Immigration Levels: New Immigrants

Population Ages Dept: Mr. Kenney, the politician credited with delivering the immigrant-populated seats that sealed a Conservative majority, kicked off the consultations in Alberta last week and will be in Toronto Wednesday and Montreal on Friday. He faces a delicate balancing act. Public support for immigration remains high, but polling shows a very limited appetite for increasing immigration levels. And, as Mr. Kenney pointed out Tuesday, studies suggest Canada would need to triple or quadruple its immigration levels to maintain its current ratio of workers to old-age dependents, according to Globe And Mail. Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, is one of those calling for Canada’s immigrant intake to climb above 300,000 a year and for the past decade, Canada has accepted roughly 250,000 new permanent residents annually, but that number jumped in 2010 to more than 280,000, the highest total in more than 50 years. As Canada’s population ages, some advocates have suggested Canada should ramp up its immigrant intake to more than 300,000 a year. But the issue is hotly contested by those who argue that recent immigrants have fared badly in the labour force. “Simply put, we do not have the resources or ability to integrate a million new immigrants every year,” Mr. Kenney said. “We can’t teach them English or French. We can’t flood our taxpayer-funded services like health care and public education. We can’t put such high pressure on housing and real-estate markets.” As reported in the news.
@t ontario council of agencies serving immigrants, globe and mail