Syed Khan – 31 August 2021,
Canada recently announced $2.1 million in extra funding for 11 programs that help racialized immigrant women. In 2018, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) began funding 21 projects to help racialized newcomer women find work and develop their skills. Ottawa maintains that these women face particular barriers, including gender and race-based discrimination, precarious or low-income employment, a lack of affordable childcare, and weak social supports. So far, the federal government has committed $31.9 million to this pilot project, initially launched under the name Visible Minority Newcomer Women Project. That money has been spread out over 40 organizations.
Quote by Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino:
“Canada can only reach its full potential if everyone in it reaches theirs. These important projects will help racialized newcomer women lay the cornerstone of success: finding a good, well-paying job. This is both the right thing to do for our society and the smart thing to do for our economy. By breaking down barriers faced by racialized newcomer women, we’re helping them make even greater contributions to their communities and country.”
Among the projects that got the funding are some that will address credential recognition and others that will provide racialized newcomer women with work placements to develop their skills and abilities in a Canadian work context. The programs that are getting the extra funding so that they can be extended until the end of March next year include five in Ontario, one in Manitoba, two in Atlantic Canada, and three in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. They are:
- Access Community Capital Fund (Toronto)
- Kitchener-Waterloo Young Women’s Christian Association (Kitchener)
- New Circles Community Services (Toronto)
- Newcomer Kitchen (Toronto)
- Syrian Canadian Foundation (Etobicoke)
- Canadian Muslim Women’s Institute (Winnipeg)
- Conseil pour le développement de l’alphabétisme et des compétences des adultes du Nouveau-Brunswick (Moncton)
- MetroWorks (Halifax)
- Umoja Operation Compassion Society
- Women’s Economic Council (Burnaby)
- Young Women’s Christian Association (Vancouver)
Statistics of the 2016 Census:
- The unemployment rate of racialized newcomer women is 9.7 per cent, or 1.2 percentage points higher than that of racialized newcomer men.
- Non-racialized newcomer men have an unemployment rate of 6.4 per cent.
- Racialized newcomer women have the lowest median annual income of all newcomer groups at $26,624, compared to non-racialized newcomer women who earn $30,074 and racialized newcomer men who make $35,574 and non-racialized newcomer men at $42,591.
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