As part of our 35th anniversary celebrations, ISANS will do a web post about our history once a week for the next 35 weeks. Follow along and learn about the development of services to immigrants in Nova Scotia, from 1980 up to today.
Introduction
ISANS was created by the merger of Halifax Immigrant Learning Centre (HILC) and Metropolitan Immigrant Settlement Association (MISA) on December 1, 2009. MISA was established in 1980 and HILC in 1988.
Over the years, HILC and MISA helped immigrants in settlement, EAL, employment, and business through a variety of programs. Together we assisted many different groups of people: Vietnamese refugees in the 1980s, Middle Eastern business people, former Yugoslavian professionals and Kosovars in the 1990s, Iranian and Filipino provincial nominees, and Afghan refugees in the last decade. In 2009, after many years of working closely, MISA and HILC became ISANS to create better services for clients.
Check back next week for a history of MISA and the Vietnamese refugees who came to Halifax…