Francophone Migrants and Immigrants in Nova Scotia: Who Are They?

The study of international migration is a task which is remarkably complex (Fontaine 2018). The specialized literature on the subject is voluminous – although there is relatively little published on the specific topic of francophone migration and immigration in Nova Scotia and the studies which exist are afflicted by a lack of uniformity in the terminology used to describe and attempt to understand the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the question – but which leave us in doubt concerning what is meant by terms like “francophone”, “new arrivals” and other key terms. In 2020, for example we wondered how it is possible to compare the data presented by a study (Brennan 2015) prepared for the Conseil de développement économique de la Nouvelle-Écosse (CDÉNÉ) with census data prepared by Statistics Canada in the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), or with the data to be found in the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) of 2011, etc. (Fontaine 2020: 52-53).