At a time when many developed countries are reacting against immigration, Canada sees widespread support for opening its doors to new residents from abroad.

Despite the record number of immigrants admitted to Canada in the past two years, all three major political parties support the policy and their disagreements only point to bureaucratic obstacles that are holding immigration back.

Likewise, the complaints that appear in the media relate mainly to the difficulty of emigrating.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser boasted at a news conference last month that Canada “is on track to exceed its immigration target of granting permanent residency to more than 430 000 people by 2022”. The figure will far exceed 401,000 immigrants in 2021, more than in any previous year.

By comparison, the United States, with a population nine times that of Canada, admitted only 245,000 immigrants in 2021, compared to 477,000 in 2020. In the years before the Trump administration, immigration in the United States was around a million people a year.

In Germany and the United Kingdom, which have seen immigration flows more comparable to Canada’s in recent years, the pace of new arrivals in each country has sparked popular backlash, leading to the rise of influential anti-immigrant parties in Germany and contributing to the Brexit vote. United Kingdom.

But in Canada, opposition to immigration seems to be waning despite the increase in the number of immigrants. According to a poll, the percentage of Canadians who think immigration levels are too high has dropped since 2018, from 49% to 39%.

All three major political parties strongly support immigration, no doubt aware of the large number of voters who are also immigrants. Between 21.5% of the 33 million residents in Canada are first generation immigrants and 17.4% are second generation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ruling Liberal Party, with strong support from the New Democratic Social Democratic Party, has placed immigration at the top of its economic agenda, with a view to tackling weak demand for jobs after the pandemic.

“Newcomers enrich and improve our communities and work every day to create jobs, care for loved ones and support local businesses,” Fraser said a few months ago.

He added that “without them, Canada would not have been able to meet the challenges in critical industries and sectors of the economy over the past two years.”

Nor is there disagreement on this point from the opposition Progressive Conservative Party, which opposes Trudeau’s other policies.

“The Conservative Party of Canada is a pro-immigration party and Canada benefits from an efficient and effective immigration system,” he told the voice of america Jasraj Singh Hallan, his spokesman in parliament for immigration matters. “We must continue to attract and retain skilled newcomers to Canada.”

However, Hallan criticized Trudeau’s Liberals, whom he blames for “the backlog and mismanagement of the immigration system that has left too many people who want to come to Canada in limbo and insecurity.”

Harald Bauder, an immigration expert at Metropolitan University of Toronto, wants all newcomers to understand that Canada is “a country of settlers” and that the only Canadians who are not of immigrant background are members of Indigenous nations.

“Canada’s indigenous population suffered displacement, land grabs and genocide at the hands of settlers,” Bauder told the VOA.

“An immigrant also becomes a settler, and with this role they also have a responsibility to integrate, to learn about indigenous peoples and their history, and to engage in decolonization,” he added. .

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