Social and Cultural Integration of Internationally Trained Immigrants in Northern Ontario, Canada

Broad reasons why immigrants choose to immigrate generally, such as, better employment prospects, desire for improved quality of life, better educational opportunities (Esses et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2023; Schinnerl & Ellermann, 2023; Statistics Canada, 2022) and why newcomers arrive in Ontario is no surprise given the city of Toronto receives one of the highest amounts of immigrants than any other city in Canada (Esses et al., 2021; Preston et al. 2022; Triadafilopoulos, 2021).

Literature specific to reasons newcomers chose to immigrate to Northern Ontario is sparse. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) does not specifically divulge any information pertaining to why immigrants would choose Northern Ontario over other parts of the province as their settlement choice, but does point out that:

The AMO article provides a case study on efforts undertaken by North Bay to attract immigration to Northern Ontario (AMO, 2008). The strategy was successful and received funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada for a multicultural centre in the city and could be useful in developing immigration attraction strategies to promote settlement in other cities Northern Ontario to showcase that peace and low crime rates are reasons some newcomers choose specific cities to settle in. This factor must be examined before policy options can be put forward to make the area more attractive to newcomers, where possible.

There is research on the issues immigrants encounter once they have arrived in Canada, and even Ontario, but is void on the issues specific to immigrants arriving in Northern Ontario. The available literature suggests that recent immigrants to Canada are having an increasingly difficult time finding jobs that suit their educational and employment profiles (Alboim, Finnie & Meng 2005; Owen & Lo 2008; Preston et al. 2007).

It is important to point out that Canada has a long history of immigrants arriving over the centuries and Canadians pride themselves as living in a country that has always been welcoming of immigrants from all over the world and settling here in a strongly supportive multicultural environment that encourages the maintenance of traditional cultural ways within the Canadian multicultural social fabric. Research shows that the term or category of social integration is being widely used, as well as the role that family social networks play in influencing labor market entry in Canada's unique characteristic as a welcoming multicultural country. The concepts of social integration, exclusion and family support as well as family social networks influence labor market entry opportunities. Our study is within Canada's official multiculturalism policy framework (Kymlicka, 2010) while noting the documented gap between policy ideals and immigrants' lived experiences, particularly in smaller communities (Reitz & Banerjee, 2007).

In conceptualizing social integration, we draw on Berry's (1997) acculturation framework, which defines social integration as a process wherein immigrants maintain their cultural identity while actively participating in the broader society. This bidirectional process involves both newcomers adapting to their host society and the receiving community accommodating diversity. For our study, social integration encompasses: (1) participation in labor markets and civic life, (2) development of social networks beyond one's ethnic community, and (3) access to services and resources available to all residents.

Family and ethnic social networks play a complex role in labor market integration. While bonding capital (strong ties within one's ethnic group) provides initial support and information, bridging capital (connections across diverse groups) is often more valuable for accessing employment opportunities (Ryan et al., 2008; Nangia, 2013). Our findings reveal this duality: family networks provided crucial settlement support but sometimes transmitted overly optimistic or outdated information about Canadian labor market requirements.

This study is situated within Canada's official multiculturalism policy framework, established in 1971 and enshrined in the 1988 Multiculturalism Act (Kymlicka, 2010). While this policy promotes cultural diversity and equal participation, scholars note persistent gaps between multicultural ideals and immigrants' lived experiences, particularly regarding credential recognition and labor market integration (Reitz & Banerjee, 2007). Northern Ontario's geographic and demographic context may amplify these challenges.

Most of the literature focuses on the settlement barriers that immigrants typically experience when first arriving in Canada. Some articles explore the socio-cultural and economic barriers to settlement in specific cities in southern Ontario (Orme, 2007; Picot & Sweetman 2012; Truelove, 2000) but settlement barriers to immigrants arriving in Northern Ontario remain a data gap. Since Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal are typically the cities that newly arrived immigrants arrive in, most settlement services tend to cluster in these areas. As this trend shifts to cities outside of these three major hubs, the services will have to relocate accordingly (Picot & Sweetman, 2012). This is particularly applicable to Northern Ontario since the transit systems are not as multi-modal or frequent as they are in the southern part of the province, potentially creating a bigger barrier for immigrants attempting to access settlement services.

The literature is also able to point out that the choice of settlement area has very little to do with services offered, and more to do with family and kin residing in a given area (Picot & Sweetman, 2012). While this relates back to reasons for arrival, this point is important when discussing settlement barriers because it is shown that even a small established community of immigrants can act as a draw for further settlement, which has the potential ability to refocus services to new areas (Picot & Sweetman, 2012). Moreover, the services to aid in settlement and promote integration among newly arrived immigrants are significantly strained in bigger cities where immigration numbers tend to be higher. If the settlement patterns can be dispersed, and service delivery maintained in smaller communities, then the services available have the potential to be more substantive in the event of alleviated strain.

Responding to changing settlement patterns and attracting immigrants to settle in certain communities is also discussed in the literature. As example, Burr (2011) discusses the Local Integration Partnerships (LIP) initiative undertaken by various communities in Ontario and the importance of programs such as this in attracting and integrating newcomers. LIPs are a multistakeholder collaboration which enables communities to “develop strategic plans to address the opportunities and challenges associated with fostering inclusive and responsive environments” (Burr, 2011, p. 1). The literature available on LIPs demonstrates that communities in Ontario are recognizing the need to invigorate the attraction and settlement strategies for newcomers in Ontario, and placing an emphasis on the important of this occurring from the ground up and as partnerships with different levels of government.

Although AMO provided a case study on the efforts expanded by the city of North Bay to attract immigration to Northern Ontario (AMO, 2008) it does not conclusively determine reasons for immigrants arriving in Northern Ontario. Without information on the factors that attract immigrants to Northern Ontario, any effort to increase immigration may be difficult. A notable gap exists in the literature on the specific reasons why newcomers choose to immigrate to regions such as Northern Ontario so that clearer policy options can be considered to make Northern Ontario more attractive to newcomers.

Table 1 below provides various characteristics of the sample. It features 60% of male immigrants and 40 % female immigrants. The average age of the participants is 35.1 years with 46 % of the respondents being in the 31 to 40 years category. Over 76% of the sample spoke at least one of the two official languages of Canada: English (69%) and French (7%). The participants had different geographical backgrounds, with 36% coming from Asia, 34% from Africa, 4% from North America, 4% from Europe, 3% from South America, 1% from Oceania and 18% are unknown. In addition, 60% of the research participants were classified as independent professionals and 23 percent were family sponsored. In term of current Canadian work status, 18% were employed in the same occupation as in the country of origin, 42% were employed in a different occupation from the one in the country of origin and 36% were unemployed. Finally, 5% had a high school degree and 95% have a postsecondary education. The education was obtained internationally for 51% of the sample, and in Canada for 33%.

We used paper questionnaires and ethnographic techniques using open ended interviews (Appendix A) to profile immigrants settled in Northern Ontario, specifically exploring the following research questions about this population:

1. Their initial expectations while arriving to Canada and Northern Ontario as well as their on-going experiences;
2. Their reasons for settling in Northern Ontario and their particular community;
3. Their social integration process within their adopted community and any possible problems encountered;
4. The challenges they have overcome and the perceived challenges that are still ahead; and finally,
5. The likelihood of them remaining in Northern Ontario and what they believe could be done in the future to retain other immigrants in their community.

Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey defines very recent immigrants as landed immigrants for less than 5 years, recent immigrants as landed immigrants for between 5 to 10 years and established immigrants as landed immigrants for over 10 years. For the purpose of this study an immigrant is a very recent or a recent landed immigrants who has been living in a Northern Ontario community for a minimum of six months. To recruit participants for the study, we targeted multicultural, newcomer, and settlement organisations as well as other agencies that frequently deal with immigrants in each of the five communities including PNN, a pan-northern Ontario bridging for internationally trained professionals.

Data were collected through in-person face-to-face in-depth one-hour interviews with various participants in each of the five communities. The interviews took place on the premises of the multicultural/settlement organisation in the participant’s community in a private office/board room. Each theme-related question was asked in a pre-determined order. All interviews were audio recorded with the consent of the participants and then transcribed.

In addition to the interview, each participant filled out a paper questionnaire in order to gather more in-depth information. This questionnaire was used to determine the following topics; demographics (ethnic group, age, gender, principal language of communication), status in Canada (immigration status, immigration class, arrival in Canada alone or with family), education (highest level of education, field of study, country), career (main occupation in country of origin, main occupation in Canada, current work status in Canada) and community services and resources used in Canada. The gathered information allowed for a more complete analysis of the situation.

Once the interviews were done, a transcript was made based on the recordings of the dialogues. In order to properly analyze the information, an evaluation grid was created to identify the key points. Each transcript was then summarized into a new document, thus bringing out the relevant information based on each theme. Once the relevant information was compiled into the evaluation grid, an analysis of the pertinent information was made.

An analysis of the initial expectations for coming to Canada and Northern Ontario shows that some people made some research before coming to Canada (89%) and other people not (11%). The expectations observed are classified and presented in Table 2. These expectations were similar, regardless of the Northern Ontario city where the respondent was living in.

Immigrants, who came to Canada to join family or friends, because of its quality of life, or for other reasons, generally faced greater challenges in their social integration. Expectations prior to arrival were often overly optimistic, and based on word-of-mouth referrals from friends, family, and other immigrants. These individuals tended to underestimate the requirement for Canadian credentials and lacked preparedness for social networking, such as cultural awareness. For example, a young woman from India who immigrated to Canada in 2004 described her expectations as follows:

Overall, 50% of the respondents indicated that they came to Northern Ontario for jobs, 38% for education, and 12% for family reasons, as illustrated in Figure 1. However, the situation in each of the five communities in more contrasted. Immigrants in Timmins in their large majority (90%) moved there for employment reasons. Employment is the major reason for settlement in North Bay and Sault St Marie. However, in Thunder Bay and Sudbury, education as the main reason for coming to Northern Ontario, at 60% and 56% respectively. This of course is consistent with the fact that Northern Ontario postsecondary institutions are mainly located in the two cities.

The reasons given by the respondents for coming to Northern Ontario are similar to the reasons for coming to Canada studied in other works (Alfred, 2002; Clark, Hatton and Williamson, 2002; Portsmouth, 2002) and can be grouped into 5 categories: work opportunities (19%), education or skills-training (18%), to join family or friends (35%), quality of life (5%) and other (15%).

Figure 1. Reasons for coming to Northern Ontario

Download Original Figure

There is a difference between immigrants who came directly to Northern Ontario upon immigrations and those who came after. From the 74 respondents, 38% came directly to Northern Ontario and 62% came to Northern Ontario a few months to a few years after immigrating to Canada. For those who came directly to Northern Ontario, their principal reasons were for family, education, or got a job before immigrating. The immigrants who move to Northern Ontario, after some time elsewhere in Canada, did it mainly to mainly pursue their education or because they managed to get a job or an opportunity in Northern Ontario.

The following testimony shows that family played a big part in the reasons for immigrants coming directly to Northern Ontario. This individual came directly to North Bay from Kenya.

This individual demonstrates that the only reason that he came to Northern Ontario was to re-educate himself in order to improve his chances of getting opportunities.

Other respondents came to Northern Ontario because of employment opportunities. As example, this individual stated that employment was a priority.

The social and cultural networks are described as the different organizations that were used to help integrate immigrants into society. Figure 2 illustrates the social and cultural networks accessed by our sample.

Figure 2. Services used upon arrival to Canada and Northern Ontario

Download Original Figure

The main organizations used were: employment services, accessed by 38% of the participants; multicultural association services, accessed by 36%; academic institutions, accessed by 35%; settlement services accessed by 22% and language training by 20%. Note that none of the immigrants in Timmins used a language training service, while all the immigrants who went to Thunder Bay used the Multicultural Organization services.

With over 78% of surveyed immigrants knowing one of the 2 official languages of Canada and 20% using language training, the language was not perceived to be a barrier to integration. The majority of immigrants indicated that they know they have an accent but they manage to adapt to the Canadian language, which indicated that language is not a problem. As an example, most immigrants who had language barriers to employment were able to overcome their barriers with the help of language training centres, universities, and other language resources. The language barrier was manageable, and once a minimum standard for employment was achieved, the individuals were able to continue to develop their English and French language skills in a professional setting, on the job. A Japanese woman recounts arriving in Northern Ontario in 2007 with no prior English language training and using a settlement agency to find English-as-a-Second-Language (“ESL”) classes to facilitate her social and economic integration:

The successes of immigrants who seek language training can be seen in other conversations with immigrants facing language barriers. These findings correspond to the findings identified in the literature review placing an emphasis on settlement services as an aid to integration (Lo et al., 2000). Some authors (Hiebert, 2009; Lo et al., 2000; Omidvar 7 Richmond, 2003) examining issues such as social integration, propose that the only real solution is an increase in availability and the assurance of access to employment and settlement services for newcomers. Participants in our study clearly indicated that they had an easier time integrating once these services were obtained:

Some survey participants discussed difficulties due to a deficiency in language, particularly during the job application process. Effort in understanding job requirements, difficulty communicating during the interview process, and difficulty socializing on the job have been cited as challenges for new immigrants whose principal language is not one of Canada’s official languages. These results are not surprising considering that 22% of the participating group did not list English or French as one of their principal languages (Table 2). While language as a barrier was not teased out in the literature review as a subtopic, the idea that the immigration system, and specifically the immigrant selection criteria as a whole was examined. In order to guarantee immigrants full participation and integration into the workforce, the selection criteria must ensure candidates are able to speak one of the official languages to find a job; the results of this survey clearly demonstrate an issue with immigration policy as a whole. In addition to a language barrier, there seems to be a lack of confidence with respect to language and communication that is proving to be a barrier to employment. One recent Chinese immigrant describes his perception of his employability based on his limited proficiency with the English language:

It is evident that language skills are required by employers and some new immigrants are citing language as a barrier to employment. A young Swahili-speaking man from Kenya, immigrated to Northern Ontario with a college diploma in accounting and foreign work experience as an accountant. He applied for several jobs without receiving an interview, and was encouraged to place a follow up phone call to employers. During the conversation with employers, the applicant found it challenging to communicate due to a strong language barrier:

The applicant is now in the process of obtaining Canadian education, and working on his language skills to be more job-ready. Overall, skilled immigrants have found that in a competitive job market, communication skills can be a deciding factor for employees, when all else is equal:

Taking an average of all five communities in Northern Ontario, 50 percent had a good integration into society, 20 percent had a bad integration into society, and 30 percent are considered as unknown. The people classified in the unknown category are either unsure themselves of their social integration or have given mixed signals as far as their integration (some good things and some bad things). This indicates that the immigrants are split on the question of social integration; some of them have had difficulties integrating socially into Northern Ontario while others have not.

Based on the results from the different communities in Northern Ontario, two of them stand out. Timmins and Sault-St. Marie are the two cities with the worst level of integration into society. 30 percent of the immigrants in Timmins indicated that they have had a bad integration into society while 40 percent of the immigrants in Sault-St. Marie indicated the same trend. These are the exceptions to Northern Ontario as the other communities have a much higher satisfaction rate.

Figure 3. Social integration per community

Download Original Figure

Some of the survey participants that described Northern Ontario communities as unwelcoming to newcomers and resistant to change identified networking as a key source of employment opportunities in Northern Ontario. Breaking in to the social circle is the first step towards social integration, and it appears that social integration is a very important step towards economic participation. A young male from St. Lucia, describes his experience in Northern Ontario as trying to join a new family.

A young Chinese man, who has been living in Northern Ontario for 3 years, describes a job market dominated by personal referrals:

He goes on to compare his experiences in Northern Ontario to Toronto:

The problem seemed to be present in all of the surveyed communities. A young man from Ethiopia describes his challenges finding work in Northern Ontario without having entered the personal networks of friends here:

Immigrants who had success breaking into the social circles in Northern Ontario often had a champion; either a friend, colleague, or family member. A young Caucasian, English-speaking female from New Zealand moved to Northern Ontario with her husband, and found employment as a contract Geologist. Despite coming from a similar culture, and having full-time employment, she found it took a long time to make friends in the community:

Her husband also faced barriers to social and economic integration:

The lack of diversity in Northern Ontario communities was also noted:

Immigrants have fewer preferences in terms of where they are staying and are more concerned about getting better jobs. Only 26 percent have indicated that they will stay in Northern Ontario, 23 percent are definitively not staying, and 51 percent were unsure. The community with the highest percentage of immigrants leaving is once again Sault-St. Marie (40%) while the community with the highest percentage of immigrants staying is Sudbury (66.67%). These statistics along with the statistics from the social integration into society indicate that the community of Sault-St. Marie is not favourable for immigrants. There are a lot of bad experiences coming from this area of Northern Ontario, which pushes immigrants to leave and pursue other opportunities.

Figure 4. Likelihood of staying in Northern Ontario per community

Download Original Figure

The reasons given by respondents for either leaving or staying in Northern Ontario are the following: jobs (79%), education (3%), family (8%) and other reasons (10%). The other category could mean a variety of things like: there aren’t enough cultural services or food, not well integrated into society, etc. Every community has a high percentage (over 60%) for employment as a reason for leaving or staying in Northern Ontario. The majority of people who were classified in the “maybe” category had like main reason of jobs as well. Their decisions for leaving or staying will be strictly made on their employment status.

Figure 5. Reasons for staying or leaving Northern Ontario

Download Original Figure

Immigrants have employment like main priority, and the community of city that they live in is less important. Many survey participants indicated that they would move wherever the jobs are, even if they do like Northern Ontario. Here are some testimonies:

Education is also another reason for immigrants leaving Northern Ontario. This particular individual is moving to a southern city with her family to pursue Teacher’s College. They will try to find employment in this southern area before looking for opportunities in other cities.