Environmental Scan and Systems Mapping: Services for Newcomers in Calgary

The Calgary Local Immigration Partnership (CLIP) is a government-funded initiative that supports the development of community-based partnerships between sectors, organizations, and service systems. These partnerships are centred on building and improving the settlement and integration experiences of Calgary’s newcomers and immigrants. In 2022, The Immigrant Education Society (TIES) worked with CLIP to conduct an Environmental Scan and Systems Mapping of the anglophone and francophone settlement services available to newcomers in Calgary. Findings from this study will be integrated into a broader CLIP project, aimed at enhancing the local service delivery and support offered to immigrants.

Project Information

What is the Environmental Scan and Systems Mapping of Services for Newcomers in Calgary study?

The Environmental Scan and Systems Mapping project is a research project that employs a qualitative approach to data collection, utilizing methods such as content analysis from a structured environmental webscan of online grey literature (Adams et al., 2017), an online survey, and semi-structured interviews with newcomer-serving organizations and clients. The webscan allowed for a systematic online scan of organizations' websites and yielded data and empirical findings on the collection of settlement service provider organizations (SPOs), non-settlement service provider organizations (non-SPOs), and informal networks providing services for immigrants, their range of services, their relationships, and their program data collection and evaluation methods. Meanwhile, the survey and interviews with stakeholders provided more insight on the key ideas and challenges derived from the webscan.

What were the aims of this study?

The primary aims of this study are to:

• Provide a current understanding of the set of actors, activities, settings and concepts that constitute the changing immigrant-serving sector in Calgary.
• Identify duplications and gaps in current settlement service delivery in Calgary.

Why is this important?

When immigrants arrive and settle in Calgary, SPOs, non-SPOs, and informal networks are vital in shaping their integration experiences. This is because cities are at the forefront of implementing federal policy and innovating responsive programming (Guo & Guo, 2016). In certain Canadian cities, Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) have been created to implement and coordinate programs aimed at enhancing the settlement process for immigrants and refugees. LIPs facilitate connections, discourse, and partnerships between community organizations. Additionally, they offer information and resources that are specific to the local area that they are serving. Aligned with the goals of the CLIP, this project contributes to the knowledge and understanding of the scale and breadth of the local immigrant-serving sector. 2012).

Research Overview

Methods

The Environmental Scan and Systems Mapping project utilized three methodological approaches.

Environmental Webscan

Constructed a preliminary database of organizations.

An extended search using the HelpSeeker website, existing online lists of specific organization types, and a structured Google scan (Turin et al., 2021), with the application of random sampling to narrow down the set of organizations for scanning.

Scanned the typology, range of services, language capacity, target populations, and service delivery format (online, hybrid, etc.) of English- and French-speaking SPOs and non-SPOs.

Surveys

Distributed a 36-question survey to 75 organizations through Qualtrics. This included questions on their organization's services, funding processes, and interactions with other organizations.

The respondents included 25 in senior leadership roles, 19 in management roles, and 7 in front-line roles for a total of 51 respondents.

Interviews

One-on-one semi-structured interviews with leaders and/or managers of SPOs and non-SPOs and with immigrant clients.

• Interviews with organizational personnel inquired about their services, their data collection and evaluation methods for their services, and their relationships and interactions with different stakeholders.
• Interviews with clients explored service and informal network use.

Interview respondents included 11 in senior leadership roles, 7 in management roles, and 15 clients.

Key Findings

Environmental Webscan

• 8 SPOs conducted 78% of all services.
• There are nine domains or categories in which SPO services fall: language, education, housing, health, employment, settlement services, translation & interpretation, and mental health.
• 9% of all non-SPOs targeted their services for immigrants, highlighting their unfulfilled role for intersectional services.
• Both English and French-speaking SPOs and non-SPOs prioritized the same three service domains (employment, settlement and community-culture), with varying orders.

Surveys and Interviews

• Respondents had higher levels of interaction with non-SPOs, than with SPOs.
• A wide range of informal networks are used by clients. This includes the use of online resources such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp groups, as well as utilizing personal networks by reaching out to family and friends.
• SPO and non-SPO personnel detailed challenges with the funding process.

Recommendations

• There is a need to expand efforts in reaching out to non-SPOs for immigrant-specific programming.
• There is a need to establish stronger links with social media groups and to strengthen the social media presence of SPOs and non-SPOs.
• Funding sources should be diversified to increase independence and allow SPOs and non-SPOs to pursue services and missions apart from governmental goals and priorities.
• Technical assistance and resources are needed to help support organizations in developing their grant-getting and fundraising capacities.

Learn More

This page is only a brief summary of the background, methods, findings, and analysis of this research project. For a complete and comprehensive account of the CLIP Project, you can read our final report:

• Environmental Scan and Systems Mapping: Services for Newcomers in Calgary Final Report December 23, 2022

References

Adams, R. J., Smart, P., & Huff, A. H. (2017). Shades of grey: Guidelines for working with the grey literature in systematic reviews for management and organizational studies. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(4), 432-454. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12102

Guo, & Guo, Y. (2016). Immigration, integration and welcoming communities: Neighbourhood-based initiative to facilitate the integration of newcomers in Calgary. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 48(3), 45–67. https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2016.0025

Turin, Chowdhury, N., Ekpekurede, M., Lake, D., Lasker, M. A. A., O’Brien, M., & Goopy, S. (2021). Professional integration of immigrant medical professionals through alternative career pathways: An Internet scan to synthesize the current landscape. Human Resources for Health, 19(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-021-00599-8