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> Canada seems to be doing just fine with a quarter of its population being foreign-born. Canada is not doing fine. There are major problems with wage suppress

> Canada seems to be doing just fine with a quarter of its population being foreign-born. Canada is not doing fine. There are major problems with wage suppression and lowering standards of living, as well as dwindling access to housing and medical services. The Canadian economy has become a bubble propped up by massive influx of immigrants to hide glaring systemic issues; it's not sustainable, and in recent years has become a growing source of controversy.

Tiktaalik 4y ago
Canada having not enough housing is because the established rich use their political power to block housing creation at the local level. It's not something induced by immigration existing.
- richbell 4y ago
  It's exacerbated by the rich heavily relying on cheap labour and fresh credit to keep wages low and the GDP growing. Lots of companies rely on the Temporary Foreign Worker program to fill menial minimum-wage jobs, often paying those TFWs below minimum-wage and abusing them. Similarly, the student visa program is a backdoor for lots of companies (particularly delivery & logistics). I also used to work at a government-sponsored employment centre where I met hundreds of skilled new-immigrants who gave up everything to emigrate, only to arrive in Canada and realize they'd been deceived about their prospects (e.g. the barriers to recertification). I am not against immigration — both my spouse and I are children of immigrants — but it's important to differentiate between reasonable immigration policies and excessive ones designed to prop up a failing system by constantly injecting new bodies. Canada's immigration system is the latter; it predominantly benefits the rich and nobody else.
- mensetmanusman 4y ago
  Housing problem is in the entire western world, mostly due to the 2007 financial crisis which caused builders to stop building for a few years which dried up supply.
vkou 4y ago
> There are major problems with wage suppression and lowering standards of living Canada's big businesses, protected by their political friends, and largely controlled by a few old-boys-clubs is to blame for that. > dwindling access to housing and medical services. Dwindling access to housing is because NIMBYs refuse to build any. Access to medical services continues to be the same thing that Canadians have complained about for decades. Everyone bitches about it, but all-in-all, they are fine. > The Canadian economy has become a bubble propped up by massive influx of immigrants to hide glaring systemic issues; it's not sustainable, and in recent years has become a growing source of controversy. 'It's become a controversy among the fringe-right' is not a sufficient metric for telling me that there's a problem. All sorts of normal things have a tendency to turn into controversies for those folks. What are the actual issues? Money laundering through the Canadian real estate markets? That's not an immigration problem, that's a ML problem, and it could be fixed by not selling permanent residencies to 'investors' building sham self-dealing companies.
- richbell 4y ago
  > Access to medical services continues to be the same thing that Canadians have complained about for decades. Everyone bitches about it, but all-in-all, they are fine. Ontario's health-care system is collapsing. In the past year several emergency rooms have been forced to close, and 9-11 calls have gone unanswered or faced severe delays. People are not fine. It's a multi-faceted issue, sure, but ramping up immigration is pouring fuel on the fire. > 'It's become a controversy among the fringe-right' is not a sufficient metric for telling me that there's a problem. All sorts of normal things have a tendency to turn into controversies for those folks. It's disingenuous to write-off any concerns about immigration about immigration as right-wing histeria. I quite left-leaning, pro-immigration, and believe in having strong social programs; however, Canada's current immigration policy is a band-aid covering an ever-growing wound. E.g., https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1049ykb/opinion_its_not_racist_or_xenophobic_to_question https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1049ykb/opinion_its... > What are the actual issues? Money laundering through the Canadian real estate markets? That's not an immigration problem, that's a ML problem, and it could be fixed by not selling permanent residencies to 'investors' building sham self-dealing companies. A major "actual issue" is that Canada's economy is largely predicated on real estate continously growing 20% year-over-year. Real estate is one of the, if not THE, largest sectors in several provinces. Millions of people don't have a retirement plan beyond "sell my house for 5-10x what I paid for it", and having massive levels of immigration definitely plays into that (far more than foreign home ownership does).

Tiktaalik 4y ago

Canada having not enough housing is because the established rich use their political power to block housing creation at the local level. It's not something induced by immigration existing.

richbell 4y ago
It's exacerbated by the rich heavily relying on cheap labour and fresh credit to keep wages low and the GDP growing. Lots of companies rely on the Temporary Foreign Worker program to fill menial minimum-wage jobs, often paying those TFWs below minimum-wage and abusing them. Similarly, the student visa program is a backdoor for lots of companies (particularly delivery & logistics). I also used to work at a government-sponsored employment centre where I met hundreds of skilled new-immigrants who gave up everything to emigrate, only to arrive in Canada and realize they'd been deceived about their prospects (e.g. the barriers to recertification). I am not against immigration — both my spouse and I are children of immigrants — but it's important to differentiate between reasonable immigration policies and excessive ones designed to prop up a failing system by constantly injecting new bodies. Canada's immigration system is the latter; it predominantly benefits the rich and nobody else.
mensetmanusman 4y ago
Housing problem is in the entire western world, mostly due to the 2007 financial crisis which caused builders to stop building for a few years which dried up supply.

vkou 4y ago

> There are major problems with wage suppression and lowering standards of living Canada's big businesses, protected by their political friends, and largely controlled by a few old-boys-clubs is to blame for that. > dwindling access to housing and medical services. Dwindling access to housing is because NIMBYs refuse to build any. Access to medical services continues to be the same thing that Canadians have complained about for decades. Everyone bitches about it, but all-in-all, they are fine. > The Canadian economy has become a bubble propped up by massive influx of immigrants to hide glaring systemic issues; it's not sustainable, and in recent years has become a growing source of controversy. 'It's become a controversy among the fringe-right' is not a sufficient metric for telling me that there's a problem. All sorts of normal things have a tendency to turn into controversies for those folks. What are the actual issues? Money laundering through the Canadian real estate markets? That's not an immigration problem, that's a ML problem, and it could be fixed by not selling permanent residencies to 'investors' building sham self-dealing companies.

richbell 4y ago
> Access to medical services continues to be the same thing that Canadians have complained about for decades. Everyone bitches about it, but all-in-all, they are fine. Ontario's health-care system is collapsing. In the past year several emergency rooms have been forced to close, and 9-11 calls have gone unanswered or faced severe delays. People are not fine. It's a multi-faceted issue, sure, but ramping up immigration is pouring fuel on the fire. > 'It's become a controversy among the fringe-right' is not a sufficient metric for telling me that there's a problem. All sorts of normal things have a tendency to turn into controversies for those folks. It's disingenuous to write-off any concerns about immigration about immigration as right-wing histeria. I quite left-leaning, pro-immigration, and believe in having strong social programs; however, Canada's current immigration policy is a band-aid covering an ever-growing wound. E.g., https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1049ykb/opinion_its_not_racist_or_xenophobic_to_question https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1049ykb/opinion_its... > What are the actual issues? Money laundering through the Canadian real estate markets? That's not an immigration problem, that's a ML problem, and it could be fixed by not selling permanent residencies to 'investors' building sham self-dealing companies. A major "actual issue" is that Canada's economy is largely predicated on real estate continously growing 20% year-over-year. Real estate is one of the, if not THE, largest sectors in several provinces. Millions of people don't have a retirement plan beyond "sell my house for 5-10x what I paid for it", and having massive levels of immigration definitely plays into that (far more than foreign home ownership does).