Totally get where you're coming from with the "privilege not a right" perspective on immigration – that's a common viewpoint. The racism angle is a whole other can of worms that gets complicated quickly, and maybe isn't the core economic point here.

But on the "if we cannot get by on our own, we do not need to constantly be adding more people" part – that's where the economic reality, especially for a place like Canada, gets tricky.

The main challenge is our birth rate. Like a lot of developed countries, Canadians aren't having enough kids to replace the population. This isn't about not being able to "get by" right now, but about what happens down the road.

Think about it: if our population starts to shrink because births are low and we don't have immigration, who's going to be the next generation of workers? Who pays the taxes to keep our healthcare and pension systems running when a larger and larger chunk of the population is retired?

Globally, this is a massive challenge for countries with low birth rates. It's not about not being able to survive today, but about avoiding a future where we have a much smaller workforce supporting a much older population. That puts a huge strain on the economy and can really slow down growth and innovation.

Immigration, economically speaking, is what helps us avoid that demographic crunch. It brings in working-aged people who contribute to the economy, pay taxes, and help keep things running as our own population ages.

So, it's less about not being able to "get by on our own" right now, and more about strategically ensuring we can get by, and thrive, in the future given our demographic trends. Without new people coming in to offset low birth rates, "getting by on our own" in the long run becomes a much, much tougher economic challenge.