Small Town Canada: A Multicultural Haven?
On December 28th, the Globe and Mail published a story by Eric Andrew-Gee. It is a beautiful story – one very typical in Canada and too often take for granted – of new immigrants to Canada. They come to live, love, work. And they often come to invest in and build businesses.
Carlos Sodji and Sylviane Senou are from the West African nation of Benin. They bought a family restaurant business in the small town of Rouyn-Noranda, with a population of 42,000 people, and seven-hour drive from Montreal on the Trans-Canada Highway. There has been a population explosion in the area; as recently as 2016, 28,000 lived there. The couple have lived in Rouyn for seven years now, with their two small children, and today the entire family are Canadian citizens.
Not exactly, one would have thought, a premier destination for new immigrants. But that would be wrong. Nevertheless, buying a restaurant was a step into the unknown for the couple. One of the things they worried about is how they would be received in the community and as business owners. Mr. Sodji is quoted as saying: “At first, as black Africans, we were afraid to take on such a big restaurant in Rouyn. We were worried people would take that badly.”
They found that the exact opposite was the case, much like thousands of communities throughout Canada. Rouyn-Noranda, for example, started as a thriving mining and forestry community; mill and mining towns, as they are called. Those industries are commodities and the market is global. So too is the workforce. It makes a great many Canadian towns and small cities feel cosmopolitan, with so many having originated in all corners of the world. As Gee writes, a Serbian baker used to own the bread factory now occupied by Chez Morasse, the restaurant the couple bought. There’s a synagogue down the street. Benjamin Doré said he thought it was a good thing a couple from Africa had bought and now manage Chez Morasse. The Globe and Mail quoted Mr. Doré as saying that “Rouyn is very multicultural. People think because we’re in the regions we’re closed off, but it’s totally false. I think we’re more open than ever.”
None of this is surprising to Canadians nor those that have chosen to make this country their new home. According to the annual survey of the influential U.S. News and World Report, Canada is the number 1 place where people would live. “Canada is a high-tech industrial society with a high standard of living,” said U.S. News.
The ranking report, which covers 85 nations, is based on how global perceptions define countries in terms of a number of factors and attributes that have the potential to drive trade, travel and investment and directly affect national economies. Furthermore, the nations were presented in a 2022 survey of more than 17,000 people around the world. From April 30 to July 13, participants assessed whether they associated an attribute with a nation. Consequently, the more a country was perceived to exemplify a certain characteristic, the higher that country’s attribute score. According to the result of the report, Canada is #1 in ‘Is a place people would live‘ and #3 in ‘Best Countries Overall‘.
In this survey, Canada also ranked first place for immigration and investment and seventh place among the most powerful passports in the world. In addition, Toronto ranked as the best business city for working women and Montreal ranked 4th among the best cities for international students.
The overall ranking of the best countries measures global performance on a variety of metrics. Switzerland is the best country in the world for 2022 and Canada is number 3.
The U.S. News Best Countries ranking also grouped attributes into 10 sub-rankings: Adventure, Agility, Cultural Influence, Entrepreneurship, Heritage, Movers, Open for Business, Power, Social Purpose and Quality of Life.
As for the original concerns of Mr. Sodji and Ms. Senou, they have been definitively laid to rest. The news of their ownership of the restaurant has been extremely well-received in the community. Sales are up. And the growing list of their customers treat them as one of their own, which they are now.
Like many communities like it in Canada, Rouyn-Noranda is experiencing a renewed flourishing of cultural diversity. In their case its young people from the Maghreb, West Africa and France come for work. The province of Quebec recruits more immigrants from French-speaking countries. Today, there are about 500 local residents from Cameroon alone. An African grocer recently opened up downtown, and the Sodji-Senous plan to launch an African restaurant soon.
This story and experience is one that is mirrored in every corner of small-town Canada. And despite the natural tendency to pay attention to the large metropolitan centres of Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, a vibrant, growing, and true multicultural Canada is flourishing in every corner of the nation.
