N.L. needs more people. Jobs, a warmer welcome and a long-term plan could help
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians — not just the provincial government — have a part to play
A rock in the Atlantic Ocean and a vast subarctic landmass largely isolated from the rest of Canada — not necessarily an easy sell when stacked against the other provinces.
Yet Newfoundland and Labrador is promoting immigration as a way to help fix its population problem. The issue has surfaced as a priority for political parties campaigning in the Feb. 13 election.
So what's needed to attract and retain more newcomers?
People who appeared on an immigration-focused panel on CBC's Here & Now offered ideas not just for the incoming provincial government, but for people already living in the province.
Not surprisingly, jobs are a huge concern. They're the No. 1 thing Kesiya Sebastian gets asked about on Newfoundland Diary, the YouTube channel she started about the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program, after she came to St. John's in 2019.
"The biggest barrier, I would say, is the lack of job opportunities."
"When people immigrate, they are like qualified people with good experience and skills or … international students that are coming for graduation," Sebastian said, adding that professionals are often curious about whether their foreign credentials will transfer and if they'll be able to work in their trained field.
WATCH | Carolyn Stokes moderates a discussion for Here & Now:
Amr Alagouza immigrated to St. John's to pursue a master's degree about two years ago. As a social enterprise pilot project manager for the Association of New Canadians, he creates business opportunities to help immigrants gain jobs and work experience.
Newfoundland can retain its own sort of unique culture while still exploring and welcoming other cultures as well.- Avi Cheema
When deciding where to move, Alagouza said, people consider the pros and cons. They look at things like international flight options to see how difficult it would be to return to their home country.
Immigrants looking to start a company also weigh things like whether a province has any sort of tax relief or exemption for new businesses, he said.
Sebastian suggests a three-to-five-year tax break for the technology startup industry, specifically.
"This will lead international students and graduates to stick onto this province," she said.
Tech potential
Working at Verafin, a St. John's-based company employing hundreds of people, Sebastian says the startup tech industry offers a job-creating potential that the next government can tap into.
It's a growing sector that Alagouza wants the province to promote overseas.
"[Government departments] can sit together and come up with an ad campaign that can be addressed to … countries that export new immigrants to let them know of the opportunities that they have here in Newfoundland and Labrador," Alagouza said.
Dublin did something similar with its tech sector, which "proved itself very much a motive — or a driver — in the economic growth of that region," he said.
Another idea would be to start a bigger think tank involving immigrants, government officials, regulatory bodies, post-secondary institutions and associations like the board of trade to workshop more solutions.
Reckoning with reality
Once immigrants arrive, Avi Cheema said, the province and its people could do more to help them integrate.
"I mean, I had a great experience growing up in Newfoundland. No doubt, I think it's a beautiful place to call home," she said. "But there are things that I have, I think, reckoned with, now that I've moved away from the province, that definitely created barriers for myself and my family while we lived there."
Now working as an immigration lawyer for the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario, Cheema said those barriers became obvious while watching her grandfather's Alzheimer's worsen.
He had spent 25 years in the province, an avid volunteer and integral member of St. John's society, Cheema said, but the nursing home he moved into wasn't equipped to care for him.
"I think that's when we kind of saw our ability to integrate into the province crumble a little bit, because there just isn't that cultural sensitivity when it comes to health care."
Societal changes
While there are resources for immigrants, the province lacks diversity and a long-term retention strategy, Cheema said.
Newfoundland and Labrador needs to implement anti-racism, anti-oppression and cultural sensitivity training in school curriculums, universities and the health-care system to ensure new Canadians feel like they can culturally exist in the province, she said, and the idea of what constitutes a Newfoundlander needs to change.
The term "come from away" started as a reference to people from mainland Canada but it also reinforces the idea that a Newfoundlander is someone — likely a white person — whose family has been on the island for generations, Cheema said.
"I think that we need to kind of expand that definition and understand that Newfoundland can retain its own sort of unique culture while still exploring and welcoming other cultures as well," she said.
The responsibility to integrate into the community can't just fall on newcomers.
"I think the onus also needs to be on Newfoundland, its institutions and its government to make sure that they are feeling welcome and that they feel that they would like to remain and build a community for themselves in the province."
Newfoundland and Labrador has the lowest fertility rate in the country, meaning women in the province are having fewer children than women nationally.
According to the province, there aren't enough children being born to maintain current population levels. As well, more people are now dying each year in Newfoundland and Labrador than are being born.
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With files from Here & Now
