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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%.
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)
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 2nd 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:
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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.
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The population structure. By rejuvenating the population with new and
younger workforce.
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The education. Higher schooling levels achieved by immigrants in their
countries increase the average schooling levels in Canada.
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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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