27/10/2022
Chijioke Amadi has called Prince Edward Island home for the past 15 years since arriving from Nigeria.
He landed in the province in 2007, when he was 21, to study engineering.
Census data released Wednesday shows the Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have become magnets for immigrants like Amadi.
The share of immigrants to Canada who are settling in the region has tripled, rising to 3.5 per cent last year from 1.2 per cent in 2006.
Patrick Brannon, a senior researcher at the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, said Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are seeing the biggest growth in immigration, with steady increases between 2016 and 2021.
With the overall population in these areas aging, he said targeted immigration to offset the labour shortage has paid off. Most of the newcomers are from China and India, he added.
In 2021, about 23 per cent of Canada's population counted themselves as a landed immigrant or permanent resident. Based on recent trends, Statistics Canada said immigrants could represent 34 per cent of the country's population by 2041.
Background Story To This
After a five-year test run, an Atlantic immigration program that lets employers handpick workers from other countries, then fast tracks their permanent residency in Canada will be made permanent.
Starting in January, Canada will be able to accept at least 6,000 applicants a year to the Atlantic program.
In a virtual announcement Friday, federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said that after one year in Canada, more than 90 per cent of newcomers who arrived under the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program were still living in Atlantic Canada, a higher rate than any other program.
"What does this mean for our region? In one word, growth," Fraser said.
People can begin submitting applications for permanent residence under the new program on March 6, 2022, and the process would take about six months.
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