By Chris Muise
翻译：杨沁
Nova Scotia is home to a great deal of international students, who come from far and wide to study at any one of our numerous post-secondary institutions. But when those talented international students graduate, under the current Provincial Nominee Program, many of those who were not able to find employment in their fields had to go elsewhere. Given the current job market here in the province, that meant that we were sending a lot of talented, entrepreneurial graduates away each year.
“An international graduate had to be employed related to their field…before they could apply for permanent residency,” says Sherry Redden, manager of Business and Workforce Integration at ISANS. “If they have to have a job before they can apply for permanent residency, they have to go where that job is. That often took them outside the province.”
Beginning next year, international students who graduate from a Nova Scotian university or college will have a brand-new route to permanent residency – one that gives them a chance to create new work here at home.
Two new immigration stream pilot programs will be launched on January 1, both designed to spur economic growth in the province – the Entrepreneur Stream, and the International Graduate Entrepreneur Stream – the latter of which is poised to take advantage of the thousands of international students Nova Scotia attracts every year.
“We have 10 universities, and we have about 7,000 international students each year that come to the province,” says Rachel Henderson, the director of Strategic Policy & External Relations at the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration. “As a province, we’re very successful in attracting these graduates, and what we hear from both the graduates and from the universities is that a number of these students want to stay.”
Some of these students manage to find work in their fields here at home, but many aren’t so lucky. Those students might have to take the knowledge and skills they learned here elsewhere in order to become a permanent resident of Canada.
“If they have to have a job before they can apply for permanent residency, they have to go where that job is,” says Redden. “That often took them outside the province.”
A number of international students each year express interest in starting their own businesses locally, instead of looking to be hired by others, and a few of them even start those businesses during their studies. Those are the students that the new International Graduate Entrepreneur Stream is hoping to give a new pathway to residency.
“After they’ve run a business here in the province while they’re on [a post-graduate work permit] for a year, then they can apply to us through the International Graduate Stream for nomination for permanent residence,” says Henderson, who says that this stream is the first of its kind in Canada. “This gives them a new pathway to be nominated for permanent residency that didn’t exist before.”
“We do attract wonderful talent, and we want to retain as much of that talent as possible,” adds Henderson. “We think it’s just ideal for our situation and our province.”
Redden says that encouraging international graduates to become entrepreneurs also gives those students a leg up over a lot of other entrepreneurial immigrants, who may not need as much outside support from organizations such as ISANS.
“The challenges that our immigrants face…is that they don’t have networks, they don’t understand the business culture – what’s expected of them – and they may not have the language,” says Redden, who figures that international grads are more likely to have an academic understanding of Canadian business practices and the language skills in place, thanks to studying abroad here. “They have an academic knowledge of that, which oftentimes, our immigrant clients do not.”
That said, Redden says ISANS and its partners look forward to identifying the supports that these new graduate entrepreneurs will need, and are eager to provide them.
“We’d like to think that we, as an organization, can adapt,” says Redden, who believes graduate entrepreneurs will still be able to make use of ISANS programs like their business directory, and the Business Buy & Sell program.
International graduates interested in the program can go online on January 1, 2016, and leave their expression of interest in the stream. Applications will be evaluated based on a points system, and the top 50 applicants will be nominated each year. For more, visit novascotiaimmigration.com.
新斯科舍省作为加拿大的教育大省，吸引不少国际学生前往就读，同时也成为他们毕业后定居的理想省份。鉴于现有省提移民政策，找不到与专业对口工作的国际毕业生不得不离开新省。新省的就业市场现状，造成大批拥有高等教育、具有创业潜力的国际人才的流失。
“在本省申请成为永久居民，国际毕业生需要从事与专业相关的领域。”新斯科舍省移民服务协会(ISANS) 商业及劳动力资源整合部门经理雪莉.雷登谈到。“在申请永久居民身份前，这些毕业生必须找到工作。无法找到稳定的工作是他们离开新省的主要原因之一。”
明年初，在新省毕业的国际学生将享受新的移民政策。这项新举措不仅给留学生创造了新的移民通道,也让留学生们有机会为新省创造就业机会。
2016年1月1日,创业移民及国际毕业生创业移民两类新增实验政策即将实施。政策均为推动本省经济发展而制定。尤其后一项政策是特别为新省大量的留学生而制定的。
“我省拥有10所大学，同时每年有7,000名国际生在读，”新省移民部战略政策及对外关系办公室主任雷切尔.亨德森说。“新斯科舍省十分成功地吸引了这些毕业生。从学生以及学校的反馈来看，这些国际毕业生中的一大部分都希望留下来。”
许多学生想在本地求职，但人才市场需求还很小。这些学生可以另辟蹊径,施展他们的才华与能力，从而拿到永久居民身份。
“如果他们只能通过在新省就业来实现移民，这将造成大量的国际人才外流。”
对于一些国际生来说，比起在新省等待就业机会，他们更倾向于在新省自主创业，做自己的老板。国际毕业生创业移民政策正是为这类毕业生开启的移民绿色通道。
“在持有毕业生工作签证的情况下，并在新省拥有一年运营自己公司的经验，他们便可通过毕业生创业类别申请省提移民，”亨德森说，这项移民政策为加拿大首创。“这项政策是国际毕业生们申请省提名的新途径。”
“我们确实吸引了不少人才，并且尽可能地要把他们留下来。”亨德森强调。“我们认为这是一个针对本省现状的有效解决方案。”
雷登鼓励更多的国际毕业生开展他们的创业之路。她表示，许多实力雄厚的移民企业并不需要太多来自ISANS等机构的帮助，他们甚至还能为其他国际毕业生创造就业机会。
“对于移民而言,他们会面临着一些困难……社交圈不够广，对当地商业文化的理解有限,语言能力有待提升等等。”而雷登认为，凭借着留学经验，国际毕业生对加拿大商业有着理论和实践层面的理解，语言也没有任何问题。“他们对商业领域的认知和了解，往往超过了大多数移民。”
此外，雷登也透露，ISANS以及它的合作伙伴正在探索新方式，希望能为国际毕业生兼创业者提供支持与帮助。
“我们相信我们的机构可以做出一些灵活的调整。”雷登说，她相信国际毕业生创业过程将有机会使用ISANS的相应服务，例如企业目录及商业买卖项目。
对国际毕业生创业移民项目有兴趣的毕业生，可于2016年1月1日在线提交相关申请。申请过程将采取积分制度，每年将有50个提名名额。欲知详情，请访问novascotiaimmigration.com.
