In Newfoundland and Labrador, the retention rate for international students and graduates is acceptable. Almost all who are able to get a job are still here five years after graduation. We're updating our immigration categories right now to introduce new ones such as investors and entrepreneurs. That will help raise the rate even higher, especially since Memorial University of Newfoundland with the Genesis Centre is so very focused on students establishing actual businesses in St. John's.
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Memorial University currently has the lowest tuition in Canada for Newfoundland and Labrador students (the province doesn't even give loans, it gives grants, to locals - so only the federal portion needs to be repaid). Tuition is higher for mainlanders and higher still for foreigners, but still exceptionally cheap compared to their home provinces or international student programs elsewhere.
Memorial University is world-renowned for folklore and cold ocean science. Students of any other discipline are probably only coming here for the cheap tuition. So it's a bit of a difficult audience to try to convince to settle here permanently. They want to come, get their degree affordably, and leave. But it has been working. Most mainland students are from Nova Scotia and Ontario. Most international students are from Spanish and Arabic-speaking countries.
We're managing to retain over half of them. Through my work, I manage to meet quite a lot of them and they fall into two categories - the ones who find Newfoundland interesting, including negatively, and leave as soon as able, and the sizable minority who fall completely in love and are heartbroken at the thought of having to live anywhere else. They're for sure in the 30-percent range, and anything we can do to keep them will be eagerly latched onto by them.
The government has committed to a half dozen or more immigration-related legislative changes or initiatives targeting international students and graduates.
One of the recent ones has been work placements to introduce these students and graduates to what is an exceptionally, suffocatingly nepotistic business environment (any job advertised here gets thousands upon thousands of applications from the diaspora living on the mainland and beyond; you don't have to be racist to want to give it to one of them. But it is hampering our population growth as a result).
Newfoundland and Labrador announces work placements for international students and graduates
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Two new pilot programs have been launched for international students and graduates in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Student Internship Pilot Program and My First Job in Newfoundland and Labrador Pilot Program will help foreign students in the province secure suitable employment.
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is dedicating more than $392,000 in funding for both programs.
The Student Internship Pilot Program is designed to connect full-time international students in a recognized post-secondary institution with a small or medium-sized business for a 12-week internship in an occupation that aligns with their career path.
The My First Job in Newfoundland and Labrador Pilot Program is designed to link international graduates from Memorial University or College of the North Atlantic with a small or medium-sized business for a 16-week job placement in their field of study.
The new pilot programs follow recommendations presented in a parliamentary report on improving immigration and employment prospects for international students in Atlantic Canada.
Al Hawkins, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Minster of Advanced Education, Skills and Labour said the goal of the pilot programs is to encourage international students and graduates to build their careers in the province.
“International students and graduates who develop professional connections are more likely to stay here, enhancing the social vibrancy of our province and supporting economic growth,” he said. “We encourage the business community to avail of this opportunity to build our community, and to employ these skilled and talented individuals.”
The two programs are part of a broader initiative by the provincial government to retain international students in order to reach its goal of welcoming nearly 1,700 new immigrants to Newfoundland and Labrador annually by 2022.
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http://www.canadastudynews.com/2017/...and-graduates/
Immigration is already up 40% since 2012. Fingers crossed we hit the 1,700 goal.
And we've started marketing ourselves more aggressively - pointing out we're the happiest and least-stressed province in Canada, we have statistically the greatest sense of belonging to our local communities and province, etc. And things like this, certainly, will be highlighted in future immigration campaigns:
St. John's Canada's most open city, populism poll suggests
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At a time in world history marked by a global trend towards slamming doors on immigration in the face of mounting economic insecurity, new polling by The Canadian Press/Ekos Politics suggests St. John's is Canada's most "open" city, where populist politics — including support for restrictions on newcomers and resistance to free trade and globalization — are least likely to thrive.
Populism is the term often used to describe the bursts of anti-elite support that catapulted outsider Donald Trump into the White House and fuelled Britain's stunning referendum results to leave the European Union.
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The city of about 109,000 people, its famous colourful clapboard buildings nestled around a busy harbour, is increasingly diverse but still overwhelmingly white. And its economic engine has sputtered since the offshore oil bonanza that built luxury homes and opened swank restaurants ended when prices crashed three years ago.
That, according to conventional wisdom, is supposed to make it fertile ground for the sort of attitudes believed to underpin the 21st-century populist forces that are in play around the world.
And yet St. John's — along with Victoria, B.C., another fairly white seaside destination — tops the ranks of Canada's most open cities, Graves said. At the other end of the spectrum, the surveys suggest, are Oshawa, Ont., and Calgary, where "closed" attitudes and tepid support for immigration are spurred by a persistent and deepening fear of a worsening economy.
"Maybe it's the ocean having kind of a more cosmopolitan influence on the outlook of people," Graves said. "A lot of people come through. It's a big port."
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http://www.thetelegram.com/news/regi...ggests-181655/