Amrita Gill

This research paper is part of the GEOIDE project on "Enhancing Immigrant Settlement Service Delivery through GIS". The project focuses on eight immigrant groups that face considerable challenges in Canada due to social, cultural and language barriers. The present research paper deals with two of these immigrant groups in detail, with the purpose to explore the availability of service agencies for newcomers from Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The research found that the majority of the newcomers from Pakistan and Sri Lanka lack the ability to converse in English or French, which poses the biggest settlement challenge. Sri Lankan immigrants require a variety of services because a large percentage of them are refugees and have low levels of education. By virtue of being settled in the traditional immigrant reception area, they have better access to services as compared to the Pakistani newcomers who are mainly settled in the Fringe.

The settlement service delivery network is laid out fairly and it has adapted to the changing requirements of the community to some extent. Nonetheless, there are still some areas where newcomers from Pakistan and Sri Lanka are not being effectively served and therefore attention is drawn to those areas in this research paper.