IRCC announces an increase in funding for the Racially-based Newcomer Women Pilot Program.
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) intends to contribute an additional $5.8 million to ten initiatives under the Racialized Women Newcomers Pilot Program. The statement was made in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on December 9 and this was part of a 16-day campaign to raise awareness about eradicating gender-based violence against women.
Formerly known as the Visible Minority Newcomer Women at Work Program, the racially-based Newcomer Women Pilot Program began in 2018 to assist newcomer women in overcoming employment barriers. When the initiative was established, it pledged $31.9 million over three years to promote the career and professional development of racialized newcomer women. Budget 2021 allocated $15 million for financing over the next two years.
According to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, women of color who are immigrants face significant employment barriers.
Providing women with a sense of dignity and belonging is just as important as finding them employment. This support is integrated into the Canadian government’s efforts to prevent and end gender-based violence by ensuring support for gender equality in all sectors. “All Canadian women benefit from gender equality.”
Immigrant women are overrepresented in low-paying occupations. Recent immigrants to Canada are more likely to be employed in the food service, hospitality, and lodging industries. It is more likely that immigrant women will hold low-paying jobs. There is a significant disparity in the unemployment rate between recent immigrant women and Canadian-born women (15.2% versus 8.0%).
The present programmes, which are administered by independent organizations across Canada, are intended to provide newcomer women with language skills, connect them with potential employers, and teach them other soft skills that may be useful in the job search.
There is also a program that assists newcomer women with IT and technical skills in obtaining the certification recognition necessary to find work in Canada. The latest announcement contains funding to end gender-based violence against immigrant women.
Specifically, the Gender-Based Violence Settlement Sector Strategy project was implemented.
This project aims to prevent violence based on gender by promoting action, awareness, and cross-sector collaboration.
This funding will support settlement workers on the front lines who respond to gender-based violence. The training, knowledge, and resources they receive, according to IRCC, will enable them to meet the needs of victims more effectively.
The project will be monitored for four years to develop a joint knowledge base on gender-based violence across the settlement sector and to create programs to educate newcomers on available services and resources, including in smaller cities and rural areas.
