Kelly Melissa, Nguyen Michelle
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration Program, Toronto Metropolitan University, 44 Gerrard Street East, CUI-330, Toronto, ON M5B 1G3 Canada.
J Int Migr Integr. 2023 Apr 11:1-21. doi: 10.1007/s12134-023-01034-8.
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.
安大略省每年吸引的国际移民比加拿大其他任何省份都多。这些移民中的大多数都定居在大多伦多地区（GTA）。联邦、省和市各级的政策制定者都意识到有必要减少移民的集中程度，并将移民带来的好处更均匀地分布在全省各地。尽管有政策和社区干预措施，但大多数移民仍继续迁往更大的中心城市。以往的学术研究大多集中在小城市在吸引和留住移民方面所面临的挑战，表明小城市缺乏大城市所能提供的条件。我们采取了另一种方法，转而考虑是什么让一些移民选择留在非大都市地区。以安大略省南部的两组相邻县（格雷县和布鲁斯县以及拉纳克县和伦弗鲁县）为重点，我们采用了定性案例研究方法，以了解是什么导致一些移民在这些地区之一居住了三年或更长时间。研究结果表明，居住在大都市地区以外有许多好处，包括相对较低的生活成本和方便接触自然。此外，研究参与者倾向于留在所研究的县，因为他们至少在目前能够在那里满足自己的需求。有趣的是，只有一些研究参与者将社会依恋视为留下来的一个原因。这些大多是在其中一个县生活了很长时间的人。
