"Who do I even ask?"
A look at one fixable piece of the newcomer service gap in London-Middlesex.
A newcomer lands in London with one pressing need. A job. A doctor. A straight answer about how things work here. The help for that need already exists somewhere in the city. So why did a new survey find that about half of newcomers were unable to fully receive the service they most needed upon arrival?
Part of the answer is the part we can do something about. In the city of London, the barrier people pointed to was neither money nor language. I did not know who to ask.
"Barrier" sounds like a single wall. The survey shows two different walls. One is built from money, transport, and service hours that don't line up with a working day. That wall stands taller outside the city, and for people getting by on less. The other wall is built from information. People don't know the door is there. In the city of London, confusion about who to go to came up more often than in the county.
Who has the hardest time finding help? Not the group you might picture. The survey points to people aged 46 to 65, those who have been in Canada for less than 3 years, and those with secondary school or less. Picture a skilled worker with a family, three years in, still knocking on the wrong doors.
And what did people need most when they arrived? Work, health and wellness, and plain information about settling in. Every day things, every one of them.
So a good share of the gap is a map problem, and a map is cheap to fix. The settlement field even has a name for the better way to hand someone a map. A warm referral. Instead of giving a newcomer a list of numbers and wishing them luck, the person they reached walks them to the next one.
There is a second move that costs almost nothing. People look for help where they already spend their time. With family and friends. At their place of worship. Through an employer. At the library. In a group chat. Accurate information travels furthest when it sits in those places, not only behind an office door.
That points to two simple jobs.
For agencies, libraries, employers, and anyone who meets newcomers early: make the next step obvious, and walk people to it instead of pointing.
For any newcomer or anyone helping one, there is a front door that covers most of this. Dial 2-1-1. The service is free, available around the clock, and offered in many languages. It can point you to the local agency that fits what you need.
The help is already here. The work now is making it easy to find.
Where to start
Call 2-1-1 (free, around the clock, in many languages). Settlement, language, and employment help in London-Middlesex comes from a number of local agencies: CCFL, Collège Boréal, the London Cross Cultural Learner Centre, LUSO Community Services, the Northwest London Neighbourhood Resource Centre, the South London Neighbourhood Resource Centre, WILL Employment Solutions, and the YMCA of Southwestern Ontario.
Source: Lammert, J., Oshiogbele, G., Nielsen, E., & Esses, V. (2025). Survey of Newcomers to London-Middlesex (Part A): A Study of the Experiences, Challenges, and Strengths of Permanent Residents in London-Middlesex. Network for Economic and Social Trends, Western University, for the City of London.