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Every Canadian generation seems destined to face the same excruciating decision: Should we search the world for workers or for citizens?
Since the 1960s, the standard answer has been that Canada’s immigration policy is about choosing citizens. People from around the world compete for 260,000 spots annually and are chosen through a points scheme that ranks their abilities to fit into the Canadian way of life. After three years of on-the-job training, they can become citizens.
In the process, it is hoped the newcomers will help fill holes in the job market. But, over time, it is expected their real job would be to become traditional Canadians: to shop, vote, pay taxes, respect the law and, through their participation in Canadian life, become just like other citizens. Job No. 1 is to be a good citizen.
CECIL FOSTER
From Thursday’s Globe and Mail
June 19, 2008 at 7:58 AM EDT

Oh yes, they would also look for traditional jobs — otherwise, how would they do all those things expected of them? But some might become self-employed. Or artists and other producers of what is generally called Canadian culture — the forms associated with the leisure classes and that we see in the production of books, the theatre, cinema, paintings, music and the like.
As citizens, the biggest gift of the newcomers to Canada is to reproduce themselves, helping to supply the country with the next generation of citizens. This job, incidentally, is going largely vacant in Canada.
The wisdom of the existing policy is often questioned. Such is the case now as we hear of another push in some quarters for a wider guest-worker program. There is also government fiddling with the mechanism that regulates the flow of foreigners into Canada.
For at least two generations, Canada has been importing temporary workers from the Caribbean and Mexico to fill jobs most Canadians will not take. This is the case in the agricultural sector, particularly in Ontario and Nova Scotia. The migrant workers “visit” Canada and, at the end of their working season (technically, when no longer needed), they simply disappear from the Canadian scene. There is talk of extending such programs to other sectors, and to Alberta and elsewhere with an abundance of low-skilled jobs.
Although deemed ideal for agriculture or work that is difficult, dangerous and dirty, these workers are not considered good enough to be landed immigrants – i.e., citizens in training. Canada’s immigration policy is not aimed at these workers. Instead, the approach is focused on what is called the brightest and the best, those already in the middle and upper classes in their homelands and who are deemed to be the best material from which to make future Canadians. Ironically, as if trying to put proverbial square pegs into round holes, we de-skill the brightest and the best so they end up in low-skilled jobs and as unhappy Canadians.
The question is not whether Canada should turn to Mexico and elsewhere for temporary workers. Why mere workers? Why not just citizens who work at any job?
Canada’s position has been that, if anyone is good enough to build the country, he or she should be good enough to own a share of the country – to be a citizen. This policy is still morally sound. After all, what is a country but a place where the people that belong work and play together in the hopes of producing a happier life for themselves and their children?
The questions we face do not call for fundamentally different answers from those given previously. Instead of bringing in more disposable “guest” workers, let’s amend our immigration and citizenship policies to attract the right kinds of citizens. We would still choose from among the brightest and the best, and the best would be those most suited for the jobs of keeping Canada working.
This would mean sticking with a moral argument that is as old as the West: Good citizens are good workers; good workers should be full citizens. This is still a good moral foundation for citizenship and working in Canada.
Cecil Foster is a professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Guelph
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