Choosing to Stay: Understanding Immigrant Retention in Four Non-metropolitan Counties in Southern Ontario
Every year, Ontario attracts more international migrants than any other province in Canada. The majority of these immigrants settle in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Policymakers at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels have identified a need to reduce the concentration of immigrants and to spread the benefits of immigration more evenly across the province. Despite policy and community interventions, most immigrants continue to move to larger centres. Previous academic research has mostly focused on the challenges smaller cities face in trying to attract and retain immigrants, suggesting that smaller cities lack what larger cities have to offer. We have taken another approach and instead considered what makes some immigrants choose to stay in non-metropolitan areas. Focusing on two sets of adjoining counties in Southern Ontario (Grey & Bruce counties and Lanark & Renfrew counties), we adopted a qualitative case study approach to understand what has led some immigrants to live in one of these regional areas for 3 years or more. The findings reveal that living outside of a metropolitan area comes with many benefits including relative affordability and easy access to nature. Moreover, study participants were inclined to stay in the counties under study because they could meet their needs there, at least for the time being. Interestingly, only some of the study participants viewed social attachments as a reason to stay. These were mostly individuals who had lived in one of the counties for a significant amount of time.
Introduction
Over the last few decades, smaller communities across the country have come to see international migration as increasingly beneficial to offset the negative consequences of population ageing and support local economic development. As a result, federal and provincial government programs as well as community initiatives have been designed and implemented to make smaller communities more appealing and welcoming to international migrants.
Given that immigration has, historically, been associated with cities and continues to be a predominantly urban phenomenon, there are limited models for researchers to understand immigration to non-metropolitan areas. Previous research has identified a number of factors that may contribute to both the attraction and the retention of international migrants, including the availability of employment opportunities, the presence of amenities, personalized settlement services, and social relationships with local community members or a diasporic community (Derwing & Khran, 2008; Guo, 2013; Chadwick & Collins, 2015; Brown, 2017). These are generally easier to provide in urban areas, and for this reason, they are often seen as something smaller communities lack; in short, non-metropolitan areas are encouraged to emulate their metropolitan counterparts.
While we do not deny that the characteristics of larger cities may make them more attractive to some international migrants than smaller centres, our starting point for this research is an awareness that some immigrants lead fulfilling lives in smaller centres and actively choose to stay there. Hence, our research turns the usual question—why do non-metropolitan areas struggle to retain immigrants—on its head and instead considers why immigrants may choose to stay in these areas.
The paper begins with a review of recent literature addressing the regionalization of immigration in Canada and immigrant retention in smaller cities. This is followed by a discussion on the value of studying why immigrants stay in smaller communities. We then turn our attention to what adopting a place-based approach can add to understanding immigrant retention. Next, we provide an overview of the methodology used for the current study and introduce the two case studies. We then share the key findings of the research before concluding the paper.
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Source: Springer Link, Melissa Kelly & Michelle Nguyen, Mai 2023.
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