Canada needs more nation builders

Bevilacqua proposes expansionist immigration policy
CAMPBELL CLARK Globe and Mail June 24 2006
OTTAWA — Canada needs to double the flow of immigrants into the country to build up its population and drive economic growth, Liberal leadership candidate Maurizio Bevilacqua said Friday.
In a bold proposal to throw open the doors to the country, Mr. Bevilacqua proposed that Canada expand its immigration system beyond filling holes in the labour market, bringing in far more foreign relatives of Canadians to expand the population.
His proposal calls for Canada to increase its immigration rate immediately to 1 per cent of the population, or about 325,000 people, rather than the roughly 240,000 a year it brings in now. By 2016, he would increase immigration to 1.5 per cent of the population, which would be about 490,000 people a year based on the current population.
“We can't be timid,” Mr. Bevilacqua said in an interview Friday. “I have very much an expansionist view of Canada.”
Canada needs to recruit workers and deal with labour-market needs, but also must engage in nation-building, Mr. Bevilacqua said.
Canada's relatively low birth rate means that its future population and work-force growth will come from its aboriginal population and immigration, he said.
“We need more people, and secondly, we have an aging society,” he said, arguing that immigration growth would fuel economic activity.
But it is not an idea without critics. Some contend Canadian society cannot absorb an increased flow of newcomers, while some economists argue that unless Canada is careful to select immigrants who will succeed economically, the average standard of living will fall, even if the economy grows in size.
Mr. Bevilacqua's immigration proposals also call for the federal government to help more immigrants settle outside the major cities, including through programs where provincial governments choose immigrants; making it easier for foreign students to stay in Canada; speeding the recognition of foreign credentials; and recruiting more immigrants under the age of 35.
Mr. Bevilacqua argued that while Canada's immigration policy has looked to recruit newcomers with specific qualifications, it would be wise to expand “relational immigration” — bringing in more relatives of people already in Canada.
Those ties to Canadians not only promote social cohesion, but studies show they also allow immigrants to adapt and thrive more quickly, he said: “It takes them a shorter period of time to succeed.”
The policy proposal is probably good leadership politics. Mr. Bevilacqua's immigration proposals come just 10 days before the deadline for new Liberal Party members to be eligible to vote in the leadership race, and Canada's immigrant communities have traditionally been fertile recruiting grounds.
Other candidates, notably Joe Volpe and Gerard Kennedy, have placed an emphasis on immigration in their campaigns, but none has proposed such a major expansion.
“Insofar as people may be attracted to this view of immigration and this view of nation-building, it may help,” Mr. Bevilacqua said. “But that certainly was not the objective.”