Abstract: Abstract Many industrialized countries depend on immigration to bridge the labour gap due to an ageing workforce, and low birth rates. Within the group of seven (G7) largest democratic industrialized countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America (Council on Foreign Relations, 2021) the median population age range is 38.5 and 48.6 years (World Population Review, 2022) and birth rates are below the 2.1 births required to maintain their population (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development [OECD], 2020a). As such, G7 countries are unable to sustain their economic growth without immigrants. Yet, G7 countries struggle to economically integrate immigrants. Immigrant unemployment rates range from 25.3% and 41.9% with women reporting the highest rates (OECD, 2020b). Furthermore, immigrants tend to settle in and around large cities (OECD 2022), making it particularly challenging for employers located in less popular immigrant destinations, also known as non-gateway locations (Immigration, Refugee, Citizenship Canada, 2018), to access this pool of available labour. Consequently, there is a lag in G7 countries’ ability to reap the fiscal benefits of immigrant workers as companies face a labour shortage exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic (Causa et al., 2022). This challenge may be addressed through companies’ onboarding programs. Onboarding is the policies and procedures used by an organization to recruit and train new employees (Feldman, 1976; Van Maanen & Schein, 1979). Onboarding is credited with improving new workers' workplace and role integration and improving retention. Studies have examined role clarity, task-mastery, self-efficacy, social acceptance, mutual influence and outcome variables such as organizational commitment, embeddedness, person-organization-fit, performance and turnover (Allen & Shanock, 2013; Ashforth, et al., 2007; Baker & Feldman, 1991; Bauer, et al., 2007; Gruman, et al., 2006; Kowtha, 2008; Jones, 1986; Saks et al., 2007). This study seeks to synthesize interdisciplinary literature to identify patterns and gaps pertaining to onboarding immigrants in gateway and non-gateway locations. Four research questions underpin the study: 1) What factors impact immigrant economic integration? 2) What additional challenges do immigrants face in non-gateway locations? 3) What shapes locals’ perceptions of immigrant workers? 4) What are immigrants’ experiences and perceptions of non-gateway locations? A conceptual integrative literature review was conducted to create new knowledge and perspectives by re-organizing, analyzing and synthesizing existing research (Torraco, 2016). The sample was collected using a database search and a manual review of peer-reviewed articles using keywords that included: immigrant, onboarding, organizational socialization, economic integration, gateway and non-gateway locations, metropolitan and rural. One hundred forty-one articles were retained and analyzed using a matrix. Preliminary findings indicate that five factors impact immigrant economic integration: i) attitudes of locals, employers, and immigrants; ii) work quality and access to training; iii) immigrants’ social and professional networks iv) recognition of education credentials and professional experience and v) language proficiency. Immigrants may face three additional challenges in non-gateway locations: i) access to social services and amenities, ii) the local economy and iii) interactions with locals. Locals’ attitudes are shaped by local government policies toward immigrants, which is why immigrants have mixed experiences and perceptions of non-gateway locations. However, a common set of hopes drives their choice of where to settle: labour opportunities, good quality schools for their children and safe communities with access to housing, social and recreational activities, and infrastructure. Employers seeking to recruit immigrant workers should adopt strategies that address immigrant challenges. These include supporting: immigrants’ access to local integration services, developmental relationships, networking, training, career planning and diversity training for managers. Non-gateway employers should address challenges at the community level and in the workplace. At the community level, they should work with local stakeholders and various levels of government to diversify the local economy and establish immigrant attraction and integration policies and services. In the workplace, they may need to bridge gaps in integration services such as language training, accessing housing and social amenities and support the development of relationships in and outside of the workplace. Although a recent literature review examining immigrant onboarding was conducted (Tharenou & Kulik, 2020), gaps remain concerning onboarding related to: • Practices, needs and capacities of smaller companies. • Immigrant workers in non-gateway locations. • Workers in lower-level positions. • Perceptions and experiences of immigrants. • Perceptions and experiences of immigrant women. Theoretically, this study may advance existing models by identifying variables reflective of the interactive nature of onboarding and that are specific to immigrants in gateway and non-gateway locations. In practice, it could provide research-based company policy recommendations tailored to employers’ needs based on their geographic location.
