Live, Work, and Stay? Geographies of Immigrant Receptivity in Atlantic Canada’s Aspiring Gateways

Abstract

Global research on new immigrant destinations prioritizes the study of places experiencing rapid demographic change. Immigration is increasingly promoted, however, as a policy tool to encourage stability in peripheral regions, cities, and communities. This paper introduces the concept of the aspiring gateway to describe locations that attract few immigrants but proactively aspire to become welcoming communities. We make this case through an examination of the geographies of immigrant receptivity in Atlantic Canada. Our findings are based on 22 interviews with participants in the immigration sector in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Highlighting the powerful role of non-state actors and public discourses, our analysis considers the ambiguities and mixed messages of the place-based immigration policies of this region. We argue that a more pluralistic understanding of immigrant gateways must include peripheral spaces that are relatively isolated from international migration flows. Aspiring gateways require a rethinking of assumptions formed in and about new immigrant destinations. Keywords: immigration, immigrant receptivity, new immigrant destinations, urban, Canada. "What can Appalachia learn from Atlantic Canada?" asked a 2018 editorial in The Roanoke Times, referring to pro-immigration strategies in Canada's easternmost provinces and their Submitted version_Aspiring Gateways, Pottie-Sherman and Graham 2 potential to address economic challenges in Virginia's coal counties. Along similar lines, a recent proposal for a place-based visa-the Heartland Visa-calls for U.S. immigration reform to aid struggling regions, citing the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) as a model (Ozimek et al. 2019). Unlike the U.S., encouraging immigration to and supporting integration in non-traditional destinations have become some of the central goals of Canadian immigration federalism: the system of shared management of immigration by the provinces, territories, and federal government which emerged in the 1990s (IRCC 2018; Paquet 2019). Proimmigration proposals in America's coal counties stand out in a period in which anti-immigrant rhetoric is increasingly prevalent (Marrow 2020). At the same time, calls that celebrate Atlantic Canada as an immigration success story are surprising given the region has the lowest immigration levels in Canada (Statistics Canada 2017). These contradictions illustrate the need for migration studies in peripheral regions. How are international migration experiences transforming places and regions on the periphery, and conversely, how are such locations transforming themselves to encourage international migration? What, if any, approaches can be adapted? Writing from St. John's, Canada's easternmost city, our questions are inspired by calls to decenter urban studies to consider what takes place beyond major cities, on the periphery, and in unconventional urban spaces (e.g., Roy 2011; Derickson 2015). Global research on "new immigrant destinat...

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