Welcome to Brooks, where immigrant Mohammed Idriss reflects on the value of 'redneck communities'

Ethiopian immigrant Mohammed Idriss never intended to stay in Brooks, Alberta. 

When he arrived, the small community was just a stepping stone on the way to a bigger urban centre like Vancouver. But nine and a half years later, he's still there. 

"People associate small communities, 'redneck' communities, to being stubborn, to being unwelcoming...some sort of 'us and them' kind of thing," says Idriss. "And that's not there at all here in Brooks," 

"Part of being that stubborn community, they wanted to show everyone else that we could do it, we could integrate, we could form this community that he all belong to," he says.  

Before moving to Brooks, I think the smallest place I [had] lived in had two million people. But now, I can't imagine living in a place where I don't know everyone.- Mohammed Idriss

Idriss estimates that approximately one quarter of the small community is made up of immigrants and newcomers, many of them from Sub-Saharan Africa.

The falling price of oil has been hard on the town, but he says they've leaned on each other to get through the downturn. 

"It's a difficult time. We rely on that industry a lot in our community," says Idriss. "But again, as a notion of community, there is actually a committee called [the] Community Response Committee...assessing the situation, looking at how can they help, looking at how can we as a community help each other, because this is not the first time, actually, we went through this."

In 2012, the meat-packing plant in Brooks — a major employer — temporarily shut down during an E. coli crisis.

Idriss says the experience helped teach the community how to support each other in hard times, and he's optimistic about their future together. 

Click the button above to hear The 180's visit to Brooks, Alberta.