Canada being a relatively new country, as far as the history of the world goes was built by immigration. Every single resident of North America can trace his ancestry back to the cradle of life in Europe. Even Native Americans found their way to the new world over a frozen ice pack, spreading out across the land, weaving a rich culture and prospering. The Canada that we know today began only in the last 200 years. Settlers poured in from all over the world, tempted with free land and religious liberty Europeans settled in Canada by the thousands.
They brought with them traditions and a legal system modeled after he English governments. Although is undeniable that Immigration made Canada into the strong nation that it is, I feel that Immigration as it is set up these days does not build our country but tears it down. The open gates policy implemented by our government leaves the Canadian social system wide open to be abused by would-be migrants in other countries. It is quite obvious that the system currently running is quite imperfect. This paper will attempt to show flaws in Canada’s immigration policy and suggest new policy’s which fit better with Canada’s social landscape.
All over the world populations are growing at tremendous rates. Nothing in this world happens by accident, the populations are moving because they expect an increase in quality of life in the new country. Country’s all over the world view Canada as a great place to live, the United Nations bills Canada as the best place to live. When third world people look at their present situations, they think that they could instantly improve their surroundings by moving to Canada. By pure logic it would seem like madness to open Canada’s doors wide open to any immigrant which wishes to come to Canada.
We would be swamped! But that is precisely what Canada has done. There is no end in sight. With a growing world population more and more people will see Canada as the premier place to live and will come flocking to our gates. Many Canadian’s do not agree with the current immigration policy our the idea that we should let even more immigrants in. Many issues need to be debated and settled such as should we allow further immigration into Canada, to what degree should immigrants segregate or integrate, who should be allowed to immigrate, and on what conditions.
These are very serious questions and the answers to them will have a profound effect on life in Canada and indeed all over the world. Until the great depression at the beginning of the century Canada had encouraged immigration from Europe, especially Britain. During the Great Depression Immigration was brought to a halt, the reason being that foreign workers coming to Canada looking for jobs were unwanted. Bands of men roamed the country searching for any kind of work. After W. W. II Canada’s economy grew so fast that thousands of immigrants were let in, mostly from Europe.
The time in-between Canada shut it’s gate to when it reopened them is called the first great digestion period. A period with no immigrants allowed Canada to set up social programs, ake jobs, and integrate the existing new citizens into our economy. Since W. W. II the basic immigration policy has remained the same with no such period, we have steadily let larger numbers of foreigners into our country. In the past 60 years there has been no such period and the population has outgrown the job base. One of the main arguments that immigration enthusiasts use is that Immigrants will fill jobs and produce more then they consume.
At this moment Canada has upwards of eleven percent unemployment. What use do we possibly have for thousands of new people flooding the job market. Our economy needs to strengthen and grow so it can support itself before we burden our welfare system by bringing in more unneeded workers. The issue of immigration is permanently with Canada and important because every single Canadian can trace his lineage back to an immigrant somewhere. The flow of people into Canada is not going to stop unless we pass and bill to make immigration standards tougher.
Lately there has been a movement to remove discriminatory law from the Canadian constitution and it is getting so we are too politically correct. In 1996 so many Asians flooded Vancouver that a separate school system had too be set up to accommodate these students who would not learn English or fit into the full English schools. This represents astronomical costs to British Columbia’s already stretched educational system all because Canada does not regulate the flow of immigrants from any country. This type of law would be “discriminatory”.
Another example of where Canada’s polite policy falls short of common sense is that we let cancer patients, and people who carry the virus that leads to AIDS into our country where they are sure to cost thousands of dollars to our health care ystem, and those with the virus could pass it on. Common sense says that if a immigrant is going to cost a lot of money to support and then die without contributing to the society then that immigrant should not be granted entrance. If Canada wants to keep it’s status as a wealthy country, and a good place to live it had better modify it’s immigration policy.
Canada’s multicultural pol….. icy where immigrant’s are not expected to assimilate and the unchecked flow of immigrants from countries abroad has led to visible minorities in Canada which do not want to be “Canadian”, but want to set up communities ike the ones they once occupied in their old countries. The Doukhobour sect in Canada declares “They have never given, nor will they ever give their votes during elections, thereby are free from any responsibility before God or man for the acts of any government established by men” A truly assimilated immigrant would be unrecognizable in the host society.
There are essentially 2 types of assimilation, the first of which is behavioral assimilation. In behavioral assimilation all minority groups adhere to the values of the majority and behave accordingly. This theory could be applied to the American model. Immigrants are expected to learn English, dress, and behave like “Americans” do. The second type of assimilation is structural assimilation. In this system all groups in the society have equal access and utilize the same institutions, and social structures but do not necessarily behave or believe alike.
This theory is especially well adept to describing the Canadian multicultural system. It has been argued that by keeping their old identities immigrants “enrich and strengthen” our society. What this has ultimately resulted in is isolating these groups from society. When we think of what being Canadian means, no one is quite sure. Multiculturalism has resulted in several visible minorities. These minority’s because they generally vote together control a considerable portion of the vote. One of the best examples of this is The French speaking population is the province of Quebec.
The population of Quebec makes up about thirty percent of the Canadian population yet has succeeded in running the Canadian agenda for over 30 years. Politicians scrambling to please this large section of voting power has given Quebec a level of power and voice in the federal government that is ridiculous and bordering on dangerous. Quebec has demanded special status, gets four new seats in the house of commons at every census and has set up discriminatory language laws in the province in order to keep it’s own English minority under check.
This is a prime example of how a minority has refused to assimilate and ends up causing problems for a country. The more functions that a ethnic group can perform inside a closed community the less obligation it’s members will feel to learn the law, language, and traditions of the host culture. This creates a isolated communities where the people of the community don’t feel part of the society in which they live. One solution for this is to spread immigration from a country out over our country, this would prevent closed community’s to a large degree.
When immigrants come they swear allegiance to Canada and they should respect our culture and try to fit in a little bit. The plain fact is that immigration is bad for the economy. The majority of immigrants that come to Canada have no material possessions at all. Screening immigrants based on wealth is illegal by our constitution. Before the Immigrants arrived on Canada’s shores there was already 11% of Canada’s citizens which had no jobs. With each new arriving immigrant this figure will increase. In 1990, spent $16 billion more in welfare payments to immigrants that they paid back in taxes.
Perhaps what is most disturbing is that immigrants feel they can steel from us in order to maintain a high standard of life in our country, immigrants compose 25 percent of the prisoners in federal penitentiaries, which our taxes support. The fact is that the immigration problem is not going to go away. By 2050 third world country’s with 245 million people will have population density’s of 1,700 people per km2. Our cities are already flooded with illions of jobless immigrants annually, this problem is only going to get worse.
As the citizens in a democracy we must give the government a mandate to shut down, or slow down as much as possible immigration! Canada does not have a lot of money to share with the worlds poor, we have created a system which makes money and we cannot let immigration get in the way of the welfare of Canada’s citizens. If a potential immigrant can show convincingly that he can bring a meaningful contribution to our country’s welfare he is welcomed, but the practice of letting immense amounts of immigrants must be brought to a halt.
