Organizer 1
Rose Lee
Access and Equity Coordinator
City of Toronto Chief Administrator's Office, Strategic and Corporate Policy/Healthy City Office
10th Floor, East Tower, 100 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5H 2N2 Canada

Tel: 416-392-4991
Fax: 416-696-3645
Email:rlee@city.toronto.on.ca


Organizer 2
Eyob Naizghi
Executive Director
MOSAIC
1720 Grant Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada , V5L 2Y7

Tel: 604-254-9626
Fax: 604-254-3932
Email:enaizghi@mosaicbc.com


Organizer 3
Wim Reijnierse
Advisor of Social Economic Affairs
City of Rotterdam, Administration Department
City Hall, Coolsingel 40, P.O. Box 70012, 300 KP Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Tel: 31(0)10 417 37 46
Fax: 31(0) 417 29 10
Email:w.reijnierse@bsd.rotterdam.nl



Workshop description:
The purpose of the workshop is to provide a comparative overview of immigrant/refugee settlement and integration in four cities: Rotterdam, Toronto, Vancouver and Vienna; to assess the strengths and challenges of the different settlement and integration approaches; and to explore priority areas for further research and policy and program development. In the participant cities, the planning and delivery of immigrant/refugee settlement and integration services is approached very differently. For instance, Rotterdam has an obligatory newcomers integration program, while in Toronto and Vancouver, NGOs provide federally funded settlement services. A background paper, to be circulated before the conference, will provide a contextual framework describing the nature of immigration in the four cities and the roles of various governments and NGOs in providing settlement and integration services. By using examples, the presenters will discuss how these arrangements impact on immigrant/refugee settlement and integration in the cities. By providing the background information before the conference, the workshop-organizers express their wish to stimulate a discussion with the workshop participants. The discussants will provide a brief comparative analysis of the contexts and the strengths and constraints of the common and different approaches to immigrant/refugee settlement and integration in the participant cities. The purpose is to explore the priority areas for further comparative research and policy and program development.





Presenters / participants /other information
Moderator: To be confirmed

Presenters:
Rose Lee,
City of Toronto

Eyob Naizghi,
MOSAIC, City of Vancouver

Wim Reijnierse,
City of Rotterdam

Hans Jürgen Tempelmayr,
City of Vienna

Discussants:
Professor David Ley,
University of British Columbia, City of Vancouver

Commissioner Sjaak van der Tak,
City of Rotterdam

Professor Justus Veenman,
Erasmus University, City of Rotterdam


Note: it is recommended that participants read the background paper before the workshop.

The paper is available in the conference secretariat and will be posted on this website within a few days.




Summary:
The workshop will provide a comparative overview of immigrant/refugee settlement and integration in Rotterdam, Toronto, Vancouver and Vienna in the contexts of national and local policies and programs. The objectives are to assess the strengths and challenges of different approaches and explore priority areas for further research and policy development.





Date: 12 September


(1 session is 3 hours)
Number of sessions: 1

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