Mountain Man
Senior Member
Lets just hope these discussions and changes doesn't trigger the "immigration" debate as they are having it in the States.
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Canada Immigration discussion
- Thread starter YourBoy007
- Start date
gsunnyg
Senior Member
Alberta could see international student visas increase despite two-year cap on enrolment
Alberta stands to continue welcoming international students at normal or higher rates despite a federal cap on the number coming to Canada.
calgaryherald.com
darwink
Senior Member
It’s hard to design a policy that accounts for the realities of the provinces when the provinces don’t want to cooperate.Another Liberal policy that has completely blind-sighted the ground reality in Alberta.Alberta could see international student visas increase despite two-year cap on enrolment
Alberta stands to continue welcoming international students at normal or higher rates despite a federal cap on the number coming to Canada.
LocalLoafer
New Member
Another Liberal policy that has completely blind-sighted the ground reality in Alberta.Alberta could see international student visas increase despite two-year cap on enrolment
Alberta stands to continue welcoming international students at normal or higher rates despite a federal cap on the number coming to Canada.
The minister stated in an interview yesterday that Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba would not have any reduction in international student visas based on the policy. As was mentioned by someone yesterday, I expect this is the first of several announcements in coming weeks.
CBBarnett
Senior Member
They set the limits based on proportion of population. Alberta has not been accepting the Canadian average (again, largely this spike is an Ontario and BC problem).Another Liberal policy that has completely blind-sighted the ground reality in Alberta.Alberta could see international student visas increase despite two-year cap on enrolment
Alberta stands to continue welcoming international students at normal or higher rates despite a federal cap on the number coming to Canada.
So the maximum of the new limit is still higher than what Alberta has done recently in practice. That’s why it doesn’t necessarily change our situation.
Of course, Ottawa could just arbitrarily set a limit lower than the Alberta government wants, thus making it a binding policy. We can take a guess what the Alberta government would say in that case where Ottawa actually forces them to do something.
Immigration discussion has always been a tenuous topic. Not all people who bring up the negatives of immigration are racist/xenophobic, but any immigration discussion invariably brings out those who are. Conversely, you have the people who label someone a racist or xenophobic at the slightest mention of anything negative to do with immigration.
As far as moderation goes, I don't care how much people debate the issue or how heated it gets, as long as nobody says anything specifically racist.
Tarsus
Active Member
I’ve always been pro immigration, especially since my parents immigrated to Canada. I have two concerns for the most part.
My biggest concern is the current level of immigration is too high, but I’m assuming they’ll go back to previous levels.
The other concern, and one that I’m not sure can be fixed easily is the mindset of immigrants these days. It seems like every recent immigrant (and by recent, I mean arriving within the last five years or so) I know isn’t liking Canada and is looking at Canada mostly as a temporary stop.
The reasons why vary, of course, but probably the biggest is affordability. It doesn’t matter where the immigrants come from whether it’s Europe or Asia or South America, Africa, etc. affordability as an issue. I know of many who regret their decision and her actively looking to go elsewhere.
Even my own parents who have been back to visit home in recent years have discussed the idea of going back. If not for their kids and grandkids, I’m pretty sure they would’ve left already.
I guess my big concern is, we are always going to need immigration, but at some point is Canada, going to become a mere stopover point for people rather than people who want to live here in build roots.
My biggest concern is the current level of immigration is too high, but I’m assuming they’ll go back to previous levels.
The other concern, and one that I’m not sure can be fixed easily is the mindset of immigrants these days. It seems like every recent immigrant (and by recent, I mean arriving within the last five years or so) I know isn’t liking Canada and is looking at Canada mostly as a temporary stop.
The reasons why vary, of course, but probably the biggest is affordability. It doesn’t matter where the immigrants come from whether it’s Europe or Asia or South America, Africa, etc. affordability as an issue. I know of many who regret their decision and her actively looking to go elsewhere.
Even my own parents who have been back to visit home in recent years have discussed the idea of going back. If not for their kids and grandkids, I’m pretty sure they would’ve left already.
I guess my big concern is, we are always going to need immigration, but at some point is Canada, going to become a mere stopover point for people rather than people who want to live here in build roots.
This goes back to what I was saying about affordability. Canada's not an affordable place for newcomers or young families. We've gotten ourselves into a cycle where it's unaffordable for people to have 4 or 5 children, and thus we've had to rely on immigration for growth. Immigration is good for the country but it shouldn't be relied upon as the sole driving force for growth, and that growth is now a question mark as like you said, not all immigrants are finding Canada to be the land of plenty. My previous neighbors moved back to Croatia after 15 years in Canada, because Croatia was a lot better looking than Canada in their eyes.
As standards are raised in other countries around the world, Canada will be less desirable. Not that I think Canada sucks, but from an immigrant's point of view, you'd rather be in the country you know, where everyone speaks your language, has your foods and culture, etc.. and in most cases is less expensive and has a warmer climate.
Where immigration patterns go in the future is hard to say, but I believe Canada needs to somehow balance out growth with immigration and more homegrown growth.
trtcttc
Active Member
It also has to with job availability. Canada used to have an average level of post-secondary education and sparsely populated place with lots of natural resources which brought about a high standard of living. Immigrants 30 years ago, could get a good quality education, find a job, and afford a single family home. Nowadays, unless you are a very skilled immigrant, the possibility of that is just very difficult. And chances are those very skilled immigrants don’t have that many incentives to leave their home countries.
Lost in all these conversations on housing and affordability is our economic prospects. Our businesses are not investing (stagnating capital stock per worker), our best and brightest are moving to the US. The SF suburb offices of US tech companies are definitely over-indexed on Canadians, because who’s going to work for 100k CAD when they can get 250k+ USD. The TN visa also makes it quite easy for Canadians vs other foreigners. Housing affordability is important but I hope government and public debate also focus on the urgent problem of our economic growth in the future. Unfortunately, what will probably happen is once immigration normalizes and we see our growth is still not improving, then the government will cobble together a bunch of initiatives 5 years too late.
Lost in all these conversations on housing and affordability is our economic prospects. Our businesses are not investing (stagnating capital stock per worker), our best and brightest are moving to the US. The SF suburb offices of US tech companies are definitely over-indexed on Canadians, because who’s going to work for 100k CAD when they can get 250k+ USD. The TN visa also makes it quite easy for Canadians vs other foreigners. Housing affordability is important but I hope government and public debate also focus on the urgent problem of our economic growth in the future. Unfortunately, what will probably happen is once immigration normalizes and we see our growth is still not improving, then the government will cobble together a bunch of initiatives 5 years too late.
Red Star
Active Member
In the first four months of 2024, the population grew 47% faster than in the same period in 2023.
I wonder why housing is so expensive?
I wonder why housing is so expensive?
darwink
Senior Member
This quarter probably ‘benefited’ from shifting arrivals into this quarter from the fall and summer.
maestro
Senior Member
Immigration isn't addressing areas with worker shortages so bringing in more people is just exacerbating the shortages. It's an epic fail under Trudeau.
The wealthiest nations have stagnant population growth and the largest by population tend to be among the poorest. The idea that we need to bring in anybody because our birth rate isn't high enough to grow the population has many flaws. Building housing, hospitals, schools, transit, highways to support a larger population takes a lot of effort, both public and private, that could have gone otherwise into high value growth sectors
The wealthiest nations have stagnant population growth and the largest by population tend to be among the poorest. The idea that we need to bring in anybody because our birth rate isn't high enough to grow the population has many flaws. Building housing, hospitals, schools, transit, highways to support a larger population takes a lot of effort, both public and private, that could have gone otherwise into high value growth sectors
Red Star
Active Member
Immigration Minister Marc Miller introduced a bill granting automatic Canadian citizenship to descendants of Canadians born abroad, even if the parent spent as little as three years living in Canada.
globalnews.ca
Sounds like the federal government is desperate to keep the Ponzi Scheme of the Canadian housing market going.
Canada will reinstate citizenship rights to ‘lost Canadians’ - National | Globalnews.ca
Immigration Minister Marc Miller tabled legislation Thursday that would extend citizenship to some children born outside of Canada.
globalnews.ca
Sounds like the federal government is desperate to keep the Ponzi Scheme of the Canadian housing market going.
Red Star
Active Member
To be honest, unless it's a highly specialized industry, I'm skeptical when I hear the term "worker shortage". "Business Leaders" will often lament that there are worker shortages in their industry. My counter argument is that there is no worker shortage when unemployment is at 6.1%. There is a wage shortage. Instead of importing cheap labour from overseas to suppress wage growth, why not pay workers more money and come up with innovative ways to operate a business more efficiently? (*Rhetorical Question)
I used to work for a Boomer that was looking to hire someone with 5+ years of industry experience. The salary he was offering was low. Needless to say, no one with the qualifications he was looking for applied. He'd then go on to complain "People these days just don't want to work".