Introduction
Immigration is the process by which people move from their native land to another land and some become citizens of that land. However, people migrate to Canada from various countries in the world. Canada immigrants can be classified into three groups. For example, there are those who migrated to Canada because they have close relatives who live there. While others migrated to Canada independently to search for white collar jobs (Kalman, p. 5). In addition, others migrated to Canada as refugees. Some of these immigrants became citizens of Canada. Therefore, due to a lot of immigration into Canada the domestic law of Canada has undergone so many changes so as to be able to cater for the various classes of immigrants. Canada has abroad ethnic diversity. This was revealed in the 2001 census that showed that there are thirty four ethnic groups in Canada. Most of the immigrants are from China, India, Philippines, South Korea, United States, Iran, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Colombia and Pakistan, but most of them are from China and India. This high rate of immigration to Canada has some disadvantages as well as advantages to the economy of Canada. On the basis of the foregoing arguments, there is the need to explore the advantages and disadvantages of immigrants’ people in Canada.
Advantages of immigrants to Canada
Economic rationale for immigration
According to Rosof (p. 58), immigration to Canada has lead to a lot of brain drain. Brain drain results when many educated people move from their country of origin to a foreign country mostly due to lack of good working conditions. Sometime it is due to policies that are not conducive in their country of origin. The economic growth in Canada can be linked to the great number of educated people who have moved to Canada (Hawkins, p. 204). Majority of immigrants in Canada are skilled. For example, most of the male workers in Canada who has a post graduate degree are the immigrants. Canada has a lot of natural resources and hence the immigrants lead to an increase in the work force. In addition, the immigrants pay taxes and hence the government revenue increases. The total taxes paid by the immigrants are more than the amount they consume from the services offered by the government such as in education and health services. This is because the household population for the immigrants is high and hence has more wage earners than the households of the native Canadians and this leads to an increase in taxes (Hawkins, p. 328). In addition, the immigrants are likely to use fewer social services and also in most cases they do not live in subsidized houses like their fellow native Canadians who have the same income.
However, the birthrate in Canada is low and therefore the immigrants help to increase the targets of the government. This is because the immigrants’ birthrate is high and hence they help to reduce the dangers of the Canada’s population decline. Economically, the increase in immigrants who are skilled has lead to a decline of income inequalities in Canada. Immigrants in Canada have also helped in boosting international trade. This is because most of the immigrants are from different cultures and hence have linguistic skills and personal connections with their countries of origin. Therefore, they have helped in forging international trade ties with many countries. Good international relations has lead to the growth of international trade and hence an increase in the GDP of Canada (Halli, p. 107). Canada has a lot of natural resources such as oil and natural gas and therefore increase in exports promotes economic growth and development. Therefore in general the immigrants in Canada have lead to the growth and development of the economy of Canada.
Disadvantages of immigrants in Canada
Canada is known as country that caters for the well being of the immigrants because of their great contribution to the economy. Therefore, the Canadian government has the citizenship and immigrant department which caters for the wellbeing of the immigrants. Increase in the number of the immigrants in the country leads to increase in the number of employees in this department. To increase the number of employees in this department costs the government of Canada more money. In addition, the new settlers in Canada are usually provided with settlement assistance (Hawkins, p. 209). This includes a free language training which is provided under the provincial government administered programs. Therefore, the settling of the immigrants costs are incurred by the government (Hawkins, p. 206). Other than those who immigrate to Canada due to the economic conditions of Canada, others immigrate as refugees due to the political status of their native countries (Kalman, p. 6). The government under the department that deals with the refugees has to provide basic needs for these refugees. They are provided with houses, food and all the social amenities that would help them survive. These costs are incurred by the government because most refugees take some time before they start working and hence affect the economy of Canada. According to Halli, the mortality of the immigrants is lower than that of the native Canadians because most of the immigrants die when they arrive to Canada. Therefore immigrants in Canada affects the economy of Canada.
However, most of the employers in Canada give employment opportunities to the native Canadians and the immigrants are given those opportunities that are of a lower division than their qualifications. This is mostly due to ethnicity and discrimination especially for those immigrants who are from African countries (Hawkins, p. 207). Most of the immigrants in Canada are from poor countries and therefore immigration affects the labor force of these countries. This is because most of the immigrants are skilled and those left in these countries are the unskilled and hence the economic growth and development of these countries declines due to reduction in the labor force. Therefore the immigrants in Canada suffer and also their countries of origin are affected economically due to lack of labor force.
Conclusion
Most of the Immigrants in Canada are from India and China. These immigrants have some advantages and disadvantages to the economy of Canada but the advantages are more than the disadvantages. The immigrants contribute to the growth and development of the economy of Canada. This is because most of the immigrants are skilled and hence they provide labor force in various industries in Canada and hence they lead to increase in the domestic labor force which leads to economic growth and development. In addition, the immigrants pay taxes that lead to increase in the government revenue. Moreover, due to their linguistic skills and personal connections with their countries of origin, they lead to growth of the international trade. Therefore, Canada is able to export its products to various countries in the world and this leads to the growth of the country’s GDP. Lastly, immigrants increase the population of Canada because they have a higher fertility than the Canadians. This contribution of the immigrants to the economy of Canada has lead to the government of Canada establishing many departments that deals with the citizens and also the immigrant. These departments cater for the rights of the immigrants and hence Canada attracts more immigrants.
Works Cited
- Halli, Shivalingappa and Leo, Driedger. Immigrant Canada: demographic, economic, and social challenges. Toronto: University of Toronto press, 1999. Print.
- Hawkins, Freda. Canada and immigrant: public policy and public concern. New York: McGill-queen’s Press- MQUP, 1988. Print.
- Kalman, Bobbie. Canada: the people. New York: Crabree publishing company, 2009. Print.
- Rosof, Patricia.J. F. Ethnic and immigration groups: the United States, Canada, and ‘ England. New York: Routelege, 1983. Print.