A new study by CMHA Toronto and the Toronto South West Local Immigration Partnership (TSWLIP) has revealed the depth of strain facing Toronto’s settlement sector. Conducted from November 2024 to January 2025, the Exploring Workplace Stress, Burnout, and Mental Health in Toronto’s Settlement Sector survey collected responses from 265 employees.  

More than 40 percent screened positive for burnout, a rate higher than that found among social workers and public-health staff globally, and second only to physicians during the pandemic. 

For a workforce that forms the backbone of Canada’s immigration system — with immigration responsible for 97 percent of Canada’s population growth — these findings point to structural vulnerabilities that could undermine the sustainability of Canada’s settlement system if left unaddressed. 

Among respondents experiencing burnout, 75 percent reported poor mental health and nearly half screened positive for depression. The same themes appeared throughout: unrealistic workloads, insufficient income, long working hours, emotional exhaustion, and inadequate organizational support. 

Two-thirds said their salaries failed to cover basic living expenses, and 69 percent described workload expectations as unrealistic. Most earned between $40,000 and $60,000 — modest compensation in one of the country’s most expensive cities. 

The study found that three-quarters of workers with burnout reported emotional exhaustion from client care. That connection matters: when front-line workers reach emotional depletion, the ripple effects extend directly to the quality and continuity of newcomer services. 

This fatigue is linked to economic insecurity. Many respondents reported difficulty meeting basic needs such as food, housing and access to healthcare — challenges that can compound stress and limit well-being.  

Settlement workers often help clients navigate housing shortages, job insecurity, and poverty while facing those same challenges themselves — a paradox that leaves them little emotional bandwidth to recover between crises. 

The settlement workforce is predominantly female (81 percent) and ethnically diverse, with the largest proportions identifying as Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Black. Although burnout levels did not differ significantly across demographic categories, the study points to inequities in how Canada funds “care” labour.  

Chronic underfunding and instability hit racialized and immigrant workers hardest — a reflection of how feminized and racialized labour continues to be undervalued in social service systems. Recognizing and addressing these inequities is key to building a more equitable and effective sector for all. 

Burnout in the settlement sector stems from structural and organizational conditions: unstable funding, chronic understaffing, and the pressure to do more with less. Supervisors, managers, and CEOs are employees too — facing the same low pay, inflexible environments, and relentless demands. 

Employees — particularly those experiencing burnout — called for higher wages, improved workload management, flexible work options, increased staffing, and expanded access to mental health resources. 

But these solutions require change at the organizational and system levels, which goes far beyond what individual workers can fix. It’s important to recognize that individual resilience alone cannot offset structural strain.

After years of doing more with less, many in the sector describe a sense of exhaustion that extends beyond day-to-day work to the very idea of reform. During discussions with sector leaders, some reflected that repeated funding challenges and stalled reforms have left many feeling that change is out of reach. This kind of “meta-burnout” reflects both the persistency of underfunding and the toll of chronic resource scarcity. 

These pressures intersect with systemic inequities, disproportionately affecting racialized and immigrant workers. When people are exhausted, they have less capacity to advocate for change.   

This makes it essential to focus on collective action and on preventing burnout, supporting those with the capacity to lead change, and mobilizing sector-wide advocacy for funding reform. 

An advisory board of settlement- agency leaders provided further recommendations, emphasizing sector-level changes such as securing sustainable, adequate funding and building systemic supports, including housing, healthcare, and compensation that keeps pace with the cost of living. 

While implementing these recommendations is still daunting in a sector that is chronically under-resourced and one that employs a workforce largely made up of racialized women, the partnership between CMHA Toronto, TSWLIP, and sector leaders shows that meaningful progress can start with shared understanding and data-driven advocacy.  

The study’s authors call for sector-wide funding reform — specifically, reducing reliance on short-term project-based contracts, enhancing core funding to meet service demand, and relaxing strict criteria in core funding allocation to enable agencies to plan staffing, benefits,  and mental health supports with greater stability. They also recommend cross-sector collaboration to share strategies and advocate jointly with government funders.  

The survey provides an important baseline view of burnout and mental health challenges among settlement sector workers in Toronto. As a cross-sectional study, it captures patterns rather than causes, a starting point for understanding the scope of the problem.  

Building on this foundation, CMHA Toronto has now extended the survey province-wide in collaboration with the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI). The goal is to examine the mental health challenges of sector employees, identify the main stressors they face, and highlight factors that promote workplace well-being.  

By increasing the sample size and regional representation, this next phase will provide a more complete picture of workforce well-being and the pressures facing settlement agencies across Ontario.  

The research should be understood as a practical tool for advocacy and system change, driven by the sector’s own calls for evidence. Its findings can help spur difficult but necessary conversations, inspire collective action, and bring attention to voices that are often overshadowed in public debates about immigration and social policy. 

The true impact will come as the sector and its funding and government partners work together to translate these finding into coordinated advocacy, sustainable funding models, and a healthier, more resilient settlement sector.