Jason Luan, Soci a l Planner, Family and Community Support Services, City of Calgary

1. CulturalDiversity and InclusivenessFor Calgary’s Community Associations November 7, 2009 Calgary Community Sustainability Conference Jason Luan, Social Planner, Family and Community Support Services, City of Calgary Marichu Antonio, Executive Director, Ethno-Cultural Council of Calgary

2. Welcome and Introductions • Participant Mapping Activity(Sociogram)

3. Workshop Themes and Objectives • Theme I: Trends and the Changing Context: Increased understanding of the value of Cultural Diversity and Inclusiveness • Theme II: Community Associations and Ethno-cultural Communities: Increased awareness of opportunities, mechanisms and process for interaction between the two • Theme III: Action Points: More ideas on ways to work together

4. Theme I: Trends and the Changing Context

5. Trends: The Changing Demographics • Calgary, the 4th largest centre receiving new immigrants in Canada • Calgary, the 3rd municipality in Canada to achieve a population of one million people • Calgary, one-in-four are visible minorities • Calgary, high in-land migration and high labor shortage

9. Five Myths and Facts about Immigrants Myths and Realities of Life for Immigrants in Calgary (Research from United Way of Calgary and Area)

10. Myth #1 Foreign trained professionals are not as qualified as Canadian professionals Fact: • More than 21% of physicians were foreign-trained; 22% and plus are practicing in Alberta (2008 CMA)

11. Myth #2 Immigrants are a burden on the Canadian Economy Facts • 60% of recent immigrants to Alberta have college or university education (2004 CIC) • 10% increase in immigration results to 1% increase in exports

12. Myth #3 Immigrants do not want to work. Fact: • 70% of the overall growth rate in labour force are made of new immigrants (1990s)

13. Myth #4 Immigrants take away jobs from Canadians. Facts • 50% of immigrants with post-secondary credentials are under valued in employment (CIC 2006) • New immigrants are three times more likely than Canadian-born workers to be found in low-skills jobs (The Globe and Mail 2008)

14. Myth #5 Immigrants bring crime to Canada. Fact: • Immigrants in Canada have lower overall crime rates than the Canadian-born population (Statistics Canada 2006)

15. Reflections on Cultural Diversity and Social Inclusion • What does it mean to you? • Your perspectives and stories • Functional definition: • Asking who is not involved and why • Talking directly to those not involved to find the answers • Engaging different perspectives

16. What’s at Stake? • High cost of not integrating • Racial tension • Social segregation • Perception of increased crime • Social and health cost • Business relocation/loss

17. Who Benefits from social inclusion and diversity? • A win-win approach for all • Welcoming community • Cohesive and integrated community

18. Theme II Working Together - Community Associations and Ethnocultural Communities

19. What the Changing Context means to Community Associations? • A shared responsibility for us all • A need to bridge the gap • An opportunity to vitalize our community

20. Ethnocultural Groups/Associations • Grouped according to country of origin, race, language, ethnicity, faith • Mostly city-wide, with relative concentration in some geographic areas • Activities range from issue response, welcoming newcomers, heritage, dialogues with institutions and decision-makers

21. Examples

22. Ethno-Cultural Council of Calgary (ECCC) • Community-based organization with 27 member-organizations • Aims to facilitate collective voice of visible minorities • Towards active civic engagement of visible minorities in social, economic and political affairs of society

23. ECCC Members African Sudanese Caribbean Eritrean Somali Francophone Asian Indian Chinese Vietnamese Filipinos Nepalese Japanese Pakistani Tibetan Latin American Salvadoran Peruvian Middle Eastern Kurdish Palestinian Teachers Literary Professionals Engineers Businesses

24. Types of Projects & Activities • Welcoming newcomers • Heritage and language instructions • Sports • Cooking together • Children’s education • Neighbourhood groups and concerns • Issues: ESL, Racial Profiling, Recognition of International Credentials

25. Levels of Interaction FCC ECCC Ethnocultural groups/associations (Culture-based) Community Associations (Geographic-based) Individuals

26. Discussion • Opportunities and challenges of working together • Finding a common ground • Developing mechanisms for mutually beneficial relationships • Levels of interaction and engagement

27. Theme III Action Points

28. Group Discussion Questions • What were your experiences interacting with ethno-cultural groups or individuals? • What have you learned from the past experiences? • What new ideas do you have for bridge-building? • How can we move forward?

29. Summary of Ideas for Action • Report back • Summary • Commitments

30. Our aspiration: To create an inclusive community that values immigrants as assets and welcomes them to be fully integrated in our community Further Contact:Jason Luan Marichu Antonio Phone: (403) 456-6856 (403) 263-9900jluan@calgary.ca marichu.antonio@ecccalgary.com