1. The Changing Landscape of
Immigration in Ontario
Presentation to the OCASI Professional Development
Conference
June 13, 2012

2. Ontario’s Strategy for Immigration
Immigration Strategy
• Ontario is developing an Immigration Strategy to:
– align immigration to province’s economic development and social goals
– examine how best to support the integration of immigrants.
• Strategy will draw on expertise across government and inform the
province’s engagement with the federal government on immigration
policy and program issues.
Expert Roundtable
• An Expert Roundtable on Immigration has been created to provide
input to inform Ontario’s immigration strategy, exploring:
– How immigration can support province’s short- and long-term economic
development goals; and
– Ways to improve the integration and success of all immigrants.

3. Factors Shaping the New Landscape for
Service Delivery
 Recent Changes to the Immigration System
 Demographic Trends in Landings to Ontario
 The Economy and Labour Market Integration

4. Changes to Immigration System
• The federal government has announced its intention to reform
Canada’s immigration system to make it more responsive to labour
market demand.
• Changes to support this objective include:
– Elimination of Federal Skilled Worker Program Backlog
– Enhancing Canadian Experience Class
– Changing Provincial Nominee Programs
– Creating selection program for skilled trades
– Exploring Expression of Interest Model
– Improving business immigration
• In addition to these changes, the federal government is also:
– Changing Family Class
– Reforming the Refugee Adjudication System
• The selection of economic immigrants is a priority.

5. Recent Trends in Landings to Ontario
• Economic immigrants have always been important in
terms of Canada’s immigration selection
• Ontario has seen a decline in economic immigration over
the past decade, primarily as a result of a decision to
reduce Federal Skilled Worker levels to accommodate
growth in other economic streams
• In 2011, economic immigrant landings to Ontario represented
only 52% of all landings – the lowest among all provinces
• 71% of immigrants arriving in other provinces were in the
economic class

6. The Economy and Labour Market Integration
• The needs of immigrants already residing in Ontario must continue to
be addressed
• Despite significant federal and provincial investment in immigration
services and programs over the past six years, economic outcomes for
immigrants have declined:
• Even prior to the recession, immigrants faced higher unemployment
rates, lower income, and higher poverty rates compared to Canadian-
born
• As of February 2012, in Ontario, the unemployment rate for immigrants
was 13.6% compared to 7.2% for Canadian-born. The gap between
these two rates is wider in Ontario than in any other province.
• Only 24% of internationally-trained individuals work in their profession,
compared to 62% of the Canadian-born trained (Statistics Canada,
2010)

7. The Economy and Labour Market Integration
cont’d
• Social and economic integration of refugees and refugee
claimants may not be achieved in 3 to 5 years.
Settlement services alone cannot ensure integration.
– In 2011, Ontario received 57% of refugee landings in Canada.
• Economic immigrants will continue to bring their spouses
and dependents to Canada. Settlement services must
be available to address their families’ needs in order to
attract and retain skilled immigrants.

8. How can Service Delivery Partners Adapt?
• Funders and service providers should review programs and services continuously
so that services can be changed, added and eliminated based on:
– Front-line staff intelligence
– Performance metrics and outcomes (e.g., survey results, client satisfaction ratings,
licensure and employment outcomes)
– Landings and economic data (e.g., top source countries, education, language
proficiency)
– Local Immigration Partnership plans, and in the longer-term,
– Changes to immigration selection criteria.
• Continue to improve and increase collaboration and coordination with other
funders, immigrant service providers and other service delivery organizations e.g.,
Employment Ontario, Canadian Immigrant Integration Program (CIIP), to achieve
better outcomes for immigrants.
• Remember that successful settlement and integration requires a holistic approach.
• Ontario’s Immigration Strategy will help shape adaptive, responsive services and
programs.

9. The Future Horizon for Service Delivery
• More economic immigrants arriving in Ontario
could increase demand for:
– Language training at higher CLB levels with greater emphasis on
occupation-specific language training, workplace culture and
communications training, for example.
– Bridge training to help skilled immigrants resume their careers in Ontario
• Greater collaboration at a national and provincial
level to improve foreign credential recognition.
– The federal and provincial government need to prioritize working together to
eliminate potential duplication of educational and credential assessments
for immigrants.

10. The Future Horizon for Service Delivery
• More information available to support transition of skilled
immigrants into the marketplace prior to their arrival
online (e.g., Ontarioimmigration.ca) and overseas
through partnerships (e.g., Global Experience Ontario
and the Canadian Immigrant Integration Program) .
• Greater coordination and alignment of services to
immigrants especially those with complex needs.
• Greater awareness and possible proactive engagement
of immigrants upon arrival to Canada.