Introduction
There are many people believing immigrants are ruining any country. That statement could be true if illegal immigrants are employed unofficially and do not pay taxes. However, even illegal immigrants have to spend money buying all types of products: from pharmaceuticals to food supplies, rent or housing, and transportation. Therefore, any immigrant will be paying taxes when buying anything or using services. In Canada, immigrants have a major contribution to the country’s economic development.
Immigration in Canada
Immigration is a key part of Canada’s diversity and multiculturalism. As Mendicino (2020) reported, immigration has been advancing the economy, population, cultural growth, and healthcare and is significantly filling gaps in the labor force. Immigrants develop Canada’s economy, being the greatest contributors to its advancement. Canada’s immigration policies include educational background, language skills, and previous work experience, making an immigrant a highly-skilled professional who can greatly benefit the country as a specialist. At the moment, the country is divided into different regional economies (Vodden et al., 2019). However, regional development is effectively used for improving flexibility and sustainability.
The contemporary economy deals with many global challenges caused by new demands, scientific revolutions, and global crises, such as the pandemic. The economy has to rapidly adapt and respond to new goals, which makes it impossible to set long-term strategies (Filipenko et al., 2019). The contemporary economic situation is identified as a tendency for productivity to decrease, which is one of the main economic growth indicators (Filipenko et al., 2019). Despite the fact of the global pandemic and other challenges the contemporary economy faces, the modern economy of Canada remains growing.
The important part the immigrants bring to Canada is innovations of any classification. They give sustainable growth to the economy, which can only be expanded further with technology development (Janeway, 2018). One of the major economic theories developed by Schumpeter was based on innovation. He believed that entrepreneur does not comply with gradual changes, choosing to develop new technologies, methods, or solutions instead (Parker, 2018). Along with inventions come radical changes that drive economic development. For Schumpeter, the entrepreneur pushed capitalist development by presenting new private markets (Janeway, 2018). Although innovation is the main force of economic growth, it is impermanent unless the entrepreneur constantly comes up with new ideas. Therefore, the more immigrants come to Canada, the more innovations they can bring, keeping the engine of economic growth running.
There is a significant difference between invention and innovation — innovators do not have to invent new products but rather find new solutions to daily issues and use the already-invented technologies to increase productivity. Schumpeter was the first one to argue that statement and also implied that inventors should not be associated with entrepreneurs (Parker, 2018). Inventors usually do not have the necessary skills to bring the product successfully to the market and launch an effective marketing campaign along with it.
Microeconomic theories suggest reasons for entrepreneurs to innovate, while macroeconomic theories investigate the outcomes of innovations. The microeconomic theory of, Klepper proposes that different types of innovation come at different stages of firm maturity (Parker, 2018). Furthermore, macroeconomic theories show that innovations start the business cycle, which is identified as the flow of the timing at which innovations are introduced to the customer (Parker, 2018). People create the demand, passively affecting the price, and other entrepreneurs are coming to the business.
The immigration policies of Canada differ from the United States policies. Canada’s immigration policies are influenced by the economy, while the US accepts new residents to pay tribute to national tradition. The country liberalized its immigration policy during the 1960s, declaring discrimination based on race or ethnic group prohibited (Light & Bhachu, 2017). Canada remains one of the most tolerant countries toward minorities in the world. It has been more actively attracting new residents for the past decade, basing the intention on demographic needs (Light & Bhachu, 2017). Canada relies on businesses, so it has been implementing programs targeting immigrant entrepreneurs considering establishing their businesses there. This kind of program helps Canada to create and expand jobs for its residents, which also helps to keep the unemployment rate low (Light & Bhachu, 2017). To sum up, the immigration policies of Canada highly confide in its economy, while the economy strongly depends on immigrants, which makes them co-dependent.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Canada’s economy co-depends on immigrants, which is why immigration policies are easier for students who come studying to Canada. To be eligible for a residence, a person has to be a highly-skilled professional, which is why most immigrants coming to Canada contribute to its economy. The country’s economy is not only affected by immigrants who pay taxes and fill gaps at work, but a significant influence comes from immigrant entrepreneurs who establish businesses in Canada. Canada’s main focus is attracting more innovators who are driving the country’s economic growth. Economic development in Canada is identified by innovations created by newly arrived human resources.
References
Janeway, W. (2018). Doing capitalism in the innovation economy: Reconfiguring the three-player game between markets, speculators and the state. Cambridge University Press.
Light, I. & Bhachu, P. (2017). Immigration and entrepreneurship: Culture, capital, and ethnic networks. Routledge.
Mendicino, M. E. (2020). 2020 Annual report to Parliament on immigration. Government of Canada.
Parker, S. (2018). Entrepreneurship and economic theory. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 34(4), 540–564. doi:10.1093/oxrep/gry013
Vodden, K., Douglas, D., Markey, S., Minnes, S. & Reimer, B. (2019). The theory, practice and potential of regional development: The case of Canada. Routledge.
Filipenko, A., Moskalenko, O. & Zaitsev, Y. (2019). Productivity of contemporary economies: Theory and evidence. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.