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Dynamic infusi<br />
A<br />
ny doubts about the critical role that<br />
immigrants will play in Nova Scotia’s<br />
future economic growth will be quickly<br />
quelled in a conversation with Paul<br />
Pickering. He’s the workplace culture<br />
coordinator for the Immigrant Services<br />
Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS).<br />
“Demographically, Nova Scotia is in<br />
big trouble. We’re looking at a workforce<br />
that’s projected to shrink by 15 per cent<br />
over the next 20 years. This is not a fiveyear<br />
blip — this is a long term, potentially<br />
devastating problem. Even if we bring<br />
every group in Nova Scotia up to full<br />
employment, we’re still at a deficit. We<br />
need to be looking at any underemployed<br />
14<br />
population which certainly includes<br />
bringing in more immigrants.”<br />
Doing so requires that we confront<br />
some lingering negative presumptions<br />
about immigration, chief of which is the<br />
belief that immigrants take jobs from locals.<br />
“Immigrants actually create jobs,”<br />
says Sherry Redden, Business and Workforce<br />
Integration Manager at ISANS.<br />
“They’re three times more likely to start<br />
businesses. Of the 230 new clients we<br />
worked with last year, 71 of them opened<br />
new businesses. They’re also 70 per cent<br />
more likely to still be in business after<br />
three years, while the national average is<br />
about 48 per cent.”<br />
JULY & AUGUST 2016<br />
According to Redden, immigrants<br />
also bring valuable global connections<br />
with them. “They have markets they can<br />
connect with to export their products and<br />
markets for the things they need to create<br />
products,” she says.<br />
Product diversification is another<br />
unexpected windfall, with one example<br />
springing up from the local community<br />
gardens that ISANS helped refugees grow<br />
all over Halifax. While many people grow<br />
pumpkins en masse and then discard<br />
the leaves, farmers from the Bhutanese<br />
community use these leaves to make<br />
delicious traditional recipes. Redden<br />
observes that this is just one instance