Canada's Immigration System Gets The Thumbs Up From Donald Trump

06 Mar 2017

When it comes to immigration, Donald Trump is not a person to keep calm and carry on. He has raised many an eyebrow with harsh comments about immigration and his views and opinions just keep coming.

This time it was to heap praise on the immigration system of Canada. In a tweet on Friday, Trump was praising the merit system of both Canada and Australia. Their immigration systems are both based on merit and deemed beneficial for the country’s economic situation.

The tweet allegedly came after President Trump had watched an interview with Nick Adams, an author of a book entitled, Green Card Warrior. The book references failing multiculturalism and discusses the hot topic of immigrants arriving on US soil and using the benefits system.

The tweet followed comments to congress on Tuesday, where he highlighted an outdated immigration system in America, which he suggested had a detrimental effect on American people. He said that adopting an immigration model similar to what was already in place in America and Australia would have a benefit on employment, wages and even aid immigrant families to enter the middle class and “ Be very, very happy”.

The Canadian immigration system is almost statistically opposite US immigration, with 63% of those granted legal permanent residence in Canada, and admitted for economic skills and only 24% being admitted due to family connections. In the US, 63% of green cards are issued to immigrants with family connections and only 13% granted entry due to economic reasons.

Whilst Canada may have led the immigration system in the 1960s, many other countries followed, including Japan, Australia and Denmark. The idea was to reward foreigners with a valuable skills set and to take advantage of the skills they could bring to the country.

Immigration was based on a points system, with points awarded for languages, education levels, age or perhaps an existing job offer. However this system has now been updated due to high levels of immigrants with a PhD, making jobs in their specific fields hard to come by.

Whilst finer details may need to be firmed up, Trump is looking at the current Canadian immigration system for inspiration.

However some people have been quick to comment that a points system indirectly discriminates those immigrants who would potentially enter the US from Africa, Asia or Eastern Europe. There were also suggestions questioning whether the changes in immigration where hiding behind the pretence of eliminating illegal immigration, in an attempt to cut overall immigration levels  by up to 50%.

For more information about this, please fill out Free assessment form. One of our consultants will get back to you. For more updates follow us on Facebook , Twitter , Google