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Editor's Note: This article is the first installment in a three-part series on Immigration policy.

In recent days, the immigration debate has been moved onto an increasingly public platform in Canada. Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP government travelled through Alberta in the summer of 2025, leading the Alberta Next Panel. One of the questions our provincial government asked was this: “Should Alberta take more control of the immigration system to counter Ottawa’s open border policies?” At the town hall in Grande Prairie, the audience gave a resounding “yes”.

Given that the impetus against mass immigration is rising, how should Christians respond? How should we think about these things from a Biblical perspective?

In this first of three installments, I want to demonstrate the danger of mass immigration, particularly within Canada. I will cover some of the history of immigration in Canada, I will define mass immigration, I will show the danger of mass immigration, I will also point to the need for assimilation into a Canada that was founded on Christian principles.

What is Immigration vs. Mass Immigration?

Mass immigration is not so much about a number as it is about the quantity of incoming immigrants as compared to the current population. Immigration is simply the movement of people into a country (other than their country of birth or usual residence) with the intention of settling there, either permanently or long term. The term “mass immigration” does not have a fixed numerical threshold. It is a term used to describe immigration happening on a very large scale over a short period of time. Consider the difference in scope of 100,000 immigrants moving into a country of 32 million people versus a country of 320 million people. Those 100,000 immigrants will impact the demographics of the smaller country faster, and to a greater degree than it will the larger country.

Immigration in the Last Five Years

Immigration policy in Canada fundamentally changed on November 1, 2001, when Parliament passed the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. It is described in the header as “An Act respecting immigration to Canada and the granting of refugee protection to persons who are displaced, persecuted or in danger.”¹ This has led to a successive increase in immigration levels through the 2010s, leading also to the high levels in the last ten years.

Statistics Canada reports between 400,000 and 500,000 immigrants have arrived in Canada each year over the past four years (2020-2025).² That is nearly two million new immigrants over four years. Statistics from 2014-2020 report between 272,000 and 323,000 immigrants per year. ³ While the data runs slightly lower into the early 2000s, the most substantial increase in immigration that we see is between 2019 and 2021. The Fraser Institute makes the claim that average annual immigration was 617,800 from 2000 to 2015 compared to 1.4 million from 2016 to 2024.⁴ It appears that there may have been a recent decrease or at least a stabilization in immigration. Nevertheless, the increase in immigration over the last 5-10 years will leave Canada’s demographics forever changed.

The Danger of Mass Immigration

Immigration can be a good thing. New immigrants bring new skills to a region that are much needed at times.

The unique danger is with mass immigration, especially “government-driven” mass immigration within a socialist framework. You see this government-driven nature in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. This act has significantly spurred on the growth of immigration here in Canada.

You can also see an increasing threat of socialist policies, in that we are running out of resources for social programs. On August 13, 2026, the province of Ontario finally implemented a plan to stop extending social services to illegal immigrants.⁵ Alberta has also floated the idea of cutting aid to immigrants.⁶ Mass immigration introduces new people to the system who rely on the Canadian tax dollar, creating a crushing burden of taxation for Canadian citizens.

Worse, mass immigration introduces a plurality of religions, cultures, values, etc., to a social demographic, creating an environment of conflicting beliefs and principles.

Although there are more dangers to discuss, let’s look at some current threats. When you have conflicting beliefs and principles at work, you also introduce conflicting law codes. To give an example of this, in England, the British law code functions alongside Sharia law in some instances.⁷ Alberta has introduced halal mortgages, which is part of the Islamic Sharia law code. Legislation to enable such mortgages was first tabled in 2024.⁸ Islamic law has been encroaching in Ontario since 2004. An article in the Washington Post reads: “Almad and thousands of other Muslims, taking advantage of a provision of the law in the province of Ontario, can now decide some civil disputes under Sharia, including family disagreements and inheritance, business and divorce issues, using tribunals that include imams, Muslim elders and lawyers.”⁹

The Decaying Religious and Cultural Cohesion of Canada

We need to acknowledge the decay of the cultural & religious cohesion of Canada, in order to understand the dangers of mass immigration. Although mass immigration is not the cause of the decay, it has accelerated the religious decay of this nation by introducing contradictory beliefs, faiths, cultures, and law systems. I will address this decay more fully in my second installment of this series.

Although Canada was no utopia, this country began with Christian foundations. Even though Canada was far from the perfect Christian society (no Christian society will be perfect on this side of heaven), she still acknowledged Christ as Lord, both explicitly and implicitly. Canada’s historically Christian foundations show up in how laws are framed, how culture is viewed, and what her moral standards and virtues consist of. We even see this acknowledgement on our parliament buildings in Ottawa.¹⁰ Scripture is inscribed all over the Parliament buildings in Ottawa.¹¹ Our national motto, “A Mare Usque Ad Mare”, comes from Psalm 72:8, which reads: “May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!” This Psalm points forward to the reign of Christ over everything. One of the founders of the Canadian Confederation, George Brown, is reported to have said that they wanted to “establish a government…that will endeavour to maintain liberty, and justice, and christianity [sic] throughout the land.”¹²

At the very founding of this nation, over 98% of Canadians identified as Christian (43% Roman Catholic, 52% from major Protestant denominations like Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Baptist).¹³ Of course, this is very different from the latest statistics in 2021. You will find this on Statistics Canada: “In 2021, more than 19.3 million people reported a Christian religion, or just over half of the Canadian population (53.3%). However, this percentage is down from 67.3% in 2011 and 77.1% in 2001.”¹⁴

It is axiomatic that politics is downstream from culture and culture is downstream from worship. This plays a role in my critique of mass immigration and also in my solution to the danger that we find ourselves in today. Scripture records that the decay of the nation of Israel begins with false worship in the Book of I and II Kings. On the other hand, we also see that the evangelization of the world begins with a worship service in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. Within 300 years of that first worship service, even the emperor of the Roman Empire confessed faith in Christ.

We must recognize that this issue of a decline in the Christian religion has preceded mass immigration. Theological liberalism deeply eroded the life of the churches across our nations in the 1960s and 1970s with roots stemming back to the 1920s. For example, Dr. Kevin Flatt demonstrates in his book, After Evangelicalism, how, between 1966 and 1977, the United Church of Canada gave up on a Biblical stance on abortion, actually recommending changes to the Criminal Code of Canada on this matter.¹⁵ You can find some of the theological roots of this decline in his book as well as in the famous book Christianity & Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen. In their book, A Christian Citizenship Guide, 2nd Edition: Christianity and Canadian Political Life, Schutten and Wagner outline Canada’s Christian past, Canada’s constitutional heritage, and various revolutionary changes in law that have contributed to the erosion of Christian values. In the conclusion they write, “unless God intervenes, we are looking ahead at the extreme marginalization of Biblical Christianity in Canadian society.”¹⁶ They conclude with exhortations to biblical Christians to remember their story. That is, the history of the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and the history of the Christian Church.

Today, many churches that were formerly central to our national life are now leading beacons in wokeness and theological slop. The Church must take responsibility for this as we see the effects of our unbelief and revolution against God and His Word in real time. Judgement, as Peter says in I Peter 4:17, begins at the house of God.

How Mass Immigration has Contributed to this Religious and Cultural Decay

Mass immigration has heavily contributed to this decline as we see especially our urban landscapes dotted with mosques and temples dedicated to foreign gods. In the same study that I quote above, you will find some startling statistics:

After Christianity, Islam was the second most commonly reported religion in Canada in 2021, with nearly 1.8 million, or 1 in 20, people. In 20 years, the share of the Muslim population in Canada has more than doubled—up from 2.0% in 2001 to 4.9% in 2021. In 2021, close to 830,000 people, or 2.3% of the total population, reported an affiliation to Hinduism. Like Muslims, the proportion of the population with Hinduism as its religion has more than doubled in the last 20 years, and is up from 1.0% in 2001.

This is connected to something in Canada that we have dubbed “multiculturalism”. I’ll talk about the dangerous ideology of multiculturalism in the second installment, and I’ll share one of the interesting benefits of immigration in the third installment, namely that many Christian immigrants hold to orthodox, historic, non-wokeified Christianity.

Seeking Biblical Wisdom in Immigration Policy

One might ask, what does the Bible have to do with immigration policy? Wisdom speaks in Proverbs 8:14–16:

I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly.

While we have seen rapid secularization in Canada, we are still reaping the benefits of Christian heritage that I have outlined above. To add to this secularization, we now have many different worldviews operating in our nation, various religions vying for dominance in the public square. Immigrants to Canada from different cultures and worldviews need to be integrated into Canada’s culture or it will necessarily introduce conflict.

Deuteronomy 23 records that it took the Gentiles between three to ten generations before they became full Israelite citizens. I present this principle from Deuteronomy as a general principle from Holy Scripture that should endow the nations of the earth with Biblical wisdom, as we seek to reestablish sound principles of law and order in this nation again. What we learn in Deuteronomy may help us develop some tangible criteria for what an immigration policy may look like. For instance, because integration into a new culture is a slow and arduous process, it would be wise to limit the numbers and establish a high standard for citizenship criteria.

My major operating principle in these articles is the principle of prudence, as alluded to in Proverbs 8:14-16, above. Prudence is closely related to wisdom in Scripture. It is skill and good judgment in the management of national affairs and the use of resources. It is the wise ability to foresee danger, govern oneself with good judgment, and carefully consider one's steps rather than acting rashly.

In light of this, I want to advance a prudential guideline, to establish some of the prudential differences between mass immigration and more measured immigration policies.

Let’s say I am a farmer raising eight children outside of Calgary, Alberta. My wife and I look at our resources and decide that it is possible to foster three children. Those children will be assimilated into the life and culture of my family, especially if they are eventually adopted. In that sense the family needs a law code, a culture, to bring these children into. Now, the state sees me doing a really good job with those children and so they show up one day with twenty more children for me to foster. That won’t work very well, will it? It would be unwise to acquiesce to such a request. Disorder would likely ensue if I did.

We should consider then that it may be necessary to slow down the rate of immigration significantly, focusing on bringing in professionals, and especially immigrants of Christian persuasion. If necessary, Canada should consider a moratorium on immigration or at least a stall on new citizenships until we implement better immigration policy than that of the last twenty-five years, especially the last five years.

For the sake of national unity and cultural cohesion, we should want to integrate immigrants into a Christian Canada, as we once were. We are a nation founded on the supremacy of God and the rule of law. You will find these priorities in the Canadian Bill of Rights¹⁷ as well as in the Constitution Act of 1982.¹⁸ The Magna Carta and other such documents which elevate the church in society also undergird Canada’s great tradition.

If Canada’s immigration policies do not change, she will continue to build a pagan future that is wrought with division. I have pointed out some of these divisions here in this article and will do so again in future articles.

Conclusion

We can see various dangers of mass immigration within Canada, recognizing that, beginning in 2001, immigration has been rapidly increasing, reaching a very high rate in comparison to the population of the country, especially in the last ten years. I have pointed to at least one Biblical principle in Deuteronomy 23 and to the need for assimilation into a Canadian culture founded on Christian principles. I have also considered the principle of prudence or wisdom in forming immigration policy. In the upcoming installment, I will speak about the godless roots of modern immigration policy.

1. Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27. laws-lois.justice.gc.ca [↑]

2. Statistics Canada, Estimates of the components of demographic growth of Canada, annual, September 2025, 150.statcan.gc.ca [↑]

3. Statistics Canada, Estimates of the components of demographic growth of Canada, annual, September 2025, 150.statcan.gc.ca [↑]

4. Jock Finlayson and Steven Globerman, “Average annual immigration was 617,800 from 2000 to 2015 compared to 1.4 million from 2016 to 2024,” Fraser Institute, July 8, 2025, fraserinstitute.org [↑]

5. Scott Stinson, “Ontario changes regulations to prevent illegal migrants from collecting social assistance,” National Post, August 13, 2026, nationalpost.com [↑]

6. Jack Farrell, “Alberta panel members say idea to cut aid to some newcomers comes from provincial government,” Global News, June 25, 2025, globalnews.ca [↑]

7. Homa Khaleeli, “Inside Britain’s sharia councils: hardline and anti-women – or a dignified way to divorce?”, The Guardian, March 1, 2017, theguardian.com [↑]

8. Jack Farrell, “Alberta government tables legislation to enable halal mortgage options,” Global News, November 4, 2024, globalnews.ca [↑]

9. DeNeen L. Brown, “Canadians Allow Islamic Courts to Decide Disputes,” Washington Post, April 7, 2024, washingtonpost.com [↑]

10. Christian Heritage Party of Canada, Canada, a Christian Country, PDF file, Accessed May 28, 2026, chp.ca [↑]

11. Christian Roots Canada, “The 25 Scriptures,” Christian Roots Canada, Accessed May 28, 2026, christianrootscanada.org [↑]

12. Canada, Legislature, Parliamentary Debates on the Subject of the Confederation of the British North American Provinces, 3rd Session, 8th Provincial Parliament of Canada (Quebec: Hunter, Rose, 1865), 86. [↑]

13. David Marshall, “Religion in Canada, 1867-1945,” Cambridge University Press, July 28, 2012, cambridge.org [↑]

14. Statistics Canada, “The Canadian census: A rich portrait of the country's religious and ethnocultural diversity,” The Daily, October 26, 2022, statcan.gc.ca [↑]

15. Kevin Flatt, After Evangelicalism: the Sixties and the United Church of Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013), p. 219-221. [↑]

16. Andre Schutten and Michael Wagner, A Christian Citizenship Guide, 2nd Edition: Christianity and Canadian Political Life (ARPA Canada, 2022), p. 220. [↑]

17. Canadian Bill of Rights, SC 1960, c.44, laws-lois.justice.gc.ca [↑]

18. Government of Canada, Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c.11, laws-lois.justice.gc.ca [↑]