What should Canada do about the migrant crisis?

With each week, the horrors of the Mediterranean migrant crisis multiply, putting more pressure on European countries to respond. Germany has agreed to welcome 800,000 refugees this year; Canada has committed to about one per cent of that.

This week, Conservative leader Stephen Harper said Canada is spending more than its fair share on support for refugees. But Simon Fraser University economist Don DeVoretz says it's time to stop thinking about refugees as an economic cost and that it makes economic sense, in the long run, to accept more refugees.

(The full interview is available in the audio player above. The following portions have been edited for clarity and length.)

What is the economic case for accepting more refugees? 
It's fragile, but it's there. When they first arrive here, it's very difficult for them, it's very expensive for us in the first several years. But as they get older, such as 30, 40 and 50, the equation of paying taxes and using services is such that the number is zero, so they pay in taxes as much as they use in services... So if we can achieve that goal of net zero cost to Canada in the first generation, I think that's a valid argument.

So net zero cost for the first generation, but then subsequent generations, we start to see the benefits?
Oh god, yeah. Huge. Let's go back and look at history: If we look at the outcomes in the second generation of the Vietnamese immigrants, you'll see them all on the dean's lists... They're like other immigrant families: the second generation really provides the growth power, the structural power. As an economist, we simply look at the difference between the amount of taxes people use minus the amounts of services... We're only concerned whether we benefit from that person or are not harmed. In most cases, that equation — taxes paid over their lifetime, minus services used over their lifetime — is pretty close to zero, plus or minus a couple thousand dollars. So there's no strong argument for the first generation of refugees but there's no strong argument against them, economically, either.

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