Many rural areas have declining populations and services making it difficult to attract and retain new arrivals. This study will look at rural areas that are successful in attracting new arrivals; outlining the policy and program offerings that focus on skill worker/entrepreneur immigration. A determination of what new arrivals expect/need from policies and programs to attract them to rural areas will be completed and compared to what is currently offered by municipalities. Focus groups will provide insight into how best to develop and implement policy and programs in rural areas to attract skill workers/entrepreneurs. Municipalities will be provided information from key informant interviews and focus groups to help focus their policy and program offerings. To advance the research (development of a tool kit) and improve knowledge translation and transfer from municipality to new immigrants we will conduct a pilot project embedding a student within a rural municipality.