Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the intervention of my colleague. He comes from the riding of Surrey Central which has an extremely large population of new immigrants.
A couple of studies done by two individuals have been released through the media over the last couple of days which tell a rather grim story. The first study was done by Jeffrey Reitz, a professor of sociology, who questioned whether we were getting the economic impact we should expect and the economic impact that we used to get from new immigrants. That would lead me to argue that the current system is not working well.
According to this rather comprehensive study done by Professor Reitz, in 1981 new immigrants were getting paid about 80% of what Canadian born workers were getting. By 1996 that dropped to 60% of what Canadian born workers were receiving. It is extremely disturbing when new immigrants, five years in the country, are getting paid only 60% of what people born in the country are getting. It shows there is a need for some improvement in the immigration system. Would the hon. member comment on that?
A second study done by Jack Jedwab also indicated that new immigrants were not getting the foothold they used to get. Would the member comment on these studies and the information revealed in them?