Immigrant Access Counselling

Online Chat Support for Newcomers During COVID-19

The internet can remove barriers such as conflicting work schedules, caring for family members, time and cost of transportation, and health and mobility issues for newcomers who otherwise may be unable to access in-person services. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of making settlement services available remotely. The Immigrant Access Counselling (IAC) Project allowed users to connect with a settlement counsellor to ask questions regarding settlement supports and resources available to them.

Project Information

What is the IAC project and research?

Immigrant-serving organizations regularly employ the internet to reach out to their clients and provide information and services. They do this by using different tools such as newsletters, forums, discussion groups, virtual sessions and fairs, and self-directed or guided online courses and webinars. The IAC Project was an online live chat service that connected clients with a settlement counsellor offered from March 2019 to August 2020. Using this feature, clients could conveniently ask any questions about the supports available to them. Alongside the implementation of the program, The Immigrant Education Society (TIES), in partnership with the University of Calgary, conducted a study to understand user and counsellor experiences engaging with the IAC platform as well as evaluate its effectiveness.  

What were the aims of IAC?

The IAC Project and Research aimed to:

• Explore and evaluate ways of providing underserved newcomers, specifically naturalized citizens and Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) candidates, with much needed information, referrals, and counselling support that can be accessed whenever it is suitable for them.
• Broaden and deepen the reach of TIES into Calgary communities, making its services more accessible to newcomers with different legal statuses.

Why is this important?

While Canada possesses a robust scope of settlement programming, certain categories of newcomers still face significant barriers in accessing such programs. Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provides support to permanent residents and refugees for their settlement, employment, language and integration needs. However, newcomers with different immigration statuses are often not eligible for federally funded settlement programs.

One such group of newcomers are naturalized citizens. Over 80% of the 1,212,075 immigrants permanently settled in Canada from 2011 to 2016 have obtained Canadian citizenship within five years (Statistics Canada, 2017). With the acquisition of Canadian citizenship, they obtain the same rights as Canadian-born individuals, such as the right to vote, to serve in the government, and to seek elected office. However, they continue to face numerous challenges including language proficiency, limited access to affordable housing, lack of affordable childcare, the challenges of transportation, and acceptance by local residents. Furthermore, many newcomers lack the networking and technical skills that could help them find employment. Although they are accepted as new Canadians, these individuals and their families can still struggle to find a meaningful place in Canadian society.

Similar to naturalized citizens, individuals under the AINP are not eligible for federally-funded IRCC settlement services. AINP nominees are temporary residents on a pathway to permanency, and as such, they require access to settlement services and information. An important number of AINP are low or semi-skilled workers, who may not have the networks and knowledge to address their settlement concerns (Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies [AAISA], 2017, p. 38). Central to the empowerment of these individuals is immigrant information, referral, and counselling services, but many AINP individuals struggle to find these services (AAISA, 2017). Providing access to these services would significantly improve the settlement experiences of AINP nominees and their families.

Recent data shows that newcomers increasingly prefer to obtain settlement information via internet sites (Shuva, 2021). However, immigrant serving agencies in Calgary have yet to develop online tools that provide access to settlement, referrals, and counselling services on par with their in-person offerings. Currently, TIES is only one of two not-for-profit immigrant service providers offering live, on-demand reception, information support and referral assistance. Therefore, the IAC project provided an important tool to connect newcomers with services that will mediate their integration process by connecting them with a settlement coordinator through online chat and video platforms. In this way, the IAC project evaluates the feasibility of delivering settlement counselling via online platforms, especially for newcomers who are unable to receive in-person settlement counselling and those who come from an underserved group, such as the AINP nominees and naturalized citizens.

Research Overview

Research Questions

• According to newcomer clients, how effective is the online platform in providing settlement and counselling assistance?
• How do newcomer clients describe their experiences of receiving online settlement counselling assistance?
• How do staff describe their experiences of providing online settlement counselling assistance?

Methods

From March 2019 to August 2020, the TIES research team conducted a study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the IAC platform.

Data Collection

For this project, we utilized a mixed-methods approach, and gathered data from:

1. Anonymous online surveys

2. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with survey participants and settlement counsellors.

3. Data on user experience ranged from partial to comprehensive. A total of 797 clients accessed the chat throughout its operational period with:

• 199 clients provided feedback through a simple survey
• 91 participated in a full research study
• 7 participated in a full ethics-approved qualitative interview

Key Findings

Most users used the platform to clarify information provided on the TIES website, and clients were prone to end the chat with the counsellor once their inquiries were answered.

Clients used the chat for:

• Orientation
• Language
• Employment
• Housing
• Adjustment-related stress

Priorities were:

• Vocational/career guidance
• Information on services and resources
• Language supports
• Mental health supports (a small portion)

Overall, clients were very satisfied with the service especially compared to other means of reaching out to settlement services like cold calling, email, or in-person appointments.

Advantages of Settlement Chat:

• Convenience
• Facilitated communication
• Human, empathetic component
• Accessibility and inclusion
• Relevant, specific information

Disadvantages of Settlement Chat:

• Lack of language options
• Lack of visual feedback and body language cues which are particularly important for those who want to improve their English language skills

Recommendations

• Counsellors should be knowledgeable and updated in a multitude of topics and resources, create a safe and welcoming space, and set structure and boundaries for their chat interactions.
• Ensure that the marketing is clear, indicating that the service is for both settlement and emotional wellness support, or one or the other.

Additionally, we have created the following videos to share our findings with the broader community of researchers, service providers and policymakers.

Impacts

IAC research has contributed to the development of the iCode Program, a free employment training and coding program designed to address the commonly reported integration barriers of lack of language proficiency and Canadian experience.

Learn More

If you would like to learn more about the IAC Project, you can read our public summary:

• The Immigrant Access Counselling Project: Public Summary October 31, 2020

References

Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies. (2017). Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program environmental scan. Pathways to Prosperity. http://p2pcanada.ca/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Alberta-immigrant-nominee-program-environmental-scan.pdf

Shuva, N. Z. (2021). Internet, social media, and settlement: A study on Bangladeshi immigrants in Canada. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 43(3), 291-315. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/781389

Statistics Canada. (2017). Immigration and ethnocultural diversity: Key results from the 2016 Census. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/171025/dq171025b-eng.htm