September 13th To The 22nd Is Welcoming Week In Huron County

by Bob Montgomery

September is Welcoming Week in Huron County.

It's an an invitation for Huron County residents to meet their neighbours and this year it falls on September 13th and continues through until September 22nd. Local Immigration Partnership Manager Mark Nonkes says “Welcoming Week is a opportunity to acknowledge that everyone is welcome here and we're very happy to welcome the people who have chosen to make Huron County their home.” He also points out that includes everyone whether they moved here from India or they moved here from Kitchener-Waterloo or London, “we're really happy they have chosen Huron County as their new home and we want to meet them and get to know them.”

Nonkes says they have seven community events planned for Welcoming Week. They have Meet Your Neighbour nights planned in the library branches in Wingham, Brussels, Seaforth and Clinton. They also have a film screening about the movie Ru, about a Vietnamese family that moves to Quebec. Not unlike a lot of people in Huron County who played an active role in the 1980's in bringing what would have been called Boat People in those days to Huron county and helping them settle in Canada. There will be a panel discussion following the movie that will include local refugee sponsors and families of Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian descent who spent their first years in Canada in Huron County. The panellists will also share reflections about their experiences and look at how knowledge and practices about refugee resettlement has shifted since the 1980s. 

Nokes says he's not convinced we have more newcomers in Huron County now than we did twenty years ago, but he suggests immigration has changed. “In the past, we had a lot more Europeans move to Huron County and they were of the same ethnicity as many of the people who were already living here, whereas now, because Canada's immigration has changed, most of the people coming to Canada now are from Southeast Asia, weather it's from India or the Philippines” so it has changed but he believes the number has remained pretty consistent from year to year.

Nonkes shares it's not easy to move to a new place but everybody has gifts and talents that they can contribute to a community. Our diversity is our strength and that's what Welcoming Week is all about.