In a recent International Geographical Union (IGU) meeting convened by the Commission on the Sustainability of Rural Systems and held at the University of the Philippines Diliman in Manila in December 2025, EUC Professor Jennifer Hyndman presented a paper on ruralization of capital and production, also titled, “The Ruralization of migration through protection policy: Refugees in Canada” that worked through the relational meanings of ruralization in a Western Canadian migration context. The paper is co-authored with Bronwyn Bragg, former EUC postdoc, now Assistant Professor at University of Lethbridge.
What is ruralization and what kinds of labour and economic geographies does it point to? In a federal policy or program sense, there are very few ways that immigrants in Canada can be sent to particular locations not of their own choosing, given that Charter rights protect their mobility within the country and most have family, friends or employment prospects in Canada’s larger cities. One exception is resettled government-assisted refugees (GARs), who land in Canada as permanent residents, and receive one year of income assistance through the federal government which is assigned to a specific place and service provider. Other exceptions that restrict mobility within Canada include immigrants sponsored through Provincial Nominee Programs and temporary foreign workers on closed (employer-specific) work permits who are, of course, not immigrants but temporary foreign workers (TFWs).
The number of government-supported refugees is modest in any given year (there were roughly 20,000 in 2024, though these numbers were above average given the special program for Afghans initiated in 2021. Normal GAR levels are closer to 10,000 per year, however earlier research shows that this group is the most ‘portable’: because the federal government pays, it can decide where the funds for services to support GARs will be sent. Over the last decade the number of ‘destinations’ to which GARs are sent has tripled, from 15 to 46 cities and service providers with Resettlement Assistance Programs (RAP).
The project analyzes this effort to disperse refugees across Western Canada, though new destinations have also been added in Ontario and the Maritimes. Led by former York Geography PhD and Research Associate Linn Biorklund, the team released the results of a national survey of RAP providers in all Canadian communities that documented the services and infrastructure available in each place in May 2025. Results were shared and discussed with the RAP providers and Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the federal department funding the reception work.
The results of the project case studies were both startling in their lack of variation across the country and consistent across city size: the top three issues were 1) accessing affordable housing; 2) finding employment; and 3) getting health care needs met. Case studies in three RAP communities has commenced in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia and will continue this summer with the support of new graduate students in EUC programs. More graduate student recruitment at York is underway.