Immigrants are now our lifeblood
They fill the void as population grows slowly


ROYSON JAMES

Thank God for immigrants.

Without the influx of these newcomers, Canada would be just another developed nation — scrambling for citizens.

As it stands, according to new census figures released yesterday, the nation has grown by 4 per cent since 1996 — a particularly slow rate.

Canada's average age is getting older and couples are having fewer babies. That leaves immigration as the main source to fill the void.

Since 1996, Canada's population grew by 1,160,333, the first time in a century we grew more slowly than the United States.

We now number 30 million people — a tiny populace in a vast country — about as many Canadians as there are African Americans.

It could be worse. We could be France or Germany or Britain.

According to Statistics Canada, these countries are experiencing a population crash, averaging growth of 1.5 per cent. Some countries, including Russia, Japan and Germany, are having or soon will have real population declines. That would be Canada's fate if we weren't a popular destination for international migration.

As countries start competing for immigrants, a phenomenon already beginning, Canada's history of openness and its reputation as a friendly, welcoming nation may be our salvation.

Economists and urban planners are depending on population growth to keep the economy humming.

Without using a lot of theoretical jargon to buttress this argument, common sense tells you Canada needs consumers to buy all those cars, houses, furniture, GICs. We need a skilled labour pool for research and development and to manufacture the products.

We crave the elite, mobile IT workers that are a prerequisite to competitiveness in a global economy.

And, seeing that the sexual revolution has done nothing to help the birth rate and baby boomers can't reverse the aging process, Canada must turn to immigration.


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`An almost exclusively white population of European extraction has been transformed to one of the most diverse in the world'
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Toronto, of all cities in the country, has known this truth for many a decade.

In case anyone doubted it, the new amalgamated city chose as its motto, Diversity Our Strength.

The people of Toronto come from 169 countries.

There are close to 500 ethnic groups with more than 5,000 people here.

In a single generation, from the time my parents came in the mid-1960s to now, an almost exclusively white population of European extraction, mainly British, has been transformed to one of the most diverse in the world.

In 1998, the top 10 countries of origin for newcomers to Toronto were, in order: China, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Iran, South Korea, the United States and Russia.

With immigration, contrary to the laws of physics, like attracts.

We can expect more of the same, and that's good, especially when they come more highly educated, on average, than the resident population.

The new census figures provide only a hint of this, with more details to follow when the actual ethnic makeup of the population is released in subsequent census data.

Of the 1.16 million people added to the country's population over five years, immigrants make up the largest percentage, the first time this has happened since the Second World War.

Ontario accounted for 57 per cent of the country's growth, with a net increase of 656,000 people.

Of this, 445,000 were immigrants.

These immigrants continue to fuel the growth and economy of Toronto, Greater Toronto, the Golden Horseshoe, stretching from Oshawa to Niagara and up to Guelph and Barrie, the province and the country.

Growth across the 905 region registered at 17 per cent, four times the national average, four times that of the city of Toronto proper.


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`If you don't like the origins of these newcomers, you'll love their money and their buying power and the indispensable labour pool they provide'
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Statistics Canada raised the caution of the doughnut effect — the common outcome where families settle in the suburbs of a major city, rather than in the core, creating a hole in the middle of the region.

That's hardly the case here. Although Vaughan grew 37 per cent over five years to 182,000 people, Toronto added twice as many people to its population.

Markham's population jumped 20 per cent.

Still, that town's expanded population is only twice the number of newcomers who settled in Toronto in the last five years.

The population in Toronto grew nearly 100,000 over the past five years to 2.48 million — a healthy growth for a mature, built-up city (projections were for 5 per cent growth).

But with urban sprawl galloping along in the 905 region (2.6 million), planners and politicians may be considering ways to entice even more people to settle in the core, where services such as transit and schools are already built.

The trend of moving to the hinterlands is an expensive one for municipalities, and ultimately a threat to the quality of life.

Regardless of whether the newcomers live in Barrie or downtown Toronto, something is attracting them to this region.

As long as Toronto and its municipal neighbours remain welcoming to newcomers, they will continue to come here.

Once here, where exactly they choose to live will depend on where they find affordable housing and jobs and where the quality of life is better than where they came from.

The old days of arguing the merits of immigration are long gone.

Immigrants are now considered our country's — our city's — lifeblood. And if you don't like the origins of these newcomers, you'll love their money and their buying power and the indispensable labour pool they provide.

The sooner Toronto integrates its newcomers fully into all facets of city life, creates an environment where they fill jobs commensurate with their now underused abilities, the sooner we'll soar as the great international city that our makeup promises.


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A Proud Indian Canadian