New survey shows immigrants feeling less isolated in Waterloo region

A new survey shows immigrants to Waterloo region are feeling less isolated than previous years, but feelings of belonging are dropping.

The Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership released the results of its 2023 immigrant survey last week. The survey is conducted every two years.

Tara Bedard, executive director of the Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership, said nearly 1,700 people responded to the 2023 survey compared to approximately 200 people when the first survey was conducted about nine years.

"We've been working really hard to grow participation in the survey over the years," Bedard said. "We all know that immigration is growing."

"There's more immigrants in the community and the survey itself is growing through the engagement of all of the partners that we work with."

Bedard said the survey is a comprehensive one, asking a number of questions about the experiences immigrants have living, working, and belonging in Waterloo region.

"We ask a series of questions through the survey that try to understand the experiences of immigrants in all three of those domains," Bedard said. "What are their experiences of moving into the region and settling here, their ability to access services, and their experiences with the services that they're accessing that help them in the community?"

"We are looking at people's employment, their experiences of finding employment, being in employment, how that translates into kind of professional fulfilment and income stability for their families."

A number of questions also cover the idea of belonging and overall life satisfaction, she said.

"What is the experience of welcoming when you come to this community as a new person, generally belonging, experiences of isolation, feelings of safety in the community, experiences of discrimination," Bedard said. "We're looking at what attracts people to this community. What are their experiences of being here? What encourages them to stay?"

For example, a summary of survey results provided by the partnership shows 56 per cent of respondents felt that Waterloo region as a community was "quite welcoming," while 34 per cent said it was "somewhat welcoming."

Ten per cent of respondents said they felt the region was not welcoming.

Meanwhile, 72 per cent of respondents said they have a strong sense of belonging, while 28 per cent had a weak sense of belonging, and 10 per cent feel that the region is not welcoming.

Bedard said the survey has been going on long enough to allow for the identification of some trends.

"Isolation responses in this round of the survey were a bit better in that people were less likely to feel isolated, which makes sense coming out of the pandemic," Bedard said. "But responses with respect to belonging, they were coming down, and so that's a bit concerning and something for us to to look into more."

"Also, when we are asking people about, is this a community that you want to stay in? How likely are you to stay here?There was some change there too, where more people were likely to say 'I'm probably going to move on.'"

"And so that is something that obviously is a concern."

Bedard said the survey results are widely shared.

"We try to use this survey anywhere and everywhere we can," she said. "This is a community tool whereby we hear from a segment of the population that is very often not heard in other engagements about experiences in the community."

"We do a lot of work to share this information with the organizations that are involved in the immigration partnership," Bedard said. "We share it a lot with our area municipalities as a planning tool. We share it with community service organizations to look at what changes might be need we need to be making in services in this community to align with the changing population."

Bedard said this year, the partnership is planning a series of deep dives into specific aspects of the 2023 survey. Those will be made available online.