How's the "join the EU" discourse going to go when Canadians realize it would mean any of the 450 million European citizens could move to Canada as they wished?

How about when Canadians realize Brussels would control the distribution of asylum seekers for the whole EU and could decide to just send whatever number of migrants Brussels deemed appropriate from the migrant crisis Europe has been facing and that will no doubt grow as climate change and war drive more migration in Eurasia?

That's just one example, but my guess is that Canadians may like the sound of joining the EU because we like Europe, but the idea would tarnish pretty quickly when looking into all the details.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Huh, my take is the exact inverse. The EU is structurally averse to external immigration in almost all its aspects, whereas we are a constitutionally multicultural settler society with a long term structural reliance on immigration.

The recent course-correction to lower immigration levels is just that, a correction to a larger more long term direction without changing the fundamentals of that direction. We need to be able to have immigration policies that are much more open than what the Europeans can tolerate.

[–] AGM@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The point is the loss of control.

After joining the EU, it would open free movement to work and live in Canada to 450 million Europeans who can't do that now. How many would want to move to Canada? I don't know, but as many as wanted to come, and Canada would have no point system anymore to decide who gets in. The point system has been the core element of Canada's management of immigration and long-term cultural and workforce composition. Turning over the keys to someone else is a huge ask, especially when there is so much political attention on finding the right mix.

The migrant issue is also about loss of control, but even more politically untenable.

Canada has a very high level of control over refugee and migrant admittance now, and we don't have much of a migrant issue in Canada at all. That's primarily because our only border is shared with the US. Join the EU and we basically share the EU's migrant crisis. Under the new laws, distribution of migrants is up to Brussels, and there's a penalty of something like €20,000 per migrant that you choose not to accept. We can't say for sure how bad the migrant crisis will get in coming years, but it's expected to get substantially worse for Europe. So, we would give up our current highly-controlled situation and end up effectively sharing the challenges of having borders with the MENA region. That is not a politically winning proposition in Canada.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

That's what's funny. We both agree that joining the EU is losing control.

You want that control to stay in Canada because you want to keep people out and you think the EU will force us to let them in.

I want that control to stay in Canada because I want to bring people in and I think the EU will force us to keep them out.

We arrive at the same position (Canada must retain control) from precisely inverse paths.

So we agree on what Canada's EU policy should be. And we are in diametric disagreement about what Canada's immigration policy should be.

[–] AGM@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

I was writing why I think it's politically untenable and won't be accepted by Canadians, not about my own views of immigration.