A new study hopes to shed light on the impact immigrants have on the economy and workforce in Atlantic Canada. The study out of Memorial University and its Department of Economics deep dives the debate over contributions of immigrants to the national economy – all while considering challenging factors like housing, health care, transportation and more.

The research paper has been accepted to the Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies and was jointly funded by the SSHRC Partnership Development grant, ACOA, and the Association for New Canadians. The project uses Census data to simulate the impact of an increase in immigration into Atlantic provinces over ten years. In contrast to the national study which reported a negative impact on immigration on GDP per capita, the new study found evidence that adding more immigrants to all Atlantic provinces would result in improvements to GDP and a boost to both provincial and federal fiscal balances. The study’s author says they hope the findings contribute to the current debate on immigration policies in Canada, especially Atlantic Canada. This province has welcomed more than 5400 newcomers last year and in budget 2024, announced a 0.8 percent increase to population this year.