date published: 01-July-2004
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date published: 01-July-2004 |
The Metropolis Centre in Atlantic Canada is a consortium of academic researchers, govern-ment representatives, and non-governmental organizations dedicated to pursuing policy-relevant research related to immigration, population migrations, and cultural diversity. It pursues research agendas distinctive to the Atlantic region, as well as research programs addressing the national policy priorities of the Metropolis Project <www.metropolis.net>. The AMC is networked with four other Canadian Metropolis Centres of Excellence in Montreal, Toronto, the Prairies, and Vancouver, as well as with the international arm of the Metropolis Project, involving partnerships with researchers, policy makers and community organizations in over 20 countries.
The Metropolis Project was initiated in 1994 by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and the Social Sciences and Humanities Re-search Council of Canada. Conceived in Canada, the Metropolis Project has expanded rapidly to more than 20 countries. Following the creation of four Metropolis Centres in central and western Canada, approval for a Metropolis Centre of Excellence in Atlantic Canada was secured in December 2003.
The Atlantic Metropolis Centre aims to pursue the research agendas of the national Metropolis Project in both official languages. The twin administrative sites in Moncton and in Halifax, and the large concentrations of French speaking populations within Atlantic Acadian settlements will stimulate interaction between these communities, as well as among the diverse language communities of its immigrant and indigenous populations. While researchers are free to choose their language of publication and presentation, official documents from the Centre will be produced in French and English. All activities organized by the Centre allow for both official languages of Canada to be employed.
Facing the challenges of building networks across the boundaries of four provinces and seventeen universities and colleges, the Atlantic Metropolis Centre acts as a catalyst for greater integration within the region. Given the distribution of population in the region, it places more emphasis than centres in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver on issues of immigrant integration, population migration and multicul-tural diversity within small cities and rural areas. As in the Prairies Centre, attraction and reten-tion of immigrants and refugees in rural areas and smaller urban centres is a distinctive focus.
The small sizes of Atlantic Canadian immigrant communities, relatively speaking, open up op-portunities for research on cultural and social integration policies. They also underscore the need for development of better infrastructure to serve immigrant and minority populations.
