What was quite shocking about our study in Peel, and we surveyed 3,000 people--immigrants, non-immigrants, employed, unemployed--was that only 40% of the immigrants said they were satisfied with the services available, and only 25% of the immigrants with post-secondary education indicated that they were satisfied with the services available. This doesn't just apply to just women; it applies to men as well. I would say the fragmentation of services--and I think that's Kim's point--and even the funding model that promotes competition rather than cooperation and one-size-fits-all sorts of solutions really do not serve well-educated immigrant men or women. So that's one point.
On the second point, on the happier side, there's really good evidence that programs like the ones offered by the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council and groups that offer internship and mentoring kinds of formal programs have interesting results. Immigrants who go through those programs get jobs less quickly, so other immigrants get jobs faster, but the immigrants who go through the mentoring and the internship programs get better jobs, are paid more, and spend less time trying to get back to the level at which they entered. There's huge research to support the incredible impact of having those kinds of internship and mentoring programs available.
As well, it's not just about ESL. There are many immigrants who come to Canada who actually are anglophones, but they speak with an accent. They don't understand the cultural norms. They don't understand the modes of communication, etc. So the bridging programs that are needed for professional immigrants are much more sophisticated, complex, and customized in terms of their needs than a lot of the programs that are currently available and supported by the existing funding models.