Hardest workers in the game
Last year, I worked with not-for-profit social services provider University Settlement for my Public Good Initiative project. University Settlement, as the name would suggest, primarily offers settlement services to newcomers. Woodgreen Community Services, as well, provides support to newcomers. So does the United Way and a whole host of other non-profit organizations across the city.
I have been thinking a lot about immigration lately. For one, I am taking a course on it. For two, I just helped facilitate a case competition centred around Toronto’s Newcomer Strategy. One thing I can conclude after our class on Tuesday is this: non-for-profits are an essential piece of Canada’s immigration network. I would even argue they are the most important piece.
Immigration is a matter that falls within the jurisdiction of all orders of government. The federal government cares about it because it concerns our national borders, and they have immigration targets to meet. The provinces care about it because immigrants are potential citizens with healthcare, education, and other social needs, as well as folks that can contribute to a province’s economy. Municipalities, and in particular urban municipalities, care about it because, more often than not, newcomers settle in urban areas. This is where not-for-profits come in.
After landing, newcomers begin the process of integrating into Canadian society. This involves finding a place to live, employment, learning English or French, navigating government social assistance programs, and a long list of other tasks. Not-for-profit organizations like University Settlement, Woodgreen and United Way provide these much-needed services. While the City of Toronto does provide some of these services themselves, not-for-profits often do it better and do it in more locations. The City is more than happy to direct people towards not-for-profits for this reason.
Just look at the 2021 Toronto Newcomer Strategy. It was developed on the advice of the Newcomer Leadership Table, which hosts leaders from all orders of government as well as the non-profit sector and relies on Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) throughout the Strategy. The LIP initiative is funded by the federal government and establishes a planning table for each quadrant of Toronto. Representatives from the government, for-profit and non-profit sectors sit on the tables and coordinate their efforts to meet newcomer needs. LIPs are yet another way we have seen urban policy challenges met with collaboration — in the case of newcomer settlement and integration, the non-profit sector is a critical partner.
Not only that, but I would argue that not-for-profits are the hardest workers in this game. They do the majority of the on the ground service delivery and the smallest budget. As we heard from Anna-Kay and Amanda, non-profits are constrained by greater limitations than government, and yet are relied upon very heavily for success in newcomer settlement. As Canada’s immigration targets, set at the federal level, continue to grow in size, I hope we will see greater support trickle down to our hard-working, cash-strapped, scrappy not-for-profits.
