.

There has been an increasing demand for pre-arrival services. In just the last year, our AEIP program served over 5,600 newcomers. This year we are already on pace to exceed last year's number by 30%.

Here are some of the recommendations that I would like to share on opportunities, moving forward, to further enhance services along the entire settlement continuum.

First, there continues to be a significant need for investment into the entire continuum of settlement services, from pre-arrival to post-arrival, to ensure all newcomers have the information, resources and tools to succeed in Canada. Funding for settlement services needs to take into consideration settlement trends, demand for services and patterns of secondary migration.

Second, we need to look at scaling up innovative and integrated service models that accelerate the achievement of settlement outcomes. There are many best practices out there and innovative models that are already being delivered across Canada. We need to think about how we can scale these up to reach more newcomers. For example, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. delivers innovative online employment language training to support newcomers who are attending skills training or are already working but need more support to continue to improve their English proficiency.

Third, at the same time, there also needs to be greater investment into specialized settlement services for newcomers who are more vulnerable.

Fourth, there is a need to increase support for language training for newcomers. As some of you already know, it is not easy to learn a new language, especially in a new country with a new culture, so it is important to start language training, perhaps, from the early onset in the pre-arrival state and reduce the wait times, as well as support various modes of language training such as conversation circles, family literacy and occupation-specific language training.

Fifth, we also need to consider extending settlement services to support long-term success. Once newcomers become Canadian citizens, they are no longer eligible for IRCC-funded settlement services and language training. While some provinces provide funding for services for naturalized citizens, there are inequities in the levels of funding. As a result, depending on where newcomers reside, they could have higher or lower levels of settlement services.

Last but not least, the settlement lens needs to be widened. All sectors, including housing, health, education and business, need to play a role in building communities that are inclusive of newcomers. Settlement services play a key role in bridging newcomers to these sectors, but these sectors must also be ready to serve newcomers. For example, at S.U.C.C.E.S.S. our settlement program works closely with local family doctors to enhance the capacity to serve new refugee families.

I would like to end by encouraging any one of you to visit S.U.C.C.E.S.S. or your local settlement services providers to learn more about the positive impacts of these services. Thank you very much for allowing me to share our story and our experience today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much. I would also encourage the committee members to visit S.U.C.C.E.S.S. I had a great tour of your facilities and saw some examples of what you do. It's very impressive. Thanks for being here and for the work you do.

We will continue with the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité Canada (RDEE).

You have seven minutes to tell us about the activities you have designed for immigrants.

[Jean-Guy Bigeau, President, Executive Director, Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité Canada]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Members of the committee, thank you for having us today.

Founded in 1997, the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité (RDEE Canada), sets up many structuring projects each year to stimulate economic development and employability in all of Canada's francophone and Acadian communities. Our national organization acts as a lever to create business opportunities for each of our members in all provinces and territories, except Quebec. So we have 12 members.

With that in mind and with our network's cooperation, in 2015, RDEE Canada responded to a call for tenders from the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship for the launch of a pre-arrival support project in Canada. That's how we obtained the mandate to provide this sort of service, specifically in French, for francophone clients in the process of immigrating to the country.

To do so, we have partnered with other francophone and bilingual service providers, such as the Information and Communications Technology Council, JVS and La Cité collégiale, with international associations, such as Pôle emploi, in France, and ethnocultural associations in Morocco, Tunisia, France and Belgium. Thanks to the mobilization and expertise of RDEE Canada members in all provinces and territories and our other partners, pre-departure services have become the first francophone employability and entrepreneurship online services for immigrants in Canada.

With the support of our immigration officers in the provinces and territories, who are the primary source of information preferred by clients, RDEE Canada's pre-departure services provide free services in French directly on site. This service structure, which provides personalized and remote advice, ensures better economic integration of immigrants, in addition to connecting newcomers to the host francophone community.

From September 2015 to December 2018, the pre-departure services provided the following support services to immigrant clients. First, participants registered on a web platform. Then, we assessed the needs of clients individually with an expert adviser. We also provided access to online resources and tools, such as fact sheets, webinars or virtual job fairs. We then referred the clients to the RDEE Canada agency in the province or territory matching their destination of choice. This stage ensured local support tailored to their needs. We also ensured that we guided clients carefully to other partner organization that provide settlement services in the destination communities, according to the identified needs. Finally, we developed surveys to obtain feedback on the services received by clients.

We believe that the service structure put in place by RDEE Canada met the needs of francophone clients and helped achieve francophone immigration targets in Canada.

For the last three years, our pre-departure services helped more than 700 francophone clients eligible for immigration, according to IRCC criteria. Our customized support services allowed 75% of the clients to land a job within the first six months of their arrival. That figure went up to 90% after more than six months of job search.

According to the surveys we conducted, 97% of clients were satisfied with the services received, and more than 92% of them responded that they would recommend pre-departure services to others trying to immigrate to Canada.

These results were achieved with an average annual budget of $400,000. We can therefore say that these are best practices that have given convincing results.

At RDEE Canada, we believe that the economic integration of newcomers is an essential component of their immigration journey. We believe that the success of immigrants' arrival in Canada is measured when they obtain a job that matches their skills and can contribute to the economic growth of their communities and host country. The pre-departure services provided by RDEE Canada and its members have also helped to promote the retention of immigrants in francophone and Acadian host communities.

With its Canada-wide background in francophone immigration and the expertise acquired in the field by network members, RDEE Canada was invited to submit a new nation-wide project, in keeping with the criteria set out in the call for proposals, namely that of a one-stop shop for francophone immigration. We therefore responded to the call for tenders issued by the IRCC in 2018.

As part of this project, we proposed a budget and requested financial support of $6 million over five years. The objective was to establish a one-stop shop to provide a continuum of services and make the immigration process even more effective and, above all, client-centred. However, our proposal was not accepted. Since we no longer receive funding, the pre-departure services that we had been offering since 2015 ended on December 31, 2018.

In closing, I would like to make the following two recommendations. Pre-arrival francophone services must be timely, seamless and efficient. Francophone pre-departure services must also include a very well-developed employability and entrepreneurship component.

My thanks to the members of the committee for having us.

We are more than happy to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much.

We will now move to questions and comments.

Ms. Zahid, you have seven minutes.

[Salma Zahid, Scarborough Centre, Lib.]

Thank you, Chair and thanks to all three witnesses for providing their testimony today as we start this important study on settlement services. It's an important aspect of the immigration department.

My first question will be for IOM. How do you decide where to offer the pre-arrival services? Are you contracted by the IRCC to serve some specific areas or groups, or is it your decision?

[Matthew Cecchetto]

Our mandate is to serve, as many as possible, all refugees worldwide. We have 12 permanent offices or sites, where we do refugee pre-departure training. Five of those have regional capabilities, so we do mobile sessions, depending on the location of the refugees. We work in the top source countries. For refugees, we have an office in Turkey and Lebanon.

IOM is a very large organization. We have over 398 offices worldwide and 179 member states. Being the UN agency for migration, we are able to get to a lot of places. There are a few countries where we can't provide pre-departure orientation for political or security reasons.

[Salma Zahid]

You mentioned in your comments that you provide childminding and financial assistance to travel if needed. Is it mandatory by IRCC that you provide the childminding services and travel assistance, and is it the standard requirement across the board for all the agencies that provide pre-arrival services?

[Matthew Cecchetto]

For pre-arrival services for refugees, we're the only organization that does in-person information and orientation. Part of our funding package does mandate that we provide childminding services, transportation assistance and lodging assistance, when necessary, so it is something that is provided by the government.

As far as the other 25 countries where IOM provides pre-departure orientation are concerned, it depends on the country if it chooses to provide those services. For example, there are some countries that do provide similar services to Canada, but Canada tends to provide a lot of services.

[Salma Zahid]

What percentage of refugees are getting the pre-arrival services? Do you have some statistics showing what percentage of them are using those services?

[Matthew Cecchetto]

Yes, I do have some statistics. In fiscal year 2017-18, over 23,000 refugees moved with IOM to Canada. We calculated that of the 23,000 refugees, 15,434 were eligible for COA based on their age. We provided orientation to 76% of that number.

The way we look at numbers is a bit difficult, because IRCC goes through iCARE. We know there were some reporting gaps for the number of refugees that did receive pre-departure orientation by iCARE. Also, although we say that in one year IOM has moved x number of refugees to Canada and we've trained x number of refugees, we do know that some of the people we trained don't leave within the same calendar year. We do have quite a significant uptake, because we do offer all of those support services and IOM moves the majority of refugees coming to Canada.

[Salma Zahid]

Have you gathered some statistics or done some analysis of those refugees who use the pre-arrival services to see how well and how quickly they were able to integrate into the Canadian system in getting jobs, versus those who didn't have pre-arrival services?

[Matthew Cecchetto]

We're funded for pre-arrivals only, and the department has mandated us to really focus on the skills and knowledge necessary for their first three to six months within Canada. We haven't been able to do any sort of research into long-term goals, but I know that the department is looking at linking information on who received pre-arrival services as recorded in iCARE, with CRA data. As Mr. Manicom had mentioned, those systems are going to be linking up and might provide more information on outcomes of people who do take pre-arrival services.

[Salma Zahid]

My next question is for Ms. Choo. Have you done some of that analysis, because you also provide services to the newcomers when they arrive? Have you made some sort of analysis on how well and how quickly the newcomers integrate, those who have used the pre-arrival services versus those who have not?

[Queenie Choo]

We did, in fact. We are only one of the providers for the pre-arrival services—our AEIP—and I wanted to share with you some of the client outcomes.

People are very interested in employment knowledge and skill. Over 93% of the people we served indicated that their employment knowledge and skill has increased, and certainly it's climbing in the right direction. As well, over 91% of clients identified that the information provided to them through the pre-arrival program has been very helpful; and also over 92% of them are very happy with their settlement knowledge about Canada.

[Salma Zahid]

Do you tend to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'm afraid I need to end it there.

[Salma Zahid]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Sorry.

Mr. Maguire.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I want to thank all of the witnesses for their presentations today.

Mr. Cecchetto, I just want to touch base. You mentioned the orderly refugee processing of newcomers. Is that an open-funding level? You mentioned something about that. Can you just expand on your second recommendation there?

[Matthew Cecchetto]

The second recommendation was about timely refugee processing and planning. The first recommendation was providing appropriate funding to refugee-specific programming. As Ms. Choo mentioned, refugees have specific needs. Specific programming should be provided to them and consultation with service provider organizations should be conducted by IRCC when determining the funding and the funding level.

I'm not sure if that answers your question.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Number one, can you just give us some examples of how you'd better tailor the needs between the IOM and the IRCC. I guess your initiative is funded by IRCC, so what is your budget for the year?

[Matthew Cecchetto]

We entered into a targeted service agreement for the next 4.25 years, and we're funded for $21.1 million. That includes all of the support services I mentioned—our staffing costs and all of the program-related costs.

Our cost per capita is projected to be $446 per refugee over the 4.25 years.