The United States handles immigration better than most other nations, Jacob L. Vigdor writes on the Op-Ed page of the Los Angeles Times. “But,” he adds, “the U.S. could learn a thing or two from Canada.”
Canada might be doing better because the nation has a policy of aiding immigration, according to Tomás Jiménez, professor of sociology at Stanford University.
But, he said, it’s a different story when it comes to the U.S.
“We have a laissez-faire approach,” Jiménez said. “We let labor markets take their course and integrate economically, and we think full integration will follow.”
Jiménez said Canada has a set of programs that allows for French and English language acquisition, and policies of multiculturalism. Canada also has a program that matches volunteers with new Canadians to help them find their way around communities.
“Two facets of immigration policy help to explain Canada’s success,” writes Vigdor, a Duke University professor of public policy and economics. “In distributing visas, Canada emphasizes skills and education rather than country quotas and family reunification. Just as important, Canada permits dual citizenship and allowing naturalization after only three years.”
But why doesn’t the U.S. have such programs?
“Part of it is precedent,” Jiménez said. “We [the U.S.] did some of it in the 19-teens, and some people didn’t like spending money on ‘illegals,’ so we have a huge undocumented population.”
But Edward Allen, senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, said that the U.S. and Canada are difficult to compare, especially due to the nations’ differing populations.
“There’s no single dominant ethnic or racial group in Canada the way Hispanics are [dominant] in the United States,” he said, also noting the different model Canada has for assimilation.
Vigdor is also a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. In May, the institute released his report: Comparing Immigrant Assimilation in North America and Europe.
