As Chatham-Kent's population grows, the area's demographics change.
The Municipality and the CK Local Immigration Partnership (CK LIP) have launched the 2024 Immigration Survey as a way to learn how to make the community welcoming for everyone.
The 2024 survey is a follow-up to the first survey, launched in 2020. It's an effort to learn more about the experiences of immigrant residents and see how local trends are changing.
"Hearing directly from locals who have immigrated to Chatham-Kent and are making the community home is integral to our on-going success of being a welcoming community for others and continuing to grow," said Victoria Bodnar, the Manager of CK's Community Attraction and Promotion division.
According to Canada's most recent Census data (2021), 9,240 residents in Chatham-Kent were immigrants. That's just over nine per cent of the municipality's population.
Four years ago, 116 people filled out the immigration survey. Every age group, with the youngest respondents being 16 years old, were represented with a majority, 58.6 per cent, ranging in age from 25-44.
Most had lived in the area for 1-5 years and were highly educated. Just over 73 per cent of respondents were employed, with the biggest groups working in professional, scientific, or technical services (18.8 per cent), healthcare and social assistance (12.9 per cent), and manufacturing (7.1 per cent).
When it came to racial or ethnic affiliation, almost 32 per cent described themselves as white, the second biggest group at 17 per cent identified as South Asian, the third biggest group was Latin American at 11 per cent.
The survey's 30 questions are based on what are considered to be the 19 characteristics of a welcoming community, such as access to housing, employment, and transportation. The survey also asks about experiences of community engagement and feeling a sense of belonging.
The previous survey was available in five languages: English, French, Arabic, Spanish, and Low German. This year's version is also available in Punjabi and Ukrainian.
The survey is open until February 12, and can be found here.