Abstract
This study examined the barriers and facilitators to community belonging for immigrants in Alberta, Canada. Participants discuss two forms of community belonging in this study: (a) belonging to an ethnocultural group; and (b) belonging within mainstream Canadian society. Barriers to mainstream community belonging for immigrants include employment barriers, language barriers, and discrimination. Recent immigrants often experience a sense of belonging to their ethnic group within the host country before feeling connected to others in their local geographic community. A major factor contributing to this trend is the lack of ethnocultural diversity in local community organizations in the areas where immigrants live. Immigrant service agencies and religious institutions compensate for this deficiency through creating avenues for social connection within and across ethnocultural groups and to mainstream Canadian society. Thus local community organizations should address issues of ethnocultural diversity and discrimination to improve the mental health of immigrants by fostering community belonging. Supporting programs in immigrant service agencies and religious institutions to increase social participation and engagement would, also, help strengthen community belonging and improve immigrant mental health.
