Immigration: The leaky bucket
Like the Economist magazine, the Conference Board of Canada will sometimes use cheeky titles or puns to lighten up the content. A new report from the Board suggests an increasing number of immigrants are leaving the country after being here for a few years.
If you read the report you will see the migration rate is less than one percent per year so I am not sure there is much need for panic. Other studies have shown that some immigrants want to get a Canadian passport and then move back to their home country. I read a study - I think from Alberta - that a share of immigrants are coming to Canada first with the ultimate goal of getting into the United States.
But I still think we could do more as a country to encourage folks to move to Canada that have the best chance of succeeding here and not wanting to leave. Studies have shown the biggest reason for intraprovincial migration is the lack of a job that meets the newcomers education, skills and interests. Which is why we said way back in 2015 that we should be attracting immigrants aligned with demand in the workforce. The proverbial doctor driving a taxi makes no sense.
New Brunswick and the other Atlantic Provinces have a window here - to learn from both the successes and missteps in other jurisdictions. I have had many discussions in the past 12-18 months about how much we should encourage ethnic clustering in communities. On the one hand, many newcomers appreciate the opportunity to attend a place of faith with folks from their birth country or neighbourhoods and schools with a high percentage of folks from back home. But on the other hand, there is some evidence this clustering could end up hurting integration into networks that are needed to advance careers, etc.
I believe we should encourage newcomers to live all around the community and, if possible, attend places of faith, social groups, etc. that include a mix of ethnic groups - along with ethnocultural specific groups. I could be wrong about this but if you look at Toronto there are Census Tracts with zero % immigrants and Census Tracts with 95-100% immigrants and in many cases very high shares from the same ethnic group.
We need to have these conversations back up with good data and insight from newcomers. What do they want? What would help them settle here long term?
My family moved to a small city in Germany in 1973, including 3 children; the youngest was 2 and the oldest 9. None of us could say 'hello' in German, so we naturally gravitated to the few Americans and Canadians in the city.
Within a year, our oldest children were making good marks in German schools, and when we left Germany in 1980, everyone was fluent in German, the majority of our friends were German, and we had a German God-child. Returning to Canada was a greater shock to our family than emigrating to Germany.
Immigrants will gather in enclaves, because that's the natural thing to do, but their children will become part of the general culture. The parents will maintain the connection to their motherland and the language they learned as a child, and most will never be entirely comfortable in a country so different from their birth-country. Cultural is powerful, and becomes part of us when we are children. Languages learned after puberty are spoken with an accent derived from the language(s) we learned before then. The next generation of children will melt into their environment, despite parents' efforts to focus them on their past.
Of course, some immigrants will move on to other countries...perhaps it was their original destination. But most of those who thought of Canada as a waypoint on their journey will throw their anchor on Canadian soil if we can keep them here until they are comfortable with us. Canada is more like a family than a country, and as we embrace new people into our fold, our family becomes stronger for it. Children adopted into the family are deliberately chosen for who they are or will become...the family has no choice of those who are born into it. Most immigrants are by nature the bravest, the most resourceful, innovative and flexible people their mother country has to offer.
“I believe we should encourage newcomers to live all around the community and, if possible, attend places of faith, social groups, etc. that include a mix of ethnic groups - along with ethnocultural specific groups.”
If you want to see a super example of your idea here in Saint John, go to YouTube, Rivercross Church, pick any Sunday, suggest October 29, 2023, go to the 1h7m mark and you will see 4 languages on the references insert screen. I went two weeks ago and am still processing my audience observations. Unbelievable. All the best. Bryan