Immigration & Atlantic Revitalization

A small influx of foreign workers has sparked sharp reactions in Chipman, New Brunswick. Many see the newcomers as potential saviours of a town headed toward extinction. Others see them as competitors for local jobs. In between, a handful of immigrant families are trying to figure out how to feel at home. The challenges of immigration in small communities are different than in cities, both for newcomers and for local residents. Solving them may be key to the future prosperity of rural Atlantic Canada.

Why don’t a quality education, strong language skills and an open work permit guarantee success in Atlantic Canada? Fewer international graduates stay in this region after graduation than any other. Students and their advocates tell KELLY TOUGHILL what can be done to counter the trend.

Canada is becoming dependent on the economic stimulus of international students, writes KELLY TOUGHILL, but are we promising more than we can deliver? Many international students will face difficulties adjusting to Canadian academic systems, finding work, making friends and securing permanent resident status.

Access to more settlement services, easier family reunification and safety are among the myriad reasons refugees tend to stay where they settle in the Maritimes, writes Kelly Toughill

Our immigration system pits family reunification against Canada’s economic needs. That’s short-sighted and counterproductive, argues Kelly Toughill

Some employers and advocates want Canada to recruit refugees to fill local labour shortages, Kelly Toughill reports. Others worry that would dilute the humanitarian mission of resettling the world’s most vulnerable citizens.

Atlantic Canada faces profound demographic changes that challenge its future prosperity and economic sustainability. With a new email newsletter, the Public Policy Forum will keep you up to date on our three-year research project on immigrant retention and labour market revitalization in the region and share other timely research and articles.

More than 3,000 job offers had been made through the program by the end of October 2018, but only 1,202 workers, spouses and children were granted permanent residency through the program in the same period. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is trying to speed up the pace of permanent residency admissions.

The disappearance of Bhutanese from Halifax is discouraging to those who believe the future of Atlantic Canada is tied to increased immigration, but it is also an opportunity to look at the factors that encourage newcomers to take root – and the factors that lead them away.

Cultural food security is key to how and whether immigrants take root in their new home. In Halifax, Common Roots Urban Farm was the only source of some traditional foods for newcomers, but the community garden was shut down and no one knows where – or if – it will rise again.

Revealing the list of employers authorized to bring immigrants to Canada through the Atlantic Immigration Pilot is an important first step in combating immigration fraud.

The Public Policy Forum’s 2018 Atlantic Summit is the first major initiative in a 3-year project. From 2018-2020 we will conduct research, engage communities and decision makers, and work to support the momentum building behind the Atlantic Growth Strategy. The focus of our first year has been on demographics and the role of immigration as one approach to attract, and keep, the talented people who make Atlantic Canada home.

Immigrants who stay in Atlantic Canada have higher employment levels, higher wages and face less discrimination than immigrants to other parts of Canada, yet the region struggles to attract newcomers and has the lowest retention rates in Canada.

The summit, which attracted hundreds from around Atlantic Canada, kicked off PPF’s three-year policy research project on Atlantic revitalization, with a special focus on newcomer retention.