I have come across the recent Fraser report which was picked up in the National Post.
The Fraser report is 62 pages long and concludes that immigrants cost us $23 billon a year. Their solution: Canadian women should have more babies and maybe if we don't let any garbage collectors into the country, we will come up with market solutions and technological advances to replace all low skilled positions. They also have policy recommendations which seem to highlight their lack of knowledge about our current immigration system involving TFWs.
I find it hard to contain myself at reading the so called miscellaneous other benefits of immigration section at page 20 and particularly this paragraph:
Another benefit from immigration often mentioned is that it enriches the cultural life of Canadians. The value of this feel-good benefit also is impossible to measure but it is legitimate to note that Canadians already enjoy an abundance of ethnic restaurants and festivals and that further increases are likely to bring relatively smaller additional benefits.
It is shocking that there is no understanding of matters "Beyond the Bottom Line" or an idea of how to look at the greater socio-political, human rights, and Charter issues at play (not to mention the importance of Canadian values, family, history, art and culture). Our identity involves so much more than factual "costs" of immigration. To reduce the cultural benefits of immigration to a statement that we already have enough ethnic restaurants and festivals is not only absurd but also so short-sighted and dismissive and stereotyped that I hardly know where to begin.
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