Canada’s settlement program providers were able to adjust to the Covid-19 pandemic to continue their services, says a new report by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

The first part of the 2023 Settlement Outcomes Report hailed the flexibility of Settlement Program and Service Provider Organizations (SPOs).

While the pandemic had significant impacts on new admissions and Settlement Program client volumes, the numbers are in the process of rebounding, and are expected to continue to increase.

This is especially considering Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) immigration levels plans, as well as recent Afghan and Ukrainian arrivals.

This part of the report covered the peak COVID-19 pandemic fiscal years of 2020-21 and 2021-22 and presented early signals of the impact of COVID on IRCC’s Settlement Program and the settlement outcomes of its clients.

SPOs outside of Quebec are funded by IRCC through grants and contribution agreements to deliver the Settlement Program. Services specific to government-assisted refugees are also provided.

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COVID-19’s Impact on Permanent Resident Admissions and Client Volumes

Border closures, along with other restrictions, reduced the number of new permanent residents arriving in Canada. While this caused the number of new arrivals in 2020 to be 46% lower than in 2019, the number of clients served by the Settlement Program only decreased by 27%.

Clients are given settlement services for an extended period of time, from when they are accepted to become PRs until they become Canadian citizens.

In explaining why settlement client numbers in 2021 did not climb at the same rate as admissions, the report noted that IRCC relied on a time-limited temporary resident to permanent resident pathway during that year.

Through this pathway, approximately 24,000 new permanent residents were admitted in 2021 and 39,000 in 2022. Overall, in 2021, 60% of new permanent residents were previously temporary residents, almost double the normal rates.

Because they had spent time in Canada prior to becoming permanent residents, these newcomers may have been less likely to access settlement services.

During the pandemic, almost every immigration category had lower uptake rates, in every year since admission. The greatest decrease was observed for Economic Class Principal Applicants, which is because of how they are selected on the basis of their ability to establish themselves in the country, and thus need less settlement assistance.

Resettled refugees had a considerably higher uptake for services, which signals that they were able to access the settlement services they needed.

At the same time, uptake rates for Government-assisted Refugees (GARs) rose in their first year after admission.

Characteristics of Recently Landed Newcomers in Canada 

Most of the admissions fell under the Economic Class (61%), which is a higher proportion in comparison to years preceding the pandemic. Simultaneously, the proportion of Protected Persons increased by 5%.

The differences can be partially explained by the focus on applicants already living in Canada who could go from temporary to permanent residence via the Economic Class, as well as pilots providing a pathway to PR for asylum claimants.

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More newcomers went to Ontario and BC, and less went to Alberta and Quebec. The main provinces of intended destination remained to be Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia.

A quarter of clients who received settlement services in 2020-21 and 2021-22 had been in Canada for six or more years.

How COVID-19 Impacted Settlement Service Availability 

During the early days of COVID-19, in-person contact had to be kept to a minimum, which created issues in supporting clients’ access to settlement services.

On March 16, 2020, IRCC gave guidance to SPOs regarding measures to safeguard clients and staff by focussing on critical services, and providing them remotely whenever possible.

This made room for SPOs to purchase technology to deliver these aims, such cell phones, laptops and tablets.

During later stages of the pandemic, IRCC asked SPOs to align their re-openings with local public health advice, and to maintain remote delivery where practical.

Close to 400,000 clients were served in each of 2020 and 2021 (compared to 490,000 clients in 2018 and 540,000 clients in 2019), which demonstrates that SPOs continued to provide clients access to services when possible.

Client Settlement Outcomes 

The expected settlement and integration outcomes for all newcomers to Canada are that they are able to acquire knowledge and skills that they are then able to apply to their life in Canada.

According to the report, a majority of both clients and non-clients reported being able to make informed decisions about life in Canada. Newcomers also said that they were able to speak Canada’s official languages in a variety of real-world situations.

The majority of newcomers directly participate in the Canadian labour market, and those not working contributed in other ways.

The vast majority of newcomers reported a strong sense of belonging to Canada. For many outcomes, clients reported have slightly higher rates of improvement in knowledge and abilities than their non-client counterparts.

Eligibility for IRCC-Funded Services Under the Settlement Program During 2020-21 and 2021-22

To be eligible for these services during the given time period, newcomers had to be one of the following:

1. Permanent resident of Canada;

1. Protected person with accepted asylum claim;

1. Refugee selected for resettlement;

1. Newcomer approved to become a permanent resident;

1. Temporary resident, foreign national, or dependent selected under the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP); or

1. Temporary resident or dependent selected under the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP)

According to the official report, the services provided by the Settlement Program include:

• Needs and Assets Assessments and Referrals (NAARs) services to determine what services clients need and provides referrals to receive them
• Information and Orientation (I&O) services that provide information to clients about various elements of life in Canada
• Language Assessment & Language Training (LA & LT) services to help clients of school-leaving age develop their official language skills
• Employment-related Services (ErS) help clients to prepare for the labour market
• Community Connections (CC) services help clients learn about and integrate into their local communities
• Support Services (SS) that enable clients to access these settlement services