Dear editor:

Please, let’s keep talking about immigration (“Ross’s Ramblings: Can we please stop talking about immigration?” Jan. 22, The Lake Report).

If we don’t, I fear that negative views towards immigration — people who are talking about it — will further take hold in Canada.

And, while I applaud Mr. Robinson’s sentiment, if we do not advocate for a principled and moral approach to immigration, our pro-immigration proclamations will fall on deaf ears.

For example, if my pro-immigration views were not grounded in principle, I might have read Mr. Robinson’s column and thought, are we only pro-immigration because we have abundant resources? Would that then make immigration immoral if we did not?

Are we only pro-immigration because people are fleeing persecution or hunger? Would immigration be immoral if they were not?

Are we only pro-immigration because of our love of diverse cultures? Would immigration be immoral if we did not?

And while I could passionately exclaim, “I love immigrants!” — and I do, literally: my wife and daughter are immigrants — this would not be a moral argument for immigration.

Rather than argue principle, people on both sides of the political spectrum try to quantify their arguments for and against immigration.

Oh please, do tell me how I should or should not have been allowed to meet my soulmate because GDP increased or because GDP-per-capita might fall again.

Now, you might be thinking, what would make for a principled and moral argument for immigration?

One that identifies and safeguards the individual rights of people living in Canada and abroad.

An open immigration system is the only moral government policy. Every individual on the planet has the right to travel uninfringed by governments, so long as they are not a threat to other individuals.

Now, what qualifies as a threat?

People who have been convicted of violent crimes.

People with contagious life-threatening diseases.

People from countries with which we are at war.

Barring people who qualify under the above categories, everyone should be able to live and work in Canada.

So, let’s please talk about immigration because the happiness of the individual depends upon it.

Alexander Evans
NOTL