Delving deep
Cape Breton Local Immigration Partnership asking how to keep newcomers on the island
The Cape Breton Local Immigration Partnership is launching a series of 13 meetings across the island to get a better understanding on what makes a “welcoming and inclusive” community.
The sessions begin on Saturday in North Sydney and Sydney Mines and will continue over the next two months.
The local immigration partnership is nearly one year into its mandate — a federal initiative funded through Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada to addresses the growing need for community planning in the areas of immigrant attraction and retention.
Kailea Pedley is the program manager for the immigration partnership. She wants to hear from community members — both immigrant and non-immigrant — to determine what can be done to keep newcomers from leaving smaller communities.
“There’s quite a bit of variation from place to place in terms of what services are available for newcomers when they arrive, what resources are there, what kind of community practices exist in how people are welcomed and included in different places,” she said Tuesday.
Statistics Canada keeps figures available through census data on ethnicities of residents but it doesn’t shine light on how well the island is doing when it comes to retention rates of immigrants.
“There is a low level of retention in Nova Scotia at around 72 per cent, I believe, right now, which is quite a bit lower than the national average,” said Pedley. “And we don’t have a figure for Cape Breton but it would be, I imagine, lower than the provincial average.”
Right now, Atlantic Canada has the lowest immigration retention rates in the country.
As Pedley stated, Nova Scotia has a five-year immigrant retention rate between 2011-2015 of 72 per cent, while Newfoundland and Labrador is at 56 per cent, New Brunswick is at 52 per cent, and P.E.I. is at just 18 per cent.
No province outside Atlantic Canada has a retention rate below 80 per cent.
Finding suitable employment is one key factor for immigrants settling in Cape Breton but most do arrive with marketable skills including an entrepreneurial spirit, Pedley said. There are areas in Cape Breton that do suffer from labour shortages in tourism and hospitality as well as the fishery, she added. She said local immigration partnerships across the country tend to focus on issues of employment, language, housing and social inclusion as main priorities to tackle.
Community surveys will also be handed out to immigrants currently living in Cape Breton to get a better idea of their lived experience. At this early stage, Pedley said the local immigration partnership will develop a strategy document highlighting priority areas and the formation of “action teams” to delve deeper into the issues that will have been discussed at the 13 community meetings. Those looking to attend a specific community meeting can email local.immigration@capebretonpartnership.com with their name, email, and the date/location of the session they would like to attend.
More information on the immigration partnership is available at www.capebretonpartnership.com/initiatives/cbilp.