Canada In 2060!
What Will Canada Be Like In 45 Years?
Introduction
Have you ever wondered what Canada would be like in 45 years? I will be discussing my predictions of the First Nation communities, the immigration rate and the birth, death and natural increase rate in 2060. The main purpose to do this is to observe the current and previous aspects of these certain topics and predict the future situations. In my opinion, these current situations will change drastically.
Immigration
Today, Canada averages about 250,000 immigrants each year, that is approximately 1% of Canada's population! Based on the picture below, it seems like the population is rising each year gradually. I predict that since the immigration rate is rising, the population would grow and people, globally would enter Canada as various types of immigrants. Since, our Charter Rights and Freedoms expresses equality to each individual, this would be one of the pull factors that would attract immigration to Canada. Also, many job opportunities are available in Canada. In most third world countries, freedom, rights and job opportunities seem scarce. This greatly impacts the country's economy negatively. With sustaining the current policies we currently hold in Canada, we can consume a lot of immigrants and this can help benefit Canada's economy and strengthen our work force. For example, immigrants that belong to the business class would greatly contribute to our economy.
The picture above shows the consistent growth of Canada's population since around 1985 to current day.
Current Push and Pull factors
Canada has many pull factors. Canada is very welcoming to the new immigrants entering Canada. One aspect that Canada has is the Charter Rights and Freedoms. This includes the freedom and rights of every individual such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, expression, etc. This makes Canada very multicultural and diverse. This pull factor attracts many newcomers because this shows equality to everyone and many countries do not have the privilege of these freedoms and rights that Canada's Charter offers. A push factor that Canada naturally has is severe climate during winter. Climate in this time of the year can be very harsh and may cause problems for the elderly. Many people around the world come from warmer areas and do not easily adapt to the climate.
Future Push and Pull Factors
I predict that in the future that the situations that are transpiring currently in certain countries are only heading towards worsening conditions. With these occurrences continuing, for example, the Middle East and the African continent that are facing wars and conflicts can have a negative impact on the civilians in these places. The citizens of those countries would eventually get fed up and leave. Also, the jobs of these countries would become limited because of the destruction caused by war would cause damage to agriculture, industrial factories, homes, buildings, etc. Since this would happen, there would be no job opportunities. These would lead to the economy crashing. Due to this our economy would increase along with our population as new people all around the world.
This is some of the destruction that is occurring now that in my opinion would continue in the future.
This is the civil war transpiring in Congo that would force civilians out of the country in the near future.
This is the Syrian war that is currently taking place. With this consistently, i predict that the well being of the citizens are going to deteriorate.
Current Country of Origin
Today, according to the chart below, most of our immigrants are coming from China, India and the Philippines. This changed from the immigration statistics from over 40 years ago. The United Kingdom, United States and the West Indies were the top 3 countries in which most people were immigrating from. The reason the immigration statistics have changed because first Canada has opened their immigration to include different ethnicities. Second, these countries have push factors such as poverty, overpopulation and a lack of opportunities.
Future Country of Origin
Based on the statistics above, the countries who have citizens immigrating to Canada the least seem to be the countries that have the most people immigrating to Canada in the duration of 40 years. It is possible that the future of country of origin either is presumably going to be from the UAE, Morocco and South Korea. However, in my opinion, I think that the countries that are facing war atrocities will gradually come to Canada because of the worsening living conditions, the economy, the work force, the oppression, etc. Some examples of these country crisis might be Syria, Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan, Palestine along with other countries where civilians are facing these tragedies.
Demographics of Canada
Current birth rate
The picture below displays the declining birth rate. Ever since the beginning of the millennium the birth rate, year by year has been decreasing. Recently in 2012, the birth rate is very low for Canada. Today, Canadians are keeping less children mainly due to expense and birth control.
Future birth rate
In 2060, I assume that the birth control would not change much or drastically. Since no one wants to have a lot of children due to factors such as expenses and working women, the birth rate would not change. In the near future, the Canadian population is said to decline and we would heavily rely on Immigration. This would help the persistent population of Canada.
Current death rate
As the graph illustrates the death rates for recent years, shows since 2007 the death rate is increasing. This is causing a problem for the middle age group in the coming years. The dependency load would get higher.
Future death rate
The graph below tells the death rate is gradually increasing. I predict that in the future the death rate would increase due to the baby boomers. In the long term the natural increase would go negative and this would affect the population. This is why Canada will heavily depends on immigrants in the coming years.
Current natural increase rate
Currently, the natural increase rate is low. The birth rate today is currently around 10.5 and the death rate is approximately 8.3 and if you do the math, our natural increase rate is estimated to be 2.2. This is very low and in the coming future it will worsen.
Future natural increase rate
In the diagram above it displays a population pyramid. The people in the middle in Canada in their 50's and 60's are eventually aging and are going to be in the death rate category. With already low birth rates in the coming years, this would put our natural increase rate in the negative range. This puts a weighted dependency load on the middle class or middle aged workers. This would also affect the economy greatly and it is possible for us to have a weak economy.
Aboriginal Situations
Current aboriginal situations
Today and in previous years, aboriginals face great oppression from the rest of Canada. From the 1800's to the mid 1900's were the times when little aboriginal children were snatched from their families and obliged to be put in residential schools. Until this day some indigenous people are traumatized, feel anxiety and reminisce quite often about the torment and torture they had endured. In these residential schools, children were mentally, physically and sexually harassed. They were snatched of their rights and freedoms and got brainwashed by these 'teachers.' Most Canadians referred to these little aboriginals as students, however, Wab Kinew, a First Nation, notorious representative, more accurately reffers to them as survivors. Currently, many First Nations are having a serious dispute against the Canadian government. Things like the XL Pipeline that interferes with their living conditions. The pipeline disrupts their water supply and it tends to contaminate their water. This conflict continues and unfortunately there is no resolution.
A picture of the aboriginal kids in front of the residential school. The nuns look strict and the children looked forced.
Future aboriginal situations
Although the aboriginals are tortured and dominated by the Canadian government. They do contribute greatly to the Canadian demography. One problem we face in our demography is the birth rate. Each year the birth year in Canada declines. However, if you take a look at the statistics down below, aboriginals tend to have more kids and in the long term it would benefit the demography greatly. In the long term, the aboriginal birth rate would support rest of Canada's and it will help balance the natural increase rate. Also, in my opinion I personally want the Indian Act to be gone. The Indian Act was initially to respect and treat the aboriginals equally but recently this is not happening. In the future, in 2060, I see the Indian Act gone as it has no effect or resolution on the conflict between the rest of Canada and First Nations. I see the Aboriginal people finally getting their way and equal rights are granted to the Aboriginals.
Video
Justin Trudeau at We Day: Taking Action for Aboriginal Issues
This video by Justin Trudeau is very informative to most Canadians who are not aware to what is transpiring to First Nations. He alerts the audience that these Aboriginals are like anyone else and are Canadians as well. All his arguments were valid and brought up good points and realistic statistics. He brought up the suicide rate, birth rate, education benefits, etc. I totally agree with him and his arguments are legitimate and informing.
SoundCloud Audio
Smore by user449119346
Conclusion
I have compared previous and current topics to help me infer what things are going to occur in the year 2060. Therefore, these are my predictions on how things are going to change in the year 2060.
Bibliography
"Canada - Death Rate." Canada - Death Rate - Historical Data Graphs per Year. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.
"Wars in the World." Get RSS 20. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.