Immigration: Scourge or Salvation - Will immigration lead to declining living standards? huge drains on the public purse? overcrowding and racial unrest? Or will immigration be the salvation of the country's social security system? Will it inject new vigour and life into the economy? Are the social tensions created by immigration highly exaggerated?

The contributions in this book indicate that extreme positions on either side of the debate are unsupportable. On balance, immigration has made modest positive contributions to the economy, while social tensions created by immigration have also been relatively modest. However, the trend towards accepting more refugees and other immigrants selected for their non-economic attributes suggests that future economic benefits will be smaller than in the past. Moreover, problems with integrating new Canadians will be greater given that they are less proficient in the official languages than earlier generations of immigrants and also possess more limited job skills.