This timely volume examines how policies, institutions, and places influence the lives of immigrants and temporary migrants to Canada and how, in turn, those newcomers transform the cities in which they live.

Social Resilience and International Migration in the Canadian City draws attention to disparities in outcomes for migrants and proposes strategies to enhance their participation in cities of all sizes. Focused on Ontario and Quebec, chapters pinpoint factors that affect the settlement and integration of immigrants, as well as growing numbers of international students, foreign workers, and refugee claimants. Contributors illustrate how federal, provincial, and municipal policies and diverse institutions – from grassroots churches to settlement agencies – can influence migrants’ capacity to navigate and leverage the resources required to overcome integration challenges. The book’s social resilience framework attends to the social supports that empower migrants to take collective action for their own futures. As migrants interact with a broad range of institutions, those institutions are transformed and become more resilient themselves.

Directed at a wide audience of community and government practitioners, migration policy experts, scholars, and civil society activists, Social Resilience and International Migration in the Canadian City provides crucial insight about the policies necessary for helping both migrants and cities thrive, offering ideas for effective implementation.

Valerie Preston is professor of geography at York University and a former York Director for CERIS - The Ontario Metropolis Centre.

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Born in NY City, Shields holds a Masters Degree in theology from St. Paul’s College in Washington, DC, where he worked with Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. He went on to teach popular theology in Canada and the US. He left the church and moved to British Columbia in 1969. An interest in social justice led him to the labour movement where he was a champion for women’s equality work. He was President of the BC Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU) for fourteen years. A deep interest in spirituality led him to contemporary cosmology, which is illuminating a deeper understanding of the universe. For the past twenty years he has explored the connection between science and spirituality. He now lives in Victoria, B.C., and has been teaching Labour Relations and Negotiations at Vancouver Island University.

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Tara Bedard is executive director at the Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership.

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