Canadian immigration
Sir: While Andrew Kenny (`Right of pas- sage', 30 September) is entitled to his view that the cause of humanity would be well served should industrial countries drop their barriers to unrestrained migration from the Third World, his motives and his thesis become suspect when he uses slan- der to make his point.
For the record, Canada does not 'oppose immigrants from Africa and Asia with the ferocity of Dr Verwoerd'. Canada res- cinded the last vestiges of discrimination against non-European migrants in its im- migration laws in 1967. The pattern of immigration shifted quickly. By 1970, Asian immigration (not to mention Carib- bean and African sources) accounted for 20 per cent of the annual intake compared to 40 per cent from Europe. In 1980, Asia provided 45 per cent of all immigrants to Canada while Europe accounted for only 16 per cent. Canada also maintains a government-funded refugee programme in which African and Asian refugees are allocated the largest number of places, and grants asylum to spontaneous asylum seek- ers, mainly from the Third World, on the basis of the merit of their cases and nothing else. Canadian residents of all origins and creeds have a right to bring their immedi- ate dependants to Canada subject only to minimal health and security checks. In addition, once in Canada, all immigrants have constitutional guarantees of equality that are inalienable.
Mr Kenny could have tested his thesis with elementary research as to the facts both of Canadian immigration practice and of just how much of Canada's seemingly endless land mass is actually habitable.
R. A. Girard
Minister-Counsellor, Canadian High Commission, Immigration Section, Macdonald House, 38 Grosvenor Street, London W1
`It's bossiness as usual.'
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