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Unfortunately Canada hasn't completely avoided anti-immigration sentiment, but I like to think the majority up here are welcoming.

Mikeb85 10y ago
It's going to get a lot less welcoming in the coming years. Unemployment is trending upwards, there's not really any up and coming industries to replace jobs lost in resources (all commodities but especially oil are down), and the demographic shift (immigration) is driving down wages. We got a taste of it when Harper campaigned on anti-terrorist paranoia, but most people just thought he was a clown. When large swaths of Canadians are out of jobs, the anti-immigrant sentiment will come to the fore. Here in Alberta it's already pretty bad - unemployment is at levels we haven't seen in decades, yet a steady stream of TFWs are still somehow getting hired, and there's no reprieve in sight.
- tempestn 10y ago
  Unfortunately you're probably right. Of course, as most people here understand, the economy isn't a zero sum game, so we should be welcoming skilled immigrants and thanking them for adding to our prosperity, not complaining about them buying homes or taking jobs. (Think instead of the taxes they're paying, or the jobs they're creating, directly or indirectly.) As far as the "making homes more unaffordable" point, I could see the case for absentee foreign buyers who leave the properties empty. It's still not the real problem, but I can understand the frustration, and support initiatives like a tax on vacant property. That's a big difference from someone immigrating to the country and buying a home though! And anyway, what really makes homes unaffordable is lack of sufficient density. Sure, there's a peak where there is simply no more space, but cities like Vancouver are nowhere near it.
  - Mikeb85 10y ago
    Immigration generally increases unemployment in the short term, and is only a job creator in the long term. The question: can Canada absorb enough new immigrants to reach the point where they add to our prosperity before the social and economic issues become too much for us to bear?
- sdenton4 10y ago
  The US got a huge boost in sci and tech in the forties by bringing in fleeing scientists from across Europe. If Trump guts the h1b program as he's promised to, carries in with the Muslim registration lists, and continues to escalate xenophobia, we'll see a huge outflow of scientists from the US. Canada seems pretty well positioned to pick up a good number of them.
  - Mikeb85 10y ago
    And what will they do? Honestly, the real reason the US has such a robust economy is that they invest in companies at home. There's far less venture capital dollars here, most wealthy Canadians park their money offshore, and have zero risk tolerance. This means no engineering and science start-ups. Even the one industry where start ups are a thing here, tech, there's hardly any money floating around. You might get funded in Vancouver, but there's half a dozen markets in the US where you'll have an easier time.
it_learnses 10y ago
sure, chalk working people's issues down to "anti-immigration sentiment". That's how Trump got elected, and despite being liberal if the housing crisis continues, I'll be leaning toward voting any party (even conservatives) that can promise to resolve the issue of the market being flooded with this crazy influx of new immigrants and foreign buyers bringing the salaries down and property prices up.
- tempestn 10y ago
  Isn't it literally "anti-immigration sentiment" when someone expresses a desire to have someone else not immigrate? There is a bigdifference between an absent foreign buyer who simply takes a property out of circulation, and someone who actually moves to the country and lives in the house they buy. The latter is no longer 'foreign'; they're a new Canadian resident and IMO should be welcomed as such. Even from a purely selfish perspective (which, again IMO, we could use less of,) the country benefits significantly from skilled immigrants. Moreover, they're not what causes high house prices, except in the most marginal sense. The real problem is on the supply side. Foreign buyers are a part of it, in cities like Vancouver, but prices could still be brought down by increasing density. The general problem with that is, there's a disincentive to do that for the people who already own property, which tends to be most people in positions of power, and those to whom they are beholden. Immigrants are an easy scapegoat, but if we actually want to improve things, we need to look at policies that will do that, and I don't believe putting up a wall (literal or figurative) is one of them.

Mikeb85 10y ago

It's going to get a lot less welcoming in the coming years. Unemployment is trending upwards, there's not really any up and coming industries to replace jobs lost in resources (all commodities but especially oil are down), and the demographic shift (immigration) is driving down wages. We got a taste of it when Harper campaigned on anti-terrorist paranoia, but most people just thought he was a clown. When large swaths of Canadians are out of jobs, the anti-immigrant sentiment will come to the fore. Here in Alberta it's already pretty bad - unemployment is at levels we haven't seen in decades, yet a steady stream of TFWs are still somehow getting hired, and there's no reprieve in sight.

tempestn 10y ago
Unfortunately you're probably right. Of course, as most people here understand, the economy isn't a zero sum game, so we should be welcoming skilled immigrants and thanking them for adding to our prosperity, not complaining about them buying homes or taking jobs. (Think instead of the taxes they're paying, or the jobs they're creating, directly or indirectly.) As far as the "making homes more unaffordable" point, I could see the case for absentee foreign buyers who leave the properties empty. It's still not the real problem, but I can understand the frustration, and support initiatives like a tax on vacant property. That's a big difference from someone immigrating to the country and buying a home though! And anyway, what really makes homes unaffordable is lack of sufficient density. Sure, there's a peak where there is simply no more space, but cities like Vancouver are nowhere near it.
- Mikeb85 10y ago
  Immigration generally increases unemployment in the short term, and is only a job creator in the long term. The question: can Canada absorb enough new immigrants to reach the point where they add to our prosperity before the social and economic issues become too much for us to bear?
sdenton4 10y ago
The US got a huge boost in sci and tech in the forties by bringing in fleeing scientists from across Europe. If Trump guts the h1b program as he's promised to, carries in with the Muslim registration lists, and continues to escalate xenophobia, we'll see a huge outflow of scientists from the US. Canada seems pretty well positioned to pick up a good number of them.
- Mikeb85 10y ago
  And what will they do? Honestly, the real reason the US has such a robust economy is that they invest in companies at home. There's far less venture capital dollars here, most wealthy Canadians park their money offshore, and have zero risk tolerance. This means no engineering and science start-ups. Even the one industry where start ups are a thing here, tech, there's hardly any money floating around. You might get funded in Vancouver, but there's half a dozen markets in the US where you'll have an easier time.

it_learnses 10y ago

sure, chalk working people's issues down to "anti-immigration sentiment". That's how Trump got elected, and despite being liberal if the housing crisis continues, I'll be leaning toward voting any party (even conservatives) that can promise to resolve the issue of the market being flooded with this crazy influx of new immigrants and foreign buyers bringing the salaries down and property prices up.

tempestn 10y ago
Isn't it literally "anti-immigration sentiment" when someone expresses a desire to have someone else not immigrate? There is a bigdifference between an absent foreign buyer who simply takes a property out of circulation, and someone who actually moves to the country and lives in the house they buy. The latter is no longer 'foreign'; they're a new Canadian resident and IMO should be welcomed as such. Even from a purely selfish perspective (which, again IMO, we could use less of,) the country benefits significantly from skilled immigrants. Moreover, they're not what causes high house prices, except in the most marginal sense. The real problem is on the supply side. Foreign buyers are a part of it, in cities like Vancouver, but prices could still be brought down by increasing density. The general problem with that is, there's a disincentive to do that for the people who already own property, which tends to be most people in positions of power, and those to whom they are beholden. Immigrants are an easy scapegoat, but if we actually want to improve things, we need to look at policies that will do that, and I don't believe putting up a wall (literal or figurative) is one of them.