Immigrate to Canada, Eh!
Filed Under (Immigration and Society) by Joe on November 15, 2010
There was a fascinating article in the New York Times this past weekend about Canada’s attitude toward immigration. In sharp contrast to the U.S., Canadians are encouraging foreign nationals to relocate to their country. Canada’s approach is unique – there seem to be two systems or ways in which potential new immigrants are identified: (1) through a “points” system at the Federal level, which tries to identify educated and highly-skilled workers, and (2) provincial programs that identify shortages in the labor market, which are then filled with new immigrants. The combination of these two systems leads to a balanced work force that increases Canada’s competiveness globally while preventing immigration from becoming a “problem” for a country in which public benefits are as big a part of the social fabric as, say, maple syrup and hockey. Canada’s history of multiculturalism and acceptance (just think Quebec) also bodes well for new immigrants, who might not face as many negative attitudes/stereotypes as immigrants to U.S. sometimes do. For me, the most interesting part of Canada’s immigration system is the input that provinces have in national immigration policy. Provincial governments are able to ”nominate” prospective immigrants they want to bring over, and as long as the federal government clears them, they are eligible to immigrate to Canada. In essence, local governments decide which immigrants they need, and then have a way of bringing them over legally. This system operates alongside the federal system that assigns points to prospective immigrants, thereby bring over the best and the brightest immigrants as well as immigrants targeted to meet specific needs at the local level. I like this system in theory, and would be interested to see how it would work in, maybe, one state in the U.S. Of course, I’m well aware that Canada has the luxury of picking and choosing who it wants to immigrate – illegal immigration is virtually non-existent in Canada, and America’s immigration dynamics make Canadian openness virtually unimaginable here. Still, with our system as defective as it is, I think it’s worth considering other options, even if they might seem somewhat radical (and as long as they’re also constitutional, which might be tricky). Given the state of things, what do we really have to lose?
BRANDON on 29 Jul 2011 at 7:50 am #