The welcome mat

While some groups want to set immigration policy back 100 years, saner heads are finding innovative ways to make immigrants feel at home:

At first glance, the idea of settling refugees from equatorial African (sic) among the white farmers of conservative Altona (population 3,800), in one of the coldest regions in Canada, might seem uninspired...

But if the experiment seems ambitious, it appears to be paying handsome dividends, offering a safe and close-knit environment for more than 20 vulnerable refugees, some of whom are still struggling to adapt to life outside Africa despite having lived in places like Winnipeg and Toronto...

Mr. Loewen said part of the problem is the failure of provincial authorities to give newly arrived refugees enough support, and that making smaller, less glamorous communities attractive to refugees might be part of the solution.

"The provincial government sponsored 700 refugees last year and that's great. But then, in many cases they drop the ball. There need to be more support systems in place," he said.

"In large centres it's easier for refugee families to fall through the cracks. In a smaller community that doesn't happen."

To the extent that the Altona model can work, it seems to provide ample benefits for all parties involved. For the immigrants, it ensures a more natural support system than can realistically be put together in an urban seeting. And for any given community, an influx of new Canadians (along with their positive impressions of the area) could be part of the answer to help reverse declines in population.

Kudos to those who have made the Altona project work so far, and hopefully the same principle will start to gain wider application across the Prairies.