Should migrants be “blamed” for rising house prices? Or should we set aside blame and acknowledge that population growth, whatever the source, has some negative impacts?
I recently had the good fortune of visiting Vancouver, a city where I used to live a long time ago. While still beautiful, it appeared to me almost unrecognisable: everywhere, high-rise buildings, each more futuristic and imposing than the next, were rapidly replacing the pretty wooden houses I remembered, and swallowing green spaces. In spite of this building frenzy, real estate prices in Vancouver have risen madly; houses now sell for about 1,000 Canadian dollars per square foot, making it one of the most expensive cities in the world to buy a property.
Looking at the data, it appears that the metropolitan area of Vancouver has gained over 650,000 more people compared to when I last was there two decades ago. It’s not just this particularly desirable city: the country itself gains hundreds of thousands of new residents every year. In Canada as in most other wealthy countries, after decades of below-replacement birth rates, the only reason the population is growing is international migration.
Continue @ Church And State.
A credible progressive critique of excess migration entirely shorn of the racialised and xenophobic discourse associated with Trump, Farage et al.
ReplyDeletethe sort of argument we can listen to Barry, rather than the protect our women and kids. If the racists were to shout 'protect our women and kids . . . from us' I could lend my support to that!!
DeleteBarry, you should really get out more and stop listening to Jazz in a Civic Centre....
ReplyDelete