Research Projects

Learning to stay, learning to go: Understanding youth mobility aspirations in Nova Scotia

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant (2019-2021), J. Adam Perry, Principal Investigator
People involved:

Rachael Bethune
Research Assistant
Master’s student, Department of Adult Education, St. Francis Xavier University

International student in-migration to Atlantic Canada is increasingly offered as a policy solution to the problem of local youth out-migration in a region that currently has the lowest birth rates and highest median age of any region in the country. For both provincial and federal policy-makers, attracting and retaining international youth to Atlantic Canada is seen as crucial to what is perceived to be a demographic powder keg and represents an important step toward long-term regional sustainability. Integrating international students to Nova Scotia is seen as a key priority for addressing Atlantic growth objectives. This is happening in the wider context of ever-increasing numbers of international students travelling globally and specifically to Canada, which in 2017 admitted 494,925 international students into the country. Within this context, Nova Scotia’s higher education institutions report some of the biggest surges in international student enrollment in the country. However, what is missing is a clear understanding of what Atlantic Canadian youth, be they local or international, really want.

By bringing together the voices of both international and local students in Nova Scotia, this 2-year study asks the following: How do youth desires to stay or leave take shape, and how do these desires in turn influence youths’ mobility intentions?

Successful stayers: Exploring effective immigrant settlement services in Northeastern Nova Scotia

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant (2019-2020), J. Adam Perry, Principal Investigator; Jubanti Toppo, Antigonish Guysborough Immigrant Support Program, Collaborator.

People involved:
Jubanti Toppo
Collaborator, Director of the Antigonish Guysborough Immigrant Support Program

People involved:
Diane Scott
Research Assistant
Master’s student, Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Until recently, the question of negotiating permanent newcomer settlement to rural areas has been less prominent in Canadian policy. However, the problem of attracting and retaining immigrants and refugees to rural and remote parts of the country has recently emerged as a policy response to declining population growth outside of urban areas, with particular attention focused on immigration to the Atlantic Provinces. With a focus on Northeastern Nova Scotia and in partnership with the Antigonish Guysborough Immigrant Support Program, this 1-year project aims to understand of how newcomers to rural Nova Scotia who have decided to stay in the region long-term have negotiated the well-documented challenges confronting immigrants to rural areas.

Successful Stayers Final Report:

Adam was also a co-investigator on the following research projects (now completed):

St. Francis Xavier University

J. Adam Perry, PhD

Assistant Professor of Adult Education

Copyright © 2024 Adam Perry | All Rights Reserved