[breitling]

Canada is embarking on a trade agreement with India and collectively our greatest fear is the immigration issue. Canada's immigration is already quite lop-sided.

[diego_moita]

> Canada's immigration is already quite lop-sided.

I don't even understand what "lop-sided" means here.

Would you say that Canada's oil and softwood businesses are lop-sided because we produce and export a lot of it? Or that the groceries' market is lop-sided because we don't produce a lot of it and therefore have to import?

Canada is an importer of people (not only from India) because it can't produce a lot of people. It is not different from groceries.

[breitling]

Why not import from a variety of countries to preserve the social fabric? https://preview.redd.it/in-the-first-three-months-of-2025-ca...

[FiniteField]

>I don't even understand [...]

>It is not different from groceries.

Do you appreciate that, in the wider historical context, this position is an exceptionally radical one? You seem to not understand how there could even exist a difference of opinion on this, but I'm confident that this outlook of humans as being completely fungible, transactional economic units would appear unthinkable to anyone throughout 99% of human history. Just the suggestion that a nation's population should be restocked by swapping it out with another nation's population would be tantamount to treason any time prior to the revolution of the 1960s.

[modo_mario]

>because it can't produce a lot of people.

So does every country that can't grow it's population indefinitely need to import a ton of people? What is the endgame there?

And I thought trade in people as some kind of fungible economic token was out of vogue.

[franktankbank]

Is it typical to consider immigration as a trade similar to apples and oranges?

[mlmonkey]

Trade != Immigration

[RhysabOweyn]

Immigration is absolutely a part of this deal. Interestingly, EU official communications and western media barely mention this, but the Indian government's official communication tout a "new framework for mobility" that will "open up new opportunities in the European Union for Indian students, workers, and professionals." [1]

[1] https://www.mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl%2F40615%2...

[schnebbau]

Right but if you want a favorable trade deal then you gotta throw in some immigration sweeteners.

[uv-depression]

> collectively our greatest fear

Citation very much needed. This sounds like _your_ concern that you're trying to launder through projecting onto the rest of the country.

[poncho_romero]

Canada as a whole has been pro immigration for a long time, but our immigration system was broken in recent years, and the most visible consequence of that has been an enormous increase in low skill, low wage Indian workers. A lot of people who have never had issues with immigration policy before have become very anti Indian immigration as a result.

[breitling]

Here ya go bud: https://abacusdata.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Slide6-1.pn...

It is one of the top 5 issues for ALL Canadians.

[mekdoonggi]

Canadians don't seem to have their priorities straight if they are more concerned about having a few more Indian neighbors than the US threatening to invade.

[breitling]

What's a "few more" to you?

Look at this chart for example: https://preview.redd.it/in-the-first-three-months-of-2025-ca...

[franktankbank]

Do you feel like your govt represents you?

[breitling]

The current Carney govt? Maybe. Too soon to tell, but things are heading in the right direction.

The previous Trudeau govt? Absolutely not. He was the prime minister of everyone except Canadians.