Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
06 September 2011
Benefits from Immigration
As far as receiving countries are concerned,
migrants are usually a welcome addition whose
presence goes beyond economic growth
“Migrants boost economic output, at little or no cost to locals.” That’s a quotation from the United Nations Development Report for 2009.
The UN lists a couple of ways in which migrants add economic value to the countries
they move to:
- Childcare workers enable resident parents to take jobs outside the home;
- As migrants settle in they move up the economic ladder contributing through their taxes to the general wellbeing of the host nation.
Economic Benefit of Migration not Huge
While receiving countries do reap some economic advantage from migrants the gain is not large.
For example, the Australian government released a report on the economic impact of
skilled migrants to the national economy: “the estimated effect by 2024-
Not exactly riches beyond the wildest dream of most, but still an improvement.
And, the theme of modest economic gains from immigration is echoed elsewhere. Here’s
a quote from a British Parliamentary committee: “Most economists giving evidence
to us suggested that the likely long-
Migration Watch claims that migrants add four pence (less than a dime) to the average
English person’s wallet a week. However, the group’s analysis might be tainted by
its somewhat anti-
Skilled Immigrants more Valued
Economic arguments aside, in the United Kingdom, immigration is plugging gaps in
skilled occupations that the country is not able to fill with its own nationals.
A 2001 report points out that about 30 percent of the country’s doctors and more
than ten percent of nurses are non-
Among countries that encourage immigration highly skilled migrants are at the top of everybody’s wish list. A fact acknowledged by the UN Report:
“While there is broad consensus about the value of skilled migration to destination
countries, low-
“While research has found that migration can, in certain circumstances, have negative effects on locally born workers with comparable skills, the body of evidence suggests that these effects are generally small and may, in some contexts, be entirely absent.”
Replacing
an Aging Population
While there’s limited evidence to support strong economic benefits coming from migration, there is a need for people to replace those going into retirement in industrialized economies.
Statistics Canada says the average number of children per Canadian family in 2006 was 1.5; that’s well below the replacement rate of 2.1. At the same time, Canada’s population is getting older.
Canada experienced a huge increase in births in the period from 1950 to 1965; it
was called the Baby Boom. Now, the first of these Boomers are retiring and there
are just not enough native-
The Conference Board of Canada says that “we need 375,000 new immigrants annually in order to stabilize the workforce and ensure economic growth.”
Those Boomers are starting to draw pensions and, as they get older, they will consume more health care services. Without an enlarged workforce paying taxes to support these social services, funding them is going to be a serious problem.
Image credit
Ian Britton
Sources
“Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development.” UN Development Program, 2009.
“Population Flows: Immigration Aspects 2005-
“The Economic Impact of Immigration.” Government of U.K., April 2008.
“Migration: An Economic and Social Analysis.” Stephen Glover et al, Government of U.K., 2001.
“Immigration.” Conference Board of Canada.
“Migrants Sent nearly £270 Billion to Home Countries in 2009.” Leah Hyslop, The Telegraph, December 6, 2010.
© Canada and the World, March 2011
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“In 2006, Canada welcomed 251,511 immigrants, most of them highly skilled, through its doors. Almost 70 percent of them landed in Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver, the urban engines of our economy (with Toronto alone accounting for 39 percent of the total).”
Conference Board of Canada
“The 2006 Census enumerated 6,186,950 foreign-
MONEY SENT HOME
When migrants from poor countries take jobs in rich countries some of the money they earn goes back home; quite a lot of money actually.
Here’s a December 2010 report from The Telegraph in the United Kingdom “A study from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says that $414 billion (around £265 billion) was sent by migrants back to their countries of origin in 2009.” Slightly more than three quarters of this money was sent to developing countries.
This total dwarfs the Official Development Aid (ODA) that is given by rich countries to developing countries. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ODA hit a record high of $133.9 billion in 2008.
But, the remittances are a mixed blessing.
The Telegraph quotes OECD economist David Khoudar as saying huge inflows of money from people working outside their home country can create a culture of dependency. Tajikistan in Central Asia, for example, relies on remittances for an astonishing 49.6 percent of its Gross Domestic Product. Khoudar says this level of dependence can discourage countries “from making reforms which would improve their economies.”