Notes

These distributional consequences in the public treasury, labor and goods markets have substantial implications for the political acceptance of immigrants in Canada. Circa 2000, less than one-third of Canada’s population supports an active immigrant program. The support is the lowest in Vancouver. I argue that the distributional consequences of immigration, as outlined above, account for this antipathy or apathy toward Canada’s immigrant program. For most Canadians, the 4.8 million post-1967 immigrant arrivals have had a minor economic impact on their households. However, in certain cities and sectors, the impact has been substantial in the form of job competition, higher housing prices and retail activity diverted to immigrant enclaves. This has produced economic losses for some neighborhoods or niches in the economy and resulted in antipathy towards immigrants. The benefits when substantial, such as in the treasury, are either unknown or diffused over a wide population with small, positive impacts and lead to little support for immigration. Thus, in the final analysis, the negative consequences are concentrated and produce vociferous critics to immigration, while the benefits are widely diffused with few supporters amongst this winning constituency.