Post by Domen Xu Jinwen. Colgate Class of 2022.

“How Governments Use Immigration to Boost Their Economies” by Michelle Jamrisko, Jason Clenfield, Sandrine Rastello, and Matthew Bristow from New Economy Forum.

In this article, a number of writers report how individuals immigrate to Japan and Canada, and how these destination countries adjust their immigration policies to better suit their needs. Jason Clenfield argues that immigrants to Japan may act as complements instead of competitors of native workers. Japan has a history of being closed to immigrants. Due to the expected shrinkage of 27% in the labor force, sectors like nursing and constructions that require more physical works are facing even more severe labor shortage with job vacancies outnumbering applicants by more than 3 to 1. The solution proposed by the Japanese government is to grant 345,000 5-year residency permits to lower-
skilled workers in the next 5 years. As such these workers will be fulfilling job vacancies that native workers hardly want to apply to while sustaining important sectors of the economy and boosting the shrinking labor force. A story told by Van Linh Nguyen, a Vietnamese person who left for a construction job in Japan, exemplifies this phenomenon. Being the first Vietnamese working at KI Star Real Estate Co., Nguyen now manages a team of 46 Vietnamese people at his company, showing a growing number of foreign workers at Japan in the construction industry.

Canada is another country that implements policy to fit immigrants into its economic development plans, as argued by Sandrine Rastello. Without immigrants, the country will start to lose 100,000 workers a year in 2026. To overcome the problem of low fertility rate and retiring baby boomers, Canada implemented the point-based system that places emphasis on age, education, and work experience of applicants. Those in their 20’s obtained a master’s degree or higher, have worked in Canada and fluent in English and/or French get higher points and thus lead to an expedited process of immigration. These higher-skilled immigrants replenished the technological industry and the biggest immigrants source countries are now India and China, as opposed to white-dominant immigrants before the implementation of the system. Examples of such immigrants include Osman Ansari, who migrated from Pakistan for grad school and stayed to work afterward. Canada not only targets higher-skilled immigrants but also lower-skilled ones. Provinces such as Manitoba that need more lower-skilled workers have secured rights to devise their own immigrant policies to suit its needs.

Overall, countries such as Canada and Japan have shifted their immigration policies to allow more immigrants that better suit their economic demographics. The United States may learn from these countries and devise an immigration policy that suits its economic needs well. This may lead to a lower hostility among people towards the immigrants, as it is the case in Canada right now.