Your research and collection of information for your environmental scans is complete.
You have an external scan taking into account economic, political and social conditions provincially and nationally that will have an impact on your community.
Your internal scan provides an inventory of the resources your community has along with an identification of gaps.
Your immigration committee is structured.
Feedback from the community on immigration as a growth strategy is positive.
You are ready to define goals and objectives specific to immigration. It is natural for your committee and others to want immediate results from immigration activities. However, immigration is a long-term process requiring a multi-year plan for positive sustainable results for all your partners.
Taking into consideration what you have learned from the internal and external environmental scan here are some questions to ponder:
What is your community’s target number of immigrant arrivals?
How much time will it take before immigrants begin to arrive taking into consideration the time required for the immigration application process?
Does the community have a marketing plan?
Is there a community immigration contact person?
What do we need to do to ensure successful settlement and retention?
Can we describe the profile of the immigrant that would settle most quickly and successfully here?
How do we recruit? Who should recruit?
What countries should we target?
Before immigrants start to arrive, the community needs to identify the key contact for immigrants, the community and the media. This could mean a person at the town/city hall or economic development office, chamber of commerce, or any number of other options, depending on what is right for your community.
This doesn’t mean that the key contact has to do all the work related to immigration and settlement but rather provide the community, media, government and immigrants with a centralized point from which requests for information can be coordinated and directed to appropriate community resources. The key contact will need to be knowledgeable, informed and well acquainted with community services and resources immigrants will need in the settlement process. As well, the key contact plays an important role in keeping the community informed about activities, assessing needs, coordinating and planning for services.
There are other resources in the community that are key to the settlement process and you would have identified them in your community environmental scan. For example, ‘Welcome Wagon’, schools, language training programs and medical clinics. Volunteers are also instrumental in supporting and welcoming immigrants to the community.
A community-marketing plan is an important tool that will provide direction for advertising and promotion that your community undertakes. It will assist in identifying recruitment opportunities and ensure a consistent community message.
Your community has something different and special to offer. It is important to be able to articulate the characteristics that set you apart from others. Once articulated you will have a better understanding of the type of families and perhaps cultures that may find your community attractive. Identifying these values and characteristics will help you with your recruitment plan and aid in settlement and retention.
A lot of the information you need to create a marketing plan will be available in your environmental scans. Key information from the environmental scans is information from local businesses (skills needed, employment opportunities), entrepreneurial opportunities (what businesses are for sale, what businesses are needed) and farms for sale.
Assess advertising and promotional tools
As a community you will have a number of advertising and promotional tools that you use for other initiatives. These tools can be expanded to include content about your community’s significant immigration advantages. Some tools have proven to be highly effective for increasing awareness about immigration destinations including:
Community website
Community orientation guide for immigrants
Immigrant settlement services brochures
Ads for placement in local and international magazines and newspapers
In 2004, a significant share of Manitoba’s immigration arrived from Asian and Pacific regions. Immigrants from Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America are also strongly represented. The Philippines, Germany, India and China ranked consistently in the top five source countries for economic immigration to Manitoba.
A community has several different options for recruiting such as recruiting immigrants directly from overseas, temporary workers and recruiting landed residents from larger centers and attracting migrants from other parts of Manitoba and Canada. The Young Farmer Program through the PNP-Business is also an opportunity for rural communities to recruit experienced young farmers from overseas. Your recruitment plan may include all or one of these potential opportunities.
Communities involved in the recruitment process can plan, prepare and be in direct contact with the immigrant. You will know who is arriving and their anticipated date of arrival. Establishing a relationship with prospective immigrants will help in the exchange of information about arrivals. In some cases, communities as well as individual immigrant applicants have chosen to work with an immigration consultant or representative. This is an applicant’s or communities’ own decision.
If you wish to use the services of an immigration representative or recruiter, note that Manitoba will recognize or release information to paid immigration representatives who:
are members in good standing of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants or a law society within Canada;
have signed and complied to the Manitoba Code of Conduct for Immigration Representatives and
are named by the applicant and/or employer in a signed Information Release form (part of the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program Application (MAPP).
Gather Recruitment Information
Employment opportunities and family lifestyle are the two main reasons that families immigrate to Canada. Given that employment is such a key driver for immigration, local business involvement is integral to your recruitment plan.
As part of your marketing plan you met with local businesses to determine the types of skills that they need in their workforce, you have assessed the local entrepreneurial opportunities available locally including farms for sale. With this list of community opportunities you are now ready to create a recruitment plan. Manitoba Immigration and Multiculturalism can assist you in determining which countries to target and how they should be targeted. Periodically, Manitoba Labour and Immigration distributes information about Manitoba immigration opportunities at international events including recruitment trade fairs. Providing information for distribution, or attending one of these fairs may be part of your recruitment plan.
Design a Promotional Strategy to Attract Immigrants
Promotion strategy is a key element of a marketing plan. You could have the most welcoming community yet have challenges attracting immigrants right for your community without an effective promotion strategy.
The Immigration Promotion and Recruitment Branch of Manitoba Immigration and Multiculturalism can help you develop a plan for promoting your community nationally and internationally including the use of MPNP promotional materials, participation in PNP promotional initiatives, and presenting community messaging through links on www.immigratemanitoba.com.
The branch can support you in planning exploratory visits by potential applicants, as a way to ensure a strong commitment by appropriate potential newcomers to settle successfully in your community.
Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI) and regional development officers can help you develop to create an international profile for your community using the Community Profiles website.
For examples of community profiles, visit this website
Having clear audience targets is very important. You should identify suitable provinces, regions and countries to target for potential immigration based on a plan that takes into account the benefits of “cluster immigration” (multiple families with a similar background). However, this should be balanced with a commitment to the benefits of diversity.
When potential immigrants have questions arising from your promotional activities, make sure they know how and who to contact within your community. Designate an “office” – contact address, phone number, e-mail address for potential immigrants in case they need some additional information. This could be the same office/person used as a contact within the community.
Plan for successful settlement and retentionYour objective is to build a "welcoming community" that will ensure the successful settlement and retention of the immigrants you attract. A welcoming community is identified as one that:
Has accessible public services
It is important to ask a lot of questions about the points above such as: How would you assess your community on these points? How might your community need to change or adapt to be more welcoming?
When immigrants first arrive in your community the most pressing and important questions they will have are related to housing, employment, school, health, English classes and social services. Responding to these immediate needs is the first step in delivering settlement services.
Other important considerations are:
Manitoba Immigration and Multiculturalism's Settlement and Labour Market Services Branch and Multiculturalism Secretariat can help you put a strategy together that will help your employers keep their new workers.
Finalize the Immigration PlanYour community’s groundwork is now completed and your plan is almost ready for implementation. The plan has been shared with all community stakeholders and government including Manitoba Immigration and Multiculturalism.
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