Outdated vision

Re: The immigration questions we dare not ask, March 18.

I believe the vision advanced in this piece is outdated, recycled and frankly has become irrelevant when dealing with present-day immigration issues and economic realities.

“The most certain prediction that we can make,” wrote Robert D. Putnam, a prominent United States political scientist, “about almost any modern society is that it will be more diverse a generation from now than it is today.”

We should embrace higher levels of immigration because it’s in our national interest where the chosen few formula is being used. That is exactly in line with what Jason Kenney — Canada’s most active and effective immigration minister — has done for the past few years in increasing the numbers of highly skilled Canadian graduates and skilled foreign workers through the Canadian Experience Class, by the creation of the Federal Skilled Trades Class, the Startup Visa program, the Expression of Interest program and in a variety of other streams.

Companies created by immigrants or that have immigrant roots, loom like icons of the information technology era, i.e.: Intel, Google, Yahoo, Sun Micro- systems, YouTube, eBay, PayPal and LinkedIn. These companies helped to create untold wealth, millions of jobs and contributed immensely to the development of medical, educational, economic and social advancement in North America and around the globe.

Can anyone tell us how the influx of millions of immigrants to the United States has changed America’s cultural landscape and its way of life? Or how Canada’s liberal democracy and its way of life has been decreased or eroded by the influx of newcomers to this majestic land of ours? None of that has ever materialized for either America or Canada. ELIE MIKHAEL NASRALLAH, Ottawa, Immigration consultant (ICCRC), Co-author, My Arab Spring My Canada