Nova Scotia Minister of Immigration

Lena Diab: Retention is always in my mind, according to Toronto Star. Approximately 946 Syrian refugeeswill have landed in Nova Scotia by this week, including a family of seven on Monday, with 1,500 expected by year end. You can bring hundreds and thousands and if they don’t stay, you have lost, you haven’t done anything, Lena Diab, the Nova Scotia minister of Immigration, said in an interview Monday. That over half of the number of immigrants the province usually attracts in international immigration in a single year — and helps the province push to reverse its projected population decline. Similar calls for increased immigration are being heard in New Brunswick, with warnings issued last year that the province death rate is not outpacing its births and Premier Brian Gallant petitioning Ottawa for more immigrants. The Ivany commission, a landmark study on the province economy, has called for Nova Scotia to more than double its annual immigrant figures, to 7,000 a year as a way to cope with depopulation. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.