Beyond the Metropolis

Team Members

Researchers: Bronte Alexander (external link) , Monisha Poojary
Co-applicants: Ashraful Alam (external link) , Julie Drolet (external link) , Etienne Ne (external link) l, Rebecca Wickes (external link)
Collaborators: Martina Boese (external link) , Michelle Nguyen (external link) , George Tan (external link) , Zhixi C. Zhuang

Funders

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant

Description

Many small and mid-sized cities in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have looked to international migration to offset the impacts of population decline and fill labour shortages in regional areas. Despite policy interventions and local strategies to improve immigration outcomes to smaller centres, attracting and retaining immigrants has continued to be a challenge for many communities as immigrants generally prefer to live in larger cities (Hyndman, Schuurman, & Fiedler, 2006; Stump, 2019; Fang and Sapeha, 2018).

Studies have been carried out in Canada, Australia and New Zealand to identify which factors are most important for attracting and retaining newcomers in regional centres (Akbari, 2020; Sayers & Poulter, 2016; Taylor, Bell, & Gerritsen, 2014; van Kooy, Wickes, & Ali, 2019; Walton-Roberts, 2011). The findings from these studies, however, have been inconclusive. Many focus on singular factors such as the importance of employment or housing availability and are based on single-city case studies. Moreover, life course and age-related factors have been largely overlooked.

This project considers how so far under-studied factors related to immigrants’ life course stage and the characteristics of specific places impact immigrants’ preferences for certain destinations. A comparative framework will be developed to identify commonalities and differences across the three study countries. The findings of the study will be of interest to a range of stakeholders interested in improving the successful attraction and retention of immigrants in small and mid-sized cities.

The overall aim of this project is to develop a deeper understanding of the factors and dynamics influencing immigrant attraction and retention in small and mid-sized cities. Focusing on immigrant agency, we explore how the intersection of place-based factors and immigrants’ life course stage and age influence their preferences and migration decision making over time.

An international research partnership will be developed to investigate and compare eight selected small and mid-sized cities: four in Canada, two in Australia, and two in New Zealand. The project aims to produce useable knowledge that can help government and community stakeholders to improve policies and programs related to immigration and integration.