Canada working on using AI to help immigrants prosper

Canada is looking at Artificial Intelligence [AI] developed by researchers for helping immigrants to settle in Canada in places where they have the most likelihood of prospering.

The majority of the digital tools and information sources – such as Canada’s interactive website Citizenship Counts – are generally targeted at the migrants themselves.

Nevertheless, certain IGC States are utilizing technology in order to assist the host communities to better welcome strangers. This community-based approach builds on the fact that integration entails responsibilities for the newcomers as well as their host societies.

The IGC States include – US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, Finland, and Portugal.

For Australia, Thriving Cohesive Communities: Action Plan for Queensland 2019-2021 lays down a strategy for strengthening social cohesion and reducing marginalisation through the promotion of community engagement.

Immigration Policy Lab [IPL] has been exploring as to whether big data could help to settle newcomers in destinations that they had the most potential of thriving.

With branches at Stanford University and ETH Zurich, IPL uses large datasets and cutting-edge analytical tools for bringing new evidence pertaining to immigration.

IPL has designed an algorithm – GeoMatch – for helping governments and agencies make the best matches possible where it came to resettling refugees.

Based on IPL research, it is averred that “algorithmic assignment of refugees to resettlement locations could increase their employment probability by roughly 40-70 percent”.

When it comes to immigration policy, people tend to rely on anecdotes and ideology rather than evidence. Our goal is to help them make informed decisions to improve immigrants’ lives and communities.– Duncan Lawrence, Executive Director, IPL

According to a Report – Digital Tools for Migrant and Refugee Integration in IGC States – “Canada has been working with IPL to explore the possibility of using a similar algorithm to help individual economic immigrants determine where they are most likely to succeed economically upon moving to Canada”.

Digital and online tools are used, in varying degrees, across the IGC States, at both the national as well as the local government levels.

In view of the increasing uptake of technology in the different sectors, digital approaches will, in all probability, become even more prevalent in the near future.

With various governments implementing technological innovations much ahead of schedule for maintaining service delivery, the COVID-19 pandemic might have served as a catalyst for a broader digital transformation in the context of integration and beyond.

If you are looking to Migrate, Study, Invest, Visit, or Work Overseas, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No. 1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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