At a time when many developing countries are reacting against immigration, Canada is experiencing widespread support for opening its doors to new residents from abroad.
Despite the record number of immigrants admitted to Canada in the past two years, all three major political parties support the policy and their disagreements go so far as to denounce the bureaucratic obstacles that hinder immigration.
Similarly, the complaints that appear in the media focus mainly on how difficult it is to emigrate.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser boasted at a press conference last month that Canada “is on track to exceed its immigration goal of granting more than 430,000 people permanent residency by 2022.” The figure will exceed 401,000 immigrants in 2021, more than in any previous year.
In comparison, the United States, with a population nine times Canada, admitted only 245,000 immigrants in 2021, up from 477,000 in 2020. In the years before the Trump Administration, immigration to the United States was about one million people per year.
In Germany and the United Kingdom, which have experienced immigration flows more comparable to Canada in recent years, the speed of new arrivals in each nation has provoked popular rejection, giving rise to the rise of influential anti-immigrant parties in Germany and contributing to the vote for Brexit in the UK.
But in Canada, opposition to immigration appears to be waning despite rising numbers of immigrants. According to a survey, the percentage of Canadians who think immigration levels are too high has dropped since 2018 from 49% to 39%.
All three major political parties strongly support immigration, no doubt not forgetting the large number of voters who are also immigrants. Between 21.5% of the 33 million people who live in Canada are first-generation immigrants and another 17.4% are second-generation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ruling Liberal Party, with strong support from the New Democratic Social Democratic Party, has made immigration a key element of its economic agenda, with the idea of ​​addressing weak labor demand after the pandemic.
“Newcomers enrich and improve our communities and work every day to create jobs, care for loved ones, and support local businesses,” Fraser said a few months ago.
He added that “without them, Canada would not be able to overcome the challenges in critical industries and sectors of the economy in the last two years.”
There is no disagreement on this point from the opposition Progressive Conservative Party, which opposes other Trudeau policies.
“The Conservative Party of Canada is a pro-immigration party and Canada benefits from an efficient and effective immigration system,” he said. voice of America Jasraj Singh Hallan, the speaker in Parliament for immigration issues. “We need to continue to attract and retain new skilled people in Canada.”
However, Hallan criticized Trudeau’s Liberals, whom he blamed for “delays and mismanagement of the immigration system that left too many people who want to come to Canada in limbo and insecurity.”
Harald Bauder, an immigration expert at Toronto Metropolitan University, wants newcomers to understand that Canada is “a land of settlers” and that only Canadians who are not descended from immigrants are members of Aboriginal nations.
“Canada’s indigenous people have suffered displacement, land grabbing, and genocide at the hands of settlers,” Bauder said. VOA.
“An immigrant also becomes a settler, and in this role, they also have a responsibility to integrate, learn about indigenous peoples and their history, and engage in decolonization,” he added.
