Kindness is the key to newcomer experience

By Lethbridge Herald on November 17, 2025.

Joe Manio
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The biggest challenges for an immigrant landing anywhere are almost universally language barriers, finding employment and affordable housing, cultural adjustment, and social isolation, all of which can be compounded by discrimination and legal hurdles.

Newcomers to Alberta deserve a warm welcome and Lethbridge Family Services (LFS) Immigrant Services department provides much-needed supports for immigrants and refugees as they settle in the Lethbridge area.

How can immigrants be best served by the Lethbridge community itself? It’s as simple as making newcomers feel welcomed to the community. Community connection is one of the most important things for a newcomer to get started in their new community.

“They have other challenges…a lot of refugees arrive with trauma. So how do we help? So we help through various programs that we deliver to help newcomers, says LFS Director of Immigrant Services John Lafferty, and immigrant himself from Scotland. “We have the Resettlement Assistance Program where we provide services to an individual who lands in Canada, is completely alien to the country, and we help them settle in.”

Immigrant services should not be confused with immigration services. Immigration services refers to the official government processes and legal procedures for people seeking to enter, reside, or obtain citizenship in a country. These services involve the application, approval, and enforcement of immigration laws and policies. 

Canada categorizes immigrants into three main classes: economic, family, and refugee and humanitarian. Economic immigrants are selected for their ability to contribute to the economy through worker, business, or provincial nominee programs. 

The family class includes individuals sponsored by a relative who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. The refugee and humanitarian class includes those seeking protection and those being resettled.

Immigrant services (often called settlement or integration services) are community-based support programs designed to help newcomers adapt to life in their new country after they have arrived. These services are provided by non-profit organizations and aim to facilitate successful integration into the social, cultural, civic, and economic life of the community.

“So there’s four main departments. There’s the Home Services Department that offers health care, allows people to live in place. There’s the couple who looks after and provides disability service. There’s my department, which is clearly the best department out of a lot of them, the Immigrant Services,” says Lafferty.

“Then we have our Counseling, Outreach and Education Department that supports mental health and well-being of the community of Lethbridge. So we serve about 9,000 clients,” says Lafferty.

Immigrants to Canada currently face and will continue to face challenges caused by federal government policies, primarily stemming from reduced immigration targets, stricter program requirements for temporary residents, and ongoing issues with integration capacity such as housing affordability and a tight job market for newcomers.

The Alberta government contributes to current and upcoming challenges for immigrants through policies limiting access to certain immigration pathways and social services; by advocating for reduced immigration levels and hindering the recognition of foreign credentials.

LFS has been impacted by government funding cuts, leading to financial strain, as have many other non-profit organizations in the province. Provincial funding cuts have affected immigrant services in Alberta through a decrease in government grants that supplement federal funding.

Despite the decrease in funding and resulting staff and other challenges, Lafferty and his colleagues carry on as best they can. 

“We want people to be independent and so we will teach them, we will equip them with the skills and knowledge so that they can make informed choices. e want to set the conditions for them to succeed,” says Lafferty.”