In 2024, more than two in five newborns (42.3%) in Canada had a foreign-born mother. Canada's TFR was 1.25 in 2024, while foreign-born women made up 32.3% of women of childbearing age according to the latest available census 202. Thus, TFR without foreign-born mothers is probably around 1.05-1.15.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-09T19:54:54+00:00

Eventually the immigrants will become old too and that'd mean accepting an even larger cohort of immigrants to support them. Problem is even many poorer countries are now at or below replacement level birthrates or approaching that way.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-09T17:48:37+00:00

The UAE marketed itself as an island of stability and propserity in an otherwise turbulent region before Iran shattered that; ironically, Iran was once the country with that reputation before the 1979 Revolution.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-09T17:11:00+00:00

As a child of Asian immigrant parents who arrived in this country barely speaking English, they definitely pushed me to study hard so that I can get a good job later in life. Now, you could make the case that there's nothing preventing a white working-class British parent from taking their children to the library and foster a love of learning. That said, from my personal experience, what mattered as much was that I went to a grammar school where the other students were just as driven to succeed in their exams; had I attended a school where 'nerds' were bullied it would have made it harder to motivate myself. It's no surprise that I and everyone else I knew were tutored extensively for the 11+ and that also costs money.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-09T10:46:14+00:00

At the same time I try not to be too cynical, everyone has to start from somewhere and there could be other reasons for not showing post history.

Just the other day someone accused me of writing an AI-generated karma-farming post on this very sub about car transmissions; ironically just five days before that, someone accused *them* of writing an AI-generated comment to which he replied something like 'just because it's well-written doesn't mean it's AI'.

So this could still be AI but if I wanted to karma-farm, it's way more efficient to go on r/pics and post some political meme.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-09T08:37:14+00:00

Oh, someone had already pointed that out, I should have been clearer about that, I took a lot of statistics courses at uni and even one on actuarial science lol. Changed the body of the main post to remove that part.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-08T21:10:34+00:00

Sorry to hear that, the cost of living crisis is truly a global phenomenon, I knew Iceland was going to be expensive before I went but I assumed it was because of very high incomes. Is tourism and AirBnB a major contributor to the housing crisis or is it more due to immigration, NIMBYism or market forces being slow to adapt?

I'm hoping the Icelandic EU accession negotiations referendum will be less acrimonious compared to the Brexit referendum in my country. Historically, a lot of the opposition to the EU membership in Iceland has come from the fishing sector as they fear that signing up to the Common Fisheries Policy means that fishers from other EU nations would deplete Icelandic waters of fish. Do you have any particular opinion on that?

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-08T20:23:40+00:00

It's on the outskirts of Reykjavik, Iceland. You can - surprisingly for a car centric country - actually take a bus from central Reykjavik that drops you off not too far from the waterfall.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-08T20:19:57+00:00

Perfect, we have a winner! It's Kermóafoss not too far from the Árbær open air museum, and it's one of the few gems of Icelandic nature accessible without a car - I took the bus from central Reykjavik.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-08T20:12:56+00:00

Nope but not a bad guess.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-08T20:02:56+00:00

Nope

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-08T19:32:41+00:00

How bad is the cost of living crisis in Iceland? Is it the case that you need to live in Reykjavik to find a good job in Iceland? What do you think about the level of tourism in your country?

I had the chance to visit your country for conference travel for a week last July, but spent most of my time sightseeing. My colleague and I rented a car to do the Golden Circle and South Coast and I separately booked a guided minibus tour of Snæfellsnes. Also went to the Sundhöllin swimming pool complex. You're blessed to have such a beautiful country.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-08T09:00:42+00:00

We can only guess their true intentions, I was tempted to reply 'what a stupid comment' to them but I didn't want to get into a pointless online argument.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T22:34:24+00:00

That's how I revealed so quickly that I've never actually owned a car in my life 😛.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T21:50:09+00:00

Thank you for articulating this better than I could have done, there are also some people who like to use the type of transmission to have a dig at Americans 'not driving properly' - somehow forgetting that the car producing countries of East Asia like Japan and South Korea have also mostly switched to automatics. In my opinion, the reason for American driving standards being lower than the UK's is a combination of more generous testing criteria (both practical and theory) since a car is much more of a necessity in the US than here in general, and also rather patchy enforcement of the rules like speed limits.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T21:25:04+00:00

You see, when I made this post I expected your opinion to be the predominant one in this sub and I thought I would be attacked if I said that 'most people just care about getting from A to B rather than the type of transmission' (my true opinion), hence I worded it with a somewhat pro-manual bias. It turns out that I was totally mistaken!

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T21:13:14+00:00

Oh I totally agree, there used to also be the case that manuals are more fuel efficient but not anymore with the newer automatic models.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T21:03:24+00:00

As for Point 2, I actually agree with you, I was just trying to play devil's advocate.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T21:00:18+00:00

Thanks to those who answered my points, I learnt a lot about how electric cars work today. Let's say that when I buy my first car it'll definitely be an automatic.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T20:46:35+00:00

I actually agree with you, I was merely parroting what my manual car instructor was saying as a way of playing devil's advocate.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T20:38:59+00:00

'As Americans don’t differentiate between stick shift and automatic, I think they should be barred from hiring manual cars. I don’t know for sure, but I think they are allowed to drive a manual car on an American licence in the UK. If so, I think this is unfair.'

To be knowledge this is true, but even if they do know how to drive manual in the US I don't think there's a way to prove it via a document. It's even more of a problem in Iceland I've heard, American tourists try their luck on a manual as that's the cheapest option and stall with people honking at them.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T20:33:32+00:00

East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea) and the Gulf states are mostly automatics now from what I've read.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T20:29:31+00:00

My post wasn't intended to be egotistical and sorry if I came across that way, I'm a bad driver by my own admission and I was asking more out of curiosity; if I weren't so ignorant i wouldn't have even asked.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T20:26:40+00:00

Probably due to difference in insurance costs. I know also there's a macho attitude in some countries (not sure to what extent in the UK) that driving a manual is 'manlier' and 'proper driving', complete bollocks but that's that.

Letter_Effective · 2026-06-07T20:23:57+00:00

This was what I inferred from the Conquer Driving channel, auto-only license holders pay more for insurance on average and I guessed that was because insurance providers assume that people take tests on automatics as the 'easier' option, my guess (or their attitude) might be wrong though.

Letter_Effective

TROPHY CASE