More Than Just Parks: Exploring the Role of Natural Environments in Supporting Immigrants to Metro Vancouver

Nature has the power to increase well-being and enrich human lives. Individuals’ lived experiences, interactions, and sociocultural backgrounds shape the ways natural spaces positively impact their lives. Accordingly, immigrants' experiences of natural spaces are informed by their unique sociocultural backgrounds and their unfamiliarity with their host country’s ecologic, biologic, geographic, and climatic environmental conditions. Many immigrants face migration related stressors including family separation, financial instability, and linguistic limitations. As such, nature has the potential to be a vital resource to improving immigrants’ quality of life and well-being. This talk explores how engagement with Canadian natural spaces help recent immigrants cope with post migration related stresses and adapt to Canada’s physical, social, and cultural environments.

Aspen Ono is a Masters student at UBC’s Institute of Resources, Environment, and Sustainability studying how immigrants benefit from Canadian nature and outdoor environments. Ono graduated with high honors from Emory University in 2018 with majors in Environmental Science and International Politics and a focus on global environmental and climate justice. In the past, she served as a delegate at the United Nation Convention on Climate Change’s Conference of Parties, worked for US President Jimmy Carter, and studied Tibetan Buddhism under His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Next year, Ono will be attending the University of Virginia’s School of Law in Charlottesville, Virgina.