Higher immigration to benefit Canada, study finds

The report of the study, which was conducted by the Conference Board of Canada, released on Monday, has been quoted by the Star:"Our forecast suggests that the status quo would be best for improving real gross domestic product per capita, but would have the smallest impact on alleviating Canada’s economic and fiscal pressures."

"Immigration has a small effect on domestic workers. As such, it does not appear likely that higher levels would have an adverse impact on wages and employment rates in Canada,” it added.

The study has tried to find out the result, keeping the present immigration number of 0.82% constant and then increasing it to 1% and 1.11% of the total population.

The study has been conducted to find out the impact on certain domains, keeping the composition of the immigration fixed like 60% economic class, 28% family class and 12% refugees.

In the present scenario, the study found out, the GDP growth would rise at an average 1.85% between 2017 and 2040.

If the immigration levels were increased to 1% and 1.11% of the total population, the GDP growth would rise by 1.94% and 2.05% respectively.

The present population growth in the country, which is 114,000 roughly, will certainly drop to zero by 2033 as the death rate will surpass the birth rate.

"We forecast that immigration will begin to account for all of Canada’s population growth by 2033, assuming that the annual immigration rate remains around 0.82 per cent of the population" the report was quoted by the Star.

Under the present status, the senior people will comprise 24% of the total population and the workers-to-retirees ratio will fall from present 3.64 to 2.37 by 2040.

The report said: "The medium and high scenarios … reduce the proportion of the population that is 65 and over, reduce health-care costs as a share of provincial revenues and slightly improve the workers-per-retirees ratio in comparison to the status quo."

"There could be negative economic and fiscal consequences, especially if immigration levels increase and Canada does not effectively address the labour market challenges that immigrants commonly face,” the report was quoted by the Star.

"With Canada becoming more reliant on immigrants to meet its labour market needs, the success of its immigration system will greatly depend on its ability to improve the labour market outcomes of immigrants, expand its absorptive capacity and maintain public support for immigration,” it added.

(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)