Immigrants in Canada | Canadaimmigrants Past Editorials.

April 2008

‘Sustainable’ Development, Canadian Style

Recipe for a precarious economy:

Expand (precarious) temporary foreign worker programs

Attract and marginalize highly skilled immigrants

Debilitate the manufacturing sector

Reinforce regional polarization

Become an oil colony… not an oil power

Expand powers of public servants

Good thing that Canada bases its rhetoric on the “knowledge-based society” jargon… like most “third-world” administrations do.

	March 2008
	Hello! Is anybody listening to the OECD? The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) concluded that underemployment of highly skilled immigrants in Canada is the result of its faulty immigration policies... Of course, to the Canadian government its lack of leadership in social policies is more profitable than developing a comprehensive population policy.

	February 2008
	Race: A defining issue in Canada The plan for a school for black students in Toronto (Afrocentric) puts a big question mark on the way policy makers are addressing racial issues in Canada. Why hasn’t the government done something to reduce chronically high drop-out rates among black students? How will ‘Afrocentric’ graduates face systemic racism prevailing in Canada? In other words, marginalization and discrimination go far beyond the classrooms walls; where the establishment doesn’t want to go nor even talk about.

	January 2008
	$4.5 million to start accommodating the bureaucracy in Quebec Finally, the devious “accommodation” scheme is getting what their mentors really wanted: money to promote themselves in the business of promoting “Quebec's culture"… Surely, they will introduce new French-Quebecers in their shameful art of wasting taxpayers’ money on such useless “tasks”... After all, following their tradition, everything will stay in the family.

December 2007

French-Canadian Tolerance

Since their arrival (as immigrants), most French-Canadians in Quebec have refused to be assimilated. History books show that they have tried everything* to keep their religion, language and customs. Indeed, their politicians have tried to create “their own country” —within Canada? Or within Quebec? Who knows?

Now, they want to force new immigrants** to be assimilated by “accommodating” their religion, language and customs to the French-Canadian way of life. Is that their way to show their ethnocentric “tolerance” in the 21st century?

*During the French colonial rule in the 1600s, Roman Catholic missionaries attempted to set up the first residential schools. In fact, during the 19th and 20th century, 60% of these schools were administrated by Roman Catholics.
**According to the census data, from 1991 to 2001, the Christian affiliation among immigrants in Quebec decreased 9%, and the Catholic affiliation 5.1%.

	September 2007
	Mexico: Canada’s top source of refugee claims They want to escape corrupt authorities and drug dealers… Isn’t Mexico one of the three extreme conservative Amigos? With almost eight years in power, ultra conservative politicians have been ‘strengthening’ the Mexican economy and democracy. Why is the Mexican middle class fleeing such flamboyant advancement? Failing to get its highly skilled workers quota, accepting these ‘refugees’ seems to be an attractive opportunity for Canada. Once again, in order to get cheap labour, business between Canada and Mexico will continue as usual; both Establishments benefiting from inefficient policies and corrupt practices.

	August 2007
	Unaccountable $32 Millions in Grants The questionable performance of the Ontario’s Citizenship Minister, Mike Colle, shows, on one hand, how far the federal government is from implementing a comprehensive immigration policy. On the other hand, it shows how lenient the judicial system is when penalizing high-ranking bureaucrats, who sooner or later, will hold another public position... maybe designing more “brilliant” policies for our “knowledge based” society. News

	July 2007
	$43 million to help new immigrants settle in British Columbia Who applauded these funds? “Non-profit" immigrant-serving associations shamelessly welcomed this initiative. After 33 years of being in the business of “helping” immigrants, S.U.C.C.E.S.S and other agencies are too happy for getting multimillionaire funding and not being evaluated ever. Even when facts show greater deteriorating income levels among highly educated immigrants in B.C. over the last 25 years, these agencies still get funding!! Both the B.C. government and these agencies must be audited, so Canada won’t waste more taxpayer’s money on inadequate, costly and obsolete services. If what they want is cheap labour, there is no need for these agencies either.

June 2007

Canada’s “Booming” Economy:
Air Canada, Catalyst, Chrysler, Ford…

Strengthening the economy by spreading precarious employment is not new science; many "third world" countries have already done that, and how are they now? They are trying to survive on one or two resources left. Hmm, it smells like… oil sands!!

How far will the Alberta’s oil sands stench go? It has covered the speculative value of the Canadian dollar, the official employment and inflation rates, and even generous pay increases to servile bureaucrats and politicians. These people are so pleased with the suffocating situation of the working poor and thousands of laid off workers that they have no hesitation in undermining labour standards in the private sector.

May 2007

Canada’s Environment Plan

"In my opinion, it is a complete and total fraud," Al Gore said referring to Canada's Environment Plan, "it is designed to mislead the Canadian people."

The importance of Gore’s statement is the fact that the Canadian government can’t hide any longer the true colors of its policies and programs. Gray and turbid policies designed to mislead not only the Canadian people but also the international opinion.

Once again, the world can corroborate that misleading is a constant element in Canadian policies by checking the levels of chronic impoverishment that highly skilled immigrants experience when they move to the “Best place to live.”

	April 2007
	Can't find a job, immigrants turn to short-lived businesses Welcome to Canada. A country where it takes ten years or more for most skilled immigrants to get "close" to the level of employment/benefits of white Canadian-born workers with similar skills. A country where starting a small business takes all of the immigrant’s resources and survives less than two years. Welcome to Canada, where thousands of government and “non-profit” agencies are proud of making immigrants accept menial jobs or waste their limited resources on unproductive venues. Even more, they "teach" foreign professionals how to become part of the “successful" self-employed pool. News

	March 2007
	*Canada named a culprit in China's brain drain* While the Chinese government has listed Canada among the top recipients of exported talent, increasing poverty levels among highly educated immigrants unequivocally show Canada as the major culprit in the World’s brain waste.

	February 2007
	Emigrant Babies A new trend? Since many immigrants don’t have access to professional and affordable childcare services in Canada, they are opting for sending their Canadian-born kids to their home countries, where relatives would take care of them. Kind of disturbing and paradoxical phenomena; immigrants come to Canada to achieve a higher living standard, and Canada devours all of the immigrants’ assets while depriving them from raising their kids. This is by far the most exploitative economic system that humanity has ever known. Even slaves were fed, so they could reproduce themselves and endure their hardships. Needless to say, Canada is setting a new trend in inhumane treatment and forced labour conditions for immigrants.

January 2007

The credibility of Canada’s immigration policy

1. The number of prospective immigrants has plummeted because they know that there are no suitable jobs in Canada.

2. Polish welders are suing a Canadian company for bringing them under false pretenses.

3. Conservative patronage appointments to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) continue.

4. Bureaucrats travel to other countries to “sell” Canada to prospective immigrants.

The Canadian government still believes that immigration policies consist of costly and desperate campaigns to lure immigrants into this country, but potential immigrants don’t believe that anymore.

December 2006

Understanding efficiency in a self-proclaimed
"knowledge-based" society

Nearly $1 billion has been poured into the pursuit of treaties in British Columbia since 1993 but not a single deal has been completed. In the same way, lots of money has been granted so far to immigrant-serving agencies and still most foreign professionals are under-employed*. This is not a coincidence; it’s the most primitive but efficient way to transfer taxpayers’ money to government-friendly lawyers, agencies, contractors, and subcontractors.

Estimating the losses caused by this lavish mismanagement is not enough. The current administration should show some respect to the overtaxed Canadian working class; otherwise, it will confirm its consent to these vicious practices once again.

* News

	November 2006
	Some Canadian bureaucrats fail language test more than a dozen times* Since the Chretien government made fluency in French and English mandatory for most executive bureaucrats, who must be bilingual by 2007, most of them have failed the test a few times, but some have failed more than a dozen times. Are these executive bureaucrats the ones who have been designing all sorts of policies including the immigration policy, and the credential and language assessments for foreign professionals? Sure, they are. Their role is to “protect the Canadian standards” by putting barriers to skilled immigrants, so no one could see their executive level of incompetence and remove them from their highly paid positions. * Ottawa Citizen. Oct. 7

October 2006

8,000 foreign doctors
are not allowed to practice in Canada

Let’s add foreign engineers, nurses, researchers, and other specialists to that shocking number, and one plainly finds a more appalling reality: chronic nepotism and systemic racism in highly paid occupations in Canada.

The endless cycle of no licensing - no job - no Canadian experience - no job designed “to protect the Canadian standards” is an impenetrable trap to keep foreign professionals from a fair and transparent competence. Since the competence starts with hidden tricks and prerogatives, those “Canadian standards” are quite questionable too, not to mention the medieval institutions and people that endorse them.

September 2006

Flexible, mobile… disposable

‘The critical skills shortage is the No. 1 threat to our economy’ (COAA*)

Really???

The No. 1 threat to our economy is the spreading of precarious employment that now involves a growing number of foreign workers. As COAA explicitly says, ‘they are not offered permanent jobs.’ Well, many workers in Canada don’t have permanent jobs… so, by worsening the labor conditions of foreign workers, employers are debilitating even more the Canadian workforce in both ‘rich’ and poor provinces and actually threatening their fragile economies.

*Construction Owners Association of Alberta.

July 2006

Temporary Migrants in Canada

Lately, temporary migration has been intensified and played a critical role in defining both the intensity and the paths of new forms of capital accumulation in Canada. The fact that the annual intake of temporary workers is almost the same as the intake of permanent skilled immigrants raises serious concerns about labour conditions for all workers in Canada.

1. Is Citizenship and Immigration Canada aware and closely following the activities of immigration firms that are actively involved in bringing temporary workers to Canada?

2. Is Citizenship and Immigration Canada aware of the imbalance between areas with high unemployment rates and those that claim to have shortages of skilled workers?

3. Why aren’t employers asking for “Canadian experience and credentials” to temporary workers? How about language proficiency?

Obviously, these questions have only one answer: The Canadian establishment applies its ever-present double standard when it comes to make profits; otherwise, employers and policy makers wouldn’t be facing such regional imbalance, and permanent high skilled immigrants wouldn’t be facing such levels of poverty and discrimination.

	May 2006
	*No solid ground for the* Oval nor for the construction industry A report on the *Olympic Oval* in Richmond, B.C. states there is a "considerable risk" that settling will render the oval useless for international skating events in a decade or more… In terms of employment, what are the risks for hundreds of thousands of trades people and immigrants who are coming to British Columbia to work in a construction industry that won't have solid ground after 2010?

	April 2006
	*Recruiting Immigrants to Nova Scotia* With the 2^nd highest proportion of aging population in the country and important population losses arising from interprovincial migration, Nova Scotia is promoting itself as a destination for prospective newcomers in French speaking countries. Yes, they know that immigration translates into an ephemeral economic reactivation that generates hundreds of jobs and brings millions of dollars. In fact, they also know that immigrants will move somewhere else after realizing that the weak provincial economy hasn't been able to retain even its own population.

	December 2005
	*Why is fertility declining*? The next administration should answer this question before Canada increases its annual immigrant intake... We need a professional response not in terms of vacuous rhetoric but in terms of social policies. Canada needs a socially conscious government, not an aristocratic ruling party.

	November 2005
	More suitable jobs? It’s just fascinating the way in which most critics in Canada have taken the government's pledge to boost immigration numbers in this country. Some have expressed their concerns over the “extra” 100,000 immigrants this country might get, but how about the “regular” 230,000 immigrants who have come here annually? How about the thousands of professionals moving to other countries once Canada grabs their life-time savings? While others’ concerns are about getting “extra” resources to “help” those extra immigrants. Why are immigrant-serving agencies in Toronto and in other major cities asking for more money? Are they assuming that these immigrants will end up living in their monstro-cities (monstrous urban agglomerations)? If this happens, why is the immigration policy still lacking of professional urban/rural development planning? Why is it still "necessary" to support these sorts of agencies? Or simply, why aren’t professional immigrants getting a suitable job in the first place? The absence of suitable employment for foreign professionals in the government and most critics’ rhetoric shows how far the Canadian society is from being a knowledge-based society, and how much the establishment wants to maintain its obtuse but money-spinning immigration practices.

	September 2005
	*Politics and Policy* There is no more powerful exquisiteness in the English language than the distinction between the words politics and policy, and so there are no better examples than Michaëlle Jean and Rigoberta Menchú to uncover their real meaning. Does the appointment of Michaëlle Jean as the next governor-general lead to political “openness” from the Canadian government towards visible minorities? Who is going to fall for that when at the same time a Court has rejected the case of two immigrants who are screaming out loud for comprehensive changes in employment and immigration policies that affect most visible minority professionals in Canada? Effectively, some people might remember Rigoberta Menchú, but why are Latin American and other indigenous peoples still forgotten? Do not try to underestimate us again; to play an honorable role in the political and policy arenas requires will and leadership.

	August 2005
	*Persuasion & Dissuasion* These are the most distinctive approaches used by the Canadian establishment to deal with non preferred immigrant groups. The case of Japanese immigrants after the WWII illustrates pretty well the application of these approaches. On one hand, the government persuaded these immigrants to leave Canada by offering them money. On the other hand, Canadian employers (backed by the government) dissuaded Japanese immigrants from staying in Canada by relegating them to menial occupations. In the end, thousands of Japanese Canadians left Canada. Aren’t employers, immigrant serving associations, and licensing bodies (backed by the Canadian government) dissuading most foreign professionals from getting involved in their own occupations? In the end, thousands of skilled immigrants have left behind their own professions.

JULY 2005

Canada: A Nation of
(deceived) Immigrants

From 1815-1839 while Britain was getting rid of its poor people and encouraging others to migrate to its colonies in North America, between half and three quarters of the immigrants arrived in these colonies moved to the United States (this trend continued for most of the 19th Century). It seems that the seigneurial society, imported from Europe, didn’t offer the paradise sold by shipping companies and immigration "officers" through aggressive promotional campaigns. In fact, many of the newly arrived became destitute.

Oh, valuable and profitable anachronisms!!!

The old version of today’s immigration mechanisms was already in practice back then. That, despite the fact that the metropolis knew the conditions in which those immigrants were going to end up living in, their interests didn’t recognize any boundaries and their greed didn't either. Throughout history, seigneurial societies with all of its nepotism, discrimination, and unfairness have never been places of opportunities for honest people.

It's not because Canada’s immigration history repeats itself, but it's rather the continuum of its seigneurial practices.

MARCH 2005

Costly Inefficiency

The Canadian government will set aside $400 million to help immigrants settle into Canada. Is that enough? After looking at how most immigrant services have been delivered in this country for the last 20-25 years, we won’t really expect that the money will be used to help immigrants settle in or get suitable jobs.

We’ll surely see more “employment counselors” making a living out of the federal budget, telling immigrants how to downgrade their credentials, giving them erudite lectures on "the benefits of networking” and a bunch of photocopies with recommendations on how to write “the perfect resume” -with which they would eventually apply for any sorts of cleaning positions or at McDonalds.

When will policy makers stop squandering taxpayers’ money on “non-profit” immigrant-serving associations that have only secured jobs for themselves at the expense of providing poor quality services to foreign professionals?

November 2004

Trading Spaces

In a recent agreement a group of Métis has “traded” a dam for 100 well-paid positions at Manitoba Hydro… How bad can the employment practices get in Canada?

What do foreign trained professionals have to exchange to get well-paid positions? We do not own any property, neither the land nor the rivers, and most of us won’t own that ever. Isn’t the right to work being flagrantly violated by these practices?

Aren’t Métis, Inuit, First Nations, and visible minorities entitled to get well-paid jobs based on their skills?

With the same colonialist practices used to trade furs for alcohol and munitions Canada is paving its way back to the 19th century, while aspiring to a 21st century knowledge-based society.

August 2004

Prejudices hinder comprehensive approaches...

Despite immigrants come to Canada with higher schooling levels, the income gap has widened between them and Canadians (See Chart). Numerous studies show that they are not really participating in the labour market in any meaningful way. Unfortunately, those studies have contributed almost nothing to the explanation of this phenomenon.

Researchers’ quest for answers, as well as their findings, has been limited to one side of the equation; immigrants. Following this tradition, they are now focused on gathering the “data” to evaluate immigrant language skills and the “quality” of their university education. To them, these factors might be playing a decisive role in their integration into the Canadian labour market. Give us a break!!!

Why don't they analyze the true intentions behind the immigration policy? After being accepted by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, bringing all of their resources, and creating thousands of jobs for Canadians, immigrants find out that their credentials are not good enough. Is it just their money that's being recognized?

It also would be quite enlightening to know what the schooling levels among Canadian employers and public servants, including ministers, are. How many of them speak more than one language... FLUENTLY? How many of them got their position through “networking” and how many through professional merits? Why don't they analyze the way in which companies, bureaucracy, scholars and others benefit from immigrants' fresh money and cheap labour?

Let’s widen the focus in the analysis on the growing impoverishment of immigrants, and get sound explanations on unequal employment opportunities.

October 2002

Immigration: The Most Profitable Industry in Canada

Immigration is a multilateral industry whose effects can be seen now and in the future. It touches the core areas of the socioeconomic structure in Canada:

The economy. At least 6.4 billion dollars (in cash) are brought by immigrants every year (Estimate based on the year 2001), and by generating a constant surplus value through racist hiring practices.
The population structure. By rejuvenating the population with new and younger workforce.
The education. Higher schooling levels achieved by immigrants in their countries increase the average schooling levels in Canada.
The society. By keeping the status quo since people with higher levels of education would leave the country before they "get into trouble" because of not having accomplished their goals.

Well, it is time for immigrants to get a piece of the cake we bring to Canada year by year. After all, following the proper protocol, we have been "officially" invited.

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	November 2007
	White Supremacist Rallies in Canada… hmm! In Canada, overt racism hasn’t died yet… it’s just dormant while systemic racism is unutterably awake. (News)