Articles I found interesting during the holidays

As always, lots of articles on immigration with a continuing stream of voices raising concern regarding current levels of permanent and temporary migration. The National Bank flagged an economic contraction, per capita GDP basis also noted by TD, driven partly by an immigration-fuelled populations increase (Canada’s high immigration is driving down per-capita GDP: report). 

Tristin Hopper correctly noted that the immigration surge cancels out every Liberal housing promise and then some: Canada’s biggest immigration surge in 70 years, while Konrad Yakabuski, citing the Bank of Nova Scotia (« L’immigration est excessive. Point à la ligne ») argues that L’immigration [est] le talon d’Achille de Justin Trudeau. Brian Lilley notes that  Canada has added more than 1 million people and counting in 2023, it’s unsustainable. Meanwhile, while Canada has massive growth, South of the border it is only an uptick, Immigration fuels uptick in US population growth.

Tony Keller continues his series of critiques on immigration, arguing for drastic cutbacks in the number of low-skilled temporary workers, sharp cuts in the number of international students and ending the right of students to work while in school, Can we talk about immigration?

Cam Clark notes that the “failure to control the unplanned boom in temporary residents … is already undermining one of Canada’s great strengths: public support for immigration,” Liberals risk aiding Trump-style politics with temporary-resident failures. Julia Malott observes that the  International student influx exposes the selfish greed of universities, although she fails to note provincial policies failures, particularly in Ontario, that have driven universities in this direction.

Minister Miller continues his tendency of being much more frank than any of his predecessors (“I’m trying to target the effect of a system that’s run a bit rampant for far too long…), signalling that he will ‘rein in’ number of temporary foreign workers.

Le Devoir had a good explainer on current policies and debates in Quebec, Comment parler d’immigration en famille sans se fâcher, along with flagging ongoing IRCC operational issues, Délais à IRCC: Des milliers de réfugiés privés de voyager, même dans l’urgence.

The Star also had a good comparative explainer, Canada, the U.K. and Australia all face immigration challenges. Why Canada’s going a different way. The question is, of course, should Canada go a different way!

Immigration advocates Naomi Alboim, Audrey Macklin and Anna Triandafyllidou argue that Canada’s program to legalize undocumented migrants should be simple and comprehensive forgetting that simple and comprehensive are oxymorons in immigration policies given the practicalities and politics.

Rita Trichur wrote an interesting article on the strengths and weaknesses of TD’s racial equity audits, noting that auditors with racial expertise, comprehensive coverage of all business aspects and be public.  TD Bank’s racial equity audit offers lessons for other public companies

On citizenship, the first generation cut-off for transmission of citizenship was struck down by the courts (‘Lost Canadians’ win in Ontario court as judge ends 2 classes of citizenship – CBC.ca), with Chris Selley: ‘Lost Canadians’ beat Ottawa in court over Charter violations that never should have happened. Not as straightforward a change. Most of the plaintiffs had a route to citizenship for their children, albeit not as convenient as an automatic one. Will see if the government appeals (it should IMO as the decision opens the door to automatic transmission across multiple generations).

The release of the government’s Employment Equity Act Review Task Force late 2023 provides insights into the government’s thinking given that it set the terms of reference for the review and related consultations. The government has already signalled its support for the terminology changes of Indigenous peoples and racialized people, along with creation of a new designated group for 2SLGBTQI+ and the separation for Blacks from the overall racialized people group. While the former addresses a long-standing gap, the latter appears driven more by political considerations given the paucity of evidence presented in the Task Force Report in contrast to other groups, as my earlier analysis of hiring, promotion and separation rates demonstrate.

Meanwhile, from the right, Peter Shawn Taylor argues that It’s Time to Abolish the Absurd (and Slightly Racist) Concept of “Visible Minorities”

Interesting article by Pamela Paul on how social media disadvantages Blacks and Hispanics, who spend more time on social media than whites, Does Social Media Perpetuate Inequality?