Impact of Canadian Immigration Policies on National Identity

Canada has an extensive and rich experience in regards to immigration policies and immigrants and it’s deeply embedded in its sense of nationhood. The immigration policy of Canada is one which is very explicit in part due to it being the government’s population policy. Immigration policies are tailored so as to control the growth of the nation. Since the era of Confederation, the immigration policy has been customized to allow for growth of the population, provide financial capital and labor for the economy and lastly to settle the land. The immigration policies of Canada has a long time acted to reflect the Canadian attitudes as well as the security concerns of the nation.

Canadian immigration policies require immigrants migrating to the country to have a high proficiency on at least one official language which is used in Canada. This means that the language spoken by immigrants has a big impact on determining whether they will be allowed or not to enter into the nation (Al-Haque and Marianne Larsen 11). The language effect on the immigrants is emphasized upon since the nation mostly requires economic immigrants who have identifications and are able to communicate fluently so as to be able to transition efficiently in the Canadian culture. The language effect is considered as a key element since facilitation of economic activities as well as the cultural and social participation in the Canadian ways of life will only be achieved by using a language which is instrumental in uniting Canadians and immigrants together.

It has been observed that Canada has over the last century had a less stellar record in matters of immigration policy. This is due because of having excluded or rejected Blacks, Jews, Chinese and Indians in various times. Currently, the country no longer practices these policies and so, the new image projected by Canada is one whereby all immigrants are not discriminated based on their skin color or culture or even religion. The government does however reject immigrants who are from certain occupations and there is a prerequisite of the immigrants having a certain prerequisite in terms of their language proficiency (Nelson et al 7.). This in turn leads to having immigrants from certain parts of the world being only able to be accepted in Canada.

In order to target a certain class of immigrants only, Canada in 1967 introduced the points system. This system targeted only potential immigrants who had characteristics which did coincide with the growing interests and needs of the nation. The points system had a number of programs which immigrants had to pass in order to fulfill immigration policies. The federal policy program is one of the points system used in this determination. This program is responsible for having a total of 81% of all the economic immigrants” admissions and 46% of the total admissions which are conducted. Skilled workers are required to have at least work experience of one year in a skilled, professional or managerial occupation so as to qualify for this program. They are further evaluated by the points system in regards to their age, adaptability French or English proficiency and education level (Snooks 3).