Immigration agreement won't reverse negative trends. New spending won't address "the cultural framework of failure" - Toronto Star columnist

Yesterday I blogged about a new immigration agreement between Ottawa and Ontario that will see the province receive $920 million dollars over the next five years for programs that will supposedly "help more newcomers reach their full potential." In today's Toronto Star James Travers writes that this new spending will do little to solve the problems created by current government policies. Last week Travers wrote a scathing column that used information from the government's own reports to debunk immigration minister Joe Volpe's baseless claim that immigrants are making so much of a contribution to the economy that Canada should accept 100,000 more a year.

Travers writes today (Immigrants benefit from election phony war, November 22, 2005):

Sure, it's a Martha Stewart good thing that Ottawa will give Ontario added help settling the more than 50 per cent of all new arrivals — 125,000 last year — drawn to the province.

And it's an even better thing that Ottawa finally recognizes the umbilical connection between life skills, notably language, and success.

But the financial help is too little and the cognitive breakthrough is sadly late.

Even after five years, Ontario will pocket less than Quebec gets now to accommodate arguably less problematic immigrants.

[. . .]

Instead of catching up to other Canadians in five years, as Volpe claims, immigrants lag economically for a decade and, in the worst cases, forever.

Social stability is also elusive, raising the possibility that where migrants come from may have as much to do with their successful settlement as their ability.

Obtained by The Star, that research makes it painfully obvious that policy designers concerned with solving problems, not winning elections, have more questions than answers.

They need to better understand the relationship between often self-assessed language competence and the ability to effectively communicate.

They need to know why, as independent studies reveal, immigrant illiteracy rates don't budge over five years. And they need to deconstruct the cultural framework of failure.

Immigrant illiteracy rates? I thought Canada was getting the best and the brightest. That's what the government and the pro-immigration lobby keep telling us.