[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

That article makes a very good point about our ridiculous family reunification policy.

So many of these new Canadians have almost no job or language skills at all. This is why you can meet so many workers, especially in the retail/restaurant sector, that you can hardly understand. They also reduce our productivity because instead of investing in new technologies and the skills of the workers we already have, we just import more cheap labour so those crucial investments don't take place. As for the parents and grandparents, they do nothing for us except bulge our OAS and healthcare costs and take away what little housing we have. In laymen's terms, we are building a bigger pie but dividing in disproportionately more pieces individually leaving us with a smaller slice.

Our immigration system provides a disservice to our economy and quality of life in so many ways and, despite our high levels of it, we are falling further and further behind. Unfortunately, the rest of Canada seems to be following BC economic path over the last 30 years..........just import people and build/flip housing. It is exceptionally unproductive in terms of labour and capitol which is why BC's economy, despite having a 30 year housing boom, has not advanced the real wages of it's residents one bit and has resulted in grotesque levels of social and financial inequality.

The article makes a lot of leaps about cause and effect as does your post. The US has much more low skilled immigration than us. The bulk of theirs is in fact. I'm not saying allowing parents and especially grandparents to be supported by taxpayers makes sense but it's not a major factor in our trajectory.