| Patrice Riemens on Sun, 21 Jul 2002 22:43:31 +0200 (CEST) |
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| <nettime> Canada and immigrants (fwd) |
Meanwhile, in Strasbourg... ----- Forwarded message from goanet-digest <[email protected]> ----- goanet-digest Saturday, July 20 2002 Volume 01 : Number 4170 Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 09:23:09 -0700 From: "John D'souza" <[email protected]> Subject: [Goanet] Canada - Immigrants needed to fill jobs and pay taxes ! Toronto Star Editorial Jul. 19, 2002. Knock down barriers to immigration There's good reason for Canada to lay out the welcome mat for the Italian tradesman, the doctor from India and other skilled workers from abroad. They're needed to fill jobs and pay taxes. This week, Statistics Canada laid out the hard facts of Canada's demographic crunch � the birth rate is tumbling just as the baby boomers are getting ready to retire. The result? By 2020, a million jobs in Canada could go unfilled. That has big implications for government revenues, for businesses looking for employees and even retirees who will rely on the new crop of young workers to fund the health-care system and government pension plans. In response, Prime Minister Jean Chr�tien acknowledged the country needs more immigrants to address the problem of an aging population. But if Chr�tien truly wonders why the country has consistently fallen short of its immigration targets, he need look no further than the policies and actions of his own government. For starters, Ottawa's new system for selecting immigrants still sets the bar too high, essentially closing the door to many skilled workers such as welders, tool and die makers, medical therapists and nurses. Those lucky enough to get into the country face a maddening mix of red tape, government indifference and even racism in their efforts to become integrated into Canadian life. If immigrants are to be part of the solution to the looming labour shortage, those roadblocks have to be knocked down. Ottawa must rewrite the rules to recognize this country needs more than the immigrants holding Ph.D.s and computer degrees but those with basic skills, too. The federal government needs to do a better job of looking after immigrants once they get here, instead of sticking cash-strapped cities like Toronto with that job. Governments, regulatory bodies and educational institutions all need to remove the barriers that unfairly bar qualified immigrants from doing their old jobs in their new country. It makes no sense to leave immigrants sitting on the sidelines when their skills could be put to good use. The latest census numbers should be a wake-up call to those who even question the wisdom of an immigration policy, to those who espouse the falsehood that immigrants are robbing "Canadians" of jobs. Fact is, there won't be enough skilled workers to fill the jobs in the coming years. Newcomers should be welcomed for their diversity and their contributions to the economy. Without them, Canada's economic future looks bleak. The proof is in the numbers. Posted by JJD'S ------------------------------ # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [email protected] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]