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Number of Immigrants To Canada From 1860 to 2008 (Immigrants = Non-Canadian-Born Given Permanent Resident Status In Canada)
Immigration Watch Canada is an organization of Canadians advocating a major reduction to Canada's current record-high immigration levels and major reform to Canada's immigration policies.
We believe Canada should have some immigration, but that immigration levels should be reduced to about 50,000, that is, to about 20% of the current annual 260,000 intake.
The graph above explains much about Canada's immigration history.
AS THE GRAPH SHOWS, THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IMMIGRATION LEVELS BEFORE AND AFTER 1990.
The situation becomes significantly worse every year.
CANADA HAS NEVER HAD A PROLONGED PERIOD OF HIGH IMMIGRANT INTAKE LIKE THE ONE SINCE 1990
This means that with the exception of two years around the year 2000, the post-1990 immigration period is the first time in Canada's immigration history when immigration intake has remained so high. And unless a significant groundswell of opposition rises, those in control of this policy will try to maintain the status quo.
WHAT WAS CANADA'S IMMIGRATION INTAKE LIKE BEFORE 1990?
From the 1920's, Canada had a TAP-ON and TAP-OFF immigration policy. This meant that when Canada had labour shortages, it turned the immigration tap on to satisfy Canada's needs. Similarly, when Canada had an excess of labour, it turned the immigration tap down or off to protect its unemployed.
In 1990, as a result of a decision by Canada's immigration Minister Barbara MacDougall and her Progressive Conservative colleagues, Canada's immigration programme became a method of competing with the Liberal Party of Canada for the immigrant vote.
Since then, all of Canada's federal political parties have subscribed to the same policy. All now compete for the immigrant vote.
AFTER 1990, CANADA'S IMMIGRATION LEVELS BECAME AN ABNORMALITY IN CANADA'S IMMIGRATION HISTORY
In other words, from that year, immigration policy abandoned the needs of Canadian workers and served the interests of Canada's political parties and their fears of not getting the immigrant vote. In that time, the interests of Canada's political parties and the corrupt immigration industry have become similar.
THE KEY POINT IS THAT CANADA'S POLITICIANS AT THE FEDERAL, PROVINCIAL, AND MUNICIPAL LEVELS, THROUGH OUTRIGHT LIES OR INCREDIBLE IGNORANCE, HAVE CLAIMED THAT POST-1990 IMMIGRATION IS NORMAL
The abnormality, however, is clear.
In fact, it is so clear that many Canadians feel that an immigration tsunami has struck Canada. However, they feel that our government and the country's immigration industry have so badly distorted immigration information to conceal their deceit that most people do not know what is going on. In addition, many Canadians feel that the country has been intimidated into silence by Canada's immigration industry and its supporters.
As a result, no other Canadian public policy issue arouses as much irrationality as does the immigration issue. No other issue gets as muddied by irrelevant arguments as does immigration policy.
WHY IS CANADA BRINGING IN SO MANY PEOPLE?
To expose the fraud that has been perpetrated on Canada, Canadians have to ask one basic question about current Canadian immigration policy : "Why is Canada bringing in so many people?"
(As we have already said, currently, Canada allows entry to around 260,000 immigrants per year. The Former Liberal government had a policy goal of raising Canada's intake to 1% of its population annually. If that 1% policy were adopted, around 330,000+ immigrants would enter Canada every year. The NDP has pressured for a 1%+ goal. This would permit even higher numbers to enter Canada.)
At present, Canada is allowing an additional 200,000 Temporary Foreign Workers into Canada. When combined with Canada's regular immigration intake, the total of people allowed in is around 450,000 per year !!!
OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER PROVIDED A RATIONAL ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION
Canada's federal government has never provided a rational answer to the question of why Canada has been bringing in so many people. At different times, it has claimed that it is bringing in large numbers of people to stimulate Canada's economy, to stop an alleged population decline, or to prevent problems created by an aging population.
OUR GOVERNMENT'S OWN RESEARCH CONTRADICTS WHAT IT IS DOING
However, the federal government's own research has told it that if it is looking for a way to stimulate Canada's economy, it should not expect immigration to do it. With regard to population decline, in 1990, when Canada had a population of 26+ million, Health and Welfare Canada's demographic research told the federal government that Canada's population would continue growing until 2026 with half (130,000) the immigration we have today, so it was not necessary to announce in 1990 an increase immigration to 240,000 per year. The same Health and Welfare study concluded that Made-In-Canada alternatives (such as making use of 45+ year old unemployed males and encouraging more females to enter the workforce) were superior to immigration in dealing with an aging population.
In other words, the federal government's research contradicts what it is doing. (See highlights of the major federally-sponsored studies entitled "Charting Canada's Future" and New Faces In the Crowd" in the "Research" section of this web site.)
THERE IS NO WIDESPREAD WORKER SHORTAGE
Desperate for a justification for high immigration, Canada's immigration industry, federal government, several provincial governments, and media have been using a fourth argument for the past three years or so. They have been claiming that Canada has a labour shortage.
However, Statistics Canada says that the country has over 1.5 million officially unemployed. Anyone who is familiar with unemployment statistics knows that many of the country's unemployed are not even counted in this number. Therefore, it is probably safe to say that Canada has well over 2 million unemployed. The number that are underemployed is probably much higher.
So we return to the basic question: "Why is Canada bringing in so many people (currently in the 450,000 range)?"
Like our federal government, Canada's immigration industry has provided an abundance of hysteria, but no concrete evidence to justify an intake of so many people. In fact, recent newspaper reports reveal that Canada's immigration industry is committing a large amount of fraud in Canada's regular immigraion programme and that our federal government is not monitoring the temporary worker programme.
The lack of any rational explanation for Canada's regular immigration programme and the sloppiness in administering the temporary worker programme are especially disturbing at a time when around 500,000 workers have just lost their jobs.
It is also disturbing because large numbers of the country's own citizens were already sitting "unused" or "underused" on the labour sidelines.
Why are we hearing politicians and others telling us that recent immigrant professionals are under-employed and need immediate attention when tens of thousands of Canadian-born have been in that situation for years and little has been done for them?
IMMIGRATION HAS TRADITIONALLY BEEN USED FOR THE BENEFIT OF CANADIANS
In the past, Canadian immigration policy has given prime consideration to the interests of its own people. particularly its own work force. When unemployment was high, Canada lowered immigration levels. (An example of this policy was the extremely low immigration intake of the 1930's when Canada experienced very high unemployment.) When unemployment was low and Canada needed workers, Canada raised immigration levels. (An example of this policy was the higher intake of the post-WW II era.)
Canada has also had a humanitarian component to satisfy the interests (within the limits of sanity) of immigrant families and genuine refugees. Measures to assist refugees have been based on Canada's signing of the U.N. Convention on Refugees under which we have accepted people fleeing from genuine persecution.
But, in general, Canada's immigration policy has been directed towards the interests of its own citizens. Canada followed this policy for the obvious reason that if the Canadian government did not look after the good of its own citizens, what government would?
WE REPEAT : A BIG CHANGE HAPPENED IN 1990
In the late 1980's and early 1990's, Canada entered a completely new phase in its refugee and immigration policies.
As a result, the interests of Canada's work force (the "Canadian family") have been abandoned. In contrast,the so-called "family class" (that is, the interests of recent immigrants) has been given priority. And the term "refugee" has been expanded far beyond its original limits. The term "refugee" now includes people "fleeing" from such things as spousal abuse, discrimination against gays, parental abuse, ridicule of an obese condition, and a number of other matters which have nothing to do with the original idea of the refugee fleeing political persecution. Moreover, large numbers of refugee claimants actually come from countries with democratic governments and say they are "fleeing" from torture or some other form of persecution.
SINCE 1990, IMMIGRATION HAS BECOME AN UNCONTROLLED, IRRATIONAL FLOOD
Canada's current immigration policy has been described as "mass immigration" because the numbers of immigrants accepted in the past 19 years have been continuously high. In addition, both the numbers since 1990 and the numbers projected for the future are unrelated to our economic or demographic needs or absorptive capacity. As many commentators have observed, immigration to Canada has turned into an uncontrolled, irrational flood.
THERE ARE CULTURAL LIMITS TO THE NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS ANY COUNTRY CAN TAKE
A number of critics have pointed out the potential cultural consequences of Canada's new immigration policies. Among these critics is Ottawa Citizen columnist Randall Denley.
"CELEBRATE DIVERSITY" REALLY MEANS "CELEBRATE YOUR MARGINALIZATION"
He noted in a January, 2003 column, that this policy, if continued, will result in a major cultural change in Canada. The present dominant culture will become a minority and be marginalized by the cultures of those now entering. Mr. Denley asserted that most Canadians are sleepwalking through this massive demographic change in their country.
Others speaking on the cultural issue have said that immigration policy has been reduced to "ethnic catch-up". This means that certain ethnic groups have made deliberate efforts to increase their numbers in order to equal or overtake the numbers of the host population.
THERE ARE ECONOMIC LIMITS TO THE NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES ANY COUNTRY CAN TAKE
Former Vice-Chair of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board, Charles Campbell, in his book "Betrayal and Deceit" paid particular attention to economic and refugee issues. He reiterated the findings of the federal government's own research (cited above) which contradicts what it has done since 1990.
THERE ARE ENVIRONMENTAL LIMITS TO THE NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS ANY COUNTRY CAN TAKE
Others have noted the environmental impact on Canada. All Canadians should note that in 1976, The Science Council of Canada examined the issues of Canada's resources and its future population. It stated bluntly that Canada had to discard two myths: One is that it has an infinite supply of resources. The second is that it can have a virtually open-door immigration policy. A large geographical space does not mean an ability to take huge numbers of people. It said that Canada had limited resources. Canada's hostile climate meant that its people had to consume larger amounts of resources than many other countries. As a result, Canada had to conserve the resources it had, to restrict immigration and to stabilize its population, roughly around the 35 million mark.
Studies at UBC in 1997 and by Ontario's Environment Commissioner recently have issued similar warnings. Ontario's Environment Commissioner has stated that Southern Ontario does not have enough water for the population increase that our blind federal government plans to dump into southern Ontario.
Yet many Canadian politicians, pundits and some recent immigrants continue to think that Canada can accommodate literally hundreds of millions of people.
Immigration Watch Canada joins Mr. Denley, Mr. Campbell and a host of other well-informed Canadians in expressing alarm at these major changes in Canada's refugee and immigration policies. We express particular alarm at the lack of control the vast majority of Canadians have over Canada's immigration system. We are committed to doing everything we can to make major changes to these policies.
CANADA'S IMMIGRATION INDUSTRY CONTROLS CANADA'S IMMIGRATION NUMBERS
The blunt truth is that a small minority of Canadians is dictating Canada's immigration policies. This group is Canada's immigration industry which consists of immigration lawyers, immigration/refugee advocates, ethnic groups and a number of urban MP's. As many observers have noted, these MP's have pandered to the recent immigrant vote to get elected.
FIGHT BACK TO GET THE DEMOCRATIC RIGHT TO CONTROL OUR FUTURE
We believe that Canadians have the obvious democratic right to be the major decision-makers in refugee and immigration policies. And it is clear that this right has been taken away from the majority of Canadians. Canada's Department of Citizenship and Immigration, in effect, admits this by excluding ordinary Canadians from its list of so-called "stakeholders", the people whom it consults when it makes immigration policies. This list is dominated by Canada's immigration industry.
We also believe that the federal government has to remove the veil of deceit it has placed over its refugee and immigration strategies.
It is obvious that these strategies are frequently in conflict with the results of the government's own research on the impact of immigration. It is also obvious that they are against the interests of the majority of Canadians and that they make little, if any, sense.
In general, Immigration Watch Canada believes that Canada's immigration policies should place the interests of the majority of Canadians first, not last, as is the situation now.
CANADIANS HAVE TO TAKE BACK THEIR COUNTRY
We invite Canadians (both people born here and immigrants) from every side of the political spectrum to join us in restoring sanity to Canada's immigration policies.
(See the section, "What We Believe", the "CBC And Immigration" and "Assumptions" for details.)
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