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Articles

Catalyzing service providers’ potential to enhance immigrants’ social occupational possibilities

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Pages 487-502 | Received 31 Aug 2021, Accepted 07 Jan 2022, Published online: 23 Feb 2022
 

ABSTRACT

With the ongoing arrival of immigrants and refugees to Canada, service providers play a pivotal role in offering occupational opportunities as a means of supporting integration within the host communities. However, few studies have adopted an occupational lens to explore service providers’ perspectives on their roles. In this study, we explored service provider perspectives on their role in providing social occupational opportunities for immigrants, and the barriers and promising practices that influence this role. A secondary analysis was conducted of 20 semi-structured interviews held with stakeholders from organizations that operated within the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Findings highlighted three main themes: 1) service providers are restricted in their capacity to provide social opportunities for immigrants; 2) barriers experienced by service providers emphasize a focus on economic integration; and 3) service providers utilize volunteering to provide social opportunities and build immigrants’ networks and skills. Resulting themes illustrate that institutional barriers emphasizing economic integration restrict the capacity of service providers to provide social occupations that are key for facilitating resettlement. This warrants critical questioning of current policies governing the Canadian settlement services sector.

随着移民和难民不断涌入加拿大,服务提供者在提供生活活动机会方面发挥着关键作用,这是帮助移民和难民融入东道社会的一种方式。然而,很少有研究采用生活活动视角来探索服务提供者对他们自我角色的看法。在本项研究中,我们探讨了服务提供者对他们在为移民提供社会活动机会方面所起作用的看法,以及对影响这一作用的障碍和有效做法的看法。对来自加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省低陆平原地区的帮助机构的利益相关者进行的 20 次半结构化访谈进行了二次分析。调查结果突出了三个主题:1)服务提供者为移民提供社会机会的能力受到限制; 2) 服务提供者遇到的障碍强调经济融合; 3) 服务提供者利用志愿服务提供社会机会并建立移民的网络和技能。由此产生的主题表明,强调经济融合的制度性障碍限制了服务提供者提供社会活动的能力,而这些社会活动是帮助移民安置的关键。因此,我们不得不对当前管理加拿大定居服务部门的政策提出批判性质疑。

Debido a la continua llegada de inmigrantes y refugiados a Canadá, los proveedores de servicios desempeñan un papel fundamental, en tanto ofertan oportunidades ocupacionales como medio de apoyo para su integración a las comunidades de acogida. Sin embargo, pocos estudios han incorporado una óptica ocupacional al explorar las perspectivas de los proveedores de servicios en torno a sus funciones. En este estudio indagamos las perspectivas de dichos proveedores respecto a su papel a la hora de ofrecer oportunidades ocupacionales sociales a los inmigrantes, así como las barreras y las prácticas prometedoras que influyen en este papel. Se llevó a cabo un análisis secundario a partir de 20 entrevistas semiestructuradas realizadas con los actores principales vinculados a organizaciones que operan en el Lower Mainland [Continente Inferior] de la provincia de Columbia Británica, Canadá. Los resultados permiten identificar tres temas principales: 1) los proveedores de servicios tienen una capacidad limitada para ofrecer oportunidades sociales a los inmigrantes; 2) las barreras que experimentan los proveedores de servicios tienen que ver con la integración económica; y 3) los proveedores de servicios utilizan a voluntarios para ofrecer oportunidades sociales a los inmigrantes, creando redes para ellos y fortaleciendo sus habilidades. Estos temas ilustran que las barreras institucionales que hacen hincapié en la integración económica restringen la capacidad de los proveedores para proporcionar ocupaciones sociales cruciales que faciliten el reasentamiento. Estos resultados justifican el cuestionamiento crítico de las políticas actuales que rigen al sector de los servicios de asentamiento canadienses.

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that this research took place on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Sto:lo and Coast Salish peoples. We thank all study participants for their time, as well as Mélodie Honen-Delmar for her contribution to the early stages of data collection.

Conflict of Interest Statement

None declared.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported with funding from the University of British Columbia’s Hampton Fund.

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