Canada’s Immigration Policy: The Need for Major Reform

Abstract

Canada requires a new immigration policy that is founded on wishful thinking and is reasonable in terms of realism. The Canadian government’s vast spending on attempts to enforce arbitrary numerical limits on immigration that yield no relationship to economic reality should be avoided. There is a need for flexible immigration policies which fall and rise with Canada’s labor demand and are integrated with strict enforcement of tough salary and wage laws that will safeguard the rights of all employees regardless of where they were born.

In examining Canada’s immigration policy, the primary reasons given by the Canadian government to defend its state of large-scale immigration, which is an essential part of economic growth, the lack of skilled workers, and to offset the aging population, do not provide any justification for the government. Therefore, the government needs to reform the immigration policies to suit the 21st century demands. Collacott (2002) argues that there are better and more effective avenues the government of Canada could have used to address these problems. This could hold for family reunification immigrants, a group that does not need to have “marketable skills” to immigrate.

I disagree with the government’s position on large-scale immigration based on economic and political reasons. I feel that there is a great need for the government of Canada to undertake reforms that will ensure effective and flexible immigration policies adopted through sound debates and discussions.

Introduction

Immigration policies greatly affect the Canadian community, and they are likely to have major effects in the near future. Regardless of this, the absence of sustained and well-informed public debate and the discussion on the aspect of immigration on the matters which involve the Canadian citizens has a vague idea of where the immigration policies are up to. Discussions and debates based on immigration policies in most cases are discouraged by the influential individuals and groups in Canada. These individuals are charged with the responsibility of designing the immigration objectives and policies, and they fear that it will raise conflicts of interests. In many occasions, policies and objectives have been diverted from the public domain and the country as a whole. One of the most apparent limitations is that the government lacks inclusive strategy how to manage huge populace in Canada. Besides, the government should decide how much and what type of immigration will be the most appropriate to attaining these immigration policies and objectives. The Immigration Legislative review argued that whilst the then immigration act defined that the primary goal of the act was demographic, Canada did not, in reality, have a demographic policy at place (Collacott, 2002).

Therefore, the lack of immigration policies, which are comprehensive in Canada, is a characteristic of the reality that immigration policies have degenerated from being systematic or rationally beneficial to the people of Canada. Therefore, there is the dire need for reforms that will promote the functioning of the immigration policies in Canada. In order to attain effective immigration policies, the government and other interested parties in Canada must raise public awareness on immigration issues via informed discussions and debates (Economic Council of Canada, 1991). Once the people of Canada become aware of the degree to which the present immigration policies fail to fulfill their interests and that of the nation, they will be prepared to demand that the Canadian government make prime immigration policy reforms that will see substantial improvement of the current situation (Green, 1999).

Reforms Needed in Canada

Research shows that well-informed immigration policies will spur the economic growth of a given nation. Therefore, undertaking reforms regarding immigration policies will considerably boost economic growth of Canada. Researchers of ‘Economic and Social Impacts of Immigration’ argue that the fastest growth in real per capita revenue takes places at the moment when net migration is zero or negative (Collacott, 2002). The immigration increases economic growth by enabling immigrants to bring their resources to the country. However, it has been found also that immigration will lead to brain and economic drain; aspects that the country needs in order to become effective in meeting the needs of its population. The massive immigration into Canada has been a major attribute of the decrease of the Canadian salaries meaning that Canadian engineers get what the US gives its graduates. This has made many graduates leave the country to search for greener pastures in the US.

Therefore, tailoring comprehensive policies through reforms will ensure that the immigration policies serve the interests of all the people of Canada. The immigration policies in Canada must address the issue through reforms by acknowledging that the new immigrants must be encouraged to go to regions where the population is decreasing rather than migrate to larger urban centers where many people are now living. This will ensure that the rural places are not deserted and economic activities are not stalled. Therefore, the Canadian government must put a spirited campaign through public debates and campaigns to decongest large cities, which can lead to straining of resources found in these cities. There is a need for practical measures and policies that will accomplish goals of decongesting cities (Economic Council of Canada, 1991).

It is apparent that on average, immigrants who go into the family class group are a net liability to the Canadian economy and frequently pose challenges in terms of effective integration into the Canadian society (Green & Green, 1999). These groups make it hard for the government to incorporate immigrants into the society, thus making the whole exercise unsuccessful. In the interests of the accomplishment of the immigration policies and objectives in general and providing continual public support and participation in debates and discussions regarding immigration, the support for family class must be limited to reunification of the immediate family members. Whilst provision must be made for supporting parents, it must go hand-in-hand with the Australian policy but not, as it is currently, bring in possibly unrestricted numbers of the extended family members who do not need to have any prerequisites. This implies that in order to have affective family reunification, there is a need to design policies through comprehensive reforms that will provide guidelines on how to deal with family reunification in the Canadian society. The current policy on reunification does not provide guidelines how to address with this problem (Collacott, 2002).

The reforms that should be adopted in Canada to make the immigration policies effective should held the government responsible for the costs of immigration. The federal government, under the existing immigration policies, leaves most of the costs to the municipal and provincial authorities in Canada. However, the federal government, through reforms, should make clear to the public what the immigration costs are all about. This means that through reforms, the public will be made aware of the costs that the government taxes them. The policy, if implemented, will make the government answerable to the public.

The implementation of the current immigration policy in Canada has been hampered by inadequate allocation of resources by the government. It has become apparent that available resources are insufficient to ensure that the immigration policies meet the anticipated standards (Kent, 1988). This has severe implications in terms of immigration facilities and screening out persons who pose risk to Canada in terms of terrorism, crime, or health or who fall short to meet immigration requirements in other respects. This can be resolved either by a noteworthy major raise in resources or by lowering the number of immigration applications processed to equal present resources. Provided that there are other good factors lowering present intake, it would, in any occasion, take some time to place new resource. A decrease in present levels is the logical path that is needed to be taken. Therefore, considering the current laxity in the immigration rules in Canada, it will become a loophole for terrorist activities to thrive in the country. This means that there is a need to impement comprehensive immigration policies to take care of the current situation where terrorist attacks have posed danger to many nations across the world, particularly in America. Therefore, increasing resources for implementing immigration policies which will in turn help the country tame the menace of terrorism will be only realized through significant reforms in immigration policies (Collacott, 2002).

Through effective immigration policies, it will be possible for the government to undertake substantial steps to deal with the problem of inadequate skilled employees. This implies that with the consideration of projected shortage of skilled manpower, the government ought to eradicate obstacles which prevent the natural alteration of the market from solving this problem. Through reforms on immigration policies, the government must ensure that the brain and economic drains are curbed. These have made the country lose its great resources to other nations that offer better pay. The immigration policies should ensure that the skilled employees in the country are well remunerated like their counterparts in the USA. This will significantly reduce the number of immigrants moving out of the country in search of ‘greener pastures’. This will ensure that Canada’s skilled manpower remains in the country and contributes to its economy. Through reforms, immigration must only be applied on an outstanding basis to meet predominantly harsh scarcities. The market cannot resolve them in the short term (Green & Sparks, 1999).

The current immigration policies in Canada do not base their decisions on the population objectives; therefore, they cannot comprehend the needs of the society. This makes the implementers of the policies make invalid decisions that will negatively impact the country. This means that there is a need for the informed immigration policies that will base their decisions on population objectives. There is a need for reforms that will entail determining immigration levels founded on population objectives. It must be determined what size of population Canada needs and in what regions newcomers are required and equipped to settle. The present objectives bear small correlation to such goals. The government should decide how to deal with aspects of the immigration program tailored to serve Canada’s national self-interest which includes the skilled independents and those founded on humanitarian and considerate grounds which comprise of refugees and family class (Collacott, 2002). Furthermore, the immigration should be made autonomous through reforms. The current immigration policies in Canada are subject to manipulation by the influential people in the society, particularly the political class. The reforms should tailor immigration policies which are immune to manipulation of some individuals for their own good rather than benefit for all.

Conclusion

From the discussion, it is clear that Canada needs revolution in terms of immigration policies. The government thus should undertake reforms in this sector. The implementation of the current immigration policy in Canada has been hampered by inadequate allocation of resources by the government. It has become apparent that available resources are insufficient to ensure that the immigration policies meet the anticipated standards. The government’s defense of the current immigration rules does not hold water; however, through creating public awareness via discussions and debates, the Canadian public should demand reforms (Collacott, 2002). Therefore, there is a great need for the government of Canada to undertake reforms regarding immigration that will ensure effective and flexible immigration policies are adopted through sound debates and discussions. Nonetheless, well-informed and comprehensive policies will enable Canada to deal with many problems posed by the current immigration policies which serve the interests of few people rather all citizens. This necessitates the need to reform the immigration policies in Canada.