Ensuring newcomers know Canadian values up to Canadians, focus groups tell feds
OTTAWA — Newcomers to Canada need to know about this country’s shared values, and it’s up to Canadians to teach them, participants in government-run focus groups on immigration told researchers last summer.
The report into the results of five focus groups held across the country found that many participants were thoughtful about Canada’s capacity to support and educate newcomers on “our laws, values and general way of doing things” to allow them to fit in.
“Participants were not placing the burden on the newcomer but rather on the local community,” said the Leger report, submitted to the Immigration Department last fall but made public this week.
“Many comments were related to the host population having an individual responsibility or civic duty to be part that socialization process.”