Immigration Partnership and Region Waterloo Public Health

regional committee meeting: The fact sheets, given to a regional committee meeting earlier this week, were prepared by Region of Waterloo Public Health in collaboration with the Immigration Partnership, a group of more than 100 organizations and community members focused on supporting and integrating immigrants, according to The Waterloo Record. New immigrants are twice as likely as Canadian-born residents to be unemployed, and when they do find work, it often lower paying. Newly released fact sheets on immigrants to this region reveal some of the challenges they face in getting settled and secure in their new home, including finding good jobs. "There an imbalance between the skill and education people bring with them and the opportunities they're able to access when they come here," said Tara Bedard, manager of Immigration Partnership. The median income for recent immigrants is about one-third lower than for all of Waterloo Region, and on average it takes more than 20 years of living in Canada for their income to reach the median. "It takes a very long time of working really hard to get to that point," Bedard said. And, she added, there is good reason to make sure the community offers the services and programs newcomers need and want. The five fact sheets — covering topics including who arriving, languages they speak, demographics, employment, income and health — hold a trove of data for community planners and organizations. "The information that is contained in the fact sheets is really valuable as a community planning tool," Bedard said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.