Explore community receptiveness to immigration

There are a number of questions to consider when thinking about immigration to your community.

• Who thinks you need more people?
• Who is concerned about the number of people that are leaving?
• Does enthusiasm about immigration seem out of place when some residents are unemployed?
• Does the community understand the population realities it faces, including birth and death rates and aging citizens?
• Are these facts identified and documented?
• Does the community have a vision for its future?

For any community growth strategy to work, there must be a consensus among opinion leaders and decision-makers with significant public support in the community – the community stakeholders. The first step is to identify these individuals.

Identify community stakeholders

A local stakeholder has an interest in the success of the community. It may be a public sector service agency, a key employer or a local opinion leader.

Once you have identified community stakeholders, informal and formal discussions can begin around immigration as a community growth strategy. These discussions will assist in developing community interest, identifying messengers connected to the greater community and making a shortlist of those to consider for a committee for immigration planning.

It is natural to identify the economic representatives first. However with any sustainable community development model identifying and including the social and environmental representatives is equally important.

Build community support

You have now had informal discussions with your local community stakeholders. You may choose to explore community immigration prospects in a more formal manner. A team of interested individuals will need to be brought together for this next stage.

Establish an immigration committee

The immigration committee should consist of stakeholders identified as key players who are capable of working together to make decisions about community growth. They do not have to be fully supportive of immigration but rather be willing to contribute their expertise to informed decision-making by the committee.

They may be community champions, those responsible for key community resources, such as health, education and business; those with committee and board experience and those with expertise and interest in community development. Not all key players may be available to join at the start. As gaps in representation are identified, and momentum grows, others may be required.

Committee structure and composition

The structure of the committee is important to ensure balanced representation and expertise. The committee should not be too large as this will complicate scheduling and may impede progress. However, effective representation is more important than committee size.

Each committee member will be charged with the responsibility of informing their representative groups, organizations and general community sectors about the work being undertaken. Understanding this responsibility will also allow you to minimize overlaps (ie. too many people representing one sector) and identify potential gaps (sectors that are under represented).

Meetings

What is discussed in committee meetings evolves as you proceed through the planning process. The first meeting is exploratory. You will take the lead in providing background information about:

• community demographics
• immigration as one of many growth strategies
• any research to date and research that may need to be conducted

Points for the entire committee to discuss should include:

• who should be involved in the committee
• pros and cons of immigration as a growth strategy
• what additional information and people are required
• whether the committee should move forward

The second meeting of the committee will lay the groundwork for the future. Discussions about structure and governance can include:

• mandate
• how long the committee should function
• committee member roles
• terms of service
• process for member replacement
• organizing sub-committees for specific tasks
• process for decision-making
• process for recording of minutes
• time commitment
• scheduling of meetings

This list is not exhaustive. However, many committees and communities in their enthusiasm to get the work done skip these basic planning steps with serious consequences later.

Back to top