Canadian think tank says immigrants "huge drain" on economy

Canada's QMI Agency reports a study by that country's conservative Fraser Institute, which says that recent immigrants are a huge drain on the country's economy. Immigrants who arrived in Canada between 1987 and 2004 received about $6,000 more in government services per per person in 2005 than they paid in taxes. The cost to Canadian taxpayers? Between $16 and $23 billion a year!

Before 1987, in the days when immigrants were... errr... lighter, immigrants made more money, so paid more in taxes than those who have arrived in this quarter-century. So say the report's authors, Herbert Grubel and Patrick Grady, explaining their analysis of data from Statistics Canada.

"As a result of Canada's welfare-state policies, social programs and progressive income tax system, these [newer] immigrants impose a huge fiscal burden on Canadian taxpayers," said Grubel.

But doesn't Canada need immigrants to take up all those jobs that native-born Canadians can't or won't do? Not according to Messrs Grubel and Grady. And, they add, children of new Canadians, even if they are working, are not likely to be able to earn enough to make up for the taxpayers' money their parents received.

The researchers conclude that in order to alleviate the fiscal strain on taxpayers, Canada’s immigration selection process should be reformed to emphasize a reliance on market forces to replace the existing, failed system of using points to select immigrants. In other words, let the market decide which types of workers and professionals are needed.