Best Practices for the Integration of International Students in Atlantic Canada: Findings and Recommendations / Pratiques exemplaires pour l’intégration des étudiants internationaux au Canada atlantique : conclusions et recommandations

“This study investigates the settlement opportunities of international students and graduates across urban and rural jurisdictions in Atlantic Canada. The project builds upon the findings of a Literature Review completed in March 2011, which was aimed to identify Canadian and international best practice models. Drawing on the general findings of the Literature Review, this report will focus in on the Atlantic Canadian context, through which we aim to:

1) Identify and describe current policy initiatives and practices developed and ongoing in Atlantic Canada, designed to attract and integrate international students and international graduates into local labour markets;

2) Review labour market integration issues and highlight localized needs for, and the success of, international graduates to secure jobs in competitive economic sectors, and;

3) Highlight local and regional best practices as well as policy and practice gaps that currently undermine efforts to retain international graduates as residents in the Atlantic Provinces.

The study design reflects these goals by spanning across the four Atlantic Provinces to include six regional urban centers (Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, Fredericton, Moncton and St. John’s), as well as two smaller communities that host increasing numbers of international students (Edmundston, NB and Church Point, NS). The study locations provide a unique opportunity to make much needed distinctions between urban and rural recruitment and settlement dynamics, as well as explore these issues as they emerge for Anglophone and Francophone communities in the Atlantic region.

In total, 57 participants were interviewed for this study. Out of those, 8 interviewees were government-employed (mostly policy and program implementers and developers), 22 interviewees worked in the private sector (settlement and economic development agencies) and 27 were post-secondary administrators (some internationalization strategists, some working in recruitment, others working in international students’ support centers). In total, our study reached 11 post-secondary institutions (9 universities and 2 community colleges), 12 private sector organizations in settlement and economic development fields, as well as offices of municipal and provincial governments.”