Immigration

Public Policy Wiki Issue #4: Canada's Policy on Immigration

Overview

Canada is a nation of immigrants. Apart from Canada’s Aboriginal peoples, we all either came to Canada from another country or we are descended from ancestors who did so, whether years, decades or centuries ago.

Canada has an average immigration rate of 7 migrants per 1,000 population every year.

There is near consensus that the immigration system – from the point system to refugee policy to settlement programs - needs to be fixed.

To find out more about Canada’s immigration system, read Dr. Myer Siemiatycki’s “Canadian Immigration Policy: What Next?” (Siemiatycki Analysis) and also the background material on our resources page (Resources). You can also read:

1) An analysis and proposals by Ratna Omidvar (Omidvar Analysis), President of the Maytree Foundation.

2) An analysis and proposal by Daniel Stoffman (Stoffman Analysis), author of the award-winning Who Gets In: What’s Wrong with Canada’s Immigration Program and How to Fix It.

3) An analysis and proposal by Rudyard Griffiths (Griffiths Analysis), co-founder of the Dominion Institute and author of Who We Are: A Citizen’s Manifesto.

4) An analysis and proposal by Stephen Gallagher Canada's Dysfunctional Refugee Determination System: Canadian Asylum Policy from a Comparative Perspective, published by The Fraser Institute.

Once you have familiarized yourself with the issues, you can go through the briefing notes we've collected List of Positions and either vote on them, post a comment, edit an existing note or create your own using the built-in wiki tools. Be sure to abide by the Policy Note Guidelines and also the Code of Conduct.

For more, see the Immigration page.


Questions to consider:

Does the immigration system need a major overhaul or merely some fine-tuning?

Is immigration the solution to Canada’s aging population?

How should the economic crisis impact immigration policy and reform?

Does the point system need to be revamped?

How can we improve the recognition of foreign credentials?

Is Canada’s refugee policy too lenient or too restrictive?

What language skills should we expect from new residents? From new citizens?

Is Canadian citizenship too easy to acquire?

Should dual citizenship be scrapped?

How can we improve settlement programs for new immigrants?


Target: June 1, 2009

Your ideas are needed now. Briefing notes will be submitted to the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. Identify and outline the policy that you think Canada should adopt to fix the immigration system.