Evaluation of the Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program (ISAP)

3.0  Overall Success of the Program

Summary of Findings:

Overall, ISAP is considered to be successful by those who access the services. The inherent flexibility built into the program allows regions and communities to tailor the services delivered to newcomers within certain parameters, based on need, while maintaining an overall standard of service delivery and ensuring a core set of services is available to all newcomers.

Clients indicate they are satisfied with services offered through ISAP, for the most part. Immediate and intermediate client outcomes are occurring to some extent, although it is difficult to attribute these outcomes directly to ISAP.

Before a detailed discussion of the success of the program is presented, it is useful to identify the main types of ISAP clients. There are, essentially, three main types of clients: refugees, economic immigrants, and family class immigrants.

• Refugees include government-assisted refugees who access ISAP services after receiving similar services under the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP). Refugees also include those who are privately sponsored, Joint Assistance Sponsorship cases, refugees landed in Canada and dependents abroad. Refugee claimants are not eligible for ISAP.
• Economic immigrants include skilled worker immigrants who have education, work experience, knowledge of English and/or French, and other abilities that will help them to establish themselves successfully as permanent residents in Canada. It also includes business immigrants who are expected to start their own business in Canada. Live-in caregivers and provincial/territorial nominees also fall under this category.
• Family class immigrants are composed of family members sponsored by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident [note 4].

Each of these groups has different needs with respect to settlement. Thus, the success of ISAP must be determined based on its ability to meet the needs of all newcomers. However, interviews revealed that, due to funding constraints, regional and local CIC offices often set priorities in collaboration with SPOs. In many communities, it is simply not feasible to deliver all types of services to all types of potential ISAP clients. In smaller communities, this most often translates to delivering services targeted to refugees, since they are considered to be the most in need of settlement services. In larger communities, some SPOs target refugees while others target the independent immigrants and family members of newcomers already in Canada.

3.1 ISAP Services Meeting Needs of Many Newcomers

Speaking generally, the evaluation found that ISAP services are considered appropriate, useful and necessary. This finding is supported by key informants, focus group participants, and by the survey results.

Many key informants noted that ISAP is the backbone of the settlement program cluster. ISAP provides services essential to all types of eligible newcomers – from help completing forms to job-search workshops, often in the newcomer’s mother tongue. ISAP is also effective in helping newcomers access resources, services and information from the wider community through referrals.

Survey respondents confirmed two to one that ISAP services are appropriate (54 percent agreeing compared to 25 percent disagreeing that services are appropriate, given the needs of newcomers). The survey results reflect rather striking regional differences in the overall success of the program. In the Atlantic and the PNT regions, two-thirds of SPOs consider the services to be appropriate, while in Ontario, only 48 percent consider them to be appropriate.

More specific ISAP-related outcomes from the survey also point to services meeting the needs of newcomers. In particular, almost three-quarters (73 percent) of SPOs indicated that services are available to newcomers in their required languages (i.e., other than English or French) to a large or great extent (mean on a five-point scale was 3.8). As well, only 13 percent said that, where a referral was provided, the referred service was not effective to at least some extent (mean of 3.4 on a five-point scale). Finally, with respect to the effectiveness of translation and interpretation services in increasing access to community services, 48 percent said it was occurring to a large or great extent, and 46 percent said it was occurring to a small or some extent (mean 3.3). Service-bridging services also appear to be making a difference for newcomers (see Exhibit 3.1), although some newcomers continue to report encountering discrimination and other barriers to services.

Where a service provider offers more than one settlement or resettlement service (i.e., ISAP, Host, LINC, RAP), services are generally coordinated and integrated. (This is particularly the case in smaller communities where there is often only one service provider.) For clients of these service providers (who tend to reside in the PNT or Atlantic regions), there is essentially seamless delivery of services. However, in larger centres, where there is only one RAP provider and one Host provider for every five or 20 ISAP providers (depending on the size of the community), services are not considered to be seamless (according to key informants and survey respondents). Exhibit 3.2 presents these findings by region [note 5]. Service providers in Ontario (many of them located in Toronto) are less likely than their counterparts in other regions to suggest that services are seamless.

ISAP is generally considered to be complementary with other settlement programs. Key informants and survey respondents alike confirmed this: 64 percent feel ISAP services are complementary with Host; 88 percent feel they are complementary with LINC; and, 56 percent feel they are complementary with RAP. Most respondents (56 percent) did not feel the programs were duplicative. When asked about whether all settlement and resettlement programs funded by the federal government are appropriate to meet the needs of newcomers, key informants and survey respondents (51 percent) generally felt that they were. Some suggestions from key informants on areas of need currently not addressed by CIC programming include:

• employment services that get newcomers jobs;
• assistance finding and accessing suitable, affordable housing;
• providing information regarding the recognition of foreign credentials and work experience; and,
• better and more information abroad for immigrants before they come to Canada.

3.2 Flexibility of the Program Considered a Strength

Most key informants indicated that the program is adequately flexible and that this flexibility is needed to meet regional needs. As well, the capacity of small versus large service providers varies, and flexibility is required to offer the most appropriate mix of services for newcomers (see Section 4.0 for more details on capacity). Innovative practices implemented as part of ISAP in various jurisdictions are further evidence of this flexibility (e.g., Job Search Workshops, Newcomer Information Centres, and School Support Program/Settlement Workers in Schools).

However, for some respondents, there appeared to be a misunderstanding between flexibility and consistency. In interviews, service providers pointed to the apparent inconsistencies in contribution agreement requirements (e.g., different reporting requirements), support available from CIC (e.g., different funding amounts available for promotion), and types of clients served (e.g., focus placed on refugees, for some) as symptomatic of inconsistent service delivery.

This finding was reinforced by the survey results – this question scored a mean of 2.9 (i.e., just below the midpoint) when respondents were asked the extent to which they feel there is an appropriate level of flexibility to adapt the program delivery to meet needs. Almost half of respondents felt that the level of flexibility was appropriate to some extent (45 percent). Another 33 percent said flexibility was appropriate to little or no extent, and 22 percent said it was appropriate to a large or great extent. This polarization of the overall results is less pronounced when the findings are broken down by region. In fact, it becomes clear that the Atlantic Region is not happy with the level of flexibility (mean of 2.5), Ontario is next least satisfied (mean of 2.8), and the PNT Region seems to feel flexibility is more appropriate with a mean of 3.1.

Improved communication to service providers and local levels of CIC would help to clarify this apparent conundrum. In fact, the flexibility of the program does lead to differences in service delivery by service provider, but national program guidelines and policies ensure that a core set of services are available to all newcomers in a given community or province.

3.3 Clients Generally Satisfied with Services

For SPOs that administer client feedback forms, key informants say that clients are generally satisfied with the services they receive.

Focus group participants indicated they were very satisfied with the information and services provided through service providers. Focus group participants provided many examples of how SPOs helped to guide them through the settlement process. This includes providing help filling out forms such as visas, permits, landed immigrant status, and citizenship, to providing information sessions and workshops (orientation, job search, culture, history) and even field trips. Referral to English classes or information on where to turn for legal advice was also provided in many cases. Clients indicated that being able to access these services in their mother tongue helped to bridge the language barrier for newcomers and helped to get them settled quicker. Many focus group participants commented they would not have known where else to turn for accurate information. For some immigrants, the service providers helped to break the isolation and desperation felt in the early period of coming to Canada. For others, ISAP helped them overcome a crisis, often after they had been in the country for some time (e.g., for skilled immigrants who run out of money before they find employment).

A common complaint expressed by focus group participants was that employment services were insufficient to help them get jobs. Many newcomers were appreciative of the workshops on résumé writing, interviewing techniques and job searching, but newcomers indicated that these activities did not actually get them a job. For skilled immigrants, most of whom are professionals, these basic job-search skills were considered too basic.

3.4 Immediate/Intermediate Client Impacts Occurring to Some Extent

The evaluation found that immediate and intermediate client outcomes are being achieved to some extent, although it is difficult to attribute these outcomes directly to ISAP due to the myriad of contributing factors (such as family, friends, previous education and experience).

Focus group participants indicated that they are able to undertake day-to-day activities and are using English or French in the wider community. Also, many are volunteering or are otherwise active in their communities. However, many clients in focus groups said that if they encounter a problem, they are likely to return to the service provider to help them. As well, most focus group participants had not found what they would consider suitable paid work. In fact, all matters relating to employment were a point of frustration for participants. They felt that they had received help preparing résumés, were given information on expectations in the workplace, etc., but many still did not have a job. Service providers were also asked to indicate, to the best of their ability, the extent to which they believed ISAP clients were achieving certain outcomes. These are presented in exhibits 3.3 and 3.4 below, by mean score (i.e., on a scale of one to five, where one is occurring to no extent and five is occurring to a great extent).

3.5 Access to ISAP Adequate

For those newcomers who are aware of ISAP, access is quite good. Key informants generally reported that there are little or no waiting lists for ISAP services, although survey respondents did report some waiting lists for some services. The survey found 35 percent of SPOs reported a waiting list for some services, particularly in Ontario, with 40 percent of SPOs reporting waiting lists compared to 17 percent in the Atlantic Region and 22 percent in the PNT Region. The most common services with waiting lists (and average wait times in days) are presented in Exhibit 3.5. Nationally, no one service has an average wait of more than two weeks, however.

Other barriers mentioned by key informants and reinforced by survey respondents included:

• a lack of transportation, where public transit was poor (mentioned by 62 percent of survey respondents, particularly in Ontario);
• a lack of child care (50 percent, particularly in Ontario); and,
• a lack of translation/interpretation into their mother tongue (45 percent).

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4. http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/89-613-MIE/2004003/89-613-MIE2004003.pdf

5. In the graph, those respondents who indicated they did not know or did not respond are represented by DK/NR: don’t know/no response.

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