L'immigration au Canada

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All in all, immigration is an important subject especially in the globalized world we live in. Canada is an attractive land for people from all across the world. Immigration is strongly seen as a solution to deal with some social and economic problems in Canada. Nevertheless, many people and groups worry and see the high numbers of new comers that arrives every year as being too high and therefore as a threat to Canada’s well-being. Although I agree that immigration in Canada faces challenges; in the sense that there is always improvement that can be made, I do not believe that reducing the number of new comers is the right way to go. The aging population combined with the low birth rate in the country makes it impossible to reduce the numbers of immigrants. Plus, multiculturalism is an integral part of Canada’s identity and reducing the number of immigrants would go against the choices the Nation made concerning diversity. The real argument should not be about whether or not the number of immigrants should be reduced but whether the policies that deals with immigration in Canada are efficient enough. Good and important policies include the ones about multiculturalism; which are vital to the nation as they emphasize diversity which undermines the sense of common national identity and, feelings of national solidarity are necessary for a robust welfare state. Multiculturalism policies can also increase as well as strengthen solidarity within a nation as they reduce prejudice and mistrust, and therefore help “build more stable pan-ethnic coalitions for social justice generally” (Kymlicka & Banting, 2006). However, improvement concerning immigration policies can still be made. Some of the recommendations that have been made in more than one report, but not fully adopted, include “the need for pre-migration orientation, more effective official language-training before and after arrival, greater efforts to combat racism, public education concerning the benefits of immigration, improved community and mental health services for immigrants and refugees, and cross-cultural training for education, health and welfare practitioners” (Richmond, 2000, p.117). Immigrants should be seen as a positive thing that brings many benefits to society. If a debate about immigration should take place, it should focus on policies as they form the base of every issues related to immigration and play an important role in shaping society.

Work Cited

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