Excellent analysis - but especially at the end: who lives in our country shouldn’t be a mere numbers issue. Man does not live by bread alone- our heart, our culture, should be the primary factor in any policy.
FWIW in 2016 Canada was offering citizenship to foreign STEM graduates, the ability to work on arrival, and even extending landed immigrant status to the families of said students.
Thanks for the comment Patrick. Yes, and it seems to be back in the news this week. I'm thinking of making my next article on that before moving on to part III of this series.
I believe Trump was talking about giving Green cards to foreign grads. I haven't looked into this deeply but on the surface it sounds like a good idea. Particularly if the focus is on STEM degrees. I don't see much value it extending it to anyone else.
Maybe instead of discouraging white people from having children and trying to make up the difference with other people's babies, we could focus on addressing the core issue - that white people aren't having enough babies.
The correct level of third world immigration, by the way, is zero.
Thanks for reading this John. I agree that encouraging people having children is a good step but given the lead time it's more of a long term solution than a short term one. It's also not guaranteed to produce results.
This article was strictly about the numbers. The next one will address culture and country of origin.
Since everywhere but Africa is grappling with collapsing fertility, immigration is in any case a short term solution to a long term problem, but one with potentially permanent consequences. Adulterating the cultural and genetic makeup of the country in order to keep lazy boomers in the comfort to which they are accustomed is monstrous, and will stop being viable in any case as other countries run out of excess population.
Immigration also interrupts the natural corrective process that could lead to a reversal of the fertility problem. Young people delay family formation because they can't afford houses, while diversity has been shown to intrinsically suppress birth rates via the Putnam effect.
Thank you for starting with a numerical approach to the issue. Too often on immigration people do the same thing they do for declining fertility rates: ask themselves what their preferred Culture Wars policy is, then fit the issue to the policy. It's refreshing to read someone analyzing an issue as opposed to just pontificating on it.
Yes, I think numbers matter...as a starting point. One of the comments I got was "so you agree with the Liberal policy." Not necessarily. Immigration isn't a stand alone issue so you can't just set a number and walk away which seems to be what the Trudeau government has done. Other questions do need answers. How is the economy working? How many extra people can the infrastructure and social services support? What's the cultural impact of immigration. This last one is the "culture war" issue that almost can't be touched without being labeled a racist. However, it needs to be part of the discussion unless you think all cultures matter except our own (in which case you're wrong).
Great article. And why do we need so many people? What happened to environmentalists? The environmental movement used to regard third world population transfer as a threat to clean air, clean water, open spaces.
lol. Ya, I don't give much thought to what environmentalists and other activists have to say on the matter. Unless I'm criticizing them for standing in the way of actual progress.
First comment: the idea that third world migrants who are coming in either as asylum seekers, or family based, that they are going to work the kind of jobs that will support boomers in retirement is not realistic. Low skilled, working for cash, too many like that.
I suppose it depends on the qualification of the migrants. Most (all?) countries have doctors, engineers, etc. My next article will look at what type of immigrants we should be trying to "recruit."
I find the bwana attitude of some in the west with regard to immigration quite telling. Perish the thought that people from other jurisdictions might actually be qualified.
When my daughter enrolled as a foreign student at a Canadian university, my wife and I accompanied her on her trip. At immigration, she was presented with her printed visa, and a social insurance card. When queried on the card, she was told that that was for work purposes, and she was encouraged to work while attending university. Then the immigration officer asked if us parents were accompanying her to live in Canada. As a former foreign student I was amazed, because during my time 30 years prior, we were expressly forbidden from work or even entertaining the notion of immigrating. The immigration officer explained that Canada needed STEM grads, and retention of them improved if families accompanied, plus said families also typically had STEM grads, and proceeded to remind me that I keep a Canadian engineering license, so the door was open.
Recruiting skilled labour does make sense, lots of places do it, particularly where there’s insufficient local labour to meet demand or to increase productivity. The extended scope of Canadian immigration was more than others.
Excellent analysis - but especially at the end: who lives in our country shouldn’t be a mere numbers issue. Man does not live by bread alone- our heart, our culture, should be the primary factor in any policy.
Thanks!
Good analysis.
FWIW in 2016 Canada was offering citizenship to foreign STEM graduates, the ability to work on arrival, and even extending landed immigrant status to the families of said students.
Thanks for the comment Patrick. Yes, and it seems to be back in the news this week. I'm thinking of making my next article on that before moving on to part III of this series.
I believe Trump was talking about giving Green cards to foreign grads. I haven't looked into this deeply but on the surface it sounds like a good idea. Particularly if the focus is on STEM degrees. I don't see much value it extending it to anyone else.
Maybe instead of discouraging white people from having children and trying to make up the difference with other people's babies, we could focus on addressing the core issue - that white people aren't having enough babies.
The correct level of third world immigration, by the way, is zero.
Thanks for reading this John. I agree that encouraging people having children is a good step but given the lead time it's more of a long term solution than a short term one. It's also not guaranteed to produce results.
This article was strictly about the numbers. The next one will address culture and country of origin.
Since everywhere but Africa is grappling with collapsing fertility, immigration is in any case a short term solution to a long term problem, but one with potentially permanent consequences. Adulterating the cultural and genetic makeup of the country in order to keep lazy boomers in the comfort to which they are accustomed is monstrous, and will stop being viable in any case as other countries run out of excess population.
Immigration also interrupts the natural corrective process that could lead to a reversal of the fertility problem. Young people delay family formation because they can't afford houses, while diversity has been shown to intrinsically suppress birth rates via the Putnam effect.
Thank you for starting with a numerical approach to the issue. Too often on immigration people do the same thing they do for declining fertility rates: ask themselves what their preferred Culture Wars policy is, then fit the issue to the policy. It's refreshing to read someone analyzing an issue as opposed to just pontificating on it.
Yes, I think numbers matter...as a starting point. One of the comments I got was "so you agree with the Liberal policy." Not necessarily. Immigration isn't a stand alone issue so you can't just set a number and walk away which seems to be what the Trudeau government has done. Other questions do need answers. How is the economy working? How many extra people can the infrastructure and social services support? What's the cultural impact of immigration. This last one is the "culture war" issue that almost can't be touched without being labeled a racist. However, it needs to be part of the discussion unless you think all cultures matter except our own (in which case you're wrong).
Thanks for reading!
Great article. And why do we need so many people? What happened to environmentalists? The environmental movement used to regard third world population transfer as a threat to clean air, clean water, open spaces.
lol. Ya, I don't give much thought to what environmentalists and other activists have to say on the matter. Unless I'm criticizing them for standing in the way of actual progress.
First comment: the idea that third world migrants who are coming in either as asylum seekers, or family based, that they are going to work the kind of jobs that will support boomers in retirement is not realistic. Low skilled, working for cash, too many like that.
I suppose it depends on the qualification of the migrants. Most (all?) countries have doctors, engineers, etc. My next article will look at what type of immigrants we should be trying to "recruit."
I find the bwana attitude of some in the west with regard to immigration quite telling. Perish the thought that people from other jurisdictions might actually be qualified.
I can speak to this from personal experience.
When my daughter enrolled as a foreign student at a Canadian university, my wife and I accompanied her on her trip. At immigration, she was presented with her printed visa, and a social insurance card. When queried on the card, she was told that that was for work purposes, and she was encouraged to work while attending university. Then the immigration officer asked if us parents were accompanying her to live in Canada. As a former foreign student I was amazed, because during my time 30 years prior, we were expressly forbidden from work or even entertaining the notion of immigrating. The immigration officer explained that Canada needed STEM grads, and retention of them improved if families accompanied, plus said families also typically had STEM grads, and proceeded to remind me that I keep a Canadian engineering license, so the door was open.
Recruiting skilled labour does make sense, lots of places do it, particularly where there’s insufficient local labour to meet demand or to increase productivity. The extended scope of Canadian immigration was more than others.