Analytic Introduction: The Unique Features of Canadian Small Centres (original) (raw)

The integration of migrants is a perennial theme of social science, from Töennies and Weber debating about gemeinschaft and gesellschaft to Park and Burgess' assimilation theory to Basch, Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc's (1994) transnationalism to contemporary debates about the possibilities and limits of integration and shared citizenship (Maas 2021). Analyzing integration elucidates not only local community membership dynamics but also the complex processes underlying the construction of the nation-state and nationalism, policy enactment and deployment, and how individual/group identity formation and mobilization interacts with these processes. Existing literature tends to focus overwhelmingly on large urban centres, overlooking the unique social processes that occur in small and medium-sized towns and rural centres. This special issue brings together Canadian social science researchers working on different facets of migrant integration in smaller centres in Canada. It includes theoretical contributions that theorize the unique dynamics of inclusion in smaller centres, empirical case studies of specific towns or rural areas or diasporic communities in Canada, and analyses of municipal, regional, provincial, or national policies promoting integration and their interplay with local community formation. Both permanent and temporary forms of migration to Canada are discussed and a diversity of methodological approaches-both quantitative and qualitative-guide the inquiries. The articles included this issue understand migrant integration not just as formal policy but as a complex process involving a diversity of political, economic, and social actors (Almustafa, Barber and Maas 2022; Barber, Almustafa and Maas 2022; Caponio and Pettrachin 2023). As a result, the themes surveyed include both formal and informal facets of the integration experience such as public attitudes towards migrants, labour market integration, access to housing and the role of social activities