Canada continues to invest in settlement services for newcomers

Today, Marie-France Lalonde, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced over $65 million in funding extensions to service provider organizations across the country to continue delivering important settlement services, including pre-arrival services, services for racialized newcomer women, and language training for newcomers in Francophone minority communities.

As part of today’s funding announcement, Parliamentary Secretary Lalonde announced that the YMCA of the National Capital Region, which will receive over $1.2 million to continue delivering important pre-arrival services to new immigrants.

This funding extension will continue to support service provider organizations to deliver services to newcomers before they arrive in Canada. The YMCA offers a broad range of services abroad, which can be accessed online and in-person. Through pre-arrival service providers, newcomers are able to access important resources before coming to Canada, including information about the Canadian workplace, employment counselling and soft skills development.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s pre-arrival services program maximizes the economic and social integration of newcomers by

• directly connecting clients with the information and services they need through a streamlined, easy-to-navigate process
• encouraging newcomers to apply for recognition of their foreign credentials before they arrive, if needed
• linking clients to federal and provincial settlement services in Canada

Investments in pre-arrival services are investments in the newcomers and families joining Canada’s diverse communities, and they help them grow while strengthening Canada’s economy. Further details on individual funding for service provider organizations will be announced in the coming weeks.

Quotes:

“Providing services to newcomers before they arrive in Canada is critical to successful integration. These services help newcomers make decisions about the life they want to live in Canada as early as possible in their immigration journey and help them contribute to the economy more quickly. This investment will allow Canada to continue supporting the needs of newcomers across the world.”

– Marie-France Lalonde, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

“Deciding to move to a new country is perhaps one of the biggest decisions a person will make in their life. We are thrilled to see the substantial investment made from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada into pre-arrival services. Investments like these allow the YMCA to continue providing specialized information and orientation about the skilled trades, engineering and construction sectors, and help individuals ease their transition to Canada.”

– Bob Gallagher, President and CEO of the YMCA of the National Capital Region

Quick facts:

The 15 service provider organizations with funding extensions for pre-arrival services serve clients in their country of origin and are based in British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario and abroad.

Canada has funded pre-arrival services since 1998. While initially only provided to refugees, services were expanded to include other categories of immigrants in 2001.

In 2019, the adapted language training for francophone newcomers to francophone minority communities initiative, was introduced to support the Francophone Integration Pathway and provide training in French or English to Francophone and Allophone newcomers. The department currently funds six organizations that provide direct language training services to French-speaking newcomers who choose to settle in one of these communities.

In December 2022, the Government of Canada announced up to $5.8 million in renewed funding through 2025 for 10 projects supported under the Racialized Newcomer Women Pilot. This funding is in addition to the $15 million over 2 years that was allocated in Budget 2021 to extend support for this pilot.