How open are London’s borders?

The answer to that figurative question will start to come this week, when in the space of two days, city politicians will be asked to develop a large-scale immigration strategy, get a breakdown of the wave of Syrian refugees who’ve settled here and hold a public session on becoming a sanctuary city.

“Immigrants have always been a huge part of how Canada has grown,” Ward 5 Coun. Maureen Cassidy, and a member of the city council’s community and protective services committee, said Monday.

“The only way we’re going to grow our region is through immigration.”

City staff are asking the committee Wednesday for permission to develop an immigration strategy to attract and hang onto “newcomers, including international students, foreign trained professionals and multi-generational immigrants.”

The draft of the strategy would be ready by September, after consulting community groups in May and June.

A combination of an aging population and trouble retaining large numbers of students, makes immigration key to maintaining the city’s workforce and size, researchers say.

But the number of immigrants to London has dropped from just under 3,000 in 2010 to fewer than 2,000 in 2015.

London has a lot to offer newcomers, but it’s not enough to “just hope people will catch on,” Cassidy said. “It has to be targeted strategy, it has to be focused.”

The strategy proposed by staff would, among other goals, “brand and promote London as a welcoming and inclusive community, therefore an ideal destination to settle long term.”

That branding might be easy to accomplish after last year’s welcome to Syrian refugees.

In another report heading to the same committee Wednesday, staff confirm that London was the third-largest recipient of Syrian refugees in Ontario, and seventh-largest in all of Canada.

As of the end of December 2016, the city had received 1,181 government-assisted Syrian refugees, 382 privately-sponsored refugees and 75 with a combination of private and government sponsors.

Applications for another 260 refugees are in progress.

London’s social service agencies did a good job setting up language classes, child care and employment help for the first wave, the city hall report says.

The next challenges will be providing mental health care and trauma support, the report notes.

A report from the London Cross Cultural Learner Centre on the 1,195 government-assisted Syrian refugees the resettlement agency saw in 2016 digs deep into the demographics of the group.

Slightly more than half, 52 per cent, were male and most of the group, 83 per cent, was married.

The majority, 60 per cent, of refugees were children, and the largest proportion of those children, 45 per cent, were under three years old.

The adult refugees had a wide range of professional backgrounds, with trades the largest sector outside of services, which included mainly homemakers.

The group included teachers, a nurse, a reporter, business owners, medical technicians, a tree specialist, 13 farmers, 27 construction workers and 18 tailors.

But how wide will London open its arms to all newcomers?

The answer will start to become clearer at city-held public session on becoming a sanctuary city, from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Goodwill Career Centre on Horton Street East.

In Canada, sanctuary cities allow non-status migrants, basically those without federal permission to stay in the country, access to municipal services without the Canada Border Service Agency being notified.

In Toronto, Canada’s first sanctuary city, the effort has been hampered by lack of financial support and training, studies say.

At its Jan. 31 meeting, London council directed staff to report back “with the appropriate arrangements for the City of London to become a Sanctuary City where residents can expect access to service without fear.”

The move came after U.S. president Donald Trump’s executive order, which has since run into walls in the U.S. court system, to ban people from seven mainly Muslim countries — Syria, Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Somalia — for 90 days.

rrichmond@postmedia.com