We're friendly, but are we really welcoming? Helping new immigrants adjust to Kootenay life
By Andrew Zwicker
Sure, the Kootenays have a reputation for being a relaxed, adventurous, laid back, and generally all around friendly place, but just how welcoming are we really when it comes to new folks moving to town? From Lower Mainland families looking for a quieter, safer and more affordable place to raise their families to the highly-skilled international immigrant, are we in the Kootenays doing enough to welcome new faces and new cultures? On top of that, once we get them here, are we successful at getting them to stay?
Recent studies done by various groups in the region including Community Futures, Selkirk College and the Skills Center in Trail have shown that while we don't get a huge amount of immigration into our region, the ones that are coming tend not to stay long and end up moving home or moving on.
“Yes, we're really polite here, but we're not always very helpful,” explained Carol Corbett of the Skills Centre. “What we have found quite often is that employers in the area spend a lot of time and money to recruit people to fill a very specific job and then they lose them when their families don't integrate with the communities.”
As part of an effort to address these issues, there are currently three projects underway as part of the provincial Welcoming and Inclusive Communities and Workplaces Program designed to attract and retain more immigrants to rural BC. Working separately yet in cooperation with one another, the Community Futures offices in Trail and Grand Forks as well as the Skills Centre in Trail are using grant money to work on different phases of the program.
Lisa Cammidy is heading up the Nelson Community Futures-led project, which is designed to gather knowledge about the current conditions and attitudes towards immigration in Kootenay-Boundary country.
“The idea is that we want newcomers to move into this area and we want people to know how to treat them in a welcoming manner,” added Cammidy. “It's not just people from other countries but also people moving here from elsewhere in Canada or even BC. Our portion of the project was initially to gauge general feelings about immigration from the public and see what our strengths and weaknesses are.”
Going out into six different communities around the region as well as sending a mail-out survey around questions such as, 'How do you feel like we treat newcomers to the area?', 'What do you think our community is lacking and what do you think we are doing well?', 'What do you believe are the assets of cultural diversity in your community','What's better needed to promote welcoming communities', and other similar questions.
Ultimately, the responses to the surveys will be compiled and distributed publicly as well as shared with other stakeholders in the region.
The Grand Forks-led piece of the project was all about public education and providing information to both new comers as well as existing residents to better help them help others. A pocket-sized map was created outlining all of the key community services someone new to the area would need to access including banks, social services, grocery stores and more. This map is now available.
In Trail, Carol Corbett has been coordinating a demonstration project intended to increase immigrant retention and engagement in the local community.
As has been the pattern around the western world most immigrants moving from foreign countries tend to gravitate towards the larger urban centres; rural regions like ours get a relatively low number of immigrants. Consequently, the West Kootenay does not qualify for federal funding to provide settlement services. That said, however, some immigrants do come to the area, and the Skills Center is hoping their current project will be the first step towards improving immigrant retention.
“Given that we don't qualify for settlement services money we thought how else can we do this?” said Corbett. “We thought if we had a lot more people in our communities that were culturally sensitive, aware of the issues and equipped with knowledge so that when an immigrant crosses their path they can offer helpful information, that would improve thing dramatically. It's simple things even like where do I go to get a drivers license, where are the banks, what services are out there for me as an immigrant. That information, as well as information packs, is what we're training area employees to be able to offer.”
With a goal of training a hundred people by December, the Skills Centre is excited about the project and fully expects to well exceed their goal. So far, eight course facilitators have been trained and the first session of seven was held this week.
The four hour training program is aimed at developing a fleet of first contacts around the region. These contacts are generally people in the places most likely to be frequented by people new to the area. From real estate agents to bankers and grocery store workers, the goal is to have as many folks out there in the community capable of making the transition easier for immigrants.
The goal is to ultimately attract more newcomers, keep them here for longer and help fill the projected employment gap. While these first efforts are admittedly small steps, those involved are looking forward to getting something off the ground that can continue to grow over time.
“We're pretty excited about it,” added Corbett. “We're coming into a time of great change as far as our labor market and our work force goes and it's going to require very different demographics than we've had here in the past. We're at a point where, even if all of our graduates came through school properly trained, we still won't have enough home-grown employees to fill the vacancies. In short, we're not producing enough skilled people at home so we'll need to bring them in from elsewhere and to keep them happy here once they arrive. I think this project will go a long way. Obviously there is a lot more that could be done, but considering that we used to have nothing in the area this is already a very big boost.”
