Innovative ways to stimulate the economy: Encourage the right kind of immigration

This is just one of the Innovative Ways to Stimulate the Economy suggested by DailyFinance contributors. See them all.

Before you jump down my throat, saying that all immigrants do is drive up unemployment, allow me to bring forth some evidence to the contrary that shows immigration can also help stimulate a troubled economy, not to mention a weak housing market.

If you just look up, no, not at the sky, but up north to your friendly neighbor Canada, you'll hear how immigration helped it stave off a housing market recession in the 1990s -- the only recession when Canada hasn't reduced immigration. Not only that, but the influx of skilled workers in some areas has led to residential and commercial investments. Of course, not all is rosy as the mixed results of Canadian research on immigration's economic impact suggest. Still, immigration is believed to mostly have benefits, if only by virtue of population growth.