Immigration to Nova Scotia

Yesterday, the province of Nova Scotia and the Federal government signed a new agreement relating to the Immigration / Nominee program. Under the new agreement, NS can nominate as much number of people as it wants for the Nominee program. It is indeed a good milestone, even though I cannot figure out why there was a limit in the first place. Certainly the expectation was not and is still not, that we will get tens of thousands of immigrants flooding Nova Scotia.  

This led me to the question, ‘What can we do to build a better community (ethnic) that will attract and retain more immigrants?’. From an initial thought process, the following points seem to be valid : 

-      Most immigrants, especially new comers, are very adjusting and flexible to their new environment. In most cases, they are aware that NS does not have a large Indian population before they even land here and their expectations are low. So they are not (in most cases) disappointed by that.

-          Their basic needs (some cultural exchange, food, entertainment etc) are met by the existing infrastructure.

-          Even though a more elaborate set up would be welcome (like a rec centre, more art and cultural programs, occasional movie screenings etc), it is not a deciding factor in many cases when immigrants chose Ontario or BC over NS.

-          So then, what keeps them here is solely their profitable employment. In 9 out of 10 cases, people who land here and leave the province do so for their jobs and careers.  

A lot of immigrants face tough challenges when it comes to the job market. I agree, a good portion of it is because challenges in communication, having the need to re-qualify in certain professions (doctors, engineers, dentists, other medical technicians), not having the required skills etc. But even with all the right sets of qualifications and possessing the skills that are in demand, many immigrants face an uphill battle when searching for a job in Nova Scotia. We can always be proud of our friendly and welcoming nature, but the reality is that the ‘friendly nature and welcoming attitude’ stops just short of getting someone employed.  

I can personally vouch for at least a dozen immigrant families who first landed in Nova Scotia and had to move on later to other provinces for lack of employment or career growth here. And at least for one of the families, I was instrumental in bringing them to Nova Scotia and it left a really bad taste in my mouth when they left for Toronto.   

So one might think, there are probably not enough job opportunities here. I would beg to differ. Opportunities do exist, but they are not for visible minorities or for people with a ‘different’ set of qualifications. We 

·         fail to recognize the importance of education and university degrees granted from foreign countries,

·         fail to accept the fact that sometimes things are done a bit differently outside Canada,

·         see humility as lack of confidence,

·         mistake respect for shyness,

·         see accent as a failure to communication 

and the list goes on. 

Who is to blame here? I personally know of situations where some immigrants would have been the ideal fit in many occasions. But sometimes the organizations or the hiring managers are not sensitized to the immigrant situation or their culture and thus the newcomer is seen as not qualified for the job.

Recently, a friend who took up a job in Halifax from Toronto quit the job and went back to Toronto. He is from the African American community and his comment after two months in Halifax was this, ” I do not see any leader in this organization (another major employer in town) from my background and I don’t think I will ever be given the opportunity to grow here “. That was an eye opening comment in many ways. We need to work on creating awareness about different cultures and backgrounds at a very senior level.  

May be it is time for us to look deeper into the issues of why immigrants leave Nova Scotia. May be it is not the case of not having a stronger ethnic community, because if that was the case, people wouldn’t come here in the first place. We need to create the opportunities for immigrants before they come here and I am sure we will have no issue attracting immigrants from any country in the world !

VT