ALBAWABA – As countries worldwide grapple with an ageing workforce and declining birth rates, Canada’s mass immigration strategy stands as a solution to counter potential economic deterioration, according to a Bloomberg report.
In an extraordinary experiment with mass immigration, Canada seeks not only to widen its labor market in the face of growing global competition for skilled workers, but also to extend its influence.
According to Bloomberg, the country's population growth is among the world's fastest, with Canada recently crossing the 40 million population threshold.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's administration views Canads’s mass immigration experiment as a mechanism to expand the country’s international presence. It also helps Canada step out of the shadow of its larger neighbor, the United States (US).
"Canada has plenty of room for newcomers," stated Usha George, a Canadian immigration policy professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
"To expand our agricultural, industrial, and technological base, we need more people," she told Bloomberg.
Challenges of Canada’s mass immigration strategy
The vast influx of immigrants brings its own challenges.
Canada must strike a balance between boosting growth in rural areas that are in dire need of newcomers and mitigating the pressure on already overcrowded urban areas.
Nonetheless, the advantages of Canada's mass immigration strategy are clear.
Population growth has fueled hiring and consumption, helping the Canadian economy weather rate hikes by the Bank of Canada. But there are concerns.
For example, it may turn out that focusing on increasing immigration numbers merely augments economic output without enhancing individual living standards. Another argument against the strategy, is that real GDP per capita has remained virtually unchanged over the past decade, and there is an expected decrease from its 2022 peak, Bloomberg reported.
Some pro-immigration economists, including David Dodge, a former Bank of Canada governor, argued that Canada might be moving too quickly with its immigration policy.
"The speed of that adjustment amplifies the costs and curtails additional productivity as there's less time for people to adapt," he warned.
Yet, the Trudeau administration presses on, aiming to add roughly half a million permanent residents annually, the report highlighted.
With the addition of foreign students, temporary workers, and refugees, the total number of arrivals hit a record one million last year.
This influx catapulted Canada's annual population growth rate to 2.7 percent, placing it on par with the growth rates of developing nations like Burkina Faso, Burundi, and Sudan.
Canada Immigration Minister Sean Fraser affirmed the country's stance.
He stated to Bloomberg that "the ability to successfully integrate people in large numbers doesn’t demand that you welcome fewer people; it demands that you advance smart immigration policies.”
Currently, about one in four people in Canada are immigrants, which the highest proportion among the Group of Seven (G7) nations.
At this rate, Canada, the smallest G7 country by population, could double its residents in about 26 years and surpass Italy, France, the UK, and Germany by 2050.
Canada’s mass immigration strategy differs starkly from the immigration policies of other countries. Especially when compared to Western countries with large immigrant populations, but tight immigration policies.
France’s plan, for example, to raise the retirement age by two years sparked nationwide protests. The measure was a solution that was introduced to address various economic and labor market issues, such as the ageing workforce and the declining number of new labor market entrants.
Germany, on the other hand, is projected to lose five million workers by the end of the decade.Whereas Japan, a country known for fiercely resisting immigration, is grappling with acute labor shortages, a declining population, and dying rural towns.
Meanwhile, in the US, immigration is a politically divisive issue, and the daily crossing of thousands of migrants over the Mexican border is further polarizing the populace.
Canada's residents have traditionally been more accepting of newcomers due to the country's depiction of immigration as an economic policy. It helps that the country’s geographical location minimizes illegal crossings, thanks to a variety of natural barriers.
The cost of Canada’s mass immigration strategy
Since 1967, Canada has implemented a system that allocates points to immigrants based on age, education, job prospects, and proficiency in English or French.
This system enables the country to target skilled workers.
However, this surge in immigration has primarily been directed towards Canada's larger cities. In the single year ending July 1, the largest population centers saw a net gain of over 600,000 people from international migration, with just a fraction of this number settling in smaller communities and rural areas, Bloomberg reported.
This urban-centric focus on immigration has triggered a unique set of challenges.
Housing shortages, rising home prices, and increasing socio-economic disparity are just a few of the issues that Canada will need to address as its immigration policy continues to evolve.
The country's ability to manage these challenges while reaping the benefits of a growing population will be a test for Trudeau's ambitious immigration strategy.
All eyes are on Canada as it continues its pursuit of labor dominance through mass immigration.
Its success or failure could be a valuable lesson for other countries grappling with similar demographic challenges. The world watches, waits, and learns from Canada's gamble on immigration.
