Wisdom from our neighbors

Every nation has a right and a responsibility to the international community to conserve nature within its own boundaries. Immigration policy should reflect that responsibility.

Two reviews of publications outside our borders help clarify the work we have to do inside our borders.

“A Bud of Truth Peeps Through a Crack in the Corporate Media Stonewall“

In Canada, there is a “Century Initiative” project to triple the population — the Canadian version of the One Billion Americans idea. A former Quebec Minister of Industry and Trade, Professor Rodrigue Tremblay of the University of Montreal, says not so fast.

Canadians for a Sustainable Society reviews Prof. Tremblay’s op-ed and credits him for exposing the “implausibility of the endless growth argument upon which Canada’s current immigration policy is based.”

1. Happiness isn’t measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“It is also established that the standards of living in the world are in no way linked to the demographic size of the countries. The reality is rather the opposite.” says Tremblay:

This is shown by the United Nations Human Development Index, which is a measure of living standards and quality of life around the world. In 2019, for example, the three countries at the top of the list for standard of living and quality of life were all countries with less than 10 million inhabitants: Norway (5.3 million), Ireland (5.0 million) and Switzerland (8.5 million).”

2. Size doesn’t always determine influence.

“A relatively small country like Switzerland has more importance in the world than many countries with large populations.” Tremblay writes.

Or, as Canadians for a Sustainable Society puts it, “the aim to force Canadians into $1.5 million, 400 sq. ft. condos so we can project power by sailing aircraft carrier strike groups around the world is sheer lunacy.”

3. Immigration doesn’t prevent aging.

Tremblay cites the economic literature to show that immigration “hardly changes the age structure of a population, mainly because the majority of immigrants arrive in the country as adults and because of the family reunification program, which makes sure to bring in immigrants who are already elderly (spouses, parents, grandparents, etc.).”

Canadians for a Sustainable Society adds these to the list of mass immigration’s negative impacts:

* CO2 emissions increase
* Inequality increase
* Affordable housing decline
* Debt increase
* Loss of farmland
* Transition to renewable energy becomes much more difficult
* Ever greater structural deficits from continuous injection of cheap labour and reduction of job quality

They conclude:

Everything from an environmental, biophysical economics and social perspective is wrong with pouring huge and growing numbers of people over our best farmland and boosting CO2 emissions in the name of commercial economic growth.”

Isn’t that true of the U.S. as well?

“Exploring the decline of Britain’s birds“

Reviewing Patrick Galbreath’s In Search of One Last Song, a book about declining birds in Britain and the Brits who are trying to save them, Andrew McKean has these words for us at home:

For American readers, who still imagine a country with a wide, largely empty Western frontier, Galbraith’s book is a reminder of the tyranny of borders. Great Britain simply has no more room, and its watery edges are real. As lapwing habitat dries and shrinks, the birds can shift only so far up the coast. Doves that winter in Morocco must have suitable summer habitat in Essex. Grouse cannot fly the North Sea to pioneer new coverts in Sweden.”

JEREMY BECK is a V.P., Deputy Director for NumbersUSA