Instead of bringing large extended families with limited skills into the U.S., we could specifically select for the qualities — education and work experience, for example — that help immigrants succeed. How would such a system work? We need only look north to see it in practice. Canada assigns points to potential immigrants for various desirable characteristics. For example, holding a graduate degree is worth five times as many points as is holding a high-school diploma.But, that is one of the biggest misconceptions, both here in Canada and what other countries perceive to be Canada's success, about Canada's immigration reality.
As far back as 1990, William Gairdner wrote in his book The Trouble with Canada:
The 1982 report to Parliament on immigration levels said, "Family reunification has been and is one of the traditional foundations of immigration policy."...The result is that immigrants already here determine the mix of immigrants to come, 80 percent of whom enter without regard to their merit. Employment and immigration in Hull has informed me that of the up to 175,000 immigrants planned for 1990, only 24,000, or 16 percent, will actually have to qualify under our point system [of education, work experience and language fluency both in French and English]. A full 84 percent - 174,000 - just walk through the door! For all we know, they could be ignorant, illiterate, unqualified people. We don't know, because we don't ask.The point is that immigration in Canada is hardly the ordered affair that Richwine thinks it is. Yes, there is a well-defined point system which accepts immigrants based on their skills, but these same immigrants can sponsor and bring with them a myriad of relatives who don't have to undergo the rigorous skills tests, and who can simply arrive in Canada based on their familial connections.
I've written about family reunification, and how in our modern climate of human and civil rights, it has become an inevitable component of immigration.
