The Multicultural Association of Pictou County is ringing in 2018 on a delighted note as newcomers bring their own vibrant New Year’s cheer to the region.
Immigrants and their new Canadian friends can celebrate events including the Chinese New Year and Nowruz, the ancient Persian spring festival falling on the March equinox.
“All of our events are open to the entire community and they’re all free,” said MAPC co-chair Wendy Hughes.
Looking ahead, the MAPC is running its Multicultural Fusion Festival in September, an extravaganza of music, dance, food and a marketplace where visitors can buy souvenirs.
A more diverse Pictou County comes at a time when local attitudes towards immigration are changing for the better.
Hughes, an outreach worker who has worked with immigrants for nine years, said that some people at first thought newcomers would take jobs from locals.
Today, most local people are more supportive of their new neighbours.
“We are very much lacking people. We need people,” said Hughes.
Indeed, local employers often struggle to fill jobs in a region that is under-populated, meaning that immigrants are vital to Pictou County’s economic health.
Immigrants have filled vacancies for nurses, doctors, the hospitality and service trade, fisheries and seasonal work.
Others, including an Indian family that Hughes helped to resettle, prefer to start their own businesses. In their case it was a food truck.
Syrian families who settled in Pictou County under the federal refugee program have done likewise, opening their own food catering businesses that sell tasty meals at the New Glasgow Farmers Market and elsewhere.
“I can almost promise you that in 2018 there will be many more small businesses opening,” said Hughes.
She reckoned that in 2018, Filipinos will form a large group of newcomers, as well as Mexicans coming to work in the local fisheries industry. They will be joined by other new arrivals from India, Korea, China and some African nations.
Hughes said that learning English was a key part of integrating new residents of Pictou County.
To this end, the MAPC and the YMCA’s Recognizing Enhancing Aligning Community Horizons program run two English classrooms in New Glasgow of about five or six people each.
In major cities like Toronto, new immigrants often settle in neighbourhoods with many others from their birth nation, lessening the language barrier.
“That’s a huge problem moving to a rural area if you don’t know the language,” said Hughes. “It’s a huge barrier.”
Nonetheless, it is not insurmountable and most newcomers quickly master their English.
For those who resettle, the federal Atlantic Pilot for new immigrants allows people applying for permanent residency to bring their entire families over.
“I’ve seen a lot of families reunited,” said Hughes.
