Review: Canada: Who Gets in
| Published date | 01 March 2003 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200305800112 |
| Date | 01 March 2003 |
| Author | Gerald Dirks |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
WHO
GETS
IN
What's
wrong with
Canada's
immigration
program
-
and
how
to
fix
it
Daniel
Stoffman
Toronto:
Macfarlane
Walter
&
Ross,
2002,
xi,
205pp,
$34.99,
ISBN1-
55199-095-4
The
author
of
this
well
written
book
is
a
veteran
journalist
who has
had
a
keen
interest
in
Canadian immigration
issues
for
more
than
a
decade.
As
Stoffman
acknowledges,
immigration
is
an
issue
in
Canadian
public
policy
that
has
risen
rapidly
on
the government's
agenda. In
fact,
immigration
has
become
both
more complex and
more
controversial,
particularly
since
the
terrorist
acts
of
11
September
2001
when migration
came
to
be
perceived
as
having
an
impact on
national
security.
Why
people
migrate
and why
so
many
choose
Canada
as
their
des-
tination
are
enormous
questions
that
Stoffman
realizes
he
cannot
fully
deal
with
in
his
comparatively
short
volume.
The
approach
he
has
adopted
is
one
of
criticism
of
Canada's
prevailing
immigration
and
refugee assistance
policies.
While
he
asserts
that
he
favours
immigra-
tion
to
Canada,
he
expresses
strong
misgivings
about
the
motives,
con-
tent,
and
direction
of
Canada's
programmes,
beginning
as
early
as
the
mid-1
980s when
the
Mulroney government
decided
to
raise
the
level
of
annual
entry to
Canada
significantly,
from
approximately 150,000
to
250,000
migrants.
To Stoffman's distress,
the
Liberal
government
has
continued
the
policy
of
high annual
levels
of
admission.
The
size
of
the annual
intake
of
immigrants
is
only
one
of
several
problems
Stoffman elaborates
upon
in
his,
at
times,
harsh
critique.
Space
constraints
here
prevent the
mention
of
more
than
one
or
two
of
these.
For
example,
he argues
that
the
large
proportion
of
newcomers
who
fall
into
the
family
class
rather
than
the
independent
class
results
in more
entrants
who
are
not
evaluated
under
the
point
system and
who,
therefore,
often
speak
neither
official
language,
have
no
skills
that
are
in
demand,
lower
the
overall
productivity
of
the
Canadian
work-
force,
and
frequently
become recipients
of
various
forms
of
welfare.
Furthermore,
Stoffman
believes
that
the current
programmes, includ-
ing
the
mechanisms
to
evaluate
the
legitimacy
of
refugee
claims,
are
lit-
tle
more
than
tools
for
Liberal
patronage.
The
composition
of
the
Immigration
and
Refugee
Board,
the
body
charged
with
the
responsi-
bility
for
screening
inland
refugee
claimants
and
hearing
immigration
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter2002-2003
215
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