Even liberal Canada realises mass immigration has failed

When even open-borders torchbearer Justin Trudeau admits that Canada has a problem, it’s time to admit that mass immigration has been a mistake, says James Price

We all know that America’s southern border has been a hugely important topic in the recent US election, especially with Trump signalling that he intends to declare a national emergency and use the US military to seal it off. But north of the border, another seismic development has occurred in the West’s mad, and now perhaps fleeting, obsession with open borders.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the standard bearer for open-door liberalism, has finally realised the error of his ways. He has admitted that his government made mistakes in just how loose they were with immigration post-Covid and announced a two-year cut to the numbers allowed into Canada. 

Trudeau obviously dodges the idea that this could be in any way about cultural or social changes, instead arguing that the pause will give the economy and communities the chance to “catch up”.

Still, that even Trudeau has acknowledged a problem is progress. Infamously, it was he who claimed back in 2015 that Canada was “the first post-national state”, adding that there was “no core identity, no mainstream” in Canada. There is more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents, and all that.

Aaron Wudrick, Director of Policy to Canadian Conservative leader of the Opposition Pierre Poilievre, was enormously prescient, predicting this move back in January. “What was once a fairly organic process that allowed for integration over years, if not generations, has been supplanted by activist government policy that preaches an official doctrine of big-M Multiculturalism, which fetishises and subsidises cultural differences while simultaneously erasing and downplaying Canadian history,” he said. 

Moratorium

Wudrick could just as easily be talking about the cultural problems with Britain’s recent immigration spike. These sorts of factors have to be considered, and given Britain and the West more broadly are so bad at talking about identity and culture, moratoriums are welcome to allow us all to get our heads around what is happening.

But City AM readers will be mindful of the economic impacts as well. No one can say that Britain hasn’t tested to destruction the mass immigration hypothesis. Attempting to juice GDP figures with so-called “human quantitative easing” – that is, huge numbers of low-skilled immigrants receiving low wages in low productivity work – has, however, failed to induce the kind of economic boom some had promised. 

No one can say that Britain hasn’t tested to destruction the mass immigration hypothesis

The decrease in GDP per capita, and the enormous sense of economic malaise, have led even Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to at least pay lip service to the idea that overall immigration numbers are too high.

But doing something about it is a whole other story. Whether it’s organising Trump-style mass deportations, inducing industry to invest in productivity-enhancing equipment rather than relying on underpaid foreign labour, or cutting through the thicket of Judicial Reviews and the mutant ECHR rulings that keep foreign criminals in Britain, serious reforms would require backbone.

That’s why the state often ignores these things, and pivots instead to being seen to be tough on softer, easier targets. Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe recently remarked on just such an instance: “Any Brit who has tried to bring their foreign spouse into the country will know how challenging that process is – the Home Office treats these people like criminals. It’s expensive, stressful and actually incredibly disrespectful. I can only imagine how frustrating it is to see that same organisation welcoming thousands and thousands of unchecked foreign young men illegally entering the country via small boat. Australians, Americans, Canadians – all treated like dirt, for simply wanting to join their spouse in Britain.” 

Full disclosure, my fiancée is American and I sympathise entirely with Mr Lowe’s point. Think of all the other romances that are blighted or never begun because we fail to grip immigration elsewhere!

But love makes optimists of the best of us, and if even St Justin of Trudeau can realise he’s messed up, there’s hope after all. 

James Price is a government advisor