The United States is less generous in its immigration policies compared to Canada and Australia.
Posted by Bulwark Takes, Checked
- Sources
- 2 contradict3 support3 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 50%
Bulwark TakesAug 29, 2026
Whether the US is less generous than Canada and Australia depends on the measure. By absolute number of legal immigrants the US admits more than either country, while per-capita OECD comparisons (Cato, which puts the US 25th among OECD countries) and the family-versus-economic framing of the other sources point toward Canada and Australia being more open.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
… successful because we're good at that, because we give people opportunities that they will not have in their home countries, whether because of overt, you know, authoritarian squelching of good ideas or just lack of economic opportunity. And so, like, our system of being relatively generous, not incredibly generous, by the way, compared to Canada or Australia or other countries, but, like, reasonably generous about letting people come here based on family ties, letting people come here because they have nowhere else to go and they need protection, letting people come here as students, like, that process of boosting our population …
Bulwark Takes · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Contradicts. FactCheck.org and PolitiFact found that the US issues close to one million permanent residencies a year, more than any other country in absolute terms, which supports the 'most generous' framing on a total-number measure.[1][2]
Supports. Cato's analysis of OECD data for 2016 ranks the US 25th most open per capita among OECD countries, consistent with the US being less generous than peers on a population-adjusted basis.[3]
Supports. The Wilson Center notes that Canada's family-reunification rules are more restrictive than the US's, but Canada admits most immigrants through an economic category, and Canada and Australia use merit-based point systems that the US lacks.[4][5]
Context. Sources frame the comparison as contested: the US has the largest absolute legal inflow, while Canada and Australia rank higher on population-adjusted and skill-based measures, so the answer turns on which measure is used.[6][7][8]
Sources
8 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 5 not rated, 1 tier 2
- 1FactChecking CPAC - FactCheck.orgfactcheck.org · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts
- 2Rubio: America is 'most generous' country when it comes to legal immigrationpolitifact.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts
- 3PragerU's "A Nation of Immigrants" Video Has Serious Problemscato.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 4A Layered Look at Canadian and U.S. Immigration5g.wilsoncenter.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5Competing Approaches to Selecting Economic Immigrantsmigrationpolicy.org · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6What Can the U.S. Learn From How Other Countries Handle ...nytimes.com · tier 2 · cited for: context
- 7Does the U.S. issue more green cards for permanent legal immigration than all the rest of the nations of the world combined? - WHYYwhyy.org · not rated · cited for: context
- 8Skilled immigration to fill talent gaps: A comparison of the immigration policies of the United States, Canada, and Australialink.springer.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post