Discussion Themes and Outcomes

Immigrants continue to face multidimensional integration challenges , which means that settlement in their newly adopted country can come with a very high “transition cost.” Forum participants discussed ways of improving supports to newcomers to enable faster transitions and, consequently, contributions to the Ottawa community in four specific areas identified by Forum panelists:

• Leveraging immigrants’ entrepreneuria spirit – Orange Zone
• Leveraging immigrants’ skills through internships – Blue Zone
• Leveraging immigrants’ civic contributions for greater progress in equity and inclusion – Yellow Zone
• Leveraging immigrants’ cultural contributions for greater vibrancy and shared sense of belonging to our city – Green Zone.

Group discussion evolved around two questions:

• What is needed to leverage the selected contribution (entrepreneurial; employment skills; civic and cultural)?
• Who is best to do it and what creative collaborations are possible to achieve the goal?

To access a brief introduction to the issues and a summary of each group’s discussion outcomes, click here.