Reply #101: what makes you think that? [View All]

I truely do not see Canada opening its borders as the US has done.

To begin with, you have a silly premise in your statement. What has the US done -- open its borders?? I hardly think so.

The US has a southern border that is apparently difficult to monitor and control, and that many people attempt to cross. That really isn't equivalent to "opening its borders". People who cross without permission are entering illegally -- the border is legally closed to them.

Canada's immigration policy is not hugely different from US immigration policy. We admit family members of legal residents, and independent immigrants capable of supporting themselves and contributing economically.

We do admit far more immigrants annually, as a percentage of population, than the US does. This in itself doesn't really mean much, since the Canadian economy may simply be able to absorb more immigrants than the US economy. However, our immigration policy is at present far more egalitarian than US policy. Country of origin is completely irrelevant in our calculation, and in no way determines eligibility for immigration, for example.

The main reason why Canada's immigration policy has become more stringent in the last few years is demands from the US for us to give effect to a "security perimeter" around the two countries. Our immigration practices must coincide with US practices, because doncha know there would otherwise terrorists just streaming into Canada and slipping into the US to wreak havoc. Progressive people in Canada are not at all happy about this. The alternative would be to thumb our noses at the US and suffer the economic consequences of a far less porous fence, to interfere with legitimate cross-border flows and thus cripple our economy, going up on the other side of the border.


Now back to the lack of giving a crap about the USA, and what it took to make it a better place than the country the illegals came from.

So are you taking credit for all that effort? Should anyone today be taking credit for it, or claiming sole entitlement to it? And how much of what you've got was gained at the expense of people somewhere else, including Mexico, anyhow?

Quite a bit.

It's uncomfortable to see one's society changing around one. It's also kind of the human condition, and what happens to one as one ages. If it isn't the immigrants, it's the young people of today -- they just don't appreciate ... blah blah. I'm pretty old, and I'm not immune to any of this. But I recognize that the world is not static.

Despite the very high proportion of immigrants in Canada -- approaching 20% of the population is non-native born -- we don't suffer from the cleavages in our society that are found in the US. And I'd say that this is to a large extent because we, the society composed of oldtimers like me and newcomers alike, work damned hard to identify and promote the common values of Canadian society. And high on the list of those values is accepting, respecting and celebrating diversity.

If the values you're wanting newcomers to rally around don't include the goal of integrating their cultures and identities into the broader society -- not assimilating them, integrating them as a part of it -- then small wonder they don't value your citizenship.

Me, I do my bit. I spent several years socializing with the little Chinese-born girls across the street -- showing them "classic" English-language movies, helping with their homework, doing crafts with them, going to multicultural festivals at their school with them when their parents were too burdened with work and home duties -- and getting homemade Chinese goodies from their mums in return. And also banging their heads about going to Chinese school on Saturday morning when they didn't want to. I wasn't working to assimilate them; I was trying to help them integrate, as what they are, and to help them value what they are, not pressure them to abandon their cultural identities.


I actually don't express an opinion about US immigration policy, and policy to address the obvious problems that accompany massive illegal immigration. I don't feel qualified to have an opinion. I wonder what Canada would look like if, instead of forming a union with the less developed population of Quebec many years ago -- an agrarian, priest-ridden society, cut off from its European parent and culturally and linguistically insular, lagging well behind the rest of the continent in infrastructures and institutions -- the English-speaking population had gone its own way alone. We might be facing some similar problem. Fortunately, both parties in the Canadian confederation had the foresight to see a partnership of equals as the best idea. If the US had undertaken some similar partnership process many years ago, instead of pursuing economic and/or political colonization of its neighbours, it might not have the problems it has now. But that's hindsight, and doesn't really offer a present-day solution. So I propose none.


(edited to fix unintelligible sentence)