Our immigration mess

The National Post's John Ivison shows how canada's current immigration policy is not aimed at serving the country's needs; rather it is aimed in large part at serving the wants of immigrant communities:

The Liberal party is salivating at the prospect of the new Conservative plan on immigration that will be tabled today [March 14] in the House of Commons. The government is set to limit the number of new immigration applications in an attempt to eat into the backlog of nearly 900,000 people who have already applied to come to Canada.

[...]

In 2006, the last year for which figures are available, 55% of the 251,511 given permanent resident status were "economic migrants" (this figure is somewhat misleading, because only 18% qualified as "skilled workers -- principal applicants"; most of the rest were spouses and dependents).

Family reunification accounted for 28% of new arrivals, while 13% were refugees admitted on humanitarian and compassionate grounds...

In other words only some 50,000 of these immigrants were admitted on grounds that they personally would likely contribute economically to the country. We have no idea about the ability of the rest to do so and we can be certain that many will not (parents and especially grandparents coming under the family class).

Under former immigration minister Judy Sgro, the Liberals reduced parental admissions to 12,732 in 2004 from 19,300 in 2003, and planned to reduce the number still further to around 5,500. However, as an election loomed in 2005, new minister Joe Volpe reinstated the former policy. By 2006, that number was back up to 20,000.

I would especially like to know the number of immigrants over fifty annually admitted to Canada. They are almost certain to contribute little economically and to be a significant cost on the health care system (having contributed few if any taxes to support that system). Moreover, they will be eligible for a reduced federal old age pension--even if not a citizen.

The Post follows up with an editorial:

Fixing the Liberals' immigration mess

The Toronto Star, for its part, gives voice to other views:

[...]

For many immigrant communities, "family" goes beyond husband, wife and kids to extended members.

"It's hard to be away from home. We had no friend, no relative here," said Gurpreet Kalra, 37, a Brampton real estate agent who arrived from India in 1995.

"When our child was born, my wife and I had to hire a babysitter so she could go to work ... it costs a lot of money."

Kalra successfully applied in 1999 to bring his retired parents to Canada but the process took three years – a typical wait. He hopes any change in immigration policy won't divert resources from processing family applications...

Mark C.

Update: More from Raphael Alexander (whose blog will be dormant for a while, as he is moving from Brampton, Ontario, to Vancouver):

...Brampton has changed a lot from the time I was a child here. Heedless immigration from mainly one source has transformed the city into one of a vast demographic of Indian immigrants. Because of former Liberal policy on immigration, families were able to sponsor extended family members, clogging the system with uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, and grandparents. The Sikh community in Brampton is very large, and the backlog in immigration is reflective of the backlog in health care and the crisis we face accommodating so many newcomers.

What the Toronto Star fails to realize, is the additional burden of bringing so many nonworking relatives can have to social security. It is literally failing the test in our city...

Posted by markc at March 15, 2008 09:39 PM