Reconceptualizing the “Rural Problematique

The Migrant” as the Demonstrative Case for Policy Inertia in Canada

Bibliographic Data

ID6236969
AuthorsStacey Haugen (0000-0002-9539-6575, University of Alberta, corresponding author), Lars K Hallstrom (University of Lethbridge)
Year2025
Pages1-27
Publication date2025-11-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanadian Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-4239 • E-ISSN: 1744-9324
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0008423925100905
OpenAlexW7105990471
LanguageEN
References cited56

This article reconceptualizes the “rural problematique” in Canada through the contemporary “problem” of the rural migrant. Utilizing critical historical institutional theory, we argue that the challenges newcomers face in rural spaces not only reveal the stagnation of settlement policies but also demonstrate the long-lasting, integrative and harmful impacts of policy inertia. While newcomers experience the implications of inadequate and exclusionary social policies particularly acutely, the obstacles they face cannot be solved through changes to migration policy alone. Rather, we show how these barriers are the result of the historical, specific role that rural Canada plays within the political economy of the country, which relies upon the delineation between rural and urban, and the persistence of the rural as problematic. Thus, an analysis of the contemporary “problem” of the rural migrant demonstrates how the context can change, but the outcomes, which are consistent with the broader rural dynamic, remain the same

Context (archaeology · Demonstrative · Face (sociological concept · Politics · Rural area · Rural settlement · Rural society · Agricultural Economics and Policy · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies · Rural development and sustainability

Tools

Open DOI