Better immigration selection should be priority

A recent finding that among Canadians, about fifty percent are functionally illiterate has been a cause of great embarrassment for the entire country. It is said that though these people can read, they are unable to figure out the meaning of what they read. But are the Canadians the only ones to be blamed? The fact is that illiteracy rate of the country is getting higher due to intake of wrong immigrants into the country.

Official numbers were revealed by a Canadian newspaper last year, which suggested that the country has been opening doors for wrong immigrants. Let’s get it straight- of all the immigrants in Canada, as little as 23 percent fell into the category of ‘net tax contributors’, and the rest were just ‘burden’, the paper stated.

It has always been assumed that immigration is an immediate and effective solution to our problems- like filling jobs ‘not suited’ to Canadians, establishing a future tax base to take care of the ever-increasing government programs of Canada. But if this really is the thinking behind attracting immigrants, then why do we intake people who do nothing of this sort, and instead add to the cost and prove to be a burden.

Of the 250,000 immigrants that Canada intakes every year, almost half come here on family reunification scheme. This has ensured that numbers of elderly and sick people in our country is always on rise, and this is the primary reason why Canadians stand in line for months or even years for important medical procedures.