CLIP Newcomer Survey 2021

The Calgary Local Immigration Partnership wants to hear from newcomer Calgarians. If you’ve recently arrived in the city (within the last five years) they would like to hear about your experiences as you made Calgary home.

Welcome!

Have you immigrated to Canada in the last five years? If yes, we would like to know who or what helped you settle into life in Calgary.

The Calgary Local Immigration Partnership (CLIP) works with community partners to build more welcoming communities for immigrants to Calgary. We would like to know what supports you received when you first arrived and how satisfied you are with those services.

To complete the survey, you must be:

• 18 years of age or older;
• A resident of Calgary;
• Born outside of Canada; and
• Have lived in Canada for 5 years or less

The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. Completed surveys will be eligible for a draw for one of ten $50 gift cards.

The survey is available in the following languages

• Amharic
• Arabic
• Chinese – Simplified and Traditional
• English
• Farsi
• Filipino
• French
• Punjabi
• Spanish
• Tigrinya
• Urdu
• Vietnamese

Responses to this survey are confidential. Individual responses will not be released, shared, or published. At the end of the survey, however, you will be asked to provide your email address if you would like to be entered into a draw for one of ten $50 gift cards. You will also be asked for your contact details if you would like to participate in future research about Calgary settlement services. You do not need to share your contact information if you do not wish to be entered into the draw or participate in future research.

Our system will only accept one survey per respondent, therefore you will not be able to restart this survey.

Thank you very much for your time and support.

FOIP Statement

This information is collected under the authority of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) Section 33(c) for the purpose of program evaluation and planning. The data will not be shared beyond The City of Calgary, where it will be aggregated, analyzed, and reported. The aggregated findings will be shared with CLIP, the Calgary Local Immigration Partnership, to improve services for newcomers. Completion of this survey is voluntary. If you have any questions about the use of the information, please contact The City of Calgary at clip@calgary.ca and a CLIP staff member will respond to your inquiry.

In 2017, CLIP conducted the first CLIP Survey of Newcomers. CLIP reached out in innovative ways to a wide range of foreign-born individuals to learn as much as possible about why decisions about accessing settlement services are made. As a result, the CLIP Newcomer Survey was completed by 1,638 foreign-born individuals.

"Many people advocated for more relevant, accurate information to be provided pre-arrival. They really wanted to know more about living in Canada and the realities of daily life in Calgary. This related to different social and economic systems in Canada—banking, housing, childcare, children’s education, health care, transit, and how to dress for Calgary’s weather—as well as social norms about environmental protection and recycling. Respondents also recommended various way to advertise settlement services and to help newcomers to effectively navigate the local service system upon arrival in Calgary. Helping newcomers find the programs that exist to help them is critical. More widespread, however, is the often reiterated disconnection between the attraction of skilled workers and professionals to Canada and the realities of the job market in Calgary. Respondents lamented that, to their dismay, they arrived with hope and optimism, only to find they had little chance of working in their chosen field upon arrival. Moreover, they found few if any appropriate supports to help them transition quickly or easily into the work they were trained to do. Frustration and despair were frequently expressed by these respondents." To meet the needs of the full range of newcomers who move to Calgary, "better advertising of existing programs and services is essential. In addition, different kinds of services and supports are needed for professional and non-skilled migrants. Each of these streams are both necessary and important to enable the successful social and economic integration of newcomers."

Thank you to everyone who participated in CLIP's Survey of Newcomers in 2017. To learn more about the results, you can read the Newcomers Survey Summary or the full Newcomers Survey Report.

• What is CLIP?

CLIP is a Local Immigration Partnership—or a LIP—funded by the federal government’s Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. The goal of a LIP is to support the development of community-based partnerships that build welcoming communities.

LIPs work to engage various stakeholders including employers, school boards, health centres and networks, boards of trade, levels of government, professional associations, ethnocultural and faith-based organizations, and the community and social service sectors to develop a local strategic plan that supports the settlement and integration of newcomers.

• How does CLIP work?

CLIP is made up of a Council, an Operational Oversight Committee, an Immigrant Advisory Table (IAT) and a number of Working Groups. The Council determines the priority areas and the LIP’s initiatives. Working Groups concentrate on implementing actions in specific areas of the settlement experience. The Immigrant Advisory Table provides recommendations based on members' lived experience. The Operational Oversight Committee acts as a liaison between the Working Groups and the CLIP Council, and is comprised of the leads from each Working Group and the IAT.

Guiding the work of the Calgary Local Immigration Partnership is the Local Settlement Strategy 2018-2020 and the accompanying Action Plan 2018-2020. The core result driving the Local Settlement Strategy is: “Immigrants in Calgary have a high quality of life”. Flowing from that, there are three sub-results: 1. Immigrants in Calgary are economically well; 2. Immigrants in Calgary are proficient in English/French; and 3. Immigrants in Calgary are fully engaged in all aspects of community life. As the community came together to build the Action Plan to implement the strategic plan, they organized the work into five priority areas:

• Economic Well-Being
• Employment
• Language
• Social Capital
• Social Well-Being

We are currently reviewing the work that has been done over the last three years. We expect to launch a new action plan for 2021-2022 in the next couple of months.

• Why does Calgary have a LIP?

Between 2011 and 2016, the immigrant population in Calgary grew faster than the general population.[1] The population of immigrants increased by 28 per cent while Calgary’s overall population increased by 13 per cent. In 2016, there were 383,065 immigrants in Calgary, up from 298,820 in 2011.[2]

When immigrants succeed, we all do well. Immigrants contribute to the local and global economy through their experience and connections. This can increase trade and expand cultural awareness and activities in the city. When immigrants struggle to settle, they are less able to take part in the social, economic, cultural, and political life of the city.

[1] Statistics Canada. Municipalities in Canada with the largest and fastest-growing populations between 2011 and 2016. March, 2017. [2] Statistics Canada. National Household Survey Profile. National Household Survey year 2011; November, 2016.

• What is The City’s role?

The City of Calgary holds a “contribution agreement” with Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to hire CLIP staff. CLIP staff members bring together CLIP’s Council, committees, and working groups and provide the support these groups need to create and apply the CLIP strategy.

The City of Calgary also holds a seat on the CLIP Council and has an equal voice in contributing content towards the strategic plan.

• CLIP is not a funder nor does it deliver direct-service.

CLIP is not a funder. It works at a population level to achieve system change, it does not provide direct-service to newcomers.CLIP is a convener, bringing stakeholders together to coordinate actions, improve communication, and to look for solutions to complex issues.

• How do I Find out More about CLIP?

Visit www.CalgaryLIP.ca to see how you can participate. Email us at CLIP@Calgary.ca with your questions.