It's The Economy, Stupid

3 thoughts on “Immigration slowly ticking up”

1. Let me be cynical. How many of them stay in the province after two or three years? (disclosure: I stayed just over two years). My point is that bringing immigrants is only the first part of the process. Keeping them is a lot harder if the local economy does not provide them with opportunities to develop their careers. In fact, I have several friends inquiring about how things are going here in Alberta. They are ready to jump ship at any moment because they can’t find jobs in their fields of expertise in NB.

   Overall, I think that the numbers are a positive sign but you have to wonder is this is not just another version of the Atlantic Gateway 😉

2. I saw a presentation last year that showed NB has about a 40% attrition rate among new immigrants and this is actually better than the other three Atl. Provinces. Certainly we must align our immigration strategies to real economic opportunities (either jobs or entrepreneurial endeavours).

3. Is this the result of immigration policy, either fedrally or provincially? To be honest, I’m pretty poorly rehearsed on the subject as of late, is the provincial nominee program still in effect? I think I remember reading that it was going nowhere in NB. I know it was a good tool for the province of Manitoba four years ago as their population grew by about 10,200 people in that year, of which 6,500 were international migrants — a substantial increase over patterns of the recent past.

   I believe almost half of those arrivals in that year (4,048 immigrants) arrived under their Provincial Nominee Program. Many of those were skilled immigrants ready to land in a particular field of work. Others were entrepreneurs that only had to cough up “x” amount of dollars to get established in the region. I believe their rate (fees) was much more generous then say the US. Not to mention, the process moved along quickly.

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