3 ms·

How much immigration in Canada is undocumented/illegal (depending on your political persuasion)?

• Mikeb85 7y ago
  Almost none. It exists but not in any large numbers because illegal immigrants can't work, get bank accounts, drivers licenses, go to schools, etc... If you're a business owner and hire illegal immigrants, you risk up to 2 years jail time personally and a $50k fine. So almost no one takes that risk. The few that are here illegally generally come legally, overstay and have family to harbour them. And keep in mind I'm in an industry that, in the US, is known for employing illegal immigrants (restaurants). In 17 years, I've never seen one nor heard of anyone hiring them. I'm sure it happens in a few ethnic enclaves but it's definitely not typical. I read a statistic somewhere that California alone has more than 10x as many illegal immigrants as all of Canada. Of course I should also add, we do of course allow more legal immigration per capita than the US, many irregular border crossers are granted temporary status while their cases are processed and in general our bureaucracy seems less insane than the US'.