ALL IMMIGRATION BY 2030
Documentarian: Pam KapoorThe front page of the March 14th 2007 Globe and Mail shouted “All immigration by 2030.” The article reported a Statistics Canada projection that by the year 2030, the singular source of Canada’s population increase will be immigrants.
Current statistics indicate that eighty percent of immigrants to Canada come from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific region. What does this mean? The vast majority of newcomers are people of colour, and these people of colour represent a principle source of growth for Canada’s labour force.
Canada does not necessarily show a warm welcome to those immigrants of colour. A 2005 study conducted by Strategic Counsel revealed the kind of disturbing perceptions that persist in contaminating our formal systems and everyday attitudes about and toward newcomers.
Eighty percent of those surveyed believe immigrants from Europe make a “positive contribution” to Canada. Only fifty-nine percent think Asians do. Even fewer – forty percent – think East Indians do, and only thirty-three percent think immigrants from the Caribbean do.
These numbers suggest a racist perception among Canadians of “value” and beg these critical questions:
Do Canadians understand that Canada gains four skilled people for every one it loses via emigration?
Do Canadians understand that our workforce is undergoing a rapid evolution, that factors such as a low birth rate and aging population mean that new workers simply must come from immigrant, Aboriginal, and young populations?
Do Canadians understand that newcomers to Canada hold an educational advantage over those leaving?
