They (don't) come from a far away land

American right influences Canadian immigration policy

By Andrew Button

In recent years, business, political, and academic leaders in St. John's have become increasingly aware of the need to attract skilled immigrants to the city in order to sustain Newfoundland's provincial economy. As Newfoundland's economy has shifted away from a largely rural-based fish economy and toward a largely St. John's-based oil economy, the city has seen a dramatic increase in demand for service sector jobs that have proven difficult to fill and keep filled. This trend has been particularly visible in the local retail and medical sectors, the latter being an industry in which 46 per cent of the professional workforce is foreign-born.

But as widespread as the pro-immigration sentiment is among the people of St. John's, the progress toward a much needed increase in immigration and skilled workers has not exactly been moving ahead at a steady clip. While Newfoundland contains 1.6 per cent of Canada's population, it only takes in 0.2 per cent of its immigrants, and the bulk of immigration to St. John's has been from rural Newfoundland rather than from foreign countries. This is an alarming situation not only because of the difficulty certain industries have been having keeping their operations staffed with qualified people, but also because the province's population is declining, with below replacement level birthrates among the non-immigrant population.

Unique needs

With the launch of the city's “Strategic Economic Roadmap”, a 10-year development plan, immigration has become a key component of St. John's' strategy for economic development. Debbie Hanlon, a local businesswoman and city councillor, chairs the voluntary advisory committee responsible for developing the Roadmap.

According to Hanlon, St. John's must attract and keep immigrants in order to secure a prosperous future. “For the city to grow and be a viable community, it needs to attract immigrants,” says Hanlon, “so we're focusing not only on attracting immigrants, but also getting them to stay here.”

As many municipalities in Canada have learned, however, attracting immigrants and retaining immigrants are often two very different projects. While many immigrants come to St. John's as international students at Memorial University, it is not clear how many of the immigrants who arrive to study will ultimately stay in the province. According to Hanlon, offering a welcoming environment is one of the keys to attracting immigrants.

“Newfoundlanders traditionally look after their own, but we're also famous for being a friendly and welcoming people,” said Hanlon. For examples of this, Hanlon refers to a survey obtained by the city, which cites several examples of how hospitality can be used to retain immigrants.

“Newfoundlanders have a way of making you feel at home. One of the things that made [the immigrants surveyed] very comfortable was that they were picked up at the airport... and also the fact that at Memorial University they have a mentoring program where they pair you up as an immigrant with someone at the University who helps you get familiar with the university and the city.”

While Hanlon acknowledges that the economic future of St. John's depends on much more than just immigration, she remains optimistic that the dual strategy of ensuring job security and encouraging hospitality will reap dividends from the city in the future.

“The 10-year plan takes in people and tourism and the investment industry as well,” she says, “but we realize that [immigration] is one of the main issues that can help the city grow. The question is how do we attract immigrants and how do we get them to stay... and the answer is, job security.”

Canada tightening its borders

Immigration policy may prove to be yet another area in which officials from Newfoundland and national officials cannot see eye to eye. Canadian immigration policy is an exclusively federal area of jurisdiction. While a reduction or freeze on immigration quotas would not likely hurt growing provinces like Ontario and Alberta, it could be crippling for Newfoundland, which attracts proportionately little interest from immigrants and suffers from an aging population.

According to Jose Rivera, head of the Refugee Immigrant Advisory Council (RIAC), the dearth of refugees and immigrants to Newfoundland has more to do with the current regulatory environment than popular sentiment. “[The Canadian government is] trying to tighten the borders” said Rivera. “For example, one new regulation, the safe third country agreement, keeps refugee claimants from coming to the country through the United States... Because of the new regulation, we've been seeing less and less refugee claimants coming [to RIAC].”

The Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement, which stipulates that refugee claimants must request refugee protection in the first safe country they arrive in, is part of a growing body of stringent immigration law that Rivera says Canada is adopting primarily due to pressure from America.

“After 9-11, the United States was trying to tighten the borders between the United States and Canada, and in 2005 they got on to this idea of a Safe Third Country Agreement, based on the European model.”

Changes in the States

On the topic of American policy and its effects on the rest of the world, Rivera does not mince words.

“Particularly in the last five years, the ultra right wing and ultra conservative political parties have been pressing for more stringent immigration laws,” said Rivera, speaking of an example from Maricopa County, Arizona. “Police officers are being trained and used as immigration officers... they'll get a report from someone who doesn't like the way a guy looks and arrest that guy on sketchy reasons.” He notes that this has resulted in the deportation of nearly 30,000 immigrants.

The Arizona Bill, which stipulates that police officers can arrest people simply if they are suspected of being illegal immigrants, is seen by many as an attempt to curtail America's growing Mexican population. While the Arizona bill was the first of its kind, the trend of increasing political pressure by ultra right wing elements to curtail immigration has been a staple of American life since at least the 1990s. The claim that this pressure is racially motivated has been a common theme in liberal criticism of the anti-Immigration advocates that are popular amongst the Tea Parties and other radical right wing organizations in the United States.

Certainly, throughout its history, Canadian immigration policy has not been without overtones of racial discrimination. However, Rivera says, the increasing tightness of Canadian immigration laws in the present day is at least partially attributable to pressure from the right wing elements influencing United States policy, the most obvious example being the ruling coalition of neoconservatives and Christian evangelicals.

“Their real problem is the fact that they don't want to see brown people in their country,” says Rivera, adding that “the trend amongst right wing politics in the States has been toward hatred, from racism to antisemitism to sexism and everything. We don't see this kind of thing so much in Canada, but the right wing elements in the states lead to diplomatic pressure which creates a system in Canada that results in unintended hardship for immigrants.”

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