Yakabuski: The folly of Liberal immigration policy is now showing up in the job market

Time lag and lack of policy foresight and political pandering:

…There should always be room for exceptions on humanitarian grounds. But blanket amnesty for undocumented immigrants would send a clear message to the vast majority of the country’s 2.8 million temporary residents, who are legally obligated to leave when their student visas or temporary work permits expire, or if their asylum claims or applications for permanent residency are rejected. It would encourage temporary residents to go underground in the belief that Ottawa would eventually grant them amnesty, too.

That is the last message the Trudeau government should be sending at a time when the unintended consequences of its move as the pandemic receded to massively boost immigration to torque economic growth have now been laid bare.

As Statistics Canada reported on Friday, the unemployment rate among youth aged between 15 and 24 surged to 14.2 per cent in July, up 3.6 percentage points from 2023 and the highest rate (outside of the pandemic) since 2012.

Among recent immigrants in that age group, the jobless rate stood at a non-seasonally adjusted 22.8 per cent in July, up 8.6 percentage points in one year. Among all recent immigrants – newcomers who have been in the country for less than five years – the unemployment rate hit 12.6 per cent last month….

Source: The folly of Liberal immigration policy is now showing up in the job market