A weekend topic starting with Bloomberg. "The surge in immigration will help bolster the US economy by about $7 trillion over the next decade by swelling the labor force and increasing demand, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. The increased migration stems mainly from people entering the US illegally and from those released by Customs and Border Protection officials. The CBO report underscores some of the economic advantages that can be gained from increased immigration — a point that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made in a CBS News 60 Minutes interview broadcast on Feb. 4. 'The US economy has benefited from immigration' over time, Powell said, while stressing that he wasn’t telling Congress what should be done regarding the issue."

"In a briefing for reporters, CBO Director Phil Swagel said the agency did not take account of housing and other costs states and localities are confronting because of the surge in migration as those are outside the agency’s purview."

Bisnow South Florida. "Short-term rental projects are proliferating across Miami, with more rental condos than traditional units planned in the urban core and Miami Beach. Economic and political uncertainty across much of Latin America has fueled the growth of short-term projects, with developers capitalizing on foreign buyers who are looking for places outside their borders to invest capital, ISG World CEO Craig Studnicky said. 'Developers knew they could sell that really fast to the nervous-flight capital coming out of Latin America,' he said."

"Studnicky said he tracked the development of around 7,900 short-term rental units in Miami-Dade and Broward counties in the three decades ending in 2020. In the last four years, he has counted 8,200 units added to the region’s inventory. 'It was a carpe diem moment,' Studnicky said. Developers 'seized the day, they seized the opportunity to grab a lot of capital.'"

ABC 7 in California. "The city of Los Angeles is demanding that the now-bankrupt owner of a heavily tagged high-rise project clean up the downtown property - or the city will do it themselves and stick them with the bill. The City Council on Friday passed a resolution calling on the owners of Oceanwide Plaza to start removing the graffiti that now covers much of the 27-story complex, as well as removing the scaffolding blocking the sidewalks and securing the property from additional vandalism. Construction on the three-tower complex halted in 2020 as the Chinese developers went bankrupt."

The Los Angeles Times. "For the last quarter century, Democratic politicians in California have operated under the maxim that the more laws enacted to protect people in this country without legal status, the better. Legislators in Sacramento passed bills that allowed undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses, pay in-state tuition at public universities and receive Medi-Cal. They declared California a 'sanctuary state,' prohibiting local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration agents. School districts have approved extending voting rights to parents without papers. Cities and counties have contributed municipal funds to help residents caught up in deportation proceedings."

"There's a risk in transposing the past to the present. That's why Democrats should worry about polls showing that in California, Latino support for undocumented immigrants and measures to help them has steadily eroded over the last two decades. In a 2019 Public Policy Institute of California survey, 75% of Latinos thought illegal border crossings, at a time of much-publicized migrant caravans, were either a 'crisis' or a 'serious problem' — more than the 70% of whites who felt the same way."

"And the shift continues. A December survey by UnidosUS, formerly known as National Council of La Raza, of more than 3,000 Latinos in eight states showed that California Latinos were more open to “increasing border security” than Latinos in Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. We tied with Florida for last place in wanting the government to provide a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers. Of all the states, we least wanted to increase legal immigration or allow an amnesty for undocumented immigrants."

The Globe and Mail on Colorado. "A year ago, worries about gun control dominated Andrea Ryall’s thinking. She pulled her children from school, choosing to teach them at home rather than cry when she dropped them off, worried they would be the next shooting victims. But the tens of thousands of migrants who have been coming to Denver have upended her priorities – and those of the state’s Democratic leaders. For the past two months, Ms. Ryall, a Democratic voter, has joined with numerous other mothers in Denver to provide care for the busloads of migrants who have arrived here, many of them Venezuelans sent north from Texas. By some measures, Denver has received more migrants per capita than any other U.S. city."

"Something, Ms. Ryall says, has to give. 'We are killing ourselves in this community, pouring out our financial resources, actual goods – boots, coats – and time. The insane amount of time. No one is sleeping,' she says. 'Our lives are completely upside down. We need federal action.' It’s a question of necessity, says Mike Dino, a Democratic political strategist in Colorado. 'The state doesn’t have the money to house everybody. That’s the bottom line. It’s a numbers game.'"

25 News in Massachusetts. "Boston’s Fort Point neighbors are digesting the news that migrants may soon be moving into an office building in their community. 24 Farnsworth Street, a 92,000-square-foot six-story building, is being considered by the state as a contender for a new migrant overflow shelter. Community leaders in Fort Point, steps away from the Seaport, are now pushing for a public meeting to get their questions answered. How many migrants could be moving into the building and exactly when they could arrive remains unclear. 'It’s a burden on the residents already here,' said Loriann Furbush. 'We can’t work any harder to support these people just bombarding us.'"

From The BBC. "Canada has long been a draw for people from India's Punjab province seeking new opportunities elsewhere. But has the Canadian dream soured? It's hard to miss the ardour of Punjab's migrant ambitions when driving through its fertile rural plains. Billboards promising easy immigration to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK jut out through ample mustard fields. Single-storey brick homes double up as canvasses for hand-painted mural advertisements promising quick visas. And in the town of Bathinda, hundreds of agents jostle for space on a single narrow street, pledging to speed up the youth's runaway dreams. For over a century, this province in India's northwest has seen waves of overseas migration; from the Sikh soldiers inducted into the British Indian Army travelling to Canada, through to rural Punjabis settling in England post-independence."

"But some, especially from Canada, are now choosing to come back home. One of those is 28-year-old Balkar, who returned in early 2023 after just one year in Toronto. his Canadian dream quickly lost its allure a few months into his life there. 'Everything was so expensive. I had to work 50 hours every week after college, just to survive,' he told the BBC. 'High inflation is making many students leave their studies.' Balkar now runs an embroidery business from a small room on one side of the expansive central courtyard in his typical Punjabi home. He also helps on his family's farm to supplement his income. 'I have a good life here. Why should I face hardships there when I can live at home and make good money?' he asks. The BBC spoke to at least half a dozen reverse migrants in Punjab who shared similar sentiments."

"For a country that places such a high value on immigration, these trends are 'concerning' and are 'being received with a bit of a sting politically,' says Daniel Bernhard of the Institute of Canadian Citizenship, an immigration advocacy group. A liberalised immigration regime has been Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's signature policy to counter slowing economic growth and a rapidly aging population."

The Globe and Mail. "The Trudeau government, has to completely rethink the giant shadow immigration system that it fostered – temporary foreign workers, visa students and an overwhelmed asylum system. It must undo policies of its own doing. It’s clear that’s what the country needs. It’s clear that’s what the country wants. But acting in the national interest doesn’t always come easy to governments. The Liberals broke the immigration system by allowing the temporary immigration streams – temporary foreign workers and visa-students-as-temporary-foreign-workers – to explode in size. They also weakened visa rules, leading to a sharp rise in the number of unvetted people landing at our airports and immediately making a refugee claim, each of which will take years to resolve in an underfunded and increasingly backlogged refugee-determination system."

"By the third quarter of 2023, Canada had more than 2½ million temporary residents, and rising, up from one-tenth that number at the beginning of the century. In any case, according to Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce economist Benjamin Tal, the official figures may undercount the temporary population by as much as one million. Ottawa fostered a parallel immigration system that is now far larger than the traditional, permanent immigration system. And unlike the regular immigration system’s economic-immigration stream, the focus is on low-wage labour. The impact is seen in falling gross domestic product per capita and rental housing prices rising much faster than the rate of inflation. Both have the effect of lowering living standards, particularly for low- and middle-income Canadians."

The Vancouver Sun. "There has been a great deal of confusion when it comes to figuring out why Metro Vancouver housing prices are so astronomical, especially in the past decade. But it is becoming increasingly clear why the Vancouver region’s prices have grown so out of line with the rest of Canada and other major economies. Metro Vancouver suffered a direct hit almost a decade ago, at the same time gigantic amounts of capital were moving out of China, contributing to residents dealing with some of the most unaffordable prices in the world (with Toronto a close second)."

"This phenomenon has been captured by Josh Gordon of McMaster University and economist David Williams of the Business Council of B.C. Their research counters past accusations by politicians, real-estate industry executives and pundits that it is xenophobic to suggest such a thing. And now the Bank of Canada and countless others are recognizing that overall Canadian prices and rents are exaggerated compared to other well-off countries — largely because of Canada’s unprecedented population growth, almost all of which comes from international migration."

"There were many reasons an estimated $1 trillion US left China so rapidly, headed especially for real estate in Canada, Australia, the U.S. and Great Britain. At the time, China’s wealthy elite were dealing with a stock-market collapse and crackdowns on alleged corrupt officials by President Xi Jinping. Communist China’s rich wanted an overseas haven for their assets. We can understand how that surge of Chinese capital impacted Metro Vancouver by looking at what happened in Australia, which is more transparent than Ottawa about reporting on the source of incoming foreign capital. Its data shows Chinese money outflows changed in a startling way a decade ago."

"In just three years there was a 600-per-cent jump in the volume of Chinese real-estate investment in Australia — leaping from $5.9 billion a year in 2013 to $31.9 billion in 2016, before declining. A similar pattern occurred in Metro Vancouver, a gateway city similar to Sydney. That demand has been exacerbated ever since 2015, when newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began to crank up targets for new permanent and non-permanent residents to rates far more intense than any other Western country. Last year, Canada’s population grew by a record 1.25 million people because of it. For Metro Vancouver, it all adds up to a double whammy: The gateway city has its own distinct house-price problems, and it’s located in a country that compounds them."

The Sydney Morning Herald. "Former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet has called for negative gearing reforms to be put back on the table as part of a wider debate about how tax reform could address housing affordability. In his first public appearance since losing the March election last year, Perrottet also said the Commonwealth should help NSW and Victoria cover the cost of infrastructure for new arrivals, given it was the federal government that benefited from the lazy economic 'Ponzi scheme' of immigration. Perrottet said housing had become a burning issue for Australians, both for those who could not afford a home and for those worried about their children."

The Telegraph. "For a while, many fooled themselves into thinking there was no economic challenge that could not be surmounted by mass migration. Nearly a million job vacancies? The shortage occupation list can whittle that down, perfectly matching skilled supply to labour market demand. A social care staffing crisis? Import cheap foreign workers, even if it undermines the Brexit promise that only the 'best and brightest' would come to Britain once we took control of our borders."

"The latest population projections show immigration adding six million people to the British population over the 15 years from 2021 to 2036. This has coincided with a reorientation of migration flows away from Europe and towards the rest of the world. One study, for instance, found that in the year to September 2023, fewer than 4,000 visas were issued to French nationals, compared to over 150,000 for people from India. Politicians and bureaucrats have over the years convinced themselves of the unalloyed benefits of mass migration. Highly-skilled and highly-paid, they said, it would turbocharge economic growth."

"But a close look at the data reveals the economic case for mass migration, once so compelling, is now collapsing. Over the past five years, two million people from outside Europe arrived in Britain through net migration, a small proportion of whom came for work. The rest entered as the relatives of workers, international students, the relatives of these students, or as asylum seekers and refugees."

"In 2023, 144,000 health and care visas were issued, but a further 174,000 dependants came, too. These health and care visas account for two in five of all work visas. Two-thirds of these are for care workers and fall under the least skilled occupational classification. And with all jobs on the shortage occupation list, they are being brought in to work for less. But this is only one side of the ledger. The myth has long been perpetuated that, because migrants are overwhelmingly of working age, they will not be a drain on public services. Government impact assessments seem to have overlooked that migrants still need housing, roads, transport, the NHS – just look at the queue for Bristol’s newest dental surgery. They may need benefits and, eventually, a state pension."

"We are living in a false economy. One where GDP is growing at snail’s pace, but GDP per capita has started to click into reverse. Where British workers languish on benefits while the Government ramps up its low-skill, low-wage immigration regime. Britain should have a functioning visa system, one that welcomes the highly-skilled and provides refuge to those genuinely seeking asylum. What we have instead is a con. No one is fooled anymore."