A country like Canada has a choice of policy to change its future course. It can adopt an isolationist position in order to safeguard its cultural and racial homogeneity, and it can reduce the admission of immigrants with the optimism that the country can continue to grow in an information age even without population growth. Alternatively, it can embrace the opportunity of becoming a truly multicultural and multiracial nation, and with its enriched cultural and economic endowment, can become actively engaged in a globalized world. The short-term cost of making a mistake is probably negligible, but in the long run, Canada may have to pay a heavy price for its lack of foresight in not being able to recognize how immigration can continue to contribute to the building of an economically and culturally diverse Canada that is adaptable to the twenty-first century and beyond.
— Peter Li in Destination Canada: Immigration Debates and Issues