Canada

New Brunswick is the only Canadian province that has seen the greatest decline in population. Why is the population of immigrants shrinking?

Since New Brunswick introduced its population growth secretariat in 2007, in the last two or three years, New Brunswick has actually recruited more immigrants than it did throughout the entire 1980s. The immigrant retention rate has increased in the province a bit over 10 percent in a decade. Mike Timani, the president of the New Brunswick Multicultural Council, would like to see that success rate climb to 85 per cent. However, as of June 2015, the population of the province has dropped by 941 during first quarter. New Brunswick has seen double the decline as compared to, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, over the past three years, which are in the same boat of population decline. According to a CBC news report, Statistics Canada says, while Canada has grown by a million people in the last three years, New Brunswick has shrunk by 3,497. That's equivalent to the entire population of the Town of Dalhousie, and double the decline experienced by Canada's other two shrinking provinces — Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

There are two main reasons of the shrinking population. One is that the federal government appears to be growing more strict in the immigration policies, especially when it comes to temporary foreign workers. However, the provincial government is keen to promote successful immigration to counter the negative trends in New Brunswick's population. It is impossible for New Brunswick to envision its population growth, as long as the federal government restricts immigration. Another big reason is the weak job market infrastructure. There are very few high profile jobs in New Brunswick. According to a report by CBC news, Kyle Lohnes who was born and raised in New Brunswick, studied 3D animation in Saint John, but he had to leave when he found a job in Halifax. Another report says that many immigrants move to bigger cities for better prospects.

One population expert says 150,000 of the parents of ‘Generation Y’ left the province for better jobs. The report says that 115,000 New Brunswickers will be leaving their jobs over the next decade, mainly due to retirement. There hasn’t been any job growth in the past six years in New Brunswick. Even the birth rate in the province hasn’t been promising.

The government of New Brunswick should revitalize the economy and we need young and skilled people as well as money to do that. The government must reopen immigration quota for New Brunswick. New immigrants start spending money to buy food, house and car; not only that but to buy business too. There will be more jobs in the market with the new developments of business. It is also called positive cycling for economy if this cycle goes on continuously,

I personally love living in New Brunswick and I believe that it will get its best days again.