Building Solidarity between Im/migrants and the Local Population. Lessons from a Community Project in a Remote Region of Québec

In remote regions where there is an increasing number of im/migrants, introducing new types of diversity, little is known about the community sector’s initiatives and lessons. This chapter helps fill that gap with a case study of a project called “Cuisines collectives interculturelles” (Intercultural Collective Kitchen [CCI]). The CCI’s objectives were to bring im/migrants and the local population closer together and deconstruct prejudices about im/migrants’ situations, highlighting the process implemented to confront the gap between inadequate perceptions and the lived reality of im/migrants. The chapter explains the context and the process leading to a local community organization’s development of the project; the activities realized between 2019 and 2021; and the role I played as one of the project coordinators. This case study allows us to understand the challenges and the lessons learned, but also the importance of its communicative strategies and the adaptations introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter underlines the importance of the active participation of im/migrants and locals performing concrete tasks as well as the communicative context organizers created to present im/migrants’ experiences. Finally, for this kind of fieldwork, the chapter highlights the importance of trust from the community and researchers’ experience-based knowledge of the field.