Destination Canada: Immigration Debates and Issues

Joseph Garcea is a professor of political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan.

Destination Canada addresses, among other things, the fundamental goals
of Canada’s immigration policies and programs; the perceived and real
value of immigrants to the Canadian economy and society; and the effects
that perceptions of immigration are having not only on immigration
policy but also on the immigrants and the Canadian economy and society.

A number of major themes emerge. Canadians should base their thinking
about immigration on facts rather than myths. Immigration policy in
Canada is driven more by economic considerations than by factors related
to community- and nation-building. Canadians and their governments do
not appreciate fully the positive effects of immigration on the
country’s economy and demography. If implemented, proposals by the
anti-immigration lobby to reduce the level (and, in some cases, racial
diversity) of immigration are likely to have a negative effect on
Canada’s economy and society.

When it comes to immigration, Li suggests, current and future Canadian
governments have two basic options: to pursue the policy of a small
homogenous nation or to pursue the policy of a large and multicultural
nation. His valuable book provides an important and needed corrective to
the emerging literature that favours incentives to citizens rather than
incentives to immigration as the engines of population and economic
growth.