Introduction
Foreign policies have merits and demerits in the society. When coming up with an immigration policy, it is important to weigh the benefits that immigrants will bring to a nation and the gains the immigrants will equally get in the foreign country. According to Demographic Reports of 2012 in relation to Canada, the country had a low immigrant population. This affected its economic progress in the recent past. Global economies largely depend on diverse labor force from different parts of the world (Wiginton, 2014).
The Canadian Contemporary Policy of Immigration equally measures the significance of cross-region immigration. It means that people can immigrate into Canada from different countries, and Canadians can welcome regional immigrants. Domestic, regional, and international immigration have the ability to propel both economic and political growth in Canada. Since the Boston Tea Party among other activities in the US that geared towards ending the British colonialism, Canada separated its activities from the mainland. Its activities only aimed at restoring peace and improving the economy internally without much focus on the significance of external forces in improving economic growth. Canada has a high rate of underemployment because it attracts few immigrants to occupy the created job opportunities in the country. The essay seeks to address the contemporary immigration policy, and, in the process, presents its strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths
Economic Empowerment
Canadian contemporary immigration policies aim at expanding markets, increasing immigration rates, and increasing resource acquisition across the regions. The US and Canada share close historical accounts even though US embraced immigration earlier as opposed to its counterpart. It helped the US to acquire requisite labor force to fill in the industrially developing country whose pace of economic growth was very fast. Before Canada developed the contemporary policy, its greatest scare was to open its boundaries to terrorists, human traffickers, and drug smugglers. Its experience with British colonizers made it very difficult to trust any foreigners. Equally, this had an impact on its international relations.
Following such historical encounters, Canada needs immigration more than the US. Sometimes, countries have to acquire human resources from other countries in order to create a blend and unique work experience. Currently, Canada is in the process of a major political and economic transformation, meaning that it requires investors and needs to explore different parts of the world through its multinational organizations (Hampson, Hillmer, & Carment, 2004). Many people know Montreal and Ontario, but few would actually link the states with Canada. Multinationals provide jobs to many people across the world while publicizing countries to the rest of the world. Canada’s immigration policy aims at building trust with foreign countries in order to increase investment opportunities. Besides outsourcing and creating an enabling environment for the growth of MNCs, Canada’s new immigration policy aims at creating excellent political relations with the rest of the world in order to propel political growth.
Diversity creation
The past decade indicated an increase in the number of immigrants in Canada following the incorporation of contemporary immigration principles. Canadians needed an environment of multiculturalism like the US in order to learn and share political opinions. The rise of the US popular culture resulted from the country’s ability to embrace a multicultural approach to immigration. Human interactions across the globe often expose people to new management styles and cultures. Canada’s new immigration policy recognizes that successful integration with the rest of the world creates a global culture that is effective for foreign relations. Regional immigration within North America is important since the Native Americans have the opportunity to integrate their rich traditional culture with contemporary ways of life embraced by other Americans.
Canadians needed an environment in which they could identify with a particular culture that uniquely stands out from the rest of the world. The popular culture of the US gives the society a communal identity, which Canada seeks to achieve through the Contemporary Immigration Policy (Passaris, 2012). The economy could face bouts in future if it fails to recognize cultural diversity as the key to development of hybrid human resource management strategies. Concerns include a possible increase of the aging population in the provinces, and a decrease in the working population. Underemployment and an increase in the baby boomer generation in the society could equally have a negative impact on the society. Currently, the immigration policy is in support of Canadians who welcome young workforce into the country because they are capable of sharing different management ideas and culture that could place Canada strategically in the world (Wiginton, 2014).
Limited cases of illegal immigration
Immigrants fear living in countries that they have no surety for security even though they contribute towards economic development through taxation. In 2010, President Barack Obama sought to pardon illegal immigrants in the US, making them capable of enjoying the inalienable basic human rights. Western Canada has many employment opportunities to offer to credible immigrants. In addition, the country has secure borders unlike the US’s Texas, Mexico, Honduras, and Miami boundaries that provide leeway for entry of illegal immigrants. Immigration policies ensure high levels of austerity in order to avoid illegal entrants from entering Canada. Through such successive immigration plans, Canada seeks to invest in an innovative population, which provides solutions to problems without inviting other countries (Simmons, 2010).
Challenges
Ideological disparity
Immigrants come from countries that have completely different socio-political landscapes. They are likely to transfer similar ideologies into the foreign lands. Immigrants from radical and dictatorial socio-political backgrounds might try to overturn the democratic Canadian Government. Canadians believe in the rule of law and popular decision-making procedures. Extremist groups including the Al Qaeda normally find loopholes in such governments in order to disrupt normalcy. The conflict in ideology and cultural representation affects the US, and Canada is careful not to follow a similar path. As it is, the Canadian and US cultural landscape is similar because both of them host Native Americans and foreign Britons (Passaris, 2012).
Canada is likely to face a similar fate as the US concerning the countries continued battle with terrorism. Both the US and Canada share democratic diplomatic relations by supporting refugee programs, and sharing mixed opinions in relation to treatment of illegal immigrants. Canada also seeks to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants, but the country does not want to take any chances with the pardoning process. Political or communal intolerance normally emerges from inability to provide sufficient socio-cultural space or amenities to immigrants (Joppke & Seidle, 2012). Canada places itself at the risk of facing intolerance from the immigrant population that will establish generations in the country.
Outsourcing
Immigrants offer skilled and cheap labor to the contracting countries. Most of them seek a stable life in comparison to what their countries of origin had to offer. As such, immigrants offer cheap labor while denying the Canadian residents the ability to work in various industries within the country. Outsourcing is a common employment criterion of developed countries since most of them employ skilled human resources, and offer limited wages to the workers. Canada suffers high underemployment rates, but the situation is not permanent especially with the inclusion of immigrants in various job positions. The employees will offer the requisite diversity needed for economic growth, but they will replace most Canadians from their jobs (Passaris, 2012).
From underemployment, Canada will suffer unemployment when the country fails to account for the number of immigrants entering the country. Entrepreneurship and capital investments could benefit the country, but poor or uncontrollable procurement procedures in other countries lead to insurgencies. Matters of racial and ethnic equalities in political representation will arise; it will be very difficult for the Canadian government to handle such concerns. In addition, Canada has to deal with illegal immigration at its infancy before it culminates into an uncontrollable movement that affects the entire region, and not Canada alone. Canada will have to expand its housing and transport infrastructure in order to accommodate the immigrant population that grows very fast (Wiginton, 2014).
Conclusion
Canada stands a chance to benefit when it welcomes immigrants. According to the Contemporary Immigration Policy, the socio-political environment of Canada will improve while Canadians will have an opportunity to grow their economy. Contrarily, the country faces the challenge of providing enough houses, social amenities, and the right socio-cultural environment for immigrants.
References
Hampson, F. O., Hillmer, N., & Carment, D. (2004). Setting priorities straight. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Joppke, C., & Seidle, F. L. (2012). Immigrant integration in federal countries. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Passaris, C. E. (2012). New Brunswick’s Perfect Demographic Storm. Journal of New Brunswick Studies, 3(1), 1-13. Web.
Simmons, A. (2010). Immigration and Canada: Global and transnational perspectives. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Wiginton, L. (2014). Canada’s decentralised immigration policy through a local lens: How small communities are attracting and welcoming immigrants. Brandon, Manitoba: Brandon University Press.