Recently released report claims immigrants are a fiscal burden to Canada

A recently released report is expected to prove controversial for its claims that immigrants arriving during the last 23 years have claimed more in benefits that they have paid in taxes.

The report, published by the Fraser Institute, has at its centre economics professor Herbert Grubel, an immigration expert well-known for his controversial views on his subject. He points out that, unlike the selection criteria used in the USA, Canada’s points system has hardly changed for five decades or more.

Candidates with relevant work experience, degree-level education and competency in the country’s two languages, English and French, can gain points allowing their applications to be considered. About 30 per cent of immigrants in 2011 were selected in this manner, but their spouses and family members brought their numbers up to 60 per cent of the total immigrants for that year.

Grubel is recommending the cancellation of the points system and its replacement by a system based on pre-arranged employment contracts as the main criterion for entry into the country. Local associations in countries which supply migrants are calling his views partial and exaggerated amidst fears that future Canadian immigration policies may be severely impacted.

According to Canadian immigration lawyer Zool Suleman in an interview with CBC News, parents and grandparents of new immigrants do much-needed work both in and outside the family home, thus allowing wage-earning immigrants to perform their work to the satisfaction of their new employers. Families of newly-employed workers also support values and the essential integration between diverse cultures.

Suleman also expressed his concern that disallowing family immigration could lose Canada a good number of the highly skilled personnel it needs. Grubel’s suggestion that immigrants should have landed status before bringing in their families also includes paying a bond to cover older family members’ health and other costs, and is likely to be more controversial still.