Winnipeg Free Press
Sunday, Sunday, March 12, 2006, p. b7
Slowing down - Some ethnic groups suffer from low birth rates, outmigration
By Bartley Kives and Carol Sanders
NOT all of Winnipeg's ethnic communities are growing. Winnipeg's Jewish and Chinese communities suffer from aging populations and heavy out-migration, which means their future growth may not keep pace with overall population increases. The French community is seeing assimilation with the anglophone majority and low birth rates eat away at its numbers.
"I've heard some doomsday scenarios," says Anne-Marie Thibert-Guenette, president of the St. Boniface Chamber of Commerce and vice-president of the Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine. To fight this trend, St. Boniface is working hard to attract and retain immigrants from francophone countries.
"Without it, in a couple of generations, our culture could be lost," she says.
Less than two per cent of the immigrants to Manitoba in 2000 spoke French as their first language, compared to nearly 15 per cent who spoke the Filipino language, Tagalog.
Studies of new immigrants in Winnipeg suggest Chinese often stay here for mere months before moving on to other cities, says U of M sociologist Lori Wilkinson.
Jews, meanwhile, appear to be losing their young adults to educational and professional opportunities in other North American cities.
But don't write off the Jewish community just yet, says Ken Zaifman, an immigration lawyer.
What some of the statistics don't show is a new surge of Russian Jews from Israel immigrating to Winnipeg. The Russian Jews first moved to Israel after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, and are now seeking to move again for a variety of reasons, including security and economics, he says.
"Hundreds of families are coming. It's starting," Zaifman says. "That pipeline will expand and grow, fuelled by jobs," under the immigration nominee program.
"(Winnipeg's Jewish population) has certainly turned the corner from when it was diminishing," he maintained.
While Winnipeg has lost a chunk of its Chinese population to larger cities, the size of the community has still doubled in the last 20 years, says Dr. Joseph Du, president of the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural Association.
"When I came in the early 1960s, there were 20-some families. We had to buy groceries from Vancouver," he laughed.
From 1991 to 2001, the Chinese population in Winnipeg grew by just 665, according to Census figures. But from 2000 to 2004 -- in just four years -- 1,300 people have emigrated from China to Manitoba, according to Labour and Immigration statistics.
Today, Winnipeg has a number of Chinese grocery stores and is seeing a new wave of immigration and investment from the People's Republic of China, says Du.
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Category: News
Uniform subject(s): Immigrants, emigrants and refugees
Length: Medium, 350 words
©2006 Winnipeg Free Press. All rights reserved.
Winnipeg Free Press
Tuesday, March 12th, 2002
"Nominee immigration program gets bigger"
By Martin Cash
Manitoba's provincial nominee immigration program, the most successful in the country, is about to get bigger. Becky Barrett, Manitoba's minister of labour and immigration, announced yesterday the provincial nominee program (PNP) quota has been increased from 750 principal applicants a year to 1,000. When families are included, it could mean more than 2,000 new immigrants a year.
"This is wonderful news," Barrett said. "We have the most mature of all the nominee programs in the country and we have put the time and energy into it. This government has made it a high priority."
In the four years the program has been in existence, Manitoba has accounted for about 87 per cent of the new immigrants from provincial nominee programs in Saskatchewan and the Maritime provinces. The Manitoba quota has grown annually from 200 in its first year.
Federal Immigration Minister Denis Coderre announced the expansion of the provincial nominee program in the Commons.
"I would like to pay tribute to the people of Manitoba for their great contribution," Coderre said. "Today's announcement is a direct consequence of what we can accomplish together."
Split into two categories -- skilled workers and business immigrants -- the province's motivation is to use immigration as part of its economic development strategy by "nominating" individuals for immigration to Manitoba according to the relative labour market demands for their skills and, in the case of business immigrants, the appropriateness of a business proposal.
Min Heo, owner of a Seoul, South Korea, outdoor advertising company, is the kind of person that officials with the provincial department of labour and immigration are looking for. According to Ken Zaifman, Heo's immigration lawyer, his client is about three months away from receiving his visa. Heo is applying to become a landed immigrant through the provincial nominee program for business immigrants, which requires a minimum investment of $150,000 and minimum net worth of $250,000.
Speaking though an interpreter in Zaifman's office, the soft-spoken Heo, 45, said he wanted to move to Canada to escape some of the pressures of his densely populated country and to provide better educational opportunities for his three daughters.
"In Korea there are about 45 students per classroom," said Heo, who owns a company with 50 employees in Seoul and is looking to start a novel outdoor advertising venture as a joint venture with a Winnipeg business person. "Here the classes are much smaller."
While he admitted his interest was in coming to Canada not specifically Manitoba, the province's nominee program made the process much more expeditious. His wife and children have been here since the start of the school year and he stays for a month at a time every other month until his visa is approved.
Zaifman, a veteran Winnipeg immigration lawyer, applauds the provincial program. "It is coherent, not overly complicated and there are not a lot of regulatory hurdles to overcome," he said.
To help eliminate even more hurdles, Zaifman has formed an offshoot company to his law firm that will help match prospective business immigrants with eligible investment opportunities and charging a placement fee for a successful match.
Unlike previous investor immigration programs, the current operation counts on labour market demands to determine the kind of skilled workers who will qualify while business immigrants must demonstrate a willingness to stay in Manitoba and use their expertise here.
Gerry Clement, assistant deputy minister of the department of labour and immigration, said, "Manitoba has made it clear that immigration can be a key economic growth factor for the province. Our challenge is to select people who have every intention to settle here."
PHOTO MARC GALLANT/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS