The Halifax Daily News (Nova Scotia)
June 20, 2004 Sunday
New faces, new Halifax;
With the multicultural fest in full swing, The Daily News’s Shaune
MacKinlay looks at our city’s changing face
More than 40,000 people are expected to visit Dartmouth’s waterfront
before today is done to take in performances by Armenian folk dancers
and Middle Eastern belly dancers, eat Ugandan goat stew or Jamaican
patties or enjoy a beer with people from around the globe who now
call Halifax home.
On this 20th anniversary of the Nova Scotia Multicultural Festival,
Halifax is a city whose face is changing.
“What we are mostly now seeing is immigration from Asia, Africa, the
Caribbean, South America, all what we call visible minorities, so we
will be seeing more diversity by just looking at people, not even
hearing them,” said Multicultural Association of Nova Scotia
president Barbara Campbell.
Arabic speakers now outnumber French speakers, Campbell said.
Yet despite the growing number of cultures represented, Halifax is
not the international mosaic it could be.
A look back at Halifax immigration numbers over the past 30 years
reveals a fairly flat line, with a burst of activity in the 1990s.
Between 1991 and 2001, 7,505 immigrants came to the city, compared
with 4,470 between 1981 and 1990, according to Statistics Canada.
Unlike Toronto, where 43.7 per cent of the population identified
themselves as foreign-born in the last census, only 6.9 per cent of
Haligonians were immigrants.
Despite Nova Scotia’s reputation for warm welcomes, people in the
province don’t always greet visible-minority immigrants with open
arms, Campbell said.
“People are afraid to open up; they really don’t know much about
them,” she said.
Jerald Premanath, 40, came to Nova Scotia in 1984. After a short
return to his native Sri Lanka and a two-year stint in Toronto,
Premanath now proudly
“Now, a lot of people on the street you see are from different
countries,” he said Friday at the festival, sporting an I Am Canadian
hat and a Halifax T-shirt.
Premanath’s friends thought he was “crazy” to come to Nova Scotia, he
said.
“We have to do some publicity about this area, and bring some people
over here,” he said. “Once they get here I know they will never go
back.”
Tana Mutasigh, 28, from Uganda, moved with his family to Halifax more
than a decade ago.
“I don’t think there’s enough support for people coming here from
different places, so they always end up going to Toronto,” he said.
“I’ve known a lot of newcomers here who can’t find jobs, but they go
to Toronto and find jobs.”
It’s not easy to draw immigrants. Without a critical mass, Halifax
can’t support the kinds of ethnic communities that make Toronto such
a draw. Indeed, our only China Town is a restaurant.
It takes people to draw people, said Ron Heisler, a federal
immigration director for the Atlantic region. Heisler is on loan to
the province this year to help draft a plan to attract immigrants to
Nova Scotia and make them want to stay.
“There hasn’t been a real concerted and co-ordinated effort on how to
deal with immigration,” Heisler said.
“They recognized that, and they want to develop options for cabinet
on how to do this.”
It’s about more than enhancing the province’s cultural life: Nova
Scotia needs immigrants.
By as early as 2006, Heisler said, deaths will begin to exceed births
in the province.
“Without in-migration from other provinces, or immigration from
outside, our population is going to continue to decline, but it’s
also going to continue to get older,” he said.
With fewer young people and more elderly Nova Scotians, Heisler said,
all indications are that the province will face serious labour
shortages, which will be felt sooner in Halifax.
Anyone who thinks new immigrants are a drain on the province needs
only talk to Heisler.
“Our statistics show that the Nova Scotia immigrant population has a
lower unemployment rate, they earn more, they earn less of their
money in government transfers or payouts, they have higher degrees of
university education, much higher levels of entrepreneurship and have
management skill occupations,” he said.
It will take more than one level of government to make the province a
place where newcomers want to put down roots, he said. They need
meaningful employment, help learning English, and welcoming schools.
Campbell agreed.
“It’s a matter of us, the residents here, taking time to speak, to
reach out, to talk to them, to find out who they are, what they’re
all about,” Campbell said. “It’s up to us to make the first step, to
welcome them.”
[email protected]
WHERE HALIGONIANS HAVE COME FROM CALLS HALIFAX HOME. This city is
home to 26,335 immigrants and non-permanent residents from more than
130 countries. Here’s where they come from:
United Kingdom – 5,875
United States – 3,655
Lebanon – 1,165
Germany – 1,010
China – 990
India – 920
Kuwait – 785
Netherlands – 590
Poland – 590
Greece – 585
Viet Nam – 475
Hong Kong – 445
Italy – 410
Philippines – 405
South Korea – 335
France – 305
Saudi Arabia – 290
Egypt – 260
Yugoslavia – 260
Ireland, Republic of – 240
Iran – 225
Russian Federation – 220
United Arab Emirates – 215
Pakistan – 200
Iraq – 190
Sri Lanka – 185
Portugal – 180
Palestine/West Bank/Gaza Strip – 170
Trinidad and Tobago – 155
Syria – 150
Taiwan – 150
Australia – 145
Guyana – 140
Japan – 140
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 130
Nigeria – 125
Czech Republic – 120
New Zealand – 120
Croatia – 115
Turkey – 115
Denmark – 110
Jordan – 110
South Africa – 110
Belgium – 105
Hungary – 105
Sierra Leone – 105
Jamaica – 100
Ethiopia – 95
Kenya – 95
Brazil – 90
Cuba – 90
Malaysia – 90
Mexico – 90
Romania – 90
Barbados – 85
Honduras – 85
Austria – 80
Bermuda – 75
Sudan – 75
Sweden – 70
Afghanistan – 65
Thailand – 60
Zimbabwe – 60
Ukraine – 55
Antigua and Barbuda – 50
Congo – 50
Colombia – 45
Ghana – 45
Norway – 45
Saint Lucia – 45
Spain – 45
Saint Pierre and Miquelon – 40
Slovakia – 40
Qatar – 40
Czechoslovakia (former) – 35
Singapore – 35
Switzerland – 35
Chile – 30
Dominican Republic – 30
Estonia – 30
Israel – 30
Oman – 30
Peru – 30
Uganda – 30
Bulgaria – 25
El Salvador – 25
Guatemala – 25
Haiti – 25
Latvia – 25
Liberia – 25
Zambia – 25
Argentina – 20
Bahamas – 20
Bahrain – 20
Myanmar – 20
Slovenia – 20
Somalia – 20
Tanzania – 20
Venezuela – 20
Yemen – 20
Algeria – 15
Cambodia – 15
Finland – 15
Indonesia – 15
Libya – 15
Nicaragua – 15
Albania – 10
Angola – 10
Anguilla – 10
Bangladesh – 10
Bolivia – 10
Botswana – 10
Burundi – 10
Chad – 10
Cyprus – 10
Dominica – 10
Eritrea – 10
Grenada – 10
Kazakhstan – 10
Lithuania – 10
Madagascar – 10
Mauritius – 10
Moldova – 10
Montserrat – 10
Morocco – 10
Namibia – 10
Netherlands Antilles – 10
North Korea – 10
Saint Vincent, Grenadines – 10
Togo – 10
Tunisia – 10
Uruguay – 10
U.S.S.R. (former) – 10
*source: 2001 census data
GRAPHIC: TASTING NEW CULTURES: English-language students (from left)
yo Yeon Park from Korea, Hae Ryen Lee, from Korea, Elsa Pacheco Luis
from Mexico, and Kwang Hee Lee, from Korea, enjoy Korean food at the
multicultural festival in Dartmouth. The group members study English
together at a language school just across from Alderney Landing in
Dartmouth.; STEWS UP! Tana Mutasigh serves up Uganda style goat stew
at the multicultural festival in Dartmouth.