Council president Tushar Robins told the Otago Daily Times the support available no longer met the demands of a growing migrant population.
But the local Settlement Support co-ordinator Fi McKay said Dunedin had never had it better in terms of access to information for newcomers, while Mayor Peter Chin said there had to be a critical mass before information could be produced or reproduced in several languages.
The issue was discussed at an awareness forum for diverse communities held in Dunedin in July, Mrs Robins said.
The major concern raised by the 34 in attendance, who represented 21 cultural groups, was access to information, either in migrants' own languages, or in simple English.
The Multi Ethnic Council acts as an advocacy and support group for largely minority ethnic groups in Dunedin, its membership largely consisting of those who have English as a second language.
The issue of facilitating the flow of information to new settlers and more established cultural groups was a major concern.
"It is important to stress the overwhelming feeling from participants was that they want to belong, want to fit in, and want to participate.
"Notions of migrants as people who wish to create boundaries between themselves and the wider community are not accurate. It is up to all of us to work together to overturn these misconceptions," Mrs Robins said.
Ms McKay said she disagreed with Mrs Robins on some counts.
Pamphlets, support services, posters, educational tools for host communities, including employers, a website and a newly-established settlement network support group were all available, she said.
The settlement support site on the the DCC's website had received 20,000 hits since it was established 12 months ago.
However, she agreed getting newcomers to the information was still a significant problem.
"It would be lovely if we had the manpower to meet every newcomer that came to this city and give them a personalised tour and get them in touch and socially connected, but we can't do that.
"How do you get to a newcomer if they don't come in through the airport and don't go through immigration? We can't stop their cars as they drive into Dunedin."
There had been some consultation with the mayor over the possibility of establishing a a refugee centre in the city.
She believed the Dunedin community was friendly and reasonably well educated about migrants.
As the settlement support co-ordinator she gave presentations every week to Dunedin groups and had a waiting list.
"That shows there is a positive look towards diversity. Articles in community papers like The Star have been absolutely wonderful. You can't say the Dunedin community isn't doing pretty wonderful things about its diversity . . ."
Mrs Robins said the council's next forum, to be held this week, would discuss racist incidents in the city, following a recent particularly nasty verbal abuse and threatening incident involving a young family of newcomers.
The extent of racism in the community was difficult to assess because migrants did not generally mention incidents without being asked about them, she said.
Mr Chin believed Dunedin did not have a problem with racism, especially when compared with New Zealand's other main centres.
