Yes, I am an immigrant. I moved to Canada by choice, i.e. I exercised my own free will to move here. No one threatened me, no one coerced me and no one offered me any incentives. The province of PEI actually did offer incentives (tax rebates) but I forgot to apply before I moved there. Bad luck, I suppose.
Anyhow, immigration is a hot topic in 2024. In 2022, Canada’s population grew by a record 1.05 million people, and 96% of that figure was due to international immigration. About 18% of these people are from India [1]. Out of the five largest source countries in this statistic, only one has citizens who are mostly not “brown” – China. This recent influx of brown people caused much hand-wringing, pearl clutching and general consternation in the population of existing Canadians, many of whom are themselves from immigrant families, many with some questionable traditions. But alas, immigrants are only a cause for concern when they are brown or black. This is the standard, fear-mongering, right wing trope these days. The concern-du-jour, if you will.
The aspect that I find most interesting is the general discourse around the quality of immigrants that Canada brings in. Yes, there is a generally declining trend in the quality of college admitees, especially colleges that find themselves in a precarious financial situation. Let us ignore the fact that provinces control funding to colleges and, after years of not funding them well, cry foul when said colleges get creative with “alternative” sources of funding. No, must be those greedy immigrants.
Start with expensive housing. The CBC, no less, runs several articles [2] about how immigrants are responsible for making housing more expensive. Ok, but that assumes that immigrants have money and the means to afford the insane housing prices in Canada, be that renting or buying.
But hold on a minute. Employers are regularly on the record complaining that they cannot fill positions. Esteemed establishments like the Brazilian “coffee” chain, Tim Hortons, cannot find people to run their stores! Oh, the horror! Even RBC claims [3] that immigrant wages lag those of people born in Canada (even as much as 20% [4]) but there is a labour shortage? Alas, the corporate deities are unable to raise wages! That would displease shareholders. We all know that shareholders must not be displeased!
So, are immigrants too poor or too wealthy? Are mainland Chinese people siphoning money illegally from the PRC to Columbie-Britannique? Maybe they work three minimum wage jobs at the same time, live 30 people to a room and save like squirrels? Is that how immigrants can afford houses in Canada’s most expensive real estate market? Certainly, it cannot be wasteful land use, car-centric and tax-inefficient suburbs or rampant NIMBY-ism that artificially constrains housing supply. It must be those bloody, brown immigrants. But wait, are Chinese people brown? Guess not. It’s those damn Punjabis from Andhra Pradesh!
And what of the recent spate of hate crimes directed at Canada’s Jewish community? As of March 2024, 56% of reported hate crimes in Toronto were anti-Semitic [5]. Must be those immigrants again, with their backwards mentalities and hate from the motherlands. Never mind the fact that most recent immigrants are not from Muslim-majority countries and most of them are unlikely to have time to engage in hate crimes when they are barely able to afford bread. No, it cannot be that. When Sikhs and Hindus from Punjab arrive in Canada, they see the Jewish cabal and are filled with so much hate that they must destroy synagogues. After all, we know that every time you strike a synagogue with a butter knife, money just falls out!
And inflation? Definitely those brown immigrants bringing in their Rupees from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Mauritius. Keep those inflationary rupees back in your homes! Don’t bring them here! Surely, it cannot be corporate greed! Galen W can barely afford fuel for his yacht!
GDP growth too slow? Wages not keeping up with inflation? Immigrants are definitely the problem!
In summary then, the Canadian immigrant is responsible for housing being too expensive, for taking all the minimum wage jobs, for global inflation, for anti-Semitism, for stalling GDP growth, for the lack of houses, for the slow pace of house construction, for the deteriorating quality of produce, for taking all the high-wage jobs and for exacerbating homelessness.
I am proud of these achievements, for I have, somehow, achieved all of them with no conscious effort. They just happen! Poof!
This is why I am delighted to identify as Schrödinger’s immigrant. I exist in a quantum superposition where I work a high-wage job that pays poverty wages that somehow allow me to both distort the housing market and take away jobs from poor Canadian teenagers. I am simultaneously too poor and too wealthy. Too unskilled, and far too skilled. Too passive, but also too aggressive. Too ignorant, but also too cunning.
Fear me!
Truly a charmed existence!
[1] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026a-eng.htm
[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ircc-immigration-housing-canada-1.7080376
[4] https://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/immigrant-gap-aspx/
[5] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/hate-crimes-toronto-demkiw-update-1.7147113