Category: Immigration & Settlement - innovation

The next IRCC national call for proposals is coming. It might be later this year. It might be next year. Funding could roll out as soon as 2024. It might be in 2025. I'm starting to hear rumblings of sector consultations. This call for proposals is crucial. It will indicate how serious IRCC is about sector digital transformation and hybrid services. So what we can we learn from past consultations?

It's been a while since I posted a podcast episode. Editing this one reminded me how incredibly insightful, experienced, and committed you all are in the Immigrant and Refugee-serving sector.

Two years ago I moderated a panel focused on measuring virtual service delivery for the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group. We asked the question: How do I know my transition to virtual service delivery is effective? It was a great discussion with many resources shared. This year I'm happy to share a better answer.

I recently attended an IRCC consultation focused on “Client Service Excellence.” The background paper they shared referenced below is here (and embedded down below). I haven't been asked to not share it, so I'm sharing it here with my thoughts.

The weekly roundup includes research, stories, and events of interest to the Canadian immigration and settlement community. Includes: Immigrants’ sense of belonging to Canada by province of residence, Minister Fraser launches Canada’s first-ever Tech Talent Strategy at Collision 2023, Canada announces new immigration stream specific to health workers, Improving Stakeholder Coordination in Refugee Resettlement, As Canada welcomes historic numbers of immigrants, how can communities be more welcoming? and more.

In this post I'm providing some background information about how the evaluation toolkit was created and why you should connect with the WESO team soon to learn more about and implement it in your organization.

The weekly roundup includes research, stories, and events of interest to the Canadian immigration and settlement community. Includes: Non-permanent residents in Canada: Portrait of a growing population from the 2021, B.C. international students are the new temporary foreign workers, stuck without work in their fields: survey, Blaming immigration for the country's housing crisis disguises the real problem, analysts say, Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2022, All Canadian permanent residence applicants must now submit biometrics, Montreal refugee advocacy groups, migrants begin 3-day protest march to Roxham Road, and more.

I realized that while many of the articles, research reports, and Good Ideas I share in the newsletter lead back here, not all do. And, maybe having weekly summary of posts on this site might make sense. Granted, it only took me 92 editions of my newsletter to realize that, but such is life. From now on I'm going to post my newsletters here. I hope you find it useful.

I was watching a video about Apple’s new Vision Pro, their Virtual Reality headset. The video talked about questions you might typically ask when creating a new product or technology. Specifically, what problem is this product trying to solve? Combined with tech stewardship questions such as can we build the solution, should we build it, how do we do it responsibly, I thought it would be useful to go through these questions when it comes to technology and the Immigrant and Refugee-serving sector.