Integration and Settlement

Proposed immigration sponsorship changes will keep families apart

The changes to family sponsorship announced recently by the federal government will make it more difficult to sponsor children, and parents and grandparents and will ultimately keep Canadian immigrant families apart.

The proposed changes with respect to the sponsorship of parents and grandparents, and dependent children were announced on May 10 by Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney.

Voting Rights for Permanent Residents in Municipal Elections

Hundreds of thousands of Toronto residents pay local taxes and use city services, but have no say in who represents them, because they are not yet Canadian citizens. Recently, the City of Toronto's Community Development and Recreation Committee put forward a request to review “the opportunity to have permanent residents in Toronto be given the right to vote in municipal elections.” Join OCASI - Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants and Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office for a panel discussion on the merits of this proposal.

OCASI Submission to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

In July of 2012, OCASI was invited by the Committe for the Rights of the Child, an independent body which monitors the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), to submit a shadow report on the state of children's rights in Canada. This report was presented in Geneva, Switzerland in the Fall of 2012. 

Media Release: Immigrants say settlement and integration services are working – New report

 July 16, 2012/Toronto – OCASI - Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants is launching ‘Making Ontario Home', a new report based on extensive research carried out over a period of two years, on newcomers' experience with use of services in Ontario.

Pages