Wherever you are from, you can become Canadian

Throughout its history, Canada has been one of the most open and welcoming nations in the world, and – despite current challenges – remains one of the best places to live in the world. In large part, this has been achieved by welcoming people from across the world into the Canadian family.

Given Canada’s current challenges, it’s easy to forget that we remain one of the best places to live in the world. While rankings can vary, Canada generally ranks in the top ten in democracy, education, national reputation, safety, human rights, and in the top 20 in economic competitiveness, press freedom, prosperity, human development, and innovation.

Considering that there are over 190 countries on Earth, being in the top 10 or top 20 is notable. Through much of our history, Canada has been one of the most open and immigrant-friendly nations on Earth. Canada and the United States are the only two advanced economies that grant unrestricted birthright citizenship. (Most of South America and Western Europe grant birthright citizenship, though those nations tend to have some restrictions).

Birthright citizenship in Canada began in 1947, when the Canadian Citizenship Act (passed in 1946 but taking effect as of January 1st, 1947) granted Canadian Citizenship to anyone born in Canada. Before the passage of the Act, individuals born in Canada were considered British subjects. The Act also stipulated that citizenship could be gained after naturalization through five years of residing in Canada as a landed immigrant.

The 1977 Canadian Citizenship Act established citizenship as a right, allowed dual citizenship, and ensured all citizens were considered equal under the law by removing a distinction between British subjects and non-British subjects.

These changes were made through legislation passed by democratically elected Canadian Members of Parliament, thus reflecting the will of Canadians. This is also expressed in Canada’s openness to people from around the world. Among nations with populations in the 10s of millions, Canada has one of the highest percentages of people born in a foreign country. And unlike some countries where a huge portion of immigrants are only foreign workers and have no path to ever becoming citizens, a large portion of Canada’s foreign-born population are citizens.

For example, roughly 70% of Kuwait’s population is foreign-born, yet very few of those individuals are citizens. By contrast, about 90% of all people in Canada are citizens, and about two-thirds of individuals in Canada born outside Canada are citizens.

Many of Canada’s major cities across the country are quite diverse, with Calgary being the third most diverse major city in Canada, and Toronto considered by many to be the most diverse city in the world, with over half of the population having been born outside of Canada. Welcoming people from around the world is a fundamental aspect of the kind of country Canada has freely chosen to become.

Canada, in contrast to many other nations, has quite deliberately chosen to be a country where people from anywhere in the world can become citizens and, through citizenship, be considered Canadian and thus equal to every other Canadian. We have also, over time, deliberately chosen to address areas of inequality under citizenship laws. We did this even as many other nations remained much more exclusionary, which indicates that openness and welcoming others into the Canadian family a core Canadian value.

It’s important to make this as clear as possible: While many nations chose to tie citizenship and identity to a specific race or ethnic group, Canadians deliberately made the opposite choice. Canadians decided that Canada would be a country where you can become Canadian.

The absence of oppression means something

Look around the world today, and you will often see significant oppression against minority groups or designated ‘outsiders.’ That oppression is often led by one ethnic group that sees itself as ‘the nation’, who then uses that status to scapegoat, punish, and even kill others who are outside ‘the nation.’ And even when that oppression is of the milder variety, it often results in a permanent underclass that can never become citizens, and who are, at best, barely tolerated so long as they maintain a submissive position.

Canada has long been a haven for individuals facing just such a situation, or who sought to escape impoverished and/or war-torn countries. And time after time, after an initial period of controversy over integration, values, economic contribution, and political disagreements, those individuals and their descendants become fully accepted as Canadian by the vast majority of people in our country. Notably, even as Canada welcomed people from places that were often authoritarian and oppressive, the overwhelming majority of newcomers embraced and adhered to Canadian laws, participated in Canada’s democratic process, and accepted the values of tolerance, individual freedom, the equality of women, respect for human rights, and religious pluralism. In all those areas, Canada remains among the top ranks in the world, showing that integration has largely succeeded, even as many keep their cultural traditions alive in their own way.

This may not be the most dramatic and exciting basis around which to form a national identity and national values, but given how oppressive life is in much of the world, shouldn’t we be proud that we built a country where that oppression is largely absent? While other parts of the world descend into brutal wars and internal violence over questions of identity, Canada has managed to build a nation where people accept – and often embrace – our differences while still adhering to a cohesive set of overarching values.

At this very moment – despite our real challenges – Canada is a living testament to the fact that people from around the world, people from different cultures, different races, and different faiths, can build a successful nation together. That’s not only deeply inspiring for Canada, but it is also hopeful for humanity, as it paints a picture of what the world could be at its best.

This does not discount Canada’s difficulties, nor is this an attempt to claim Canada is perfect or pretend that immigration in the past few years was somehow well-managed. But it is important to push back on the narrative that Canada was somehow ‘destroyed’ by a few years of excessive immigration, and it is important not to retcon Canadian history by pretending that our open and welcoming nature is something new. Rather, Canada’s willingness and ability to welcome people from around the world into the Canadian family is a key part of our history, a core Canadian value, and an essential part of our identity. And even as the circle of those accepted as Canadian has expanded over time, Canada has always remained one of the most welcoming nations relative to other countries.

Thus, to reject our historic openness would be to reject a key part of what makes Canada unique, and would be to reject a key part of our heritage. Ironically, those who want to dramatically restrict the bounds of who can be considered Canadian are not only seeking to tear rights and freedoms away from millions of Canadians eventually, but are also acting in a way that is antithetical to the trend of the last 80 years of Canadian history when we expanded – rather than restricted – the possibilities for newcomers to join this country as fully-fledged citizens. Those who would seek to turn Canada away from our openness may seek to portray themselves as defenders of the country, but they really seek to turn Canada away from our historic values.

Wherever you are from, you can become a Canadian

There is great power in the fact that anyone, from anywhere in the world, can look at Canada and imagine themselves as a fully-fledged Citizen of our country. It helps us build connections in ways other nations cannot; it brings new ideas and ways of thinking that create more opportunities for innovation, and it means people in almost every part of the globe can potentially feel a kinship to someone in this country.

With the world becoming more complex, and with the ability to form alliances, build connections, learn from others, and engage in mutually-beneficial trade more important than ever before, why would we want to give up one of the most powerful assets Canada possesses?

Instead of closing ourselves off, we should build on our strength as an open nation. While bringing immigration to more manageable levels, we should focus on welcoming talented people from around the world into Canada to join with the countless talented Canadians already here and help lead us into an era of greater prosperity and freedom.

Spencer Fernando

Image – screengrab

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