Essay/Term paper: Invaded by immigrants

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Immigration

Invaded By Immigrants


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
the 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,
make 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
system, 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 policy 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
like 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
millions 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.

Bibliography

1. Curran, Thomas; Xenophobia And Immigration. Boston: Twayne, 1975.

2. Globerman, Steven; Immigration Delemma. Vancouver: Fraser, 1992.

3. Hawkins, Freda; Canada and Immigration. Montreal: McGill, 1970.

4. Knowles, Valerie; Strangers at Our Gates. Toronto: Dundurn,1992.

5. Malarek, Victor; Haven's Gate. Toronto: Macmillan, 1987.

6. Munro, Iain; Immigration. Toronto: Wiley, 1941.

7. Norris, John; Strangers Entertained. Vancouver: Evergreen, 1971.

8. Sharma, Satya; Immigrants and Refugees In Canada. Saskatchewan; University,
1991.

9. Sillars, Les. "Something Stinks In Immigration." Alberta Report, August 12,
1996, pp. 12.

10. Stoffman, Daniel. "Canada's Farcical Refugee System." Readers Digest, Sept.
1995, pp. 53-57.

11. Taylor, Rupert; Canada and the World. Waterloo; Ebsco, 1994.