Vision | Background | All-Canadian approach | Services | How to participate Vision | Background | All-Canadian approach | Services | How to participate
The ultimate online immigrant resource centre in Canada with an integrated approach
to promote immigrant success and to honor diversity in Canada.
The Canadian Immigrant Resource Network's vision is to accelerate the integration of immigrants by building on result-oriented initiatives and by developing a holistic Canadian approach based on nation-wide collaboration. The Canadian Immigrant Resource Network is dedicated to Canada's immigrants and all stakeholders involved in the integration process. It is a highly interactive virtual centre, it maintains an on-line reference library for the main topics in Canadian immigration and it brings together information, education and activity at an all-Canadian level. It has been launched based on the realization that the wealth of knowledge and work regarding the common issues and possible solutions of immigrant integration does not reach its full potential because it is dispersed over a diversity of organizations and information sources.
Immigrants need the best relevant information and support available in order to succeed in their integration efforts. Canada has seen an exponentially growing number of related studies, research work, initiatives and projects introduced and financed by different organizations and forums. The aspects are source- and discipline- oriented and may vary depending on the relationship of the authors to the immigration process. The participants include government departments and institutions, economists, policy analysts and social researchers of different organizations, immigrant activity groups with testimonials and self-help initiatives, or agencies that serve immigrants in a business relationship for profit. By compiling the existing extensive information, the Canadian Immigrant Resource Network has built an integrated knowledge base that can be used as a foundation for further activities.
Even though the delivery of services to support and assist the immigrant integration process involves all levels of governments and different organizations, the actual settlement support work and self-help initiatives of action groups are locally implemented and serve restricted numbers and different clusters of immigrants. In this sense, regionalization can mean overlapping services or missed opportunities for the immigrants, depending on the location they live.
Despite regional differences in conditions and situations, the key issues of occupational competencies and language abilities as well as solutions for workplace integration are the same in the whole country. The holistic approach of the Canadian Immigrant Resource Network is intended to intensify knowledge transfer and collaboration to find best-fitting common practices and to make them available throughout the country.
Depending on the availability of resources, a French version of this Website will be introduced and more information included about the Quebec experience. Some sections of this Website are most useful if they are accessible for immigrants in their own languages. Translating the related contents into other languages is also among our future plans.
With its broad range of access, the Canadian Immigrant Resource Network honors diversity and serves the collective benefit of the society. It maintains an immigration related all-Canadian knowledge base, promotes creativity in employment and research, and operates a virtual education centre for gathering and disseminating information. The Canadian Immigrant Resource Network provides newcomers with links to information on settlement and adjustment issues and on career related programs. It offers forums for them to connect with the Canadian community. The Canadian Immigrant Resource Network acts as an interdisciplinary interface with discussion and conference forums for stakeholders such as service providers, decision makers, policy researchers and others. It furthers cooperation for the exchange of best practices and for implementing effective ways for successful immigrant integration.
At present, the on-line reference library consists of about 2000 links with short summaries organized around the main topics of Canadian immigration. The comprehensive information is collected and continuously updated from publications and websites of the Canadian Government, Metropolis Canada, universities and research institutions, immigrant serving organizations, agencies and immigrant associations, as well as from reports and studies published in newspapers, periodicals, etc.
Wide-ranging community feedback is an important component of both the discussion forums and online opinion polls that can be organized through this website. The built-in Internet-based survey feature allows the posting of easy-to-use custom designed questionnaires for research purposes, providing a highly effective tool for collecting direct information from immigrants or other stakeholders.
An active participation of all stakeholders as well as additional links to useful related sites and information are highly welcome. The resource library, forums and interactive services are open to registered network members. To become a member, please visit our Registration Page. For details about conducting on-line opinion polls contact the Canadian Immigrant Resource Network.
Please help us maintain a fully operational reference system and report any broken links to the Webmaster.
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