Local Immigration Partnerships and the Réseaux en immigration francophone: Strategies for Increasing Alignment and Collaboration and for Developing Performance Measurement Tools
Citizenship and Immigration Canada supports two distinct networks relating to immigration: the Réseaux en immigration francophone (RIFs) and the Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs). While the RIFs are generally provincial networks, with the exception of three RIFs in Ontario, the LIPs tend to be more locally-based, though a few span large regions. Both networks involve collaborative governance arrangements among multiple stakeholders, including service providers and mainstream organizations. Broadly speaking, their goals are to improve coordination among the players working with immigrants to ensure that the benefits of immigration for communities are realized. This includes the promotion of welcoming communities and strategies to facilitate the full integration of immigrants into communities. In the case of the RIFs, the communities are Francophone minority communities, with an emphasis on attracting and retaining Francophone newcomers and strengthening Francophone institutions.
In this context, this project, funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, undertook an in-depth analysis of the scope, structure, mandate, activities, and performance measurement strategies of the RIFs and LIPs with two goals in mind. The first goal was to provide advice on new avenues for alignment and promotion of synergies between the RIFs and LIPs. The second goal was to offer recommendations for a coordinated performance measurement and monitoring strategy that takes into account both the broad objectives of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the more community-driven mandates of the RIFs and LIPs. The RIFs and LIPs generally work at a high level, promoting collaboration, coordination, engagement, and awareness; setting strategic priorities for the province, region, or community, and supporting activities that target these priorities; and building capacity to serve and welcome newcomers. We propose a strategy to measure these outcomes and to appropriately attribute change to the work of the RIFs and LIPs.
