By Ryan Cormier
Welcome to Ottawa. It’s home to Parliament Hill, the world’s longest skating rink and 185,005 immigrants. And while Parliament Hill isn’t getting any higher and the Rideau Canal isn’t getting any longer, the immigrant population is already 18 per cent of the population and rising.
Ottawa is trying to keep up with this increasing multiculturalism. The city is changing.
The City of Ottawa currently estimates that one in five residents is an immigrant, while one in seven is a visible minority. Those ratios are both expected to double by 2020.
Ottawa saw 70,515 new immigrants arrive between 1991 and 2001, driving the foreign-born population up 2.9 per cent. It’s the biggest jump in immigration since the 1930s.
In the midst of this, Ottawa is adapting to its multicultural community. From health services to funeral homes, from law enforcement to the economy, Ottawa has been adjusting the way it does things to try and keep up with the changing population.
“It’s not so much that immigrants have a difficulty adjusting to the community. In my eyes, it’s the community that has a hard time adjusting to them,” says Sonia Brereton, chair of Ottawa’s Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee.
The committee works with small communities within Ottawa, including immigrants, and develops policy that helps them integrate into the city. Brereton says the attitude of some of Ottawa’s residents has to change. The people of Ottawa have to look at immigrants in terms of their strengths and how they can benefit the city, which Brereton says doesn’t always happen.
“It’s a matter of getting to know people and not judging. When you’re a newcomer from a different cultural and racial group, people really tend to put that barrier up and that attitude comes out. You need to give people an opportunity to take down that barrier .”
Velinka Nevrencan, an immigrant from Romania and director of the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization, says integrating immigrants into the work force is crucial. Foreign-trained workers can be left out in the cold by cultural and language barriers even if they have proper skills.
“We would definitely like to see more newcomers who are fully trained professionals and skilled workers to be able to work in their field,” says Nevrencan.
Cheryl Gorman agrees. She’s executive director of TalentWorks for the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation. TalentWorks is a program aimed at building Ottawa’s talent pool in targeted sectors – including integrating new immigrants.
Gorman reports that Canada is losing $5.9 billion annually because of poor integration of foreign-trained professionals.
As of 2009, 100 per cent of the new growth in the work force will come from new immigrants, Gorman says. The City of Ottawa wants to be prepared.
“If Ottawa quickly establishes itself as a city known to be open to new immigrants and are successfully able to help them integrate, then we’re obviously going to be a city that immigrants want to come to,” says Gorman.
As well, Ottawa is adapting to integrate immigrants on a social level. Jack McCarthy, executive director of the Somerset West Community Health Centre, says specifically helping cultural groups is crucial to helping the overall community.
“There’s a whole range of support services that are needed for newcomers who come into the country, to help them along as they’re getting adapted to a new culture,” McCarthy says.
How do you teach an elderly Chinese man with diabetes and limited English how to manage his blood sugar level? The health centre offers programs in Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin to serve its large Asian community. Also, the staff takes diversity and anti-racism training and is multicultural to make sure immigrants can talk to someone who understands their own culture.
The health centre also helps immigrants with things that most of us take for granted.
Common tasks like setting up a bank account or getting social insurance can be daunting to a newcomer.
McCarthy is hoping to hire a community outreach worker solely to deal with the immigrant population.
“With waves of new immigration, it’s as important as it’s ever been to reach out to the multicultural community,” says McCarthy.
Rising immigration has also formed established ethnic communities around Ottawa. People from similar backgrounds have bonded together in the city. The white, green and red washed street signs of Preston Street represent Italy.
The Chinese business signs along Somerset are hard to miss.
Communities like these and less visible ones make Ottawa an appealing destination for immigrants.
A Jewish immigrant coming into Ottawa tomorrow and connecting with the community can find out how to get kosher food, where to worship or which Jewish schools are available from people who had to look for the same things when they first arrived.
“The existence of an ethnic community is a big motivating factor for immigrants to come,” says Nevrencan. “Immigrants are more likely to settle successfully if they have a network and support from their ethnic community.”
Nevrencan has been helping immigrants for 10 years. She’s seen the population change. “It’s a more diverse community with more diverse needs now. The needs of our clients have changed very much.”
Welcome to the new Ottawa.