Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths, Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates.
Rudyard and Janice start today's show with Trump's address at the UN General Assembly this week where he warned European countries that they are "going to hell" due to mass migration. While citizens rightfully expect their governments to protect their borders, we can't ignore the fact that we in the West need immigrants for economic growth and low skilled labour that is not being filled by native populations. The test for any government is how they manage immigration to benefit their societies instead of destabilizing them. Is Canada better at integrating newcomers than European countries? Rudyard and Janice agree that if we aren't careful about the pace of change in society and manage our ability to welcome large numbers of newcomers we could end up with a hard right populist movement, the kind we are seeing sweep through Europe and parts of the U.S. A sense of shared history, tradition, culture, and community is required to keep people grounded and populist politics at bay.
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