Community Support for Newcomer Families: A Literature Review

As part of a larger study titled “Integration Trajectories of Immigrant Families”, this literature review looked at who provides support for newcomer settlement and integration, and how they are funded. The reviewed studies assessed why support was important, whether the existing supports were sufficient, and what else could be done. Beyond formal and informal support specific to newcomer integration, housing and health were identified as two areas of critical need and as important points of comparison with non-immigrant Canadians. Common across the paper’s three sections on settlement supports, housing, and health were the grey areas pertaining to the service mandates of programs and departments; the coping mechanisms that newcomers and their allies develop to make integration happen; and the barriers to accessing services that include discrimination and differential incorporation. It is recommended that future studies should focus on how different migration pathways affect housing and healthcare needs. They should ask how communities can tailor support to the diverse needs of families, consider how informal community support is leveraged by the government, and examine the ways in which established immigrants facilitate the orientation and integration of more recent newcomer families.