A Critique of Ricardo Duchesne’s “Canada in Decay”

“Wouldn’t the French-speaking Quebecois have more in common with, say, francophone Roman Catholics from Haiti who happen to be black? To avoid this conclusion, Duchesne shows a truly ugly side by just biting the bullet and claiming that skin color and race matters.”

Some of the most furious debates in the political world today are over immigration and social homogeneity. Two of the most dramatic developments in recent years—the United Kingdom’s forthcoming exit from the European Union and the election of post-modern conservatives such as Donald Trump—were prompted in no small part due to anxieties about these issues.

For many on the left and in the neoliberal center, high and even escalating levels of immigration are to be accepted and even welcomed. For those on the left, this is often understood in a moral way. Accepting greater numbers of immigrants has both symbolic value in expressing a commitment to moving beyond the West’s racist past towards a more tolerant and multicultural future. Immigrants also add to the diversity of our society, opening new avenues for expression and cultural self-discovery that may not have been available before. This is the argument of writers like Canada’s Will Kymlicka, who became an intellectual superstar for claiming that liberalism is fundamentally about eliminating arbitrary social hierarchies, including those predicated on race, ethnic status, and culture. For neoliberals, immigration is also a boon to society, but for different reasons. They understand the virtues of immigration primarily along economic lines; the most efficient labor market would be an open one which enables firms to hire who they wish regardless of their national background. This argument has long been convincing to free market enthusiasts in the center and the right, such as the National Post’s Andrew Coyne.

For a long time this generally pro-immigrant standpoint constituted the status quo; indeed, some advocates continue to think it is “impossible” to halt immigration due to the immense economic and demographic pressures which encourage people to migrate.