CIBC CEO says immigrants are the 'lifeblood' of Canada amidst souring outlook

financialpost.com:

The head of one of Canada’s largest banks says newcomers need support from all corners as “people are turning a little sour” on immigration.

Victor Dodig, chief executive of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said there’s a “lot of illegal migration” going around in the world, but the people who legally come to Canada as international students, temporary foreign workers or permanent residents “play by the rules” and it’s important to “treat them by the rules” going forward.

“Immigrants are the lifeblood of our country,” the son of a refugee said at a Toronto event organized by the University of Waterloo. “Immigrants come here with hopes and dreams. Immigrants don’t want to come here to be demonized, and what we need to do is continue to work on supporting those immigrants so that they actually feel fully Canadian.”

Immigration has traditionally played a key role in Canada’s economy. But public support for newcomers has declined in recent years amidst record increases in the population, primarily due to a jump in the number of international students and temporary workers, who are referred to as temporary residents by the government.

A clear majority of Canadians feel that there’s too much immigration for the first time in 25 years, according to a national survey published in October by research group Environics Institute and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Diversity Institute.

Policy changes by the federal government made it easier to bring in temporary residents during the past two years in order to fill nearly one million job vacancies following the pandemic.

But with the number of vacancies declining and the unemployment rate on the rise, Ottawa has taken steps in the past year to decrease the number of temporary