NY Times: Defying Trend, Canada Lures More Migrants

[marmar]

By JASON DePARLE
Published: November 12, 2010


WINNIPEG, Manitoba — As waves of immigrants from the developing world remade Canada a decade ago, the famously friendly people of Manitoba could not contain their pique.

What irked them was not the Babel of tongues, the billions spent on health care and social services, or the explosion of ethnic identities. The rub was the newcomers’ preference for “M.T.V.” — Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver — over the humble prairie province north of North Dakota, which coveted workers and population growth.

Demanding “our fair share,” Manitobans did something hard to imagine in American politics, where concern over illegal immigrants dominates public debate and states seek more power to keep them out. In Canada, which has little illegal immigration, Manitoba won new power to bring foreigners in, handpicking ethnic and occupational groups judged most likely to stay.

.....(snip).....

With one-ninth of the United States’ population, Canada is keener for growth, and the point system helps persuade the public it is getting the newcomers it needs. The children of immigrants typically do well. The economic downturn has been mild. Plus the absence of large-scale illegal immigration removes a dominant source of the conflict in the United States.

“The big difference between Canada and the U.S is that we don’t border Mexico,” said Naomi Alboim, a former immigration official who teaches at Queens University in Ontario.

French and English from the start, Canada also has a more accommodating political culture — one that accepts more pluribus and demands less unum. That American complaint — “Why do I have to press 1 for English?” — baffles a country with a minister of multiculturalism. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/world/americas/13immig.html?src=me&ref=general

[SidDithers]

1. K&R...nt

Sid

[Blue_Tires]

2. A few years back a friend of mine went to Alberta and said

there were more way more available jobs than workers....

[applegrove]

3. Alberta gets tons of workers when they hit oil boom times. Then when the boom goes

bust the workers move back to Ontario or Newfoundland. They are very lucky that way.