OLIP helps to unite and share scarce resources for greater impact by working together in the field of student education.

Walter Piovesan
Associate Director of Education, Ottawa Carleton District School Board
In our city’s history, immigrants have always played an important role. They build our economic prosperity, diversify our culture, contribute to our social vitality.

Jim Watson
Mayor of Ottawa
Canada has been shaped by people who came from all over the world to build this country. WOW offers a platform for us to celebrate this history and the future it will help…

Alex Munter, Chair of the OLIP Council and President and CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre
The City of Ottawa will continue to play a lead role in the implementation of the Ottawa Immigration Strategy, just as we did in the founding of OLIP.

Steve Desroches
City Councillor and Deputy Mayor of Ottawa
My nomination is an indication that our hard work in building Canada is recognized. All we do is to serve the community in return for embracing us when we needed it.  

Mehdi Mahdavi
Ottawa Immigrant Entrepreneurship Awards Nominee
All the WOW events that I went to were great – WOW does give a sense of a community trying to improve its attraction and retention!

Caroline Andrew
Professor, University of Ottawa
The target beneficiary of the work of OLIP is the whole community. In this short period we have planted together important seeds for Ottawa’s development.  

Dick Stewart
OLIP Council
The OLIP Council is committed to leadership.  In only a few years, we have a common vision and priorities, and are up to the task of implementing the Ottawa Immigration Strategy.

Salimatou Diallo
OLIP Council Vice Chair, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
The WOW seminar on immigrant women’s nutrition and health was a step in the right direction towards closing the gap between academic researchers and service providers.

Josephine Etowa
Associate Professor, School of Nursing, University of Ottawa
The work and expertise that OLIP brings to our community is so important as it helps us to build bridges and break down silos.  I look forward to our continued work together. 

Jim Watson, Mayor of Ottawa

Chedly Belkhodja

Chedly Belkhodja 200x200Chedly Belkhodja is a Full Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Moncton.  Until recently he was the Director of the Atlantic Metropolis Centre.  Currently, he is a Co-Investigator in the pan-Canadian Pathways to Prosperity Partnership and chairs the Project’s Standing Committee on Francophone Immigration.

Chedly’s research focuses on immigration destined to medium-sized cities and regions with low immigration rates. He is also interested in the policies and practices of regionalization in Canada and other advanced democratic societies. In this regard, he has developed a strong interest in the realities of new migrant destinations outside the “big metropolis” frame.  His interests also extend to the processes around this migration and how they affect the individuals concerned as well as members of the local communities to which the migrants are destined.   These processes are associated with increasing human mobility, growing regional economic development, national regionalization policies, citizenship practices, migrant participation in local activities, connections between local and transnational networks, and the place of migrants in the linguistic and education systems in minority settings. Chedly has also developed a research agenda built around the analysis of discourses and representations of cultural, religious and ethnic diversity in more homogenous settings.

Chedly’s work reflects the research priorities of the Pathways to Prosperity Partnership and is responsive to the needs expressed by immigration practitioners.  In this regard, his recent work on international students in the Atlantic Provinces, on the Korean immigration in New Brunswick, and on francophone immigration throughout Canada, illustrate very well many of the new issues of immigration outside of large cities. The results of his research have a bearing on policy issues that include the manner in which provinces and cities develop a capacity to attract immigrants; the nature and importance of the messages that are conveyed during promotional and recruitment campaigns; and the role of universities in the retention and employability of international students.