Canadian Immigration Debate

Immigration Policy is being debated in Canada as well:

Lorne Gunter writes in The Edmonton Journal:

For the past three decades, Canadian immigration policy has had two main purposes: to admit new voters for the party in power and to reaffirm the Canadian elite’s high opinion of itself.

Oh, I know, the stated policy is to bring in people desirous of a new beginning and new opportunities who have skills with which they can, in turn, make a near-immediate contribution to their new country. It is to be a win-win for Canada and the newcomers.

In practice, though, the prime beneficiaries have been new Canadians and the Liberal Party of Canada.

I’m not anti-immigration. Indeed, I’m in favour of robust immigration. I could even be persuaded to support open immigration, just not into a welfare state.

It is fiscal and tax madness to admit tens of thousands of immigrants who have almost no hope of ever contributing more to Canada than they will consume in social benefits. Yet ever since Pierre Trudeau was prime minister, we have steadily increased the percentage of our immigrants who are “non-economic,” in other words immigrants we never expect to be net contributors. Click here for the rest of the column.

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