U.S. President Joe Biden, in one of his regularly inept utterances, recently castigated Japan and other East Asian countries for being “xenophobic,” compared to the relatively immigrant-friendly United States. The president surely made no friends, but actually spoke something of the truth, or perhaps more of a half-truth.

As Biden suggests, western immigration receiving countries like the U.S., Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom have long benefited from mass migration. Canada, for example, ranks eighth among receiving countries, but has a considerably higher percentage of foreign born citizens than its much more populous neighbour.