First Generation Immigrants’ Engagement in Tourism Planning:

Case of Rouge National Urban Park in Canada

Anahita Khazaeia, Statia Elliot

b, Marion Joppe

c

School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada

a Macdonald Stewart Hall, Room 308, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada,

Tel: 519-824-4120 x 54331, Email: akhazaei@uoguelph.ca;

b Macdonald Stewart Hall, Room 307, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada,

Tel: 519-824-4120 x 5397, Email: statia@uoguelph.ca;

c Macdonald Stewart Hall, Room 306, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada,

Tel: 519-824-4120 x 58552, Email: mjoppe@uoguelph.ca;

Acknowledgement: We would like to thank Parks Canada for supporting this research through

information and time.

First Generation Immigrants’ Engagement in Tourism Planning:

Case of the Rouge National Urban Park in Canada

The purpose of this research is to understand the experience of immigrants’ engagement

in tourism related planning and decision making activities. The study is focused on the public

consultation process of Canada’s first national urban park and data is gathered through semi-

structured interviews with managers, experts, politicians and members of non-for-profit

organization that were involved in designing and implementing the consultation process.

Literature Review

Immigration is rapidly changing the face of countries around the word. In 2010, nearly

214 million people were estimated to live outside their home countries (United Nations,

Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division 2009). This trend has resulted

in increasing interest among scholars in various fields to study impacts of immigration on

destination countries. In the tourism field, research has been mostly focused on migrants as

tourists (e.g. Kang and Page 2000; Tadesse and White 2012) and as tourism industry workforce

(e.g. Aitken and Hall 2000; Janta et al. 2011; Joppe 2012). Griffin (2013) adopts another

perspective and studies immigrants, who host family and friends in their new home country.

However, the role of immigrants as members of the host community in tourism planning

activities has remained understudied.

Planning for sustainable tourism development requires a deep understanding of the

present as well as future host community and incorporating the needs and expectations of

community members in development strategies (Byrd 2007). Immigration makes this task even

more challenging by contributing to the dynamic nature and complexity of the host community.

According to Meppem and Gill (1998), issues such as “changes in urban/environment

relationships and community structures” as well as “heterogeneous and changing values” (p.

129) make sustainable development a highly complex issue because there is always “a gap

between current understanding and that necessary” for the appropriate planning and management

(p. 131). Incorporating constantly changing needs, wants and expectations of increasingly

diverse communities in tourism planning requires planning processes that can engage a broad

range of community members. Yet, a review of the literature on community participation in

tourism planning reveals that the focus has been on engaging core community groups and the

fringe has received less attention. The fact that host community is heterogeneous (Jamal and

Stronza 2009; Okazaki 2008) and comprises different subgroups (Madrigal 1995; Harrill 2004) is

emphasized in the literature. However, the discussion has remained at the theoretical level and

calls for empirical investigation on how planning processes can be designed and implemented in

a more inclusive way.

Previous research shows that many immigrant groups, especially those that do not speak

English at home, have lower levels of civic engagement compared to native Canadians (Baer

2008). It has also been indicated that “immigrant status” has a negative impact on the level of

people’s participation in recreational activities (Aizlewood, Bevelander and Pendakur 2006, p.

22). According to the traditional approach to stakeholder theory (Agle, Mitchell, and Sonnenfeld

1999), which has been dominant in the tourism field (Lew 2007; Mair and Reid 2007), first

generation immigrants may not be considered as powerful and salient stakeholders. But, as they

become more established in their host countries their power to influence tourism industry in

different capacities increases and they will play key roles in forming the future of the tourism

industry.

This research is focused on the engagement of first generation immigrants, defined here

as people who arrived in Canada “in their late teens or later” (Jensen 2008, p.76), in the

establishment process of the first national urban park in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario.

Community support is essential for successful management and balancing tourism and

conservation aspects of national parks and protected areas (Jamal and Stronza 2009). The

national park model emphasizes shared vision and consensus building and engages the broadest

range of stakeholders in the planning and management processes compared to other governance

models (Eagles 2009). According to Gobster (2002) managing a park becomes even more

challenging when it has a racially and ethnically heterogeneous clientele (p.143). Hence, a

national park that is being established in one of the most diverse urban areas offers a great

opportunity to study the engagement of first generation immigrants in the public consultation

process of the park.

Methodology

An interpretivistic qualitative case study approach was adopted for this research in an

attempt to “understand and describe” meanings that participants build around their experiences

(Gephart 2004). Data was gathered through individual semi-structured interviews with 28

participants from two groups:

Planners: managers and experts that were involved in or influenced the design and

implementation of the public consultation process for the Rouge National Urban Park.

Partner organizations: intermediaries, mainly non-profit and community organizations,

that connect planners with immigrant communities.

Observation and document analysis were also used as complementary data gathering

methods. Research participants were recruited through purposeful; snowball; and theoretical

sampling. The data gathering process started with interviewing research participants in the first

group, identified from documents released by Parks Canada and also through attending three

information sessions held as part of the Rouge National Urban Park’s public consultation

process. Interviewees then were asked to suggest other potential participants.

Each interview took about an hour and was voice recorded. Data analysis was informed by a

constructivist grounded theory approach with three rounds of coding, namely initial, focused and

axial coding (Charmaz 2006). Initial coding was conducted manually and the second round was

performed using NVivo 10 software. Mind mapping was used for axial coding. Constant

comparison between data gathered overtime and through different methods was conducted by

implementing interviews in small clusters and conducting an initial analysis on each cluster

before starting the next round of interviews. Findings from initial analyses were also used for

identifying areas that required further investigation through theoretical sampling. In order to

receive participants’ feedback, preliminary findings were presented to a small group of

participants in form of a workshop.

Findings

Data gathered from each group of participants was first analyzed as a separate set in order to

stay as close as possible to the data during the coding process and to minimize the risk of

imposing themes emerged from earlier interviews on new data. Findings were then compared

across groups.

Four major themes emerged from the interview data: the current engagement strategy;

underlying assumptions that inform the current strategy; barriers to engaging first generation

immigrants; and suggestions for enhancing engagement. Figure 1 shows categories that are

grouped under each theme. Inter-group analysis of the data revels that members of partner

organizations reflected more on barriers to immigrants’ engagement as well as tactics for

enhancing engagement compared to planners. Other categories were equally covered by both

groups.

Conclusion

This study provides a deeper understanding of the engagement of first generation immigrants

in the establishment process of a national park located in one of the most diverse urban areas in

Canada. Although the research was designed as a case study, in order to have the focus required

for gathering meaningful data, findings can provide insights to the broader area of immigrants’

engagement in planning activities. Many of the research participants had extensive experience in

working with immigrant communities in different projects and therefore their thoughts and

reflections were not limited solely to the Rouge National Urban Park project.

We acknowledge that in order to have a more accurate understanding of the phenomenon it

also needs to be studied from the perspective of immigrant communities. This will be the focus

of our future study, as part of a larger research program.

Figure 1: Planners and partner organizations’ perceptions of immigrants’ engagement

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