Final Words on Immigration

Do immigrants hurt the economy? As argued previously in this space, I an convinced they do not, long term. They benefit it considerably. The Fraser Institute, on the other hand, has produced a study arguing that recent immigrants do cost the economy something: because of progressive taxation and the welfare state, they are a net drain on public coffers for about the first ten years of their residence. It takes them that long to establish themselves. This is an issue that would not have come up in previous waves of immigration.

But if true, this is not a major problem. All we need do is suspend eligibility for the full range of social services until an immigrant has been here for eleven years. This is still far preferable to limiting or suspending immigration, for us and for them.

Some fear that immigrants, coming in sufficient numbers, will change Canadian culture. Here’s why that is not a sensible fear: immigrants have made a conscious choice. As voluntary Canadians, their commitment to the whole idea of Canada should actually be stronger than that of someone who has simply been born here—just as converts to a religion are commonly more zealous than those born into it.

Irving Berlin, the author of “God Bless America,” was an immigrant—born in Belarus. The two men most associated with the grandeur of Britain, Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill, both had foreign origins. Disraeli’s grandparents were Italian. Churchill’s mother was American. The typical first-generation or second-generation immigrant, like them, wants nothing more than to fit in. They are in love. The USA, a nation of immigrants, is not notably short on patriotism.

Yes, immigrants do have an effect on the host culture. They will bring new and strange things with them. But, in the normal course of things, the new things will linger and assimilate precisely and only because they are better than the local item. Meaning we all benefit. Was American culture richer without such strange foreign items as pizza, the hot dog, ketchup, the hamburger? Or British culture without such exotica as chutney and tea?

Immigration is good; even—no, especially-- in huge numbers. But this is not to say that our current immigration policy is the right one. It is dead wrong in several ways.

It is dead wrong, firstly, in promoting multiculturalism. Sadly, we actually have this enshrined in our constitution. Multiculturalism accentuates the differences between people. This is alienating, not to say dehumanizing, and especially to newcomers. It reduces society to a human zoo, and them to exhibits. I recall attending Toronto’s Caravan multicultural festival with a girlfriend whose parents had emigrated from Greece. She adamantly refused to visit the Greek pavilion. She found it too embarrassing. Similarly, attending Kingston Farmers’ Market, a girlfriend whose parents had emigrated from the Netherlands dragged me violently away from an exhibitor wearing wooden shoes, insulting him under her breath.

Why would we think recent arrivals would want this exhibition of their old ways? If they really saw nothing in Canada that was better than what they had back home, why would they come?

Meantime, multiculturalism is positively damaging to Canadian culture per se, in several ways. It promotes the idea that there is no Canadian culture, no Canadian “mainstream”; it ought to be government’s business to promote the opposite. The UK’s “British Council,” an arm of government, promotes British culture in other nations. So does the French Alliance Francais, and the German Goethe Institute. But Canada? It spends money instead promoting everyone else’s. That is a provincial, a colonial attitude.

And, in spending this money on foreign culture, the Canadian government actually discriminates against long-term Canadians. They, not having any second culture, cannot qualify for such funding.

Last, but hardly least, we are actually paying people not to assimilate. This is harmful both to Canadian society and to the immigrants themselves. We should instead be doing all we can to help them fit in.

Our current policy is also dead wrong in its choice of immigrant. Currently, we carefully pick the best-educated and the wealthiest. This makes some sense on the face of it: it supposedly avoids immigrants becoming a burden on the aforementioned welfare state. Interestingly, though, the Fraser Institute study shows it has had exactly the opposite effect: under this new policy, it takes far longer for immigrants to reach the same income level as Canadians, they are much more likely than before to be unemployed, and much more likely to tap in to the welfare system.

How can this be?

Many decry our refusal to immediately recognize foreign credentials as holding these new immigrants back. But this is not the problem; they should still do better than immigrants who had no credentials at all, yet they do not. And let’s be frank about this: there is every reason to suspect foreign credentials. In the Third World, it is perfectly possible to purchase a degree.

No, the answer lies elsewhere. Besides the inherent shabbiness of selling one’s passport and heritage to the highest bidder, and the shamefulness of such class discrimination by a purportedly classless society, selecting out those who are most successful in their home country is not going to produce the immigrants most eager to assimilate and to contribute to Canada. The rich and the well-educated can always go back if things do not work out to their immediate satisfaction. Realistically, the advantages of being rich and well-educated are usually considerably greater in the Third World than in Canada—thanks to cheaper labor, corruption—that is, anything can be bought--, and a far more class-conscious society. If Canadian tax rates are disadvantageous—they are almost always higher than in the Third World—such immigrants are also well-placed to manage their assets accordingly.

So why would they come to Canada? The one advantage they obviously get is this: the rich welfare system. The social safety net. The freebies. That’s what they’re likely to be here for, and that’s what they’re going to go for.

And that is why this new sort of immigrant is not fitting in, and is not pulling his or her own weight.

But it would probably be even worse for Canada if they were. Consider the possibilities: we are bringing in a foreign upper class in massive numbers. What is the expected result? If they all fit in, we will eventually end up with an upper class that is primarily foreign, while the lower classes are native. In other words, we are deliberately turning ourselves into a colony. That’s what you have when the upper levels of society are foreigners.

That would be bad enough. But what sort of ruling class is it going to be?

In the grand scheme of things, most poor Third World countries are poor for a reason, and for the same reason. As Mancur Olsen, among others, demonstrated, the reason is corruption. There is no other way to explain, for example, how the level of income drops so suddenly once one crosses the US-Mexican border, or the border between Spain and Morocco. That is, Third World countries have an endemically corrupt ruling elite. They are not meritocracies; the best do not rise to the top. Rather, the most mendacious rise; while the cream sinks to the bottom.

And we are systematically skimming off the whey.

We were far better off with their tired, their poor, their homeless, their huddled masses, the wretched refuse of their teeming shore. They are the ones who are yearning to breathe free, and they are the ones who would thank us for our efforts. We would do far better even by choosing immigrants randomly.

Some say we need these immigrants to guarantee the solvency of our pension plans. But there again, we are not best off with these particular immigrants. Selecting immigrants to be rich and/or well-educated tends to favour older immigrants.

If we must place limits on the number of immigrants, and for some reason we don’t want to take the poorest, let’s at least simply make it first-come, first-served, advertised widely. That way, we would be getting those with the strongest desire to be Canadian. I can also see some justification for setting an upper age limit: not only would this help our doddering pension scheme, but it would ensure immigrants with the adaptability of youth, hence more able to fit in.

Finally, dual citizenship is also a bad idea. Obliging immigrants to surrender their previous ties in becoming Canadian is a test of commitment. And allowing dual citizenship means, quite literally and practically, two levels of citizenship: those who are only Canadian, and must accept what comes; and those who can board a plane whenever current conditions do not suit them. This is a significant difference in rights, and this should be anathema in a classless society.

So there you are: I say, let’s open those doors wide.