One of the things I've learned is that when it comes to immigration and attracting people outside of large cities, you need to have a critical mass of people from a community, so that when immigrants come they can feel at home in that community.
I want to give you an example. The community I live in—Brooks, Alberta—was a small oil and gas and farming community for years and years. About ten years ago the meat packing plant expanded there, and they couldn't find workers from within Canada. Soon, many refugees, in particular from Sudan, but from all across Africa and really from around the world started to come. Now there are different communities within Brooks that are welcoming to new immigrants; now there's a bit of a critical mass. You have people from all around the globe who come and end up staying now for longer periods of time than they used to, because they can work and there is a welcoming community.
Of course, the community of Brooks is two hours away from Calgary. It's a rural community. Interestingly, not long ago they formed a new francophone organization in Brooks. It's l'Association francophone de Brooks. It's probably, as far as I know, the only one in southern Alberta outside of Calgary. This would be for immigrants from places like Rwanda and Congo and so on. So it can happen, but it requires a number of different things to come together: jobs, a welcoming community, and of course some leadership, typically especially from the immigrant community, but also of course from people who are already in the community and who can help.