Canada Immigration discussion

[Mountain Man]

Lets just hope these discussions and changes doesn't trigger the "immigration" debate as they are having it in the States.

 

[gsunnyg]

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

Another Liberal policy that has completely blind-sighted the ground reality in Alberta.

 

[darwink]

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

Another Liberal policy that has completely blind-sighted the ground reality in Alberta.

It’s hard to design a policy that accounts for the realities of the provinces when the provinces don’t want to cooperate.

 

[LocalLoafer]

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

Another Liberal policy that has completely blind-sighted the ground reality in Alberta.

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]

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

Another Liberal policy that has completely blind-sighted the ground reality in Alberta.

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).

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.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Lets just hope these discussions and changes doesn't trigger the "immigration" debate as they are having it in the States.

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]

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.

 

[Surrealplaces]

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.

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]

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.