Mayday! Mayday!. Lowell Psy.D. Green
immigrants, refugees, foreign students and temporary workers than any other nation on earth. Far more!
The UK, for example, with a population of about 62 million, accepted 237,000 legal immigrants in 2007 (the last year for which we have figures). That’s roughly the same number of legal immigrants that entered Canada, population approximately 32 million, in that year, which means that every year, on a per capita basis, Canada accepts about twice as many immigrants as the UK.
The Americans welcome about 1.25 million legal immigrants into their giant melting pot each year. Once again, on a per capita basis, about half the number who come to Canada, although it’s no secret thousands more illegal migrants cross the border from Mexico into the southern states. The big difference in the US is that they have chosen the “melting pot” path. Below our border it’s a monoculture—American first, last and always.
Only Australia comes close to opening the floodgates as widely as Canada. With a population of 21 million, some 144,000 new Aussies are welcomed Down Under each year—still well below Canadian figures.
To fully understand the gravity of our situation and where mass immigration is inexorably taking us, we have to examine the numbers. Most Canadians have only a vague idea of how many newcomers we admit to Canada every year. Not only immigrants, but refugees, foreign students and temporary workers as well, all of whom place an increasingly unbearable strain on infrastructure and social programs. The sheer weight of the numbers, as you will see, is staggering.
Only accountants enjoy examining columns of figures, but if we are going to fully comprehend what we are doing to ourselves we must understand exactly what is happening. And in the case of immigration, it is the sheer numbers that pose the most obvious threat. So let’s have a close look at some of the head counts from an historical perspective, keeping in mind these figures apply only to legal immigration from 1860 until 2008, the last year for which we have accurate figures. These numbers include refugees accepted as landed immigrants. They do not include the huge numbers of temporary workers who pour into the country every year, the nearly 80,000 foreign students who are granted admission to our universities each year, and those who claim refugee status and are ordered deported but never leave. Those refugees probably account for at least an additional 20,000 a year!
Canada – Permanent [immigrant] residents as a percentage of Canada’s population, 1860 to 2008
Source: Immigration Overview, Permanent and Temporary Residents, Immigration Canada
The Numbers
In addition to the flood of immigrants entering Canada each year, here are a few more numbers to boggle your mind.
The following figures are from Facts and Figures–Immigration Overview, Permanent and Temporary Residents, a federal government publication. As of December 1, 2008, there were a total of 178,227 foreign students living in Canada (79,509 of whom arrived in 2008 alone), including 42,154 from China and 27,440 from The Republic of Korea. Our immigrant authorities also had to deal with 36,851 refugee claims during 2008 and, as of December 1, 2008, a staggering 94,144 refugee claimants were still in this country.
Another figure that no one seems to be paying much attention to is the huge number of foreign workers staying in Canada at any given time. While it is true by mere definition these people are employed, they nonetheless place an additional strain on many of the benefits provided including, of course, health care, education, infrastructure and various other government services.
So, how many foreign workers do you suppose were in Canada during the height of the recession? Would you be surprised if I told you that as of December 1, 2008, a truly overwhelming 251,235 foreign workers were living and presumably working in this country? According to Statistics Canada, that’s the accurate figure. What’s even more disturbing is that the number of temporary workers admitted to Canada has more than doubled in the past seven years from just over 100,000 in 2002. And consider this: If there are more than 250,000 foreign workers living in Canada in the dead of winter, can you imagine how many arrive here at harvest time and then return home? Remember, in addition to all the other services we must provide, all these people are supposed to be screened, receive work permits, and tracked. Some now claim family benefits.
On May 13, 2010, The Globe and Mail published a major story entitled: “Leap in temporary foreign workers could create social unrest, critics say.” The story, written by Joe Frisen, the paper’s demographics reporter, pointed out that three years ago Canada passed a significant milestone when, for the first time, it accepted more temporary foreign workers than permanent residents (immigrants).
The story quotes a new study done by the Institute for Research on Public Policy that suggests the rapid growth of the temporary foreign workforce is very shortsighted and could cause some serious social problems in the country. The number of temporary workers admitted in 2009 did drop off somewhat to 178,640, but this is attributed mostly to a lessening demand for casual workers because of the recession, and is expected to reach the quarter-million mark again in 2010 and 2011.
So to sum up: In 2008, Canada had to screen, process, accommodate and provide services to 247,243 landed immigrants, 251,235 foreign temporary workers, and 178,227 foreign students in the country and 94,144 refugee claimants. While common sense dictates that some of these categories require more assistance and supervision than others, the fact remains that in one year, while dealing with the onslaught of the worst recession in nearly 100 years, Canada had to accommodate and provide at least some taxpayer-funded services to a total of 770,849 recently arrived non-Canadians! And the process must be repeated every year, give or take a few thousand one way or the other.
And you wonder why our taxes are so high?
Some Highlights and History of Canada’s Open Arms to the World
•From the start of the potato famine in 1845 until 1850, more than one million starving Irish immigrate to the United States, Australia and Canada.
•From 1896 until 1905, the Canadian government offers free land to anyone willing to “homestead” the West. Advertisements painting an extremely rosy picture of life on the Prairies appear throughout the UK, Europe and the US. Even though the offer of free land ends in 1905, immigrants continue to flock to Canada, mostly from Europe as war looms on the horizon. Immigration peaks at an incredible 400,870 in 1913, but quickly drops off with the start of WWI.
•In 1928, the famous Pier 21 (the Atlantic gateway to Canada; now an official heritage site) opens in Halifax.
•There are very low numbers of immigrants during the “Dirty Thirties.”
•During and immediately following WWII, an estimated 48,000 war brides (mostly British) and their 22,000 children arrive in Canada.
•During the 1950s, more than 1.5 million immigrants flee war torn Europe and Communist oppression to settle in Canada.
•Canada opens its doors, its hearts and arms in 1956 and 1957 to 37,500 Hungarian refugees fleeing Soviet retaliation for the Hungarian revolution.
•In 1968 and 1969, Canada provides a safe haven for 11,000 refugees from Czechoslovakia.
•In 1972, more than 6,000 Ugandan Asians flee to Canada.
•In 1973, it’s Chileans we provide refuge to—some 6,000 of them.
•Between 1975 and 1978, more than 9,000 Indochinese refugees settle in Canada.
•The largest influx of refugees in Canada’s history arrived between 1979 and 1980 when more than 60,000 Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian “boat people” flee their homelands following the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam war.
•In 1999, Canada comes to the rescue again, this time accepting more than 7,000 refugees from Kosovo.