Immigration has played a major part historically in the growth of Canada's population. Between 1901 and 1911 alone, Canada received over 1.5 million immigrants, representing 28 percent of Canada's total population at the time. Recently, however, Canada's immigration policies and practices have come under scrutiny and criticism, as increasingly larger numbers of people begin to question whether current progressive immigration policy is beneficial in the long run for Canada and Canadians. Essentially, Canada has begun to question itself whether its current restrictions on immigration are sufficient.
             Throughout its history Canada has maintained numerous immigration policies, many not surviving the life span of the government under which they were created. Yet these policies, although highly restrictive, were not in the best interest of the country. Many were established to protect the individual interests of the current government, or they were established in an effort to maintain the government of the time's essentially racist conception of Canada. In fact, it wasn't until 1962 that Canada's essentially all-white immigration policy was abolished.
             In 1976 Canada adopted a points-based system, where potential immigrants were assigned various points based on such things as age, education, and net worth. This system was designed to prevent immigrants from being barred entry into the country based on race, religion, or creed. Essentially, those immigrants with sufficiently large personal savings, or with jobs skills listed under the government's General Occupations List, would be awarded more points, thus increasing there chance of being granted admittance into the country.
             Recently, the government has adopted new policies to bring this system up to date. Under current proposals, new immigrants would have to demonstrate fluency in one of the official languages. As well, points would no longer b...