A new tool has been developed to help measure how welcoming a community is, as well as a second tool to identify obstacles that prevent immigrants from succeeding.
They were outlined in an April 8 article in The Globe and Mail by Janice Dickson. The initiative was launched by Pathways to Prosperity, an alliance of university, community and government partners that strives to help immigrants integrate into Canadian society.
The tools are based on a Welcoming Communities Initiative paper published in 2010, by Victoria Esses, Meyer Burstein, Leah Hamilton and Caroline Bennett-AbuAyyash.
Full disclosure: I was an active member of both the provincial Welcoming Communities Initiative and the nationwide Pathways to Prosperity, which evolved from WCI. I have worked on immigration projects with Vicki Esses, a professor at Western University, and Meyer Burstein, a consultant and former Director-General with then Citizenship and Immigration Canada. I invited both of them to attend an immigration conference we held in North Bay and they were featured speakers.
Community leaders in North Bay have often portrayed the city as being welcoming to newcomers, but is that belief based on fact, or fiction?
I don’t know the answer. I have been involved in immigration for decades and I have seen nothing that can prove we are a welcoming community. It’s time to find out.
We have a number of actors in local immigration, including the North Bay & District Multicultural Centre, the North Bay & District Chamber of Commerce, the City of North Bay, Yes Employment, the Labour Market Group, Literacy Nipissing, Canadore College, Nipissing University, and others. They may all
believe we have a welcoming community, but what is that belief based on?
I suggest that the North Bay and Area Local Immigration Partnership, formerly the North Bay Newcomer Network, housed at the multicultural centre, take the lead in obtaining the two tools and finding credible researchers, which we have at Nipissing University, use the tools to provide us with baseline information on how well we are doing.
Following are the characteristics of a welcoming community, based on the original 2010 research paper. After each one, I will give my totally subjective score on how we are doing. This is not based on academic research, so take from it what you will. It is just my impressions and observations from years of daily
interaction with immigrants in the city.
Employment opportunities: B
My clients have little trouble finding employment, but it is often not in their fields of expertise. Those who do find jobs in their chosen fields are very grateful and highly motivated to succeed and stay in North Bay.
Fostering of social capital (contribution to bridging networks and trust): B
My clients have many friends from their native countries living in North Bay, but I don’t get the sense they are branching out to create networks with the non-immigrant population.
Affordable and suitable housing: F
There is a poor supply of rental housing in the city and the only person I see doing something about it is Jimmy Kolios. He has developed a lot of good rental
housing over the past years and shows no sign of slowing down. John Lechlitner has plans to create apartments above Cecil’s, which will help bring more people downtown, as will Canadore’s proposed initiative for student housing near the downtown. If all this falls into place the grade will rise.
Positive attitudes toward immigrants, cultural diversity and newcomers to the community: B
On the whole, people I am in contact with are happy to see more diversity in the city, and support immigration. However, I got rid of my Twitter and Facebook accounts a couple of years ago because I was tired of the comments after I posted my immigration columns. Anonymous ill-informed keyboard
warriors are everywhere, however, not just here.
Presence of newcomer agencies that can successfully meet newcomer needs: A-
We had North Bay Immigrant Support Services back in the 1980s and 1990s and I served as board chair for six years. It dissolved a few years later. We brought back the North Bay & District Multicultural Centre, which opened on Fraser Street in 2008 and then moved to its present location at 100 Main Street East. Federal government funding guidelines restrict service to permanent residents, but NBDMC finds ways to service others as well. The current trend is people coming to Canadore College or Nipissing University as students, and then applying for work permits, and then permanent residence. By the time they have their PR they are pretty familiar with the city.
Links between main actors working to construct and maintain a welcoming community: B
They could be better. Get the college and university more involved.
Municipal features and services sensitive to the presence and needs of newcomers: C
I am not aware of any of these services.
Educational opportunities: A
My clients speak positively about Canadore and Nipissing, and those with children, in all four local school boards, are very pleased with the level of
education.
Accessible and suitable health care: N/A
I don’t have a grade for this one, simply because no one has ever brought it up in my daily interactions.
Available and accessible public transit: A
Many of my clients use city transit to come to my office and they all use the app to see when the next bus is coming. That is pretty good service for a city our size.
Presence of diverse religious organizations: B
It would have been lower but for the emergence of a mosque in the city a number of years ago. When there is a significant cohort of people from a particular religion, they will make it happen. Many immigrants, especially from the Philippines and Central and South America, are Roman Catholic, and they are well served. Those from India are not. But as more arrive, let’s expect positive change.
Social engagement opportunities: N/A
This is another one where I have no opinion based on conversations with newcomers.
Political participation opportunities: C
That is mainly due to our laws that you must be a Canadian citizen to run for political office, including city council. To its credit, council passed a motion years ago supporting the rights of permanent residents to vote in municipal elections and run for office. The problem is that it takes at least three years for a permanent resident to qualify for citizenship and another year, and considerable expense, to actually obtain it.
Positive relationships with the police and justice system: B
Police and the courts can always do better, but if you look at the police hiring statistics over the past number of years, they are attracting well-educated people, often with a social sciences background. I see more diversity with women in the police service, but I haven’t seen evidence of any immigrants.
Safety: C
The grade is not based on reality, but rather perception. I hear more people saying they don’t feel safe, and that is not good. Downtown has changed since I stopped working there at the end of 2015.
Opportunities for use of public space and recreation facilities: A
Newcomers are playing soccer and basketball and I often see them strolling the waterfront and enjoying a picnic there. I am the chair of the North Bay Public Library Board and we have a very nice, free, meeting space available for public use. We have wonderful public spaces and recreation facilities and if newcomers
aren’t using them, that’s on them.
Favourable media coverage and representation: A-
In all my years in North Bay, since 1978, I cannot recall a negative article, as reported by a journalist. Letters to the editor or comments on social media are a different story. Jeff Turl, the editor of BayToday reached out to me to write an opinion column on immigration. I don’t see many similar columns in other media across the country.
So there you have it. My take on where we are now. If we can entice some researchers to actually put my opinions to the test, we may well have a different result. So, come on, let’s do it. We can’t improve if we don’t measure.
Editor’s Note: Don Curry is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant living in North Bay, and a member of Bay Today’s community advisory committee.
