Dongsheng Li used to be an auditor in Halifax. Now, he is planning to move to Toronto with his wife.

This 26-year-old man was an international student from China. After graduating from Saint Mary’s University in 2015, Li found his first job at Grant Thornton, and successfully immigrated to Nova Scotia in 2016.

“When we graduated from Saint Mary’s University, it was hard for us to find a job in Nova Scotia. So many other international students chose to find jobs in Toronto or Calgary,” Li said in Chinese in an interview. “However, my wife, who is also my classmate, had already had a job in Halifax. And we thought the immigration policy in Nova Scotia would be easier for us than Ontario. So we still wanted to stay in Halifax. I got the job at Grant Thornton after I sent 114 resumes.”

The situation changed when Li’s wife was pregnant. Li said that he quit his job to care for his wife. Now, as the father of a newborn child, he can’t find a suitable job when he needs it most.

“There aren’t too many job openings in Halifax. And most positions are either too high or too low. It is impossible for me to get those high positions. But I don’t want to have a low position because I have had several years working experience. So I have to look for jobs in big cities like Toronto,” Li said.

Ting Li, Dongsheng Li’s wife, said that she doesn’t want to move to another city with her husband. “Dongsheng doesn’t have too much time to find a job, like how long he took for his first job. If he moves to Toronto, I will definitely follow him, although we have to give up our house and network here,” Ting Li said in Chinese.

This kind of experience is not unique to Li. Many new immigrants from other countries decide to be nominated in Nova Scotia and move to other provinces when they have the identity. According to the data from Statistics Canada, the number of net-migration in Nova Scotia was -1,034 during the year 2015 to 2016. That number for Ontario is 6,154.

Benita Bunjun, professor of Sociology at Saint Mary’s University, says many factors contribute to this phenomenon. “We don’t only leave for economic reasons, but we also leave for social or sense of belonging… So people who have moved here for work, and sometimes their wives or husbands or partners can’t find work, they have no choice other than they separate. So that also has pushed people to leave.”