THE RURBAN FRINGE

Rural Regeneration Needs to Be Tied to Immigration

Posted on | August 17, 2009 | 3 Comments

Passport StampsData recently released by Statistics Canada indicates that immigrants account for 5.3% of the population – approximately 312,500 individuals – living in Canada’s rural and small town areas.

However, the majority of immigrants who live these areas arrived in Canada before 1986.  It is these established immigrants that make up about 70% of all immigrants in rural areas and small communities as new immigrants tend to settle in urban centres.

Since 2001, new immigrants accounted for less than 1% of the population in rural areas.

And this is a problem.

With urban centres attracting the bulk of new immigrants, how can rural and rurban communities compete to attract new residents, diversify their population base, and regenerate their aging communities?

Well … last year, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs created the Community Immigration Retention in Rural Ontario (CIRRO) pilot project to study how rural areas are attracting and retaining immigrants in their communities.

Chatham-Kent and North Bay are two communities participating in the CIRRO project, with North Bay establishing an immigrant settlement network, which arose out of a community-wide consultation process of how to best welcome immigrants to their town.  Chatham-Kent is in the process of establishing an overall best-practices list on rural immigration activities across the country.

The entire community of Innisfail, Alberta also hopped on the immigration bandwagon by coming together to provide language and translating services as well as newcomer “welcoming” workshops.  Lists of services and community information are provided in multiple languages and there is a matching/mentoring program for newcomers and local families.  

And finally, Colchester, Nova Scotia has been quite successful in keeping a large proportion of its immigrant population by offering business opportunities to newcomers and working closely with employers, schools, and community groups to make their community an attractive immigration destination.

For these communities – and many others - success is in developing local strategies and plans to welcome and settle newcomers. 

Communities can’t afford to be passive, and must organize in preparation for immigration by establishing multi-stakeholder groups that bring together diverse individuals to develop appropriate plans and strategies.

Communities must also be encouraged to identify the opportunities and strategies that are applicable to their social fabric while also developing capacity and partnerships to ensure multi-sectoral input, knowledge sharing, and identification of service gaps.

“The chief attraction is the ability to provide a stimulating, secure and diversified lifestyle.  The resulting concentration of talented people will generate economic opportunities, attract investment and create jobs.” 

Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class

With a lack of resources on rural immigration planning, solutions may be as unique as the communities they represent.

Does your community have an immigration success story to share?

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Comments

3 Responses to “Rural Regeneration Needs to Be Tied to Immigration”

  1. saskboy
    August 21st, 2009 @ 8:45 am

    Canada’s busy tearing down rural infrastructure. With the disparity between rural and city life, it’s not surprising many choose to live in urban centers instead of acting like our pioneers in the west did 100 years ago.

  2. Jennifer
    August 21st, 2009 @ 9:12 am

    @saskboy – Rural/rurban living is a lifestyle choice. While yes, infrastructure varies from commuity to community, those that are reinvigorating themselves often view immigration as one way to remain sustainable/viable – amoungst a host of other options.

    Promoting an integrated lifestyle is key. This is backed up by StatsCan which has found that immigrants living in small urban centres and rural areas tend to earn more and integrate better than immigrants living in large urban areas. Source: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?lang=eng&catno=75-001-X200810110505

    Plus, if thriving rural/rurban communities are created with immigration in mind, then more resources (e.g. larger tax base, etc.) are then available for the municipality to sustain itself.

    It’s a chicken and the egg kind of thing … with no quick and easy answers.

  3. Small Communities and Immigrants Can Benefit One Another : THE RURBAN FRINGE
    October 5th, 2009 @ 12:03 pm

    [...] Immigration is good for small communities, and small towns have much to offer new Canadians … if immigration is part of a community’s long-term economic strategy. [...]

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