Some encouraging stats in relation to the retention rate of recent arrivals.

Newfoundland and Labrador has been working on trying to boost immigration to the province, with the aim of attracting 5,100 newcomers a year by 2026.

The province has recorded five consecutive quarters of positive growth according to StatsCan, yet the overall population is still about 30,000 people short of what it was at the time of the cod moratorium 30 years ago.

Still, an influx of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine in recent years, as well as in-migration from provinces like Ontario and Alberta are trends that Immigration Minister Gerry Byrne sees as encouraging.

Not only that, says Byrne, instead of just using the province as a stepping-stone, many newcomers are choosing to stay.

He says 93 per cent of the 230 Afghan refugees who arrived in the province between August and December of 2021, have chosen to stay in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Nearly all of the Afghan refugees are now living in private rental apartments says Byrne, while two families are still living in city housing operated by the city of St. John’s.

Byrne says of the hundreds of Syrian refugees who have arrived in the province in the last few years, 86 per cent are still here.

Meanwhile, Byrne says the Ukrainian families who chose to come to Newfoundland and Labrador are settling in well.

They brought with them “millions of dollars of education and skills” according to Byrne. He says more than half of those who have arrived in the last month or so are now working in permanent, full-time positions.