Researchers push to position Caledon as leader to expand diversity into rural communities

Written By ALYSSA PARKHILL

Researchers from Ryerson University, the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto, Mississauga hosted a forum on Oct 18 with local professionals and influential stakeholders in Bolton to discuss their findings on the experiences of immigrants settling into rural communities and related implications for health and well-being. 

The study focuses on how built form, development patterns, and social and physical environments in rural locations, such as Caledon impact the settlement and integration experiences of immigrants. The three universities teamed up with Caledon Community Services and the Newcomer Centre of Peel and invited Caledon professionals such as local decision makers and business leaders to attend the event.

“We started doing initial focus groups and interviews with immigrant adult residents about a year and a half ago or so. We also did a number of interviews with what we'd call key informants who are people who either have expertise because they provide settlement or service provision to newcomers, or because they have influence over social and environmental planning and development in the community,” says Sara Edge, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Ryerson University. 

Sara Edge and Jennifer Dean who is an Assistant Professor at the School of Planning from the University of Waterloo are co-leads on this study and ran the workshop.

“Increasingly the trend of immigrants locating outside of large metropolitan centres into smaller, rural communities is on the rise, particularly as affordability issues increase, and as a means of trying to enhance economic growth and development in rural spaces. But the built environment and amenities in rural places are very different than urban spaces and this may have a lot of significance in shaping health and well-being,” explained Edge. “So, things like the housing stock, transportation infrastructure, use of green space, the food system infrastructure. We're trying to understand how that's unique in rural spaces and how that impacts immigrants' health and well-being.”

The purpose of the workshop, funded by an RBC Immigrant Diversity and Inclusion Project Grant, was not only to educate locals on the challenges and opportunities that come with immigrants migrating into rural areas, but to also discuss and learn from those who attended how the goals of strengthening diversity and immigrant inclusion may play out within the context of local policy and planning priorities, and what other information must be considered as they further the scope of their research.

The Town of Caledon is a part of the Rural Employment Initiative, which is a partnership between the Ontario Association for Community Futures Development Corporation (OACFDC) and the Newcomer Center of Peel (NCP). According to the Newcomer Center of Peel website, the focus of the project is to “connect talented internationally trained professionals with the employment opportunities in rural areas of Ontario.” 

The team of researchers have just received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to deepen and expand the scope of their analysis, and work towards creative solutions.

“We've just recently obtained funding to dive into this issue more deeply over the next two years and really explore how we can position Caledon as a reflective leader that looks at both the strengths and limitations of how things are unfolding locally with respect to immigrant settlement, and how the community can move towards having a great reputation for fostering diversity and inclusion in rural areas,” says Edge. “Part of the funds that we have will be dedicated towards establishing novel knowledge exchange and network building opportunities between the development and planning sector as well as the immigration health sector which tend to operate in isolated silos with little cross-communication. We also aim to compare some of the experiences in Caledon with other rural communities across the province.”