Immigration

Is Canadian immigration working? That is a relevant question across our nation and the answer depends on what your definition is and what your ideas are, of what immigration is supposed to achieve.

I only bring this up because of an experience on Saturday. I was called to a home to give a price on installing a poster. Yes, a poster. It was a 'peel and stick' life size poster of Roberto Luango, the goal tender of the NHL team, the Vancouver Canucks.

The whole experience was a mixture of contrasts. I felt a little uncomfortable as I entered a neighbourhood that I normally would never drive through. As I stopped and went to the house, the neighbours were all gazing at me, and one even came to me as I was ringing the doorbell. It was a feeling of "what are you doing here". The look, the smells, the faces, the chatter of the neighbours out enjoying a mild clear Saturday morning gave me a feeling of being in a foreign country. This place is only 1 Km. from my house. 

Inside the home, it was a mix of cultures, again with decor, smells, dress, and language. The young children were the only ones who spoke any English. 

I had a nice chat with the father (who looked like a gangster) through the 7 year old son. He offered me a drink but because I had just had lunch I graciously turned him down. I have had their tea few times and actually enjoy it. 

'Luongo' was for the young boy who was playing hockey, not just street hockey but ice hockey with some famous hockey school here in town. 

The father's biggest concern was keeping his kids busy to keep them off the street. He then pointed across the street where there are trails leading onto a wooded hillside and told me that there were young people drinking and doing drugs there every night. "I want my kids to survive" he told me. 

Back to the question. If immigration is failing, it is because of ghettoization. Integration is the ideal, but will never succeed until it is somewhat forced. We are hearing more and more of discrimination and racism in the schools. As the immigration population increases as a percentage of the general population, we are seeing more of this all the time. The racism I am talking about is against the white anglo saxons. 

The majority always rules, either by law or by intimidation and when the majority is Canadian, not white, not black, not brown, not any ethnic or racial group, we will all be winners. That just is not happening. 

If immigration is all about numbers, it is a success, for sure. If it is about creating new Canadians to build our country in the spirit of its founders, it is failing. Cultures have always clashed because they have differing ideas on some of the basics of societal living. Immigrants cannot be faulted for bringing these ideas and standards with them. It is only natural. When they do not yield to our standards, society begins to dislike this new way of doing things. It is natural. We all think we are right. The discrimination and distrust settle in when the small immigrant minority begin to make a mark on society and then the home and native land gets nervous. Then the immigrant minority gains the upper hand through a higher birth rate and family re-unification programs and then the natives start to get really frightened. Emboldened by numbers, the immigrant community bands together to start electing officials who see things their way, or they elect their own people. That is when things really start changing, and then there is no turning back. 

My community is a microcosm of what is happening all around the world. Throughout Europe, the same dilemma exists, but not with the same people groups. There it is the Muslims, causing problems in France, Spain, Britain, and some Scandinavian countries. Just lately I read about whole neighbourhoods, in Paris, being bought up by Chinese immigrants. The businesses are changed and do not cater to French tastes. The French move out. They abort their babies, while the Chinese do not, and slowly they (the immigrants) take over. 

Bottom line. We live in the cliched Global Village. It is imperative that we all get along. But how can we when we are all so different. I can only take the pessimistic view that it will get worse. Nobody wants their turf usurped.