Attracting and retaining immigrants outside the metropolis: is the pie too small for everyone to have a piece? The case of Edmonton, Alberta

Abstract

The municipal government of the province of Alberta’s capital city, Edmonton, commissioned a study in 2005 to determine how to attract more immigrants. City leaders were perplexed as to why Calgary, a city in the same province, of similar size with the same range of immigrant services, receives double the number of immigrants annually. In this paper, we describe the resulting study and discuss its attraction and retention recommendations. These suggestions are similar to those made by the researchers from other municipalities and regions seeking to increase their population via immigration. We compare Edmonton’s municipal and Alberta’s provincial immigration policies with those from elsewhere and discuss them in light of the national Canadian immigration policies. Given that the current federal government has no plans to increase immigration levels overall, different provinces and cities in Canada will be put in the position of having to compete for a relatively small number of newcomers, employing many of the same strategies. Without changes to federal policies, many communities may continue to struggle to attract immigrants.

Résumé

En 2005, le gouvernement municipal d’Edmonton, la ville capitale de l’Alberta, a commandé une étude pour déterminer les meilleures stratégies d’attirer plus d’immigrants. Les chefs de la ville étaient perplexes devant le fait que Calgary, une ville de la même province, d’une taille comparable et avec des services pour immigrants semblables à ceux d’Edmonton, reçoive deux fois plus d’immigrants annuellement. Cet article porte sur l’étude et expose ses recommandations relatives à l’attraction et à la rétention des immigrants. Ces suggestions ressemblent à celles proposées par des chercheurs dans d’autres municipalités et d’autres régions qui veulent augmenter leur nombre par l’immigration. Nous comparons les politiques municipales d’Edmonton et provinciales d’Alberta en matière d’immigration d’une part, et des politiques d’ailleurs d’autre part, et situons cette comparaison dans le contexte des politiques nationales canadiennes en matière d’immigration. Puisque que le gouvernement fédéral canadien actuel ne compte pas augmenter le niveau global d’immigration, les provinces et les villes canadiennes se retrouveront devant la nécessité de se disputer le nombre relativement restreint de nouveaux arrivants, employant surtout les mêmes stratégies. Si les politiques fédérales ne changent pas, il se peut que plusieurs communautés doivent continuer à lutter pour attirer des immigrants.

Appendix: Recommendations to the City of Edmonton for Attracting and Retaining Immigrants, 2005

Promoting Edmonton

• 1. The City should send representatives to immigrant trade shows overseas

• 2. The City should consult Attracting and retaining immigrants: A toolbox of ideas for smaller centres (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, nd)

• 3. Given the importance of educational opportunities for immigrants and potential immigrants, the City should work with school boards and public postsecondary institutions in Edmonton to develop a strategy that includes both marketing the city and welcoming immigrants

• 4. The City should develop a comprehensive website specifically designed for the potential residents, highlighting appealing features of Edmonton. The website should also have information that will help an immigrant family settle, such as brief descriptions of the main settlement agencies with links to their sites. Similarly, there should be links to the three school boards; it should be made clear that all three are publicly funded. The website should have promotional material in the languages of the largest immigrant communities, and immigrants who are already here should be encouraged to write about their own experiences in Edmonton

Making Edmonton a more welcoming city to retain newcomers

• 5. The City should ensure its own employees receive cultural sensitivity training for anyone who comes into contact with members of the public. The police, in particular, should be provided with additional resources to work with ethnocultural communities to build trust

• 6. The City should undertake an inventory of the services for newcomers that already exist. The services on the inventory should then be evaluated for their accessibility by immigrants

• 7. Useful services that already exist should be promoted

• 8. The City should ensure that interpreters are both well-trained and well-paid

• 9. Equitable hiring practices should be in place such that the employees of the City reflect the ethnic composition of Edmonton residents

• 10. City managers should be evaluated on their ability to integrate immigrants into their departments

• 11. The City should lobby the province whose responsibility it is to work with professional bodies, unions, postsecondary institutions, and employers to remove credential recognition barriers for immigrants

• 12. The City should develop an internship program to provide a specific number of immigrants each year with Canadian work experience

• 13. The City should develop a social marketing campaign to improve public awareness of the benefits of immigrants

• 14. The City should institute an event such as Celebrating the Welcoming City: Edmontonians who Make a Difference, in which both Canadian-born and immigrant citizens would be honored. At the same time, the City should continue to support the RISE awards (coordinated by the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers) which are focused primarily on immigrants and immigrant serving agencies

• 15. The City should partner with large employers such as Syncrude on a publicity campaign about the need for workers

• 16. The City should bring together employers who champion immigrant workers to talk to other employers about their experiences in venues such as the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Clubs

• 17. The City should develop an antiracism campaign that focuses on all Edmontonians—Aboriginal people, immigrants, and Canadian-born

• 18. The City should provide newcomers with easily accessible information on how to find the accommodation

• 19. More low income housing that can accommodate large families and more housing coops should be made available

• 20. Improved public transportation options are necessary

• 21. The City should actively lobby the Department of Education on a number of points that affect the children of many immigrants

• 22. The City should encourage public postsecondary institutions to develop action plans to make their institutions more welcoming to immigrants. This would include components such as assessment of international credentials, student services, mentoring programs, cross-cultural competency training for all personnel and instructors, as well as supports for the immigrant teaching staff

• 23. In conjunction with the province and local settlement agencies, the City of Edmonton should determine what materials about laws and bylaws affecting immigrants are already available. The City should help with the distribution of these materials

• 24. Where there are gaps, the City should produce pamphlets in a range of languages on pertinent bylaws (e.g., landlord/tenant rights; home owners’ responsibilities)

• 25. The City should ensure that landlords are aware of their responsibilities

• 26. The City should work more closely with the existing agencies and ethnocultural communities. Ethnocultural communities should be provided with core information regarding life in Edmonton (housing, tenant rights, bylaws, recreational services, and so on) because many independent and family sponsored newcomers will not access traditional sources of information

• 27. The City should work with neighboring communities to encourage them to engage in similar welcoming activities, particularly with their own civic employees