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Immigration to Canada

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Immigration to Canada is the process by which people migrate to Canada and become nationals of the country. As Canada is a relatively new country, a formal immigration process has not been around for very long. Nevertheless, people have been migrating to the geographic region of Canada for thousands of years, patterns varying. From the very beginning of the country in 1867 up until 1947, immigration was largely matter of British control, as all citizens of Canada were also British subjects. After 1947 domestic immigration law went through many major changes, most notably with the Immigration Act, 1976 and the current Immigration and Refugee Protection Act from 2002.

Currently Canada is known as a country with a broad immigration policy which is reflected in Canada ethnic diversity. According to the 2001 census by Statcan Canada has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. 13.4% of the population belonged to visible minorities: most numerous among these are Chinese (3.5% of the population), South Asian (3.1%), Black (2.2%), and Filipino (1.0%).

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The highest per capita immigration rate in the world

In 2001, 250,640 people immigrated to Canada. Based on the Canada 2001 Census total population of 30,007,094 people, immigration represented 0.834% population growth that year. On a compounded basis, that immigration rate represents 8.7% population growth over 10 years, or 23.1% over 25 years (or 6.9 million people). This excludes the future children of those immigrants born in Canada, who, while also contributing to population growth, would not be immigrants. Since the 2001, immigration has ranged between 221,352 and 262,236 immigrants per annum. According to Canada's Immigration Program (October 2004) Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world. The three main official reasons given for this are:

A. The social component – Canada facilitates family reunification.
B. The humanitarian component – Relating to refugees.
C. The economic component – Attracting immigrants who will contribute economically and fill labour market needs.
Immigrant population growth is disproportionally concentrated in or near large cities (particularly Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal). These cities are experiencing the strains that accompany strong population growth. Most of the provinces that do not have one of those destination cities have implemented strategies to try to boost their share of immigration.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, under the Canada-Quebec Accord, Quebec has sole responsibility for selecting most immigrants destined to the province. Quebec has been admitting about the same number of immigrants as the number choosing to immigrate to British Columbia even though its population is almost twice as large.

Immigration categories

There are three main immigration categories:

Economic impact

Population growth through immigration tends to boost GDP, but not necessarily per capita income depending on whether immigrants have an income above or below the national average, and whether the skills they bring have impacts that multiply benefits throughout the economy. Some observers note that almost all Canadians are either immigrants or decendents of immigrants and that the Canadian standard of living is one of the highest in the world. Therefore, based on this simple logic, these observers argue that immigration must have been beneficial to the Canadian economy.

The economic impact of immigration differs by immigration category. For example, according to Statistics Canada, there are significant differences in the labour force participation rates. 2001 labour force participation rates by category:

In 2001, the overall unemployment rate of immigrants was 37%. Combined with the overall participation rate of 70%, this means that only 44% of all immigrants (15 years of age and older) were working in 2001. Federal and provincial government social programs can experience greater expense without corresponding tax revenue due to the low employment rate of immigrants.

Immigration and crime

In 2005, Gwyn Morgan raised the issue of linking refugees with crime in Canada, saying among other things that "It's fair to say that most immigrants who abuse our society have come in as refugee claimants rather than 'economic immigrants'." His opinions on this topic were rejected by, most notably, some NDP and Liberal MPs ([Maclean's, 2006]).

The federal Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada department ran a program from 1999 to 2003 called Project Early Intervention that targeted children in a community "made up of recent Arabic and Somalian immigrants" with the goal of reducing crime.

In 2004, Canada established a national action plan, aimed in part at reducing violence, called A Canada Fit for Children which said "children of recent immigrants and refugee children are more likely to experience economic disadvantage with its associated risks."

Terrorist attacks in Canada have been commited by both foreign-born (mostly naturalized citizens) and Canadian-born people. The key suspects (Reyat, Malik, Bagri) in Canada's most deadly terrorist attack, Air India Flight 182, are all foreign-born. Half of the 12 identified alleged terrorists in the 2006 Toronto terrorism case are foreign-born and the other half are Canadian-born.

See also

References

 

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