With population growth flat-lining in New Brunswick, some observers are encouraging the province to open its doors to a greater variety of immigrants.
Michael Haan, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Population and Social Policy at the University of New Brunswick, says the province needs to improve and reinvent its immigration policies to reflect the changing demands of society.
“Right now, there are twice as many 50-year-olds as there are five-year-olds in New Brunswick,” Haan said in an interview Tuesday.
“We have to think about what these 50-year-olds will want 10 and 15 years from now, as well as what they need now.”
He said governments consistently stress the need to lure the “best and the brightest” immigrants, not to mention the wealthiest. But Haan, who is also a member of the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network, says it may be time to look at the growing need for more low-skilled workers.
“We have an aging population and this aging population is going to require care; they’re going to want to shop; they’re going to want to have their feet done and everything else,” he said.
“There is actually a growing need in lesser skilled areas of the labour market.”
Jean-Marie Nadeau, president of the Acadian Society of New Brunswick, also wants the government to make more of an effort to linguistically balance the number of immigrants coming into the province, noting most now are English-speaking.
He is urging the New Brunswick government to partner with Quebec, which has a surplus of French-speaking immigrants.
“We have to create a partnership with Quebec immigration because they have more people who want to go to Quebec than they want to accept,” Nadeau said. “So perhaps some of those people would be interested in coming to New Brunswick. We need an agreement.”
Nadeau says it also would be advisable for New Brunswick to exercise more control over its immigration, as is the case in Quebec.
He says students trying to move to New Brunswick often find it faster and easier to jump through the regulatory hoops in Quebec, rather than New Brunswick. He says that as a result, too many end up settling in La Belle Province.
“New Brunswick is losing population and if we don’t change the way we do things, we’ll always be losers,” he said.
No one from the New Brunswick government was available for comment on Tuesday.
The immigration numbers for New Brunswick have improved in recent years, but they remain weak when compared to other parts of Canada.
Statistics Canada has predicted that New Brunswick’s aging population and low immigration will slow the province’s labour force growth to a crawl by 2031.
After more than five years of steady gains, the province’s population growth flattened in the first quarter of this year.
Population growth figures from StatsCan showed that modest gains in immigration helped offset interprovincial migration and emigration, but only enough to keep the province’s population static.
Haan is embarking on a study through the Social Policy Research Network that will try to determine how many immigrants who come to New Brunswick actually stay in the province.
The province’s Population Growth Secretariat – which recently had its budget cut and was renamed a division under Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour – has been criticized in the past for not keeping track of how many immigrants actually stay in the province.
“We want to get a profile on who is coming into the province and see which of these people stay,” Haan says.
Tradina Meadows Forgeron, executive director of the Multicultural Association of the Greater Moncton Area, says there’s no question that retention of immigrants is a problem for New Brunswick.
Forgeron says one of the problems is that New Brunswick is too slow to recognize professional credentials. She says immigrant professionals such as doctors, lawyers and architects often move to other provinces where their skills are more readily accepted
Michael Haan, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Population and Social Policy at the University of New Brunswick, says the province needs to improve and reinvent its immigration policies to reflect the changing demands of society.
“Right now, there are twice as many 50-year-olds as there are five-year-olds in New Brunswick,” Haan said in an interview Tuesday.
“We have to think about what these 50-year-olds will want 10 and 15 years from now, as well as what they need now.”
He said governments consistently stress the need to lure the “best and the brightest” immigrants, not to mention the wealthiest. But Haan, who is also a member of the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network, says it may be time to look at the growing need for more low-skilled workers.
“We have an aging population and this aging population is going to require care; they’re going to want to shop; they’re going to want to have their feet done and everything else,” he said.
“There is actually a growing need in lesser skilled areas of the labour market.”
Jean-Marie Nadeau, president of the Acadian Society of New Brunswick, also wants the government to make more of an effort to linguistically balance the number of immigrants coming into the province, noting most now are English-speaking.
He is urging the New Brunswick government to partner with Quebec, which has a surplus of French-speaking immigrants.
“We have to create a partnership with Quebec immigration because they have more people who want to go to Quebec than they want to accept,” Nadeau said. “So perhaps some of those people would be interested in coming to New Brunswick. We need an agreement.”
Nadeau says it also would be advisable for New Brunswick to exercise more control over its immigration, as is the case in Quebec.
He says students trying to move to New Brunswick often find it faster and easier to jump through the regulatory hoops in Quebec, rather than New Brunswick. He says that as a result, too many end up settling in La Belle Province.
“New Brunswick is losing population and if we don’t change the way we do things, we’ll always be losers,” he said.
No one from the New Brunswick government was available for comment on Tuesday.
The immigration numbers for New Brunswick have improved in recent years, but they remain weak when compared to other parts of Canada.
Statistics Canada has predicted that New Brunswick’s aging population and low immigration will slow the province’s labour force growth to a crawl by 2031.
After more than five years of steady gains, the province’s population growth flattened in the first quarter of this year.
Population growth figures from StatsCan showed that modest gains in immigration helped offset interprovincial migration and emigration, but only enough to keep the province’s population static.
Haan is embarking on a study through the Social Policy Research Network that will try to determine how many immigrants who come to New Brunswick actually stay in the province.
The province’s Population Growth Secretariat – which recently had its budget cut and was renamed a division under Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour – has been criticized in the past for not keeping track of how many immigrants actually stay in the province.
“We want to get a profile on who is coming into the province and see which of these people stay,” Haan says.
Tradina Meadows Forgeron, executive director of the Multicultural Association of the Greater Moncton Area, says there’s no question that retention of immigrants is a problem for New Brunswick.
Forgeron says one of the problems is that New Brunswick is too slow to recognize professional credentials. She says immigrant professionals such as doctors, lawyers and architects often move to other provinces where their skills are more readily accepted
