2016 saw a flood of immigrants settling in Ottawa’s Barrhaven neighbourhood, according to data from the 2016 Immigration Census.
In 2011, Barrhaven saw around 2500 immigrants, while in 2016 there were just over 4000. That’s an increase of 61 per cent. Barrhaven has a population of around 70,000, as of 2011.
That flood of newcomers has prompted the Barrhaven community to open its arms.
The Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre (OCCSC) puts on the Barrhaven Community Welcome Fair every year, where local businesses show up and help welcome newcomers to Canada.
The OCCSC was founded in December 1975 to satisfy a growing need to support Chinese immigrants.
Despite that, half of the people in the programs OCCSC offers aren’t Chinese, Robert Yeung of OCCSC says. OCCSC helps any and all newcomers to Canada, extending their language and employment services to all.
It’s not just the OCCSC that’s helping Canadian newcomers. The Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO) is also helping immigrants to the Ottawa area.
Dragana Mrdjenovic is the Settlement and Integration Manager at OCISO. She helps Ottawa immigrants to get their bearings and settle seamlessly into their chosen communities.
Mrdjenovic knows exactly how immigrants feel.
“Moving to a completely new country is a risk,” Mrdjenovic says.
Mrdjenovic immigrated from Serbia nearly 30 years ago.
Mrdjenovic also has experience with employment counseling and helps new Canadians to find jobs, or even start their own businesses.
Entrepreneurial immigrants aren’t an oddity, either. Ottawa presents an Immigrant Entrepreneur Award every year to celebrate a select business owner.
Barrhaven’s own Ysabel Li-Lopez, founder of Nurture-Elle, a company that creates nursing products for pregnant women, is an immigrant from Peru. She won the award in 2013.
The number of new permanent residents to Canada will increase dramatically in the next three years.
Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen and the Liberal Government propose welcoming 310,000 new residents in 2018, 330,000 in 2019 and 340,000 in 2020 for a grand total of about 1 million by 2020, according to the 2018-2020 Immigration Levels Plan.