George Borjas: Metro Vancouver

Median Incomes Dept: Finlayson's concerns are, indeed, fully justified if one looks at the results of a study released on May 18 by the Fraser Institute. It found that the weak economic performance of recent immigrants is costing Canadian taxpayers between $16.3 billion and $23.6 billion a year. Using Canadian census data, economists Herbert Grubel and Patrick Grady calculated that this is what it costs Canadians because of what newcomers receive in government benefits over what they pay in taxes, according to Vancouver Sun. Professor George Borjas of Harvard, one of the pre-eminent experts on the economics of immigration in the United States, pointed out that there are winners and losers when it comes to large-scale immigration such as what we are experiencing in Vancouver. Winners obviously include employers looking for a large pool of inexpensive labour, real estate developers, immigration lawyers and organizations that receive government funding to help in the settlement of newcomers. Losers are Canadian workers and residents of Vancouver in general, including immigrants who have already arrived. Homeowners also benefit from the appreciation of the value of their homes while those who rent or are buying a home for the first time lose and as Jock Finlayson of the Business Council of BC noted in a recent Sun commentary, Metro Vancouver's Regional Growth Strategy fails to address the fact that we are a relatively low-income urban region despite having the most expensive housing in Canada. One of the factors he cites as the cause for this poor showing is our high immigration intake combined with the low median incomes of new Canadians. Finlayson points out that although immigration will increase the population of Metro Vancouver by more than a million people by 2030, the regional growth strategy will be of little use in terms of providing housing and finding jobs for the newcomers. The question one must ask in the circumstances is: Why are we going to bring another million immigrants into the Vancouver area and who is going to benefit from having them here? As reported in the news.
@t canadian census data, regional growth strategy