The downside to Canada's relatively liberal immigration policies is the risk that people will exploit those policies for illegal reasons. While procedures obviously have to be tightened and laws should be vigorously enforced, Canada should continue its tradition of welcoming immigrants.
And immigrants will come. Our country's quality of life is such that people will do almost anything to come here, including cheating.
In 2008, federal auditor general Sheila Fraser revealed that the Canada Border Services Agency had lost track of 41,000 illegal immigrants, a situation that was "jeopardizing the integrity of the immigration program."
At the time, the CBSA had removal orders on 22,000 people whose whereabouts were known to the agency, but had no idea of the whereabouts of the other 41,000 with immigration removal orders against them.
Fraser's report was at least part of the impetus to strengthen Canada's immigration proceedings. Last week, Immigration Minister Jason Kennedy announced that the government is cracking down on those who have obtained or seek to obtain citizenship fraudulently. As the investigation grows, nearly 11,000 are potentially implicated in lying to obtain citizenship or permanent-resident status. The process has begun to revoke the citizenship of more than 3,000 people who obtained it fraudulently.
These figures should not lead to any sort of xenophobia, or to the conclusion that the ranks of immigrants are rife with fraudsters. To put things in perspective, consider that Canada welcomed more than 280,000 legal immigrants in 2010, the highest number in 50 years. The vast majority of those coming to this country did things right.
And it is not an easy process. Victoria immigration lawyer Robbie Sheffman says the immigration process is onerous.
"Even someone who is a spouse of a Canadian has to go through considerable effort to get permanent-resident status," Sheffman said. "It's a lot of paperwork, a lot of waiting, a lot of potential pitfalls." But he welcomes the government's heightened vigilance in ensuring people who apply to Canada follow the rules.
"I don't think it will have a negative impact on anyone who is legitimate," he says. "A lot of people try to abuse the system - this sends a loud and clear message."
He said the toughened approach will help put the fraudsters out of business, not just the applicants, but those who make money from helping people cheat the system.
But fraud will always be part of the game. Sheffman compared the immigration-application process to the Olympics: "You've got the cheating science and the catching science. When the cheating science gets ahead of the catching science, the catching science usually catches up."
Those who cheat to get permanent residence or citizenship devalue Canadian citizenship, and the government's efforts restore value to that citizenship.
Immigrants want to come here because Canada's quality of life is one of the best in the world. For each of the thousands of immigrants who make it here, there are many more who are still waiting, and who have waited for years, for the privilege of living in Canada.
Parliament sets the number of immigrants allowed each year, and immigration officials must work within that number. That creates a situation where, as Sheffman puts it, the input is far greater than the output. It means there will always be a bottleneck; there will always be waiting lists.
Sheffman's experiences with immigrants have opened his eyes to what we have here.
"The things that we as Canadians take for granted every day are profoundly important to people who aren't from here and who don't have it," he said.
But it's a two-sided bargain. Immigrants bring their skills, their energy and their optimism to the country and to the province. As the workforce ages, B.C. is going to need a lot of people coming from somewhere else.
While we want to be sure that immigrants act with integrity, we don't want to put up a wall to keep them out. Canada's ethnic tapestry has always had many threads, and that diversity has always been part of the country's strength.
