Even though many of the focus group participants were unfamiliar with the social services available to them, service organizations and community-based agencies play an important role in the adaptation of immigrant children, youth and families in Canada. As shown in recent studies, most of these organizations are aware of the diverse cultural profile in their communities and most have a mandate to address the needs of newcomers.¹⁰ But delivering culturally appropriate services and reaching out to the different cultural communities is often a challenge. In recent years, many organizations have also been faced with demands to restructure their services and reduce their spending.

In order to assess the experiences and perceptions of service providers, the Canadian Council on Social Development surveyed 88 agencies across Canada that provide services for children, youth and their families who have immigrated to Canada within the last five years. The survey was conducted throughout the summer of 1999. The agencies were located in the 13 Canadian cities where 85% of all immigrant children and youth live.¹¹ The agencies included boards of education (15), community health centres (15), social services/child welfare agencies (14), police departments (9), public health departments and CLSCs (11), community-based agencies serving immigrant children and families (22), and other agencies (2).¹²

More than one-third of the agencies estimated that up to 25 per cent of their clients were born outside Canada. One in five organizations estimated that between 26 and 50 per cent of their clients were foreign-born. The size of the organizations ranged from fewer than 10 employees to more than 150. Almost half (47 per cent) had over 150 full-time staff. Almost all of the organizations had volunteers – the majority of them had more than 50 active volunteers.

Eight in 10 of these organizations said that they had identified barriers to service access

among immigrants. The three most commonly identified barriers were language, cultural differences, and a lack of knowledge among potential users about the services.

Language was the most commonly identified barrier. Nearly half of the organizations surveyed estimated that for up to 25 per cent of their clients, their first language was neither English nor French. Another 17 per cent of service organizations said that about half of their clients spoke a first language other than English or French. Most organizations reported that their staff did not have the language capability to serve all immigrant clients in their native tongues, they did not have cultural and linguistic interpreters available, nor did they have print resources available in all of the languages required.

Given the diverse linguistic profile of recent immigrants, it is unrealistic to expect an agency to have the capacity to provide services in all of the languages spoken by their clients – especially in the large, culturally diverse urban centres. And while interpretation services could be helpful, some agencies reported a lack of funding for such services. To do so, agencies would need to hire a qualified cultural interpreter who was familiar with both the Canadian system and the immigrant’s home country. In some cities, for example, a cultural interpreter could cost between $40 and $45 per hour.

In addition to language barriers, organizations identified cultural barriers that prevented new immigrants from accessing their services. These cultural barriers took on a number of faces. The kinds of services that were available in the immigrants’ countries of origin, the organization of those services, and their values base and standards were often very different than what is available in Canada. This was particularly so with regard to services in the areas of education, child welfare and policing. An earlier study among students from Southeast Asia showed that most students, having come from the Asian school system which was considered authoritarian, now found it challenging to adapt to the Canadian school system, which emphasized classroom participation. These concerns often caused the students to feel stressed about their academic and social environments.¹³

The CCSD survey of service providers indicated that many recent immigrants were unfamiliar with the way services are offered in Canada. This lack of familiarity often led to misunderstandings, and even fears and suspicions on the part of the intended beneficiaries. As one service respondent said, "Our clients do not have a comparative, formalized child welfare system in their country. They do not understand our legislative roles. They are afraid of child welfare." Another service provider wrote: "Our clients distrust the police, because there is a low regard for police in the countries they come from. They don’t understand the role of the police." Other services, such as support groups or play groups, simply did not exist in some immigrants’ countries of origin.

Service agencies frequently noted that the composition of their staff created another barrier for immigrants. Some agencies were aware that the cultural composition of their staff did not reflect the cultural diversity of the agency’s clients. They also noted that staff often did not have a full understanding of their clients’ cultural differences, the clients’ lives or their experiences. Even when immigrants come to an agency, they may not receive the quality of service desired due to a lack of services in their mother tongue or a lack of personnel to whom they can relate. As one service provider noted, "Although various immigrant support services are in place in our community, it seems there are insufficient numbers of professionals from diverse ethno-cultural communities working in areas such as counselling and health care. Recent immigrants need to be provided services in the languages they understand best, and they need to be able to work with those who understand their cultures."

Service providers also reported that recent immigrants are often simply unaware of the services that exist in their community.

Recognizing that there are barriers which inhibit immigrants from accessing the services designed to help them, almost all of the organizations surveyed said they had made efforts to reduce those barriers using a variety of approaches. The most common were outreach activities aimed at recent immigrants. These outreach activities ranged from promotion of the service programs via the media and through other agencies, to consultations with community members to determine the needs, and community development activities where members of various immigrant communities defined their service needs. Other approaches included using linguistic and cultural interpreters, translating agency brochures into the languages of the immigrant community, and hiring staff and volunteers from among the various ethno-cultural groups that the agency served. Many agencies also reported that they had developed specific resources and programs to address particular issues. Examples included ethno-specific and language-specific parenting programs, job training programs, ESL classes, and celebrations of various cultural events.

More than two-thirds of the organizations surveyed (72%) had developed specific initiatives to increase mutual understanding between immigrant communities and the mainstream social organizations. The types of initiatives developed depended on the type of service agency. While two-thirds of the boards of education and community health centres had such programs, less than half of social service agencies and police departments had developed such initiatives.

Community-based agencies that specifically served immigrants all offered programs to help newcomers integrate into Canadian society. Some agencies provided information on intercultural communications, Canadian history, transportation, food, clothing, and community resources. Others offered opportunities for recent immigrants to get together and talk about values between different societies, integration, racism and discrimination. Some agencies also offered job search workshops, employment training, vocational rehabilitation, housing, and ESL classes. A number of community-based organizations that served specific cultural groups provided drop-in centres for children and youth. These centres had a variety of objectives, including socialization and the development of social supports; recreational opportunities; encouragement of language development; and provision of information on topics such as health and social issues.

Specific initiatives identified by boards of education primarily involved classes in English as a Second Language (ESL) for elementary and secondary school students and adults, as well as continuing and community education classes. Ten of the 15 boards surveyed indicated that they offered such services. Community health centres reported providing health promotion programs for immigrant parents and youth that included such activities as prenatal classes, parenting groups, community kitchens, nutrition programs, drop-in opportunities for young women, and support groups. Public health departments reported providing interpretation services and services for new mothers. The services provided by health agencies appeared to be more frequently geared to young families rather than to older children and youth.

Some social service departments offered help in languages other than English and French. These included courses on job search techniques, ESL classes, cross-cultural parenting, and new friends groups. To reach out to immigrants in their community, some police departments had set up liaisons with various immigrant groups.

Many service agencies reported that they had invested efforts to better equip their staff to serve immigrant communities. These efforts included diversity training for staff, recruiting staff from among different cultural backgrounds, and establishing a system to collect feedback from their clients.

Nine in 10 organizations surveyed provided cultural diversity training for their staff. Half of these organizations (53%) reported that the training was required of all staff, and 15 per cent said that the training was mandatory for some staff. One-third of the organizations said the diversity training was optional.

Among boards of education, 14 out of 15 provided diversity training at least once a year. The training included anti-racism and cultural awareness workshops, as well as professional development courses for ESL teachers. All 15 community health centres (CHCs) provided diversity workshops and anti-racism seminars, with some centres offering such training once every three years, and others running such programs almost every month. Among police departments, eight of nine provided some cross-cultural training, although one department reported losing their program due to funding cutbacks. Five police departments required all new recruits to undergo such training as part of their basic training.

In addition to raising cultural awareness, many service organizations have made efforts to ensure that the cultural composition of staff in their agency reflected their clients. Nearly half of the organizations surveyed said that they had some staff who were of the same ethnic community as their clients; almost half (45%) said that most of their staff were of the same ethnic background as their clients; and 6 per cent said that all of their staff were of the same ethnic background as their clients. The majority of these were community-based agencies specifically serving immigrants.

Nearly two-thirds (61%) of the organizations reported that they systematically collect feedback from their clients in order to ensure that their services improved over time. Most organizations (80%) did this in a formal way, and 20 per cent did it informally. Community-based agencies serving immigrants were the most likely to seek feedback from their clients, followed by community health centres and public health departments. Social service departments, police departments and boards of education were the less likely to formally collect this feedback – only one-third did so.

The most common means of gathering feedback was by distributing client satisfaction surveys, either by telephone or in writing (in the appropriate language), or through focus groups. Other agencies sought feedback as a routine part of their service provision. For example, children in care were asked for feedback at the end of their placement. One board of education had an anti-racism and ethno-cultural equity committee composed of educators and community members.

Despite these efforts, many service organizations were aware that they were not meeting all of needs identified by new immigrants. Many agencies also reported an increase in the number of immigrants trying to access community resources. This was especially true among community-based agencies serving immigrants, community health centres, and boards of education. At the same time, many agencies reported a decrease in their financial and human resources – further limiting their ability to address unmet needs.

When service providers were asked which of the needs among recent immigrants in their community were not currently being met, they most commonly identified needs related to family relationships, mental health, employment, language training, basic needs for food and shelter, access to health care, and the availability of professionals.

The need for supportive services for families and individuals in the areas of emotional health, family functioning and parenting was said to be far greater than the services available to handle these issues. Mental and emotional health services were identified as critical needs by the service providers. "Emotional support services are needed. And psychological services – listening to fears, being unsettled, worrying about money. These needs are increasing, and the services are not there." "Individual and family counselling services are not available in the languages of the immigrant populations." These needs were seen to be particularly important for refugees who had fled difficult circumstances in their homelands. "There are almost no services for children and youth experiencing post-traumatic stress as a result of fleeing civil war." "There is a need for supporting families with children in crisis in a linguistically and culturally sensitive manner."

Support for parenting was also identified as an unmet need. Parenting needs, how to parent, what’s acceptable discipline in Canada, and assistance and understanding in how to communicate with the school system were all identified by service providers as areas needed, but lacking. "There is inadequate access to information regarding Canadian parenting practices, the child welfare system, and the role and services provided by child welfare agencies." These unmet needs are often expressed in terms of intergenerational conflict. "Social integration of immigrants into mainstream community – this is a significant problem for children and teens who are assimilating into the community, but their parents are not." "There are social issues related to students in their community. They are caught between traditions at home and diversity in the community." "There is a need for family support programs, such as parenting programs, cultural differences, intergenerational conflict."

Helping new immigrants to find work was another major issue identified by service providers. "There is a need for access to meaningful employment and marketable skills." And the service providers reported that this involved more than simply securing jobs. The acceptance of foreign education, credentials, training and experience is an important component. "Recognition of prior learning, certification of their professions, and obtaining equivalencies for education are major obstacles." "The need for employment training is increasing." Employment problems were identified as being common among immigrant parents of young children and among youth. "Youth employment is an increasing need, because of the lack of resources and the lack of Canadian experience."

Service providers identified access to language training as another serious unmet need. With more immigrants arriving whose mother tongue is neither English nor French, the demands for ESL classes have increased. ESL is instrumental in enabling immigrant students to participate fully in school classes, however, funding for these programs has increased very little over the last few years. "English as a second language programs for children and youth have decreased, even though the needs have grown." "The ESL programs in schools have been capped. To maintain basic instruction, the de-professionalization of teaching is occurring."

Access to appropriate health care services was also considered to be a problem for immigrants. The problems varied from a lack of knowledge about the services, little understanding of them, and not being able to access services that were culturally and linguistically appropriate. "Access to medical care is a problem." "There is a lack of information and education regarding the Canadian health care system and services." "There is a need for information regarding prevention and health promotion, for example for things like cervical cancer screening."

A number of service providers stated that recent immigrants are struggling with basic human needs – adequate income, food and shelter.

It was commonly reported by service providers that there were not enough appropriate professionals to provide services to the recent immigrant population, mainly due to the small numbers of professionals from different ethno-cultural communities working in areas such as counselling and health care. "Recent immigrants need to be provided with services in the languages they understand best, and to work with those who understand their cultures."

Nearly two-thirds of the organizations surveyed (60%) said that they had developed strategies to address these unmet needs.

The most common strategy used was to form partnerships among various service providers and community organizations. Some community health centres, for example, said that they established partnerships with other service providers. Boards of education said they would maintain and strengthen their partnerships with multicultural centres and immigrant settlement services. A number of agencies also indicated that they were lobbying federal and provincial governments for more funding. "We are developing partnerships with the federal government, provincial government, foundations, and other agencies with regard to multicultural programs to enhance culturally appropriate services." "Through our local coalition, immigrant serving agencies are developing programs." Another strategy was to seek additional funding. "We are lobbying the provincial government to reconsider the funding formula." "We are seeking funding for a major community initiative to increase the choices and opportunities for immigrant children and youth." "We keep writing proposals for project funding."

Even though most organizations surveyed were willing to respond to the needs of new immigrants, 87 per cent said they did not have adequate resources to serve this group. These included a lack of both financial and human resources, as the following responses indicate:

"We have too few multicultural liaison workers for some of the major ethnic groups. We have too little money to support the extent of cross-organizational cooperation that is needed."

"We lack trained professionals who represent the diverse backgrounds of those in the community in all areas related to educational supports."

"We lack clinical staff who speak the languages – foreign-trained nurses and doctors face major barriers to practicing here."

"Workload demands on staff leave little or no time to interface with ethno-specific communities in order to provide information to parents and youth."

"The needs for ESL classes appear to be growing within our area. Funding for this service is uncertain each year."

"Historically, immigrant services are underfunded and not a high priority for funding by all three levels of government."

"Services required are ‘settlement’ services, but we are a generalist community resource centre that is not designated as a ‘settlement agency’ and consequently, we cannot access the necessary funds."

"No salary increases, benefits, job security or pension plans."

In the areas of financial and human resources, nearly half (46%) of the organizations surveyed said that their financial resources had decreased and over one-third (35%) said they had experienced a drop in human resources over the last five years.

Boards of education and police departments particularly felt the decrease in financial and human resources. Of the 15 boards of education surveyed, 10 reported having decreased human resources, and 11 reported a drop in financial resources over the last five years. In a study on anti-racism, it was found that in times of staff shortage, cultural diversity training was often overlooked by organizations such as boards of education. For example, if there was a vacancy for a cultural diversity officer in a school board and finances were tight, that position was not always filled immediately.¹⁴

Two-thirds of the police departments surveyed also indicated that they had experienced a decrease in financial resources over the last five years. Some police departments also reported that they were unable to send enough staff out into the community, pay for training for enough of their personnel, or to recruit sufficient personnel from among the ethnic communities.

Three service providers summed up the multiplicity and complexity of the issues: