I think it obviously depressed wages and had a negative impact on families. It also had the affect of changing the negative choice of women in ways that perhaps was not intended by those who campaigned for womens rights. Ie., instead of women not having the choice of going out and working they now largely don't have the choice of staying home.
Well, for someone like me, staying home was never a choice. If I couldn't go out and earn a living wage I have no idea what my life would be like.
But the importation of tens of thousands of low skill workers is something I've been complaining about since, well, I was low skilled. It helps banks and big business but harms lower skilled workers in the same way as much of the Temporary Foreign Worker program damages both low skilled and higher skilled workers by depressing the job market and what companies have to pay to get employees.
Before joining the Republicans, Abraham Lincoln was a member of the Free Soil Party, a political movement that opposed slavery based not (exclusively) on moral grounds but rather because they viewed slavery as an assault on the wages of laborers. So this train of thought is at the very least 170 years old, and in my opinion still valid. The TFW program was certainly exploited to tilt the labor market in favor of employers.
But I'm not sure that all of the immigrants should be just assumed to fall under the heading of unskilled labor. When my dad worked at Nortel, the senior engineer in his department was an older gentleman from the Middle East. I don't know which country exactly, but dad thought he was great and they sometimes went on business trips together. I met him several times, and he was tremendously nice. I don't mention this to suggest that dad's old coworker is typical of Middle Eastern immigrants, but just to point out that some people coming from the region may have valuable skills. There are... or there used to be, at least... some good colleges in the Muslim world, probably built by well-intentioned dictators trying to push their countries forcefully in to the 20th century.
But to clarify, I'm not nostalgic for the 50s (before my time) or even the 60s. I don't find today terrible. What I don't want is to see us looking like Germany or France or Sweden, with a large, sullen mass of foreigners in our midst who despise us because our ways are not their ways.
One thing I recall reading in regard to Sweden is that their immigrants have been so great in number and so overwhelmingly young males that the national gender balance in the late teens and young adult age bracket is now on the order of 133 males per 100 females. China, after decades of the one-child policy and preference for male offspring, has a similar gender imbalance through all age brackets, and a variety of social problems have resulted from it. Sweden is on a path toward disaster if they continue with such idiocy.
In regard to Germany, their big problem is that young men from the "Maghreb" countries file bogus refugee claims to come to Germany, live in Germany while their claims are processed, and refuse to leave Germany after their claims are rejected. Germany can't even deport them... their home countries refused to take them back.
You know, the guy who has been cutting my hair for about the last twenty years is a Lebanese immigrant. You couldn't ask for a better immigrant. He's adapted to Canada, started a business, works hard, and is raising his kids as Canadians. But then... he's Christian. Give me 80,000 more guys like him instead of 40,000 Syrians and I won't complain.
I remember there being a hair salon in Rideau Centre owned by a Muslim family. Well, I don't know for a fact that they were Muslims, but male visitors appeared to be taken to one side of the shop by a male stylist, while female visitors went to the other side with a female stylist... I always assumed that was a Muslim thing. I've seen lots of other Muslim owned businesses as well... restaurants and shawarma stands and "Quality Zabiha!" foods, and so on... and I'm sure there are plenty of other Muslim entrepreneurs that don't have a sign on their shop that declares "hey everybody! Muslim business here!" I've worked with Muslims in my age group who I assume were either first-generation Canadians, or born outside Canada and well-integrated. Nothing in my personal experience agrees with the notion that Muslims who come to Canada end up as poorly-integrated unemployable deadbeats who hate everybody. I'm sure that there are some portion who do fit that description, but I see no reason to assume Muslims in general are worse than the average newcomer in that respect. Now, you've mentioned Ottawa has issues with Somalis in particular. Perhaps Somalis who end up in Canada are often refugees, as opposed to economic immigrants who come here with employable skills?
-k