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From the Star:
Regions struggle with ethnic influx
Poverty, social service issues soar
New deal with Ottawa may help
Jul. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM
NICHOLAS KEUNG
IMMIGRATION/DIVERSITY REPORTER
Part one of a two-part look at how the GTA regions are scrambling to cope with sweeping demographic change and seeking to grab a fair share of the $920 million Ottawa has pledged for immigrant settlement programs.
Two decades ago, when Markham council held its first-ever race relations conference to talk about diversity and cultural sensitivity, some people in this once-homogenous bedroom community rolled their eyes.
"They wondered why we were doing it in Markham," recalls veteran York Region Councillor Frank Scarpitti. "They didn't recognize that the community had started to change, and they couldn't understand the need to sensitize ourselves to our new ethnocultural reality."
Today, that change is a vivid reality all over the GTA's suburban regions — Peel, York, Durham and Halton — where certain ethnic populations have reached critical mass and are drawing in many of the immigrants that once would have picked Toronto first.
But political consciousness has lagged behind reality on the ground, leaving suburban governments ill-equipped to grapple with the influx.
Their big hope: a new deal Ontario signed with Ottawa last fall that will quadruple the federal government's share of settlement services funding, to $920 million, over the next five years.
Only half of Ontario's 140,000 newcomers a year now settle in Toronto. Over the past three years, 19 per cent — just under 75,000 — chose Peel as their first home; 8.4 per cent (32,000) chose York, 1.8 per cent (7,000) Halton and 1.5 per cent (5,800) Durham.
Immigration may not be a municipal responsibility, but immigrants consume municipal services just like other Canadians, from libraries to public transit to social programs. The stakes are high for GTA regions if they fail to adopt fresh perspectives and plan for these changes.
For one thing, today's newcomers aren't the affluent few of previous years, the kind who can afford to pursue suburban dreams.
Financially needy people are among the fastest-growing demographic groups in the 905 area-code. In Peel, for example, nearly one-third of recent immigrants are low-income.
In Durham, low-income pockets are growing with the number of refugees who have concentrated in rental buildings on Falby Ct. in Ajax, White Oaks Ct. in Whitby and near Nonquon and Taunton Rds. in Oshawa. In one complex, tension flared last year as South Asian youths were bullied and taunted with racial slurs by neighbourhood teens.
"New immigrants are part of our community, and they come to us on a daily basis. We're certainly not prepared for the influx," says York Region Councillor Joyce Frustaglio, a Vaughan resident for 27 years.
"Up until five years ago, none of our (municipal) literature was translated into other languages. What's the use of any of our government notices if they aren't in a language that our residents can read and understand?
"As much as we need the social infrastructure to integrate newcomers into our community, we need to recognize the need to reach out to them in order to build a healthy and strong community. You just don't want to see what happened in Paris happen here," she adds, referring to last year's riots in France led by immigrant African youths living in poverty and social isolation.
Local politicians, immigrant communities and settlement agencies across the GTA are hoping the new deal with Ottawa will ensure that needs of newcomers outside Toronto are more equitably addressed.
"We don't know how fast we'll have to expand, but we have to make sure we'll have the health services, public transit and other infrastructure in place to get ready for the growth. Everyone is hoping that the necessary funding will be there," says an optimistic Hugh Drouin, Durham's social services commissioner.
A recent York Region study shows that settlement services in the regions are grossly underfunded and don't address the fast-changing demographics.
While annual funding per new immigrant in Toronto is $873, the total comes to $558 in Peel, $503 in Durham, $418 in Halton and a meagre $179 in York, despite the unique challenges posed by the size of service area and less efficient transit.
"What happened was we created this perception around the GTA that immigrants in York and other municipalities are rich and they do not need anyone's help," explains Frustaglio, a regional councillor who has represented Vaughan since 1991.
"When Ontario transferred human services, social housing, health and community services to the regions, it never considered how immigration growth was going to affect us. That's why, historically, we receive less money than Toronto."
According to StatsCan, immigrants choose to settle outside Toronto mainly to be near family and friends (36 per cent) and jobs (32 per cent), followed by good schools (12.1 per cent), lifestyle (5.6 per cent) and business potential (5.5 per cent).
Public safety is another issue on Syed Shamsi's mind.
The Islamabad native moved to Canada in November 2003. At first, he and his young family shared a one-bedroom Thorncliffe apartment that rented for $770 a month. But two homicides in the high-rise building soon drove them to Mississauga.
It didn't take the former pharmaceutical salesman long to discover that it's a different reality for immigrants outside the 416 area code.
"I used to be able to walk to an employment centre, a settlement agency, a library and ESL in my neighbourhood. Here in Mississauga, I'd have to take two buses and more than an hour to the closest settlement agency in the city core," says the 38-year-old financial advisor. But the family does get to enjoy halal food, Bollywood movies and a mosque in their new neighbourhood.
"With the demographic changes in the 905, the businesses are catching up really fast and they do a very good job in serving the changing population, but government services and representation are still so much behind," adds Shamsi, who likes the relatively affordable housing and this multicultural community far more than the "homogeneous ghetto" of South Asians in Thorncliffe.
Parvin Syal, of Community Development Council Durham, is one of only four settlement counsellors in the entire region.
She spends a lot of time commuting to ESL sites and schools in an effort to reach out to clients who would have a hard time reaching her tiny office on Commercial Ave., in an industrial area of Ajax.
"Those who come here straight from overseas have much higher needs because they have no basic idea of how to go around in Canada. Everything in the region is so widespread that they are at a higher risk of social isolation," notes Syal, who came to Oshawa from Kenya in 1973.
"We don't have foreign credential assessment services in Durham and our clients must travel to Toronto to do that. They can get jobs in the region at pizzerias, gas stations and convenience stores, but internship or any job opportunities in their professions are very limited."
Lacking access to settlement services, newcomers tend to rely on informal circles of friends, who are often facing similar struggles and can't always offer the best advice.
Brampton Multicultural Community Centre has expanded its services beyond language classes and job training into culture- and language-appropriate programs to curb youth violence, support seniors and provide family counselling.
"Traditional social-services providers may have programs available, but they don't take into consideration the different cultural nuances of the changing community," says executive director Ahmed Iqbal, whose agency served close to 10,000 newcomers last year.
"Same for other municipal services. We need a new way of diversity thinking that goes beyond (the city of) Toronto."
Anticipating a fresh infusion of federal cash, Peel, Durham and York have been investing in research on their new residents, their needs and where the service gaps are — a tool to give them a firmer grasp of the issues and help them negotiate with the province. York and Durham plan to open new immigrant resource centres next year.
Ontario began province-wide community consultations in mid-July to gather information on "unmet needs of newcomers," program funding and performance, and how to better co-ordinate services.
Peel's acting community services commissioner, Janet Menard, says the immigration agreement isn't really a "tripartite" deal as advertised. Municipalities aren't at the table in a formal sense, and nothing in it specifies the role of municipal governments in the process.
But she believes it will provide "a framework to identify needs, be more co-ordinated in our approach and address these needs through funding the right type of services.
"We know we have to do a lot more."
In GTA Monday: Political attitudes have been slow to keep up with changing demographics across the GTA. But York Region's new Inclusivity Action Plan is leading the way to a more enlightened approach.
AoD
Regions struggle with ethnic influx
Poverty, social service issues soar
New deal with Ottawa may help
Jul. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM
NICHOLAS KEUNG
IMMIGRATION/DIVERSITY REPORTER
Part one of a two-part look at how the GTA regions are scrambling to cope with sweeping demographic change and seeking to grab a fair share of the $920 million Ottawa has pledged for immigrant settlement programs.
Two decades ago, when Markham council held its first-ever race relations conference to talk about diversity and cultural sensitivity, some people in this once-homogenous bedroom community rolled their eyes.
"They wondered why we were doing it in Markham," recalls veteran York Region Councillor Frank Scarpitti. "They didn't recognize that the community had started to change, and they couldn't understand the need to sensitize ourselves to our new ethnocultural reality."
Today, that change is a vivid reality all over the GTA's suburban regions — Peel, York, Durham and Halton — where certain ethnic populations have reached critical mass and are drawing in many of the immigrants that once would have picked Toronto first.
But political consciousness has lagged behind reality on the ground, leaving suburban governments ill-equipped to grapple with the influx.
Their big hope: a new deal Ontario signed with Ottawa last fall that will quadruple the federal government's share of settlement services funding, to $920 million, over the next five years.
Only half of Ontario's 140,000 newcomers a year now settle in Toronto. Over the past three years, 19 per cent — just under 75,000 — chose Peel as their first home; 8.4 per cent (32,000) chose York, 1.8 per cent (7,000) Halton and 1.5 per cent (5,800) Durham.
Immigration may not be a municipal responsibility, but immigrants consume municipal services just like other Canadians, from libraries to public transit to social programs. The stakes are high for GTA regions if they fail to adopt fresh perspectives and plan for these changes.
For one thing, today's newcomers aren't the affluent few of previous years, the kind who can afford to pursue suburban dreams.
Financially needy people are among the fastest-growing demographic groups in the 905 area-code. In Peel, for example, nearly one-third of recent immigrants are low-income.
In Durham, low-income pockets are growing with the number of refugees who have concentrated in rental buildings on Falby Ct. in Ajax, White Oaks Ct. in Whitby and near Nonquon and Taunton Rds. in Oshawa. In one complex, tension flared last year as South Asian youths were bullied and taunted with racial slurs by neighbourhood teens.
"New immigrants are part of our community, and they come to us on a daily basis. We're certainly not prepared for the influx," says York Region Councillor Joyce Frustaglio, a Vaughan resident for 27 years.
"Up until five years ago, none of our (municipal) literature was translated into other languages. What's the use of any of our government notices if they aren't in a language that our residents can read and understand?
"As much as we need the social infrastructure to integrate newcomers into our community, we need to recognize the need to reach out to them in order to build a healthy and strong community. You just don't want to see what happened in Paris happen here," she adds, referring to last year's riots in France led by immigrant African youths living in poverty and social isolation.
Local politicians, immigrant communities and settlement agencies across the GTA are hoping the new deal with Ottawa will ensure that needs of newcomers outside Toronto are more equitably addressed.
"We don't know how fast we'll have to expand, but we have to make sure we'll have the health services, public transit and other infrastructure in place to get ready for the growth. Everyone is hoping that the necessary funding will be there," says an optimistic Hugh Drouin, Durham's social services commissioner.
A recent York Region study shows that settlement services in the regions are grossly underfunded and don't address the fast-changing demographics.
While annual funding per new immigrant in Toronto is $873, the total comes to $558 in Peel, $503 in Durham, $418 in Halton and a meagre $179 in York, despite the unique challenges posed by the size of service area and less efficient transit.
"What happened was we created this perception around the GTA that immigrants in York and other municipalities are rich and they do not need anyone's help," explains Frustaglio, a regional councillor who has represented Vaughan since 1991.
"When Ontario transferred human services, social housing, health and community services to the regions, it never considered how immigration growth was going to affect us. That's why, historically, we receive less money than Toronto."
According to StatsCan, immigrants choose to settle outside Toronto mainly to be near family and friends (36 per cent) and jobs (32 per cent), followed by good schools (12.1 per cent), lifestyle (5.6 per cent) and business potential (5.5 per cent).
Public safety is another issue on Syed Shamsi's mind.
The Islamabad native moved to Canada in November 2003. At first, he and his young family shared a one-bedroom Thorncliffe apartment that rented for $770 a month. But two homicides in the high-rise building soon drove them to Mississauga.
It didn't take the former pharmaceutical salesman long to discover that it's a different reality for immigrants outside the 416 area code.
"I used to be able to walk to an employment centre, a settlement agency, a library and ESL in my neighbourhood. Here in Mississauga, I'd have to take two buses and more than an hour to the closest settlement agency in the city core," says the 38-year-old financial advisor. But the family does get to enjoy halal food, Bollywood movies and a mosque in their new neighbourhood.
"With the demographic changes in the 905, the businesses are catching up really fast and they do a very good job in serving the changing population, but government services and representation are still so much behind," adds Shamsi, who likes the relatively affordable housing and this multicultural community far more than the "homogeneous ghetto" of South Asians in Thorncliffe.
Parvin Syal, of Community Development Council Durham, is one of only four settlement counsellors in the entire region.
She spends a lot of time commuting to ESL sites and schools in an effort to reach out to clients who would have a hard time reaching her tiny office on Commercial Ave., in an industrial area of Ajax.
"Those who come here straight from overseas have much higher needs because they have no basic idea of how to go around in Canada. Everything in the region is so widespread that they are at a higher risk of social isolation," notes Syal, who came to Oshawa from Kenya in 1973.
"We don't have foreign credential assessment services in Durham and our clients must travel to Toronto to do that. They can get jobs in the region at pizzerias, gas stations and convenience stores, but internship or any job opportunities in their professions are very limited."
Lacking access to settlement services, newcomers tend to rely on informal circles of friends, who are often facing similar struggles and can't always offer the best advice.
Brampton Multicultural Community Centre has expanded its services beyond language classes and job training into culture- and language-appropriate programs to curb youth violence, support seniors and provide family counselling.
"Traditional social-services providers may have programs available, but they don't take into consideration the different cultural nuances of the changing community," says executive director Ahmed Iqbal, whose agency served close to 10,000 newcomers last year.
"Same for other municipal services. We need a new way of diversity thinking that goes beyond (the city of) Toronto."
Anticipating a fresh infusion of federal cash, Peel, Durham and York have been investing in research on their new residents, their needs and where the service gaps are — a tool to give them a firmer grasp of the issues and help them negotiate with the province. York and Durham plan to open new immigrant resource centres next year.
Ontario began province-wide community consultations in mid-July to gather information on "unmet needs of newcomers," program funding and performance, and how to better co-ordinate services.
Peel's acting community services commissioner, Janet Menard, says the immigration agreement isn't really a "tripartite" deal as advertised. Municipalities aren't at the table in a formal sense, and nothing in it specifies the role of municipal governments in the process.
But she believes it will provide "a framework to identify needs, be more co-ordinated in our approach and address these needs through funding the right type of services.
"We know we have to do a lot more."
In GTA Monday: Political attitudes have been slow to keep up with changing demographics across the GTA. But York Region's new Inclusivity Action Plan is leading the way to a more enlightened approach.
AoD