I’m an American who married a Canadian and moved to Canada. I applied for permanent residence through family sponsorship eight months ago. The end of the process has no end in sight. In fact, the Canadian immigration website recently posted a notice to applicants saying that they should expect delays because the people responsible for processing the application have gone on strike.
I cannot work. I can only wait. Even ignoring the delays caused by unions, the process has been long and arduous. It has a major negative effect on my life in terms of lost wages and well-being, not to mention costs to my wife. This is not how I wanted to spend the first year of my marriage, even if I would certainly do it all over again to be with my wife.
It would be easier to see a silver lining if I was convinced that immigration restrictions and unions were beneficial as public policy. I do not believe that for many reasons (For immigration try Open Borders Website, a debate with Benjamin Powell, or Bryan Caplan on Econtalk) (for unions try the Library of Economics, although I’m less convinced that labor unions don’t have a positive utilitarian impact on society). This makes this whole ordeal especially frustrating for me. Immigration restrictions aren’t good policy even when they’re enforced well, even when we ignore the costs to foreigners. Now I’m seeing first-hand how clunky the process is.
I find general sympathy for my situation among Canadians, yet somehow I can’t imagine they support looser immigration restrictions. Like Americans, Canadians seem to have a lot of strong beliefs about the terrible economic impacts of low-skilled immigrations on citizens. Also like Americans, they neglect to ask what the experts believe on the matter.
So I’m frustrated with the whole thing. I wish things could be cut and try for people like me who have no criminal record and is obviously not marrying someone just to move from one developed country to another. But its important for people like me to realize that my particular case, and whatever costs I bare, are a very small part of the total effects, costs and benefits, of immigration restrictions as a whole. So my story really shouldn’t convince anyone that immigration restrictions should be more relaxed. That’s not rational.
