Atlantic Canada is renowned for its lengthy coastlines, rural expanses, a reputedly slower pace and its welcoming, warm and friendly people. But for immigrants especially, how much of this is rhetoric, and how much is reality? Atlantic Canada is renowned for its lengthy coastlines, rural expanses, a reputedly slower pace and its welcoming, warm and friendly people. But for immigrants especially, how much of this is rhetoric, and how much is reality? The Warmth of the Welcome underscores that a welcoming environment does not simply consist of ordinary people’s reception of, and encounters with, newcomers and immigrants in everyday life. Beyond this human “warmth of the welcome” mentioned in official literature, and by the general public, there are also several institutional and structural layers that constitute a welcoming environment. Favourable political economic conditions, receptive community relations including inter-ethnic group relations, the existence of local, national and transnational family networks, and the presence of policies and practices not only concern immigration, settlement and integration, but such issues as adequate, accessible and affordable housing and childcare. These layers of welcome for immigrants and newcomers ultimately correspond to interrelated economic, social, political and emotional dimensions and processes of citizenship. Is Atlantic Canada truly welcoming? What makes it a home away from home for newcomers in the region?

EVANGELIA TASTSOGLOU, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, at Saint Mary’s University. She has published widely in the areas of gender and international migration; immigrant and minority women and citizenship, Canadian immigration, settlement and integration with a feminist and intersectional perspective; diasporas and diasporic identities.

Evangelia Tastsoglou's profile page

Alexandra Dobrowolsky holds the rank of Professor of Political Science.  She completed her PhD at Carleton University in 1996, and then a Postdoctoral fellowship at Dalhousie University in 1997. She worked as an Assistant Professor in Political Science at York University from 1997-2000. She joined the Saint Mary's University Political Science Department in 2000. Her research, writing and teaching deal with the theories and practices of representation, mobilization, citizenship, and democratic governance. Her most recent work explores changing citizenship regimes in relation to social policy, as well as to security and immigration in Canada and Britain.

Alexandra Dobrowolsky's profile page