Responding to Immigrants' Settlement Needs ― The Canadian Experience

While much has been written about Canada’s modern settlement program and there is a growing body of research and analysis of the settlement and integration successes and challenges of recent years, there is virtually no literature that has addressed the history of settlement services since the beginning of immigration to Canada. Some survey histories of Canadian Immigration have touched on elements of settlement policy but no history of services to immigrants in Canada has been published heretofore. Responding to Immigrants’ Settlement Needs: The Canadian Experience addresses this gap in the historiography of Canadian Immigration. From the tentative steps taken by the pre-Confederation colonies to provide for the needs of arriving immigrants, often sick and destitute, through the provision of accommodation and free land to settlers of a century ago, to today’s multi-faceted settlement program, this book traces a fascinating history that provides an important context to today’s policies and practices. It also serves to remind us that those who preceded us did, indeed, care for immigrants and did much to make them feel welcome in Canada. The Canadian experience in integration, over the past two centuries, suggests many policy-related research themes for further exploration both in Canada and in other immigrant receiving countries.

Robert Vineberg has a BA in History from the University of Toronto as well as an MA in Canadian History and a Graduate Diploma in Public Administration, both from Carleton University, in Ottawa. His career in the Canadian Federal Public Service spanned over 35 years, of which 28 were with the immigration program, serving abroad, in policy positions at national headquarters and, more recently, as Director General of Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Prairies and Northern Territories Region, based in Winnipeg. In the course of his career, he also worked in the Security and Intelligence Secretariat of the federal Privy Council Office and in the Police and Security Branch of the federal Ministry of the Solicitor General (now Public Security Canada). He retired from the public service in 2008. He is currently a Senior Fellow with the Canada West Foundation. Mr. Vineberg has written and published several peer reviewed articles on immigration history and on military history. His book, Responding to Immigrant’s Settlement Needs: The Canadian Experience (Springer), was published in 2012. He co-edited and contributed two chapters to Integration and Inclusion of Newcomers and Minorities Across Canada (McGill Queen’s University Press), published in 2011.