Immigration, integration and welcoming communities: neighbourhood-based initiative to facilitate the integration of newcomers in Calgary.

Guo, Shibao ; Guo, Yan

Introduction

As an immigrant society Canada has a long and rich history of immigration. As such, immigration has played an important role in transforming Canada into an ethno-culturally diverse and economically prosperous nation. The driving forces behind immigration are social, political, economic and demographic. As the globalization of migration intensifies, Canada has joined an international competition for the most talented, skillful, and resourceful workers. More recently immigration has been promoted as a solution to help Canada ameliorate its aging population and labour shortages in a global economy. Despite a rich immigration history and the strategic role that immigration continues to play in shaping the country's future, Canada's immigration system today is plagued by at least three prominent issues. First, immigrants are unevenly distributed across Canada. Between 2006 and 2011, the vast majority (90%) of recent immigrants to Canada found homes in four provinces--Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta. With respect to destination cities, they tend to choose one of the country's 33 census metropolitan areas (CMAs). Of note, 62.5% of recent arrivals settled in the three largest CMAs--Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, which had slightly over one-third (35.2%) of the nation's total population (Statistics Canada 2013). It is projected that between now and 2031, new immigrants, particularly members of visible minority groups, will likely continue to settle in the country's large urban centres (Statistics Canada 2010). Because of the imbalances created by the uneven distribution of immigrants, we have witnessed the emergence of Canada's "new solitudes" which are dividing the country into multicultural metropolitans and mono-cultural others. Meanwhile, high concentrations of recent immigrants put pressure on the host communities to provide adequate housing, employment, education, and social services to assist new arrivals with their settlement and integration. Despite the fact that metropolitan municipalities are primary recipients of immigrants to Canada, they almost have no formal role in developing immigration policies and programs.

A second issue concerns the model of immigration governance in Canada. Despite the constitutional provision for the sharing of powers in the governance of immigration, until recently provincial and municipal involvement in immigration policy has generally been minimal (Tolley, Biles, Vineberg, Burstein and Frideres 2011). While provincial governments are becoming more active in the selection of immigrants through provincial nominee programs and temporary foreign worker programs, municipalities still have limited jurisdictional authority with neither mandate nor funding to provide immigration support services. With the exception of Toronto, which has a special limited role by virtue of the Canada-Ontario-Toronto Memorandum of Understanding on Immigration and Settlement that bestows an explicit special consultative role upon it, large cities are primarily left or kept out of the current model of immigration governance (Tolley 2011). At the same time, municipalities are often called upon to address a growing number of challenges facing newcomers to their communities. This has created a disconnect between the federal governments powerful role in immigration selection and the reality that settlement and integration occurs in communities. Recently municipalities have expressed interest in taking a more active role in developing their own programs to attract and retain immigrants (Federation of Canadian Municipalities 2011). It seems clear that we need a new approach to immigration governance involving coordination between federal, provincial and municipal governments in Canada, as immigration and integration are not stand-alone issues and they require the involvement of more than one level of government.

A third issue facing Canada's immigration pertains to how research about immigrant settlement and integration has been carried out in the past. Since immigration is primarily a federal responsibility, settlement and integration programs are often provided by state-funded immigrant serving agencies to help immigrants with their adaption to the local community. As such, research has also primarily focused on these organizations, particularly those in mega cities. Because the majority of immigrants settled in Canada's major metropolitan areas, the situation of medium-and small-sized Canadian cities is being largely ignored. This has created a large gap in immigration scholarship. Given that immigration is increasing in smaller metropolitan areas, the second- and third-tier immigrant-receiving cities require more attention and recognition from researchers and policymakers. As the process of immigrant settlement and integration is inherently local, observations and conclusions based on studies of immigrant settlement and integration in Canada's large metropolitan areas do not necessarily apply to immigrant settlement and integration in other types of urban and rural areas (Frideres 2006). Hence, there is a clear and significant need for research focusing on immigrant settlement and integration in second- and third-tier cities in Canada.

Against this backdrop, this study aims to address an important gap in immigration studies by exploring the role of Community Associations and Community Centres of second-tier immigrant-receiving cities in immigrant settlement and integration with a focus on joint initiatives with municipal government in creating welcoming communities for newcomers to Canada. The article is organized into four parts. A review of literature focusing on immigration and integration is followed by a discussion of research methodology, the findings of the study, and a discussion of the policy implications based on the findings.

Review of Relevant Literature

This study is informed by a collage of literature pertaining to immigrant integration, multiculturalism, the role of municipalities, and models of immigrant settlement and integration. First, it is necessary to examine the term "integration". One difficulty with this task lies in its lack of agreed-upon definition, even though it appears on the surface to be a self-evident term that should not require further explanation. In fact, integration is a fluid and elusive term which means various things to various people in varying situations (Jedwab 2006; Wilkinson 2013). Sometimes it is used interchangeably with adjustment, adaptation, and acculturation. Very often it is treated as a process as well as an outcome, an individual and a group phenomenon, and a change in attitudes as well as behaviours (George 2006). In other cases it is portrayed as an alternative to "assimilation," a more negatively-connoted term that describes a one-way process wherein immigrants abandon their previous cultures and adapt to their new society (Modood 2006). According to Modood, assimilation places few demands on the host country to make changes; the onus is on immigrants to conform. Still others maintain that the challenges involved in the integration and inclusion of immigrants cannot and should not be shouldered by newcomers alone (Tolley et al. 2011). Integration should seek to engage individual Canadians, communities, and existing institutions in the longer-term process of welcoming and including newcomers in Canadian society. Despite the claim that integration in Canada is a "two-way street" requiring accommodation and adjustments on the part of both newcomers and the host society, critics argue that "integration" still endorses a conformity model in assessing immigrants, and upholds a monolithic cultural framework that preaches tolerance in the abstract but remains intolerant towards cultural specificities deemed outside the mainstream (Li 2003).

One of the major mechanisms for facilitating the integration of immigrants is multiculturalism. As the first country to formulate an official policy for multiculturalism and to give it full legal authority, Canada is often viewed as a model of immigration and multiculturalism (Wong and Guo 2015). The main goal of the multicultural policy was to create warm, welcoming, and inclusive communities; and to maximize the economic, social, cultural, and political integration of immigrants and members of minority groups (Garcea and Hibbert 2011). As a policy inspired by liberal-democratic norms, multiculturalism was adopted as a policy for citizens, as a way of reformulating the role of ethnic identities and ethnic organizations within the theory and practice of Canadian citizenship (Kymlicka 2015). Critics of multiculturalism claim that multiculturalism undermines Canadian 'core values' and 'traditions' (Bissoondath 2002; Gwyn 1980, 1995). Instead of promoting integration, Bissoondath argues, multiculturalism encourages ethnic 'ghettoization' and separatism. Therefore, he continues, maintenance of ethnic heritage and identity is injurious to national allegiance and unity. In Bissoondath's vision, multiculturalism should not aim at preserving differences but at "blending them into a new vision of Canadianness, pursuing a Canada where inherent differences and inherent similarities meld easily" (224). In response to the above attacks, Kymlicka (1998) contends that the assertion that multiculturalism has increased ghettoization' and decreased the rate of integration of immigrants is flawed and unfounded. He maintains that naturalization rates have increased since the adoption of Multiculturalism in 1971. Second, ethnic groups participate actively in the political life of Canada. Third, the demand for classes in English and French as second languages (ESL, FSL) has never been higher. Fourth, intermarriage rates have consistently increased since 1971. Kymlicka believes that "Canadians do a better job of respecting ethnic diversity while promoting societal integration than citizens of any other country" (22). Reviewing multiculturalism policies and programs, Kymlicka claims that in practice multiculturalism is "a response to the pressures that Canada exerts on immigrants to integrate into common institutions," and provides "a framework for debating and developing the terms of integration" (40). Since integration does not happen overnight, it is usually a long, difficult, and often painful process. Sometimes special institutions and programs are required to help immigrants with this process. Supports include certain services in an immigrant's mother tongue, and special support for immigrant organizations that assist in the settlement and integration process. According to Kymlicka, these institutions do not represent unjust privileges for immigrants, nor do they promote ethnic separatism. They function as a transition and they are honest attempts to accommodate diversity and distinctive problems facing particular ethno-cultural groups. The ultimate goal is to facilitate greater participation in and integration into mainstream society.

Turning to the role of municipalities in immigrant settlement and integration, research shows two important patterns. First, generally, municipalities do not perform any major significant roles in the delivery of actual settlement services. Second, municipalities tend to be more involved in creating a welcoming environment for the settlement and integration of newcomers through the types of policies they adopt. Research reveals that such policies tend to relate to multiculturalism, interculturalism, equity and justice. In adopting multiculturalism and interculturalism policies, municipal governments do not necessarily adopt the discourse and policy initiatives associated with the federal government's multiculturalism framework (Tossutti 2012). Tossutti compiled an inventory and typology of corporate initiatives in six Canadian cities (i.e., Abbotsford, Brampton, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver) with respect to the following three matters: the position or profile of immigrant settlement and integration on the municipal government agenda; diversity, human rights and anti-racism policies for city institutions and broader community; and access and equity policies. Her analysis reveals that Toronto was the only city that has fully embraced a multicultural approach, recognizing immigration and cultural diversity in most or all aspects of its corporate policies and structures. Her findings indicated that whereas Vancouver's approach straddles the multicultural and intercultural variants of the pluralist model, the civic universalist model prevailed in the other four cities which have not even established separate administrative units to address settlement, integration and diversity issues. Tossutti's study shows that local models deviate significantly from Canada's national model of multiculturalism resulting from the absence of direction from the federal or provincial governments on such issues which gives municipalities wide latitude in crafting their responses to demographic change.

With respect to models of immigrant settlement and integration, it is important to note that nearly all immigrant services are actually provided by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with funding from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and other federal government organizations as well as provincial organizations in some cases. NGOs provide a wide range of programs and services, including information and referral services, interpretation and translation, language training, employment and career services, health, youth programs, citizenship classes, and counseling services. Reviewing the general practice in this area and an emerging body of literature on this topic, the current immigrant settlement and integration service providers can be classified into six categories: universal organizations, immigrant serving organizations, multicultural organizations, ethnocultural agencies, faith-based organizations, and special interest groups. The first category consists of universal organizations that provide health and social services to the general public with immigrants as part of their service population. The United Way and YM/WCA are often cited as key players in this category, working with newcomers on community building, poverty reduction, and civic engagement (Biles 2008; Frideres 2011). In some cities the United Way also provides funding to immigrant serving organizations to support their initiatives.

The second category consists of immigrant serving organizations (ISOs), which form the core in immigrant settlement and integration delivering services to immigrants in their local communities. IRCC has formal agreements with three hundred ISOs primarily located in Canada's major urban centres (Biles 2008). Despite their community roots, adaptability, and efficiency in delivering services, ISOs still remain marginal to the decision-making process within all levels of government. Furthermore, chronic underfunding has produced a status of temporariness and precariousness that has significantly weakened the quality of services (Shields 2014). The underfunding has been a major concern and criticism of the national Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance and provincial umbrella associations of ISOs.

The third category consists of multicultural organizations that provide multilingual services to immigrants from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds with a special interest in cultural awareness, advocacy, and community development. The founding of many multicultural organizations is inspired by Canada's multiculturalism policy which encourages ethnic groups to maintain their cultural identities while integrating into the new society. Often they are seen as the core of immigrant serving organizations with funding from different levels of government.

The fourth category consists of ethnocultural organizations that are often founded in response to the failure of government agencies and mainstream organizations to provide accessible social services for newcomers to Canada (Guo 2008; Guo and Guo 2015). They can be an effective alternative in immigrant settlement and integration because they are more closely connected with and responsive to community needs. Owing to its alleged criticism for promoting ghettoization and separatism, many ethnocultural organizations face challenges in securing funding and as a consequence, they are underfunded and understaffed. As a survival strategy, some of them have been simply transformed into multicultural and multiethnic organizations without much substantial capacity to provide settlement and integration services on an ongoing basis.

The fifth category consists of faith-based organizations, which have a long history in providing immigrant settlement and integration services before secular ISOs emerged largely as a result of the infusion of substantial federal funding. Although faith-based organizations may be established in response to the needs of a particular faith community, many are open to people of other faiths. For example, Canadian Catholics and Mennonites have founded several immigrant service centres in Canada's major immigrant receiving cities. Recently some of them have renamed themselves to show they are becoming more secular.

The sixth category consists of special interest groups, which usually provide services to a particular group with special needs (e.g., immigrant women, youth, and seniors), or address one or more specific challenges (e.g., employment, racism, media awareness) facing immigrants' settlement and integration. Immigrant women and youth are two of the most vulnerable groups who often face discrimination and social exclusion which may intersect with their race, ethnicity, religion, and social class to produce multiple layers of marginalization and oppression. Hence, they require special attention and additional support. In cases where government funding is either inadequate or not available, the special interest groups assisting members of those in need devote considerable effort to access funding from other sources.

The number and extraordinary diversity of NGO service providers has garnered Canada an international reputation as a very proactive country in the provision of settlement and integration services through partnerships between state, societal and even business entities. What is missing from this discussion is the role of municipalities and local and neighbourhood community centres in bridging newcomers to Canada. Given that immigrant settlement and integration is a continuum process, immigrants will likely continue to require programs and services to support their efforts of integrating into the local community after their initial settlement and adaptation stage. Recently there have been some joint initiatives between municipal government and local or neighbourhood community centres in the City of Calgary in working together to build welcoming communities for newcomers to Calgary, which form the focus of this study.

Research Design and Data Collection

This study employs an exploratory case study approach combining methods of document analysis and personal interviews. The use of the case study approach enabled us to focus on the particularity and complexity of two case studies to understand an activity and its significance (Stake 1995). One important feature of a case study is that it generates thick descriptions that go beyond mere facts and surface features of the case to include details, context, and other such descriptive and interpretive elements of the case (McGinn 2010). In an effort to make the study manageable we focused on only two of the 100 community centres in Calgary. Edgemont Community Centre in Northwest Calgary and the Genesis Centre in Northeast Calgary were purposefully selected as the research sites for this case study both because a large number of newcomers have settled in their communities in the past three decades, and also because in recent years they have developed new programs to help immigrants with their integration which are worth investigating. These two case studies were instrumental in examining a particular case to cast light onto something other than the case (Stake 1995), that is, the case study was conducted so as to understand the unique conditions and challenges of programs for immigrants in each case context, for the purposes of developing indicators of a welcoming community.

The document analysis included documents accessible in the public domain at the city and community levels, including policy papers, annual reports, newsletters, meeting minutes, important speeches, program brochures, and information on the Web. Fifteen interviews were conducted with city staff and program coordinators of the two communities. Each interview lasted about one hour. Semi-structured face-to-face interviewing was selected because it provided flexibility in asking in-depth questions listed in an interview guide (Fontana and Frey 2005). Data were analyzed as we went along in order to adjust our interview strategies, and to discover important persons and events that might provide informative new leads. In addition to the two major methods, we also used site visits and participant observation as volunteers as complementary methods to help us contextualize what we read and heard about these centres.

A four-stage process was developed for data analysis: identifying main points, searching for salient themes and recurring patterns, grouping common themes and patterns into related categories, and comparing all major categories with reference to the major theories in the field to form new perspectives. The four stage process assured that there was frequent interplay between the data and theory. In addition, site visits and participant observations helped the researchers comprehend better the information gleaned from the document analysis and interviews. Multiple research methods and data sources of documents, interviews, observations and researcher reflections mean that this study adopted a triangulation approach, which enhanced the credibility and trustworthiness of the study (Guba and Lincoln 2005).

Report of Findings

Mapping diversity at the community level

As stated earlier, the City of Calgary has the fourth highest number of immigrants in Canada, representing 26.2% of its total population, up from 23.6% in 2006 (Statistics Canada 2013). Most of Calgary's recent immigrants came from the Philippines, India, China, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, the United States, Pakistan, Germany, Poland, and South Korea. The proportion of visible minority (28.1%) was higher than the national average (19.1%) consisting primarily of South Asians, Chinese, and Filipinos.

As a result of growing immigration, Calgary is becoming increasingly ethno-culturally diverse. Its ethno-cultural diversity is reflected in the changing demographics of Edgemont and the communities that the Genesis Centre services. Edgemont is one of the largest among Calgary's 150 community associations. There are over 150 community associations and 100 community centres in Calgary. The associations are the agents with an elected board providing services to the community through community centres. However, not every association can afford the space and facilities to run a centre. The 2015 City of Calgary municipal census shows that Edgemont had a population of 15,986 living in 5,424 dwellings (City of Calgary 2015). Edgemont is also a fairly new community with its development starting in 1978 and the Edgemont Community Association was founded in 1980. In the past 30 years Edgemont has attracted a large number of immigrants to the community, accounting for 41% of the total population in the neighbourhood (City of Calgary 2014a). Among recent arrivals to Edgemont between 2006 and 2011, the majority came from Asia (59%), about a quarter from Europe (24%), and the rest from the Americas (10%) and Africa (6%) (see Table 1). Chinese (24%), Hindi (3%), and Spanish (3%) are the main non-official languages spoken at home, indicating that the Chinese are likely the largest visible minority group in Edgemont. Edgemont is also known to Calgarians as a fairly affluent community with a median household income of $113,928 in comparison to $81,256 for all of Calgary. Many people are not aware that 8.6% of the residents living in the community are low income (City of Calgary 2014a).

The Genesis Centre, formerly known as the North East Centre of Community Society (NECCS), is located in the catchment areas of three communities: Martindale, Saddle Ridge and Taradale. In 1994, a group of dedicated community volunteers approached the City of Calgary about the idea of building a community centre to meet the growing needs for recreational and social services in the most culturally diverse quadrant of the city (Genesis Centre, n.d.). Three primary community associations of Martindale, Saddle Ridge, and Taradale officially joined forces in 2005 to form NECCS. Following that, a formal partnership was formed between NECCS, the City of Calgary, YMCA, and Calgary Public Library, which led to the official opening of the Genesis Centre of Community Wellness in 2012.

Martindale was established in 1983 and is one of the fastest growing communities in the Northeast of Calgary. In the City of Calgary's 2015 municipal census, Martindale had a population of 15,055, an 8.6% increase from 12,987 in 2011 (City of Calgary 2015). It is also one of the most ethnically diverse communities in Calgary; half of Martindale's residents were immigrants and 70% visible minorities (City of Calgary 2014b). With respect to countries of origin, they came from Asia (81%), Africa (14%), and the Americas (3%). Also, 44% of residents spoke non-official languages at home with the top five as being Punjabi (55%), Urdu (10%), Tagalog (7%), Spanish (5%), and Farsi (4%) (see Table 1). Residents in the Martindale community had a median household income of $77,363, which is below the Calgary median of $81,256 (City of Calgary 2014b). Low income residents living in the neighbourhood represented 18.1% of Martindale's population.

Saddle Ridge and Taradle have a lot in common with Martindale with respect to ethnic diversity in their communities. Saddle Ridge is an older community that initially consisted of acreages with an active community association since 1968; Taradale was established in 1984, around the same time as Martindale. In 2014 the size of the population for both communities and the proportion of immigrants were identical. Among recent arrivals who moved to Saddle Ridge between 2006 and 2011, 86% came from Asia and the remaining from Africa (6%), the Americas (4%), and Europe (3%) (City of Calgary 2014c). Like Saddle Ridge, Taradale attracted newcomers from similar sources, primarily from Asia (83%), the Americas (6%), Africa (5%), and Europe (4%) (City of Calgary 2014d) (see Table 1). The proportion of visible minorities in each community is significantly higher than the city average of 28.1%: 83% for Saddle Ridge and 79% for Taradale. The main non-official languages of both communities are also similar--Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Spanish. Residents in the Saddle Ridge community had a slightly higher median household income of $83,746 than Taradale's $77,137, which is below that of the city at $81,256 (City of Calgary 2014c).

The foregoing data clearly demonstrate that Calgary is becoming more ethno-culturally diverse as a result of growing immigration, and that Edgemont, Martindale, Saddle Ridge and Taradale are likely the most culturally diverse neighbourhood communities in the city. The diversity is manifested in the changing demographics of these communities and the ethnic composition of recent immigrants to the communities, each of which can be described as a "community of colours" (North of McKnight Residents Committee 2010). While Edgemont attracted more Chinese immigrants to the community, the Northeast communities had a bigger share of immigrants from Africa, India, and the Philippines. Their ethno-cultural diversity has reconfigured the social and cultural fabric of the City of Calgary. In this context, it is important to ask: What are the implications of such profound demographic and socio-cultural changes for immigrant settlement and integration? What can be done to best facilitate the integration of newcomers into the local community? How should programs and services at the community level be adjusted to meet the needs of recent immigrants? In particular, what are the roles of municipal government and community centres in creating a welcoming community for newcomers to Calgary?

Dimensions of integration

As noted earlier, integration is not solely the responsibility of the newcomers. As a reciprocal process, successful integration involves mutual obligations for new immigrants and Canadian society (Tolley et al. 2011). Unwillingness on the part of newcomers to integrate or systematic discrimination on the part of the host society can both impede integration. The role that Canadians can play in the integration process includes an openness to immigration in general; a willingness to accept difference and to appreciate the benefits of immigration and diversity; a flexibility to adapt our social, economic, and cultural practices to accommodate newcomers; and opportunities for newcomers to have a legitimate voice in our civic and democratic life (Tolley et al. 2011,2).

Full and complete integration does not happen instantaneously. As a continuum process, it consists of different stages after initial settlement in the community. Recent research shows that immigrants require considerable time, perhaps as much as ten years, to integrate (Guo 2013). The longer they stay in Canada, the less help they need for integration purposes. The group with the greatest need for such help are new arrivals who have moved to Canada within the last three years, and who need support in multiple areas because they often face multifaceted barriers in transitions to their new life in Canada, including unemployment and underemployment, devaluation of their prior learning and work experiences, lack of support networks, lack of access to short- and long-term services, feelings of isolation and exclusion, and racism and discrimination. They need assistance with employment, language, housing, daycare, education, health, counseling, legal and social services. Therefore, there is a need for settlement and integration programming to eliminate barriers for newcomers and to promote interactions between newcomers and members of established communities.

Integration is also a multidimensional process involving economic, social, political, and cultural integration. Unfortunately current immigration policies in Canada's new economy have primarily focused on economic integration with an emphasis on the economic interests of the state. Political integration has also been narrowly limited to voting during election time. Policies largely ignore social and cultural integration of immigrants as they try to transition to life in Canada (Wilkinson 2013). The multidimensionality of integration suggests that single item indicators of integration are not sufficient for understanding immigrants' experiences and as such researchers need to adopt a more holistic approach. It would be beneficial to find out the ways and extent to which the settlement and integration needs of newcomers are addressed in the daily practices of immigrant settlement and integration at the community level.

In our interviews with frontline workers, we explored the multidimensional aspects of immigrant integration with people at the Genesis Centre. John, executive director of the Genesis Centre, highlighted the five pillars approach, which they adopt in their daily practices in promoting physical, spiritual, social, intellectual, and emotional integration. First, for the physical integration, which is rarely mentioned in the literature, they offer a variety of different ethnic sports to meet the changing needs of the community. Instead of ice hockey, they offer field hockey, badminton, bhangra dance, circuit space, futsal, kabaddi wrestling, and turf fields. They also host a number of tournaments bringing people out to watch and socialize, often with ethnic food and cultural activities, which help address social isolation facing many immigrants. John discusses how they determine what they offer: So what we do is we go out to the community, and we ask where are the gaps or why they are not participating in the recreation. They tell us that they don't want to play ... dodge ball, they don't want to play volleyball, because that's not what they play back in India or Bangladesh or the Philippines. We try ... [to] find the groups that are ... organizing ... [programs for] helping the community. Once we find them, we try to partner and bring in that program to our space. So when we offer it, it's already full, because there is already that gap, there is already that need in the community. That's how we determine what we offer here.

The spiritual part accounts for 20% of the programs offered at the Genesis Centre. They have a wide range of programs for people of different religions. They host Christian concerts, Eid Prayers, Gujarati festivals, and Ramadan. The largest group that has been using their facilities is people of Islamic faith. Right from the beginning since the opening of the centre in 2012, they welcome around 2,000 people every Friday who come to congregate and worship. John explains: So we host the Ramadan prayers. During the holy month of Ramadan, we host their major prayer time throughout the year, which is called Eid festivals. We also host ... some of the Indian festivals. So Gujarati is a big one from the Gujarati part of India and their faith. They come here for four weekends in the fall usually to celebrate their Gujarati festival. We [also] have Bengali ... religious festivals.

When asked how the larger community receives this, John explains that most people in the community understand and support them, because "they see it, they live it, they know what's going on." Occasionally they also encounter the odd persons who would call them 'terrorists'. This sentiment reflects the deep anxiety that people have about the emerging third stage of multiculturalism in extending its existing models and mechanisms from ethnicity and race to religion identified by Kymlicka (2015). Michael, one of the founding members of the Genesis Centre, exposes the myths that feed that anxiety by saying this: All programs have to move people towards ... Canadian society. We don't build religions here, and we don't build ethnic groups, but ethnicity does flourish. When three or four come together, they flourish, so that happens. But the big thing is to bring people to the realization that as they move towards open society in Canada, that now they have an opportunity to give back, so they volunteer. Lots of people here ... volunteer their time.

Turning to social integration, which overlaps with the other forms of integration, the Genesis Centre provides formal as well as informal space for newcomers and local residents to socialize. John describes this as follows: We also allow space in all of our upper level of the building, it is open and free for public use at any given time of the day. So we have a lot of groups coming every single day, socializing in this space. It is not uncommon on every afternoon at 4 o'clock to have a group of 40 or 50 senior men up there playing cards and they just socialize. There is a place for them just to come together and be together.

The remaining two pillars--intellectual and emotional integration--are addressed by programs provided by the 1,000 Voices, which is located at the Genesis Centre but has been running independently since 2012. Funded by the United Way of Calgary and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the 1,000 Voices is a brokering space made up of 40 agencies and 30 community resident groups, providing an informal gathering place connecting newcomers and local residents with community groups and service agencies that actually provide the programs and services. The 1,000 Voices is governed by a stewardship group consisting of representatives from community and agency members, and is operating through the Aspen Family and Network Society as the trustee agency which is holding the funds and operating the centre. Its name came from a survey conducted by the United Way about evolving community needs representing 1,000 community voices. The original plan was to create a one-stop shop that will bring human services closer to newcomers and local residents so that they do not need to travel to different places for help. Pauline, team lead of the 1,000 Voices, states: They can come here for a range of support and also just to connect with each other. It's centralized and it's a "one-stop shop". I think that was the idea. If this existed already, then this would not have been built or used the same way. I just think the idea people tend to latch onto is the idea of a hub model for community services where it's eliminating barriers and being as accessible as possible to a huge population.

The 1,000 Voices provides free space for meetings, workshops, settlement programs and services, community support groups, and cultural activities. For newcomers' intellectual integration, its partner agencies provide a wide range of lifelong learning programs and services, including employment training programs, career counseling, resume writing, LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) classes, heritage language classes, citizenship classes, language testing support, free legal clinics, and free tax clinics. They also provide emotional support to newcomers, such as family support and counseling, parenting programs, women's support group, health and wellness programs, and community outreach programs. Pauline notes: We have things going on by CIWA [Calgary Immigrant Women's Association], by CCIS [Calgary Catholic Immigration Society], by Centre for Newcomers, Making Change, Alberta Works, Alberta Health. We have dietitians coming in and doing one-on-one nutritional counseling, pediatric kind of dietitian too. We have the Alex Health Bus who will come.... [W]e have four to five different levels of language classes daily that are offered by LINC, [as well as heritage languages such as] Urdu or Hindi or Kashmiri.

Also, the Calgary Public Library plays a key role in the intellectual life of newcomers in this community. John, executive director of the Genesis Centre, explains: Again, they [Calgary Public Library] played a big key role intellectually.... [T]hey provide a lot of different classes designed specifically for people in this community, basic computer skills, basic English skills too, how to use a library, ... [and] how to find information.... 1000 Voices [also performs a major role intellectually].

The multi-pillar or multidimensional approach used by the Genesis Centre helps foster social and cultural integration. It is noteworthy that its initiatives in recognizing and embracing religious diversity help build a more inclusive model of Canadian citizenship (Kymlicka 2015). One of the contributing factors to the success of the hub model of community integration programs is partnership and collaboration, which form the focus of the following discussion.

Partnerships and collaboration

In commenting on the current model(s) of immigration and integration in Canada, researchers and policymakers argue that we need to build partnerships and collaboration involving multiple levels of government and stakeholders because immigration and integration are not stand-alone issues (Tolley et al. 2011). Since integration takes place at the community level, policies and programs must be sensitive to the context into which immigrants are integrating. In particular, it is important to engage municipalities and community partners to help overcome the disconnect between government policies and local community needs. It is not clear however what that partnership and collaboration should look like. Who are the partners? What does collaboration actually involve? How does it contribute to immigrant integration and community building? Our research participants at the municipal and community levels shed light on these questions.

As noted earlier, the founding of the Genesis Centre is the result of partnership among three levels of government, community associations, foundations, corporations, and community residents. The three primary community associations of Martindale, Saddle Ridge, and Taradale first joined forces to form the North East Centre of Community Society (NECCS), which led to a formal partnership with the City of Calgary, YMCA, and Calgary Public Library. The 255 thousand square feet complex is actually a grassroots community project that became increasingly institutionalized with the involvement of all the aforementioned organizations. The bulk of its $120 million funding came from the City of Calgary ($70 million) and the rest from the federal and provincial governments, YMCA, Genesis Line Corporation, Calgary Minor Soccer, Enmax, Calgary Foundations, among many others. Michael, an active founding member of the Genesis Centre, describes the pivotal role of the City of Calgary in this process: The city has been very close to us, very helpful, 'through the city we received 70 million dollars ... for the construction of this centre. The municipal sustainability and initiative goes to a variety of projects, the three recreational centres, and the renovation of a few others. We received it through a provincial grant. The city did not have to give it to us.... Through the efforts of the Mayor and his colleagues, and ... associates, we moved quickly towards architectural design, planning, cost plan and everything. The city was with us the whole way.

With a vision to provide a safe and friendly environment for the enhancement of the standard of living for newcomers as well as existing community members, the Genesis Centre successfully combines recreation with human and social services, which are provided through the 1,000 Voices. Michael comments on the instrumental role of the United Way in the creation of the 1,000 Voices: By 2006, the United Way of Calgary was already in spirit a partner with us, although not officially a partner. We sat in focus groups for four years ... prior to construction. After construction, we started getting these bigger focus groups, seniors, immigrants, newcomers, Aboriginals, elders, they're all featured in here (the focus group report]. We talked to them, we hosted them, we hosted open houses, which brought the community together.... Without the United Way we would not have achieved what we did. We would have something, but it would not be of quality.

In the past four years since the official opening in 2012, the Genesis Centre has become a home and community for many newcomers. Michael also describes it as a hidden secret and a jewel in Western Canada: People from ... Western Canada and some from the East, they come here to see what this is like. We are one of a kind in Western Canada. When we opened up, there was nothing like this. That's why we called it the 'jewel'. There is nothing else like it. Now people are redoing it. Other places are offering something like what we have here.

Like the Genesis Centre, the Community of Edgemont is also committed to partnership building. In this process, Jessica, community social worker for the City of Calgary's Community and Neighbourhood Services, worked closely with the Edgemont Community Association to form the Edgemont Networking Group. She explains: Now the biggest partnership that I am involved with ... is the Edgemont Networking Group. After we started having more agencies coming to support families there, I started the Edgemont Networking Group, which is like an inter-agency [network], involving representations from all schools from Edgemont, agencies working there, community members, faith organizations, Calgary Housing, the City, and the community association. We come together about four times a year. Together we talk about what are the challenges and opportunities in this community, and what we're going to do ... [specified in] some concrete action plans. There are lots of partnerships that are formed through that whole process.

One of Jessica's roles is to provide support to vulnerable community members by advocating for service providers to come to the Community of Edgemont. Because the community as a whole is fairly affluent, there have been challenges around supporting the vulnerable population because resources tend not to go to communities that are seen as being affluent. About eight years ago, concerns were raised by community members and school representatives that there were not enough recreational programs for children who live in low income households. Working with community partners, Jessica created an after-school program in 2008 for children aged 6-12 known as the Edge Program, which includes providing recreation activities, homework assistance, games, arts and crafts, and cooking lessons. Schools provide teachers to help with homework. With the support of community volunteers, they also provide healthy dinners and snacks. Jessica states: The two churches, Westminster Presbyterian and the Foothill Alliance, provided the space and volunteers, we paid for the program. We provided staff, and through that program, we really got to know the community. We really got to know families and children, and the struggles they were facing, and then I began to speak to other agencies, and tell them about some of the struggles families in Edgemont are facing, and I asked them to come in and get involved. So for example, Calgary Immigrant Women's Association, Calgary Public Library, Bowwest Community Resource Centre, ... [and a] number of organizations started trying to advocate for the community. And a number of organizations have now started to provide service to families in Edgemont.

Another partnership program that the Edgemont Networking Group has been working on is the Breakfast Club, an initiative resulting from responding to community concerns that children living in low income housing often go to school hungry. For this program, Calgary Housing provides space in one of its units near where most residents are living. About 90% of residents living in the Calgary Housing Complex in Edgemont are newcomers from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Congo, India, Iraq, Lebanon, and Somalia. The Breakfast Club serves two purposes: providing healthy food and community building. The city provided funds to help the project get started. They have also applied for and received funding from the Communities ChooseWell program, a provincial grant fostering community wellness through active living and healthy eating. Besides that, churches, the Scotia Bank in Edgemont, and community members also provide help and support. Vivian, president of Edgemont Community Association explained that the "... Breakfast Club has been a shining example of something that really really worked well" through a partnership that has involved close collaboration between three major partners--the community association, the City of Calgary, and the Calgary Housing Company.

Since 2012 Edgemont has been organizing an annual event called One World to celebrate cultural diversity in the community and to welcome newcomers to Edgemont. They are also trying to connect community members with each other and with service providers in the community, because many newcomers are not aware of what resources are available at Edgemont. Edgemont Community Association has taken a lead role in coordinating the work of the planning committee. They are also responsible for applying for funding, managing the funds, and promoting the event. Each year it goes to a different location in the community that has a space large enough to accommodate more than 1,000 people. Although major activities take place in one day, a lot of preparations are required in advance, involving all four schools, all churches, service providers, the community association, the city, community members, and businesses in Edgemont. Jessica describes the range of activities of the One World event as follows: There is a huge presentation from Chinese Calgary Seniors, they are the biggest hit at One World. They open the event with a Lion Dance. Everyone is in the gym when the lion dance is happening.... After that, the whole school is filled with students who have done presentations ... in their social studies [classes]. There is a ... cultural fashion show [involving] kindergarten kids up to adults; everybody is encouraged to wear any kinds of cultural outfits they have. Restaurants from all over Edgemont provide different cultural food ... for people to try.

When asked how the One World has addressed the need of newcomers in the community, Robert, principal of Tom Baines Junior High School, who initiated the One World idea, had this to say: Well I think it exposes them to a variety of things that are available to them, so it exposes them to agencies, it exposes them to ... make connections with other people from their own culture ... that live within their communities. So hopefully they can establish some relationship with them. It exposes them to resources like Scotia Bank, ... the Bowwest ... and also ... to some of the businesses in the community like the restaurants and things like that. And they got to know their neighbor sometimes too.... So you see some of those connections going on as well.

Partnership and collaboration go hand in hand with community building. Several participants commented on how partnership and collaboration at Edgemont has contributed to building welcoming communities for newcomers. Jessica particularly commented on how community associations can look past four walls in responding to community needs: This is a good example of a community association that looks past through walls and recognizes the need in their community, that could not necessarily be served by traditional programs in the community association. They recognize the need to go where vulnerable families are living, playing and be there. There are board members from community associations ... boiling eggs and ... sitting down and having breakfast with community members. So they are not just getting the job done, they are really leading by example.

The above discussion has demonstrated two cases of partnership and community building which involve multiple levels of government and community partners. In this process, the City of Calgary plays a pivotal role in providing funding and support while community associations facilitate place-based community development initiatives that engage newcomers and established community members in working together to eliminate barriers and to promote integration.

Conclusion: Toward a Welcoming Community

In 2011 the City of Calgary Council passed the Welcoming Community Policy to promote an inclusive, welcoming community where all Calgarians can have an equal opportunity to participate in the economic, social, cultural, recreational and political life of the community (City of Calgary 2011). This policy outlines a blueprint indicating its important engagement with the local community and senior governments in "providing successful integration for immigrants into our community and addressing their needs as they relate to the municipal mandate of creating an inclusive community" (2). It identifies five key areas in pursuing action and collaboration, including economic and social integration; intergovernmental relations; service access and equity; advocacy, community, public awareness and education; and special populations.

The two case studies that have been the focus of this study demonstrate how the municipal welcoming policies are carried out at the community level with respect to bridging newcomers to the local community. The findings reveal that Calgary is becoming more ethno-culturally diverse as a result of growing immigration, and that Calgary's northeast and northwest are likely the most culturally diverse quadrants of the city as manifested in the changing demographics and the ethnic composition of recent immigrants to the communities. The profound demographic and socio-cultural changes pose important opportunities and challenges for immigrant settlement and integration at the municipal and community levels.

In the process of facilitating immigrant settlement and integration, the City of Calgary has worked closely with community partners in developing a hub model of community-based integration programs that engage newcomers and established community members in working together to eliminate barriers to the successful settlement and integration of newcomers. The City's multidimensional approach is based on an understanding that integration is a holistic process encompassing multifaceted components of economic, social, cultural, political, and physical integration of newcomers as they transition to a new life in Canada.

The two case studies from Calgary provide a model and evidence of how a municipal government and community partners can work collectively to create inclusive space toward a welcoming community for newcomers. Despite its popularity, the term "welcoming community" has never been properly defined until recently, when seventeen key characteristics of a welcoming community were identified and introduced to help define the term. A welcoming community is presented as having two dimensions: a spatial dimension and a discourse dimension (Esses et al. 2010). While the former is referred to as a physical location in Canada (e.g., a town, city, or region) where newcomers feel valued and their needs are served, the latter represents a discourse on the responsibility of the host community having agency and engaging in actions that facilitate the integration of newcomers. In this view, a welcoming community can be conceptualized as "a collective effort to create a space where individuals feel valued and included" and "a location that has the capacity to meet the needs and promote the inclusion of newcomers" (9). A welcoming community can attract and retain newcomers by removing barriers, promoting a sense of belonging, meeting diverse individual needs, and offering services that promote successful integration. This study has revealed that the two community centres in Calgary have made a significant contribution in meeting some of those needs and providing some of those services.

We hope that the findings from this study will inform researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in two dimensions. First, we hope that they will contribute to thinking of new national policy development in engaging municipal government in immigration and integration. Second, we hope it will lead practitioners at the community level to reassess their past practices in immigrant integration and to develop appropriate plans in the future designed to foster community initiatives that will create welcoming communities for newcomers in all types of municipalities.

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SHIBAO GUO is Professor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. He specializes in the areas of citizenship and immigration, Chinese immigrants in Canada, race and ethnic relations, and comparative and international education. His latest books are: Revisiting Multiculturalism in Canada: Theories, Policies and Debates (Sense Publishers, 2015, with L. Wong), and Work, Learning and Transnational Migration: Opportunities, Challenges, and Debates (Routledge, 2016). Currently he serves as president of Canadian Ethnic Studies Association and is Co-Editor of Canadian Ethnic Studies.

YAN GUO is Associate Professor of Language and Literacy in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Her research interests include immigration, sociocultural and sociopolitical perspectives on language learning, English as an Additional Language (EAL), diversity in teacher education, immigrant parent engagement, transnational identities of immigrant children, language policy, and international education. Her recent publications appeared in Canadian Journal of Education, Language and Education, Intercultural Education, and Canadian Ethnic Studies. TABLE 1. Recent Immigrants to Calgary, by Year of Landing (2006-2011) Calgary Edgemont Martindale Continent Americas 14% 10% 3% of Birth Europe 12% 24% Africa 11% 6% 14% Asia 62% 59% 81% Non-official Chinese 4% 24% Languages Hindi 3% 11% Spanish 4% 3% 3% Punjabi 3% 30% Urdu 8% Tagalog 4% 8% Vietnamese Religion Christian 81% 80% 42% Muslim 8% 9% 15% Sikh 4% 31% Hindu 7% Saddle Taradale Ridge Continent Americas 2% 4% of Birth Europe 2% 1% Africa 3% 8% Asia 90% 85% Non-official Chinese Languages Hindi 13% 8% Spanish 3% Punjabi 38% 27% Urdu 12% 14% Tagalog 11% 8% Vietnamese 4% Religion Christian 35% 38% Muslim 19% 28% Sikh 38% 26% Hindu Source: The City of Calgary Community Profiles (City of Calgary 2014).