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Migrants shun city as employment dries up

January 15, 2010

Windsor's economy is largely to blame for its inablity to attract migrants, according to a report released Wednesday by the Conference Board of Canada.

According to the report, Windsor is ranked 45th out of 50 centres across Canada.

It was the city's poor economic performance, led largely by its high unemployment rate, that dragged Windsor down in the rankings where it was joined by fellow manufacturing centres such as Oshawa, Brantford, Cambridge, Longueuil, Saguenay, Trois-Rivieres, Laval and Saint John.

"With manufacturing and forestry industries in decline, most of these cities have experienced economic difficulties for several years," said the report. "Along with economic decline, seven of these cities have shown little population growth."

Mayor Eddie Francis said the purpose of the study is to measure a city's ability to attract newcomers from within the country and from outside.

"Clearly, the economy is a major factor because it makes sense that people will go where there are jobs," said Francis. "We are grouped with other cities who have experienced job losses and a struggling economy both in the manufacturing sector and forestry.

"If the correlations weren't there, there would be some cause for concern," said Francis.

"But clearly the cities ranked near the bottom of the list have issues relating to their economy and job growth, both of which fuel migration."

The study ranked 50 cities, assigning them grades from A to D, in seven socio-economic categories...

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