mmigration Costs Canada BILLIONS : Fraser Institute
Chris Doucette | QMI Agency
Toronto Sun | Tue, May 17, 2011 | 6:00:13 EDT AM
"Newcomers to the country generally make less money and chip in less in taxes than the national average."
And allowing 250,000 immigrants into the country annually is costing us all billions of dollars each and every year, according to a study by the Fraser Institute.
The study, dubbed Immigration and the Canadian Welfare State, sharply criticizes Canada's current immigration system, using earnings and other figures from the 2005-06 fiscal year reported by 844,476 people in the 2006 Census.
It claims the group as a whole earned on average about $10,000 more and paid about $2,500 more in income taxes annually than those within the sampling who had settled in Canada in the previous 18 years.
The study also found immigrants typically pay a little over $6,000 less in property and sales taxes than the national average.
That means the approximately 3.9 million immigrants who settled in Canada between 1987 and 2004 are shortchanging federal government coffers by between $16.3 billion and $23.6 billion annually, depending on how many of those newcomers have moved back home, emigrated elsewhere or died, the study said.
By comparison, the study points out that the loss would more than cover the $13 billion spent by the feds each year on the environment.
The study also dispelled some commonly held beliefs about newcomers.
The idea that the children of immigrants will repay tomorrow the money lost today on their parents can only come to pass if they earn above average salaries, the study said.
"This outcome is unlikely given that the offspring of immigrants in the past eventually take on all of the characteristics of the average Canadian," the study says.
The study also takes on the notion that immigrants are helping the country by taking menial jobs that most Canadians don't want.
"Immigrants do fill jobs that Canadians don't want and thus benefit the economy but, in the absence of immigration, these jobs would pay higher wages and would be filled by Canadians or eliminated by the application of labour-saving technology," the study states.
"Under these conditions, poverty in Canada would be reduced substantially."
As for changes, the study suggests annual immigration numbers should be increased or decreased, depending largely on "market forces."
The study also recommends Canada be more selective, allowing only newcomers who have employment lined up, offering them citizenship only if they hang onto their job for a set number of years and deporting those who lose their jobs.
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Courtsey Qorax
