Novocastrian

Well that's pretty much how it has been until the last 75 years or so. Certainly the vast majority of immigrants to Canada before then did exactly that. Furthermore, many of them didn't find work first, they just used force of arms to displace the indiginents from land they fancied.

Still the same most places.

Novocastrian

And, as a certain R. Zimmerman put it:

I pity the poor immigrant
Who tramples through the mud,
Who fills his mouth with laughing
And who builds his town with blood,
Whose visions in the final end
Must shatter like the glass.
I pity the poor immigrant
When his gladness comes to pass.

Shalom.

montreal mike

Again please take note that my comment was meant to be taken as extreme sarcasm.

I do not dispute that some 75 years ago or earlier this may well have been the case. But we live in a different world. Even income taxes were enacted as a temporary emergency measure during the Great War (as it was then known).

But we have moved on. At least in the western world.

montreal mike

By my calculations if you are correct then they would have to be starving or close to it. The first 9,000 dollars earned is tax free. That works out to some $25.00 a day.

$25.00 a day for the bare necessities of life?

1. to eat (even junk food doesn't come cheap)
2. to put a roof over ones head and stay warm. Even if one stayed in a homeless shelter it would still be hell.
3. to clothe oneself
4. transportation to the job site.

Perhaps one could survive on 25.00 $ CDN in some third world country where living is relatively cheap, but certainly not in this country.

montreal mike

I guess you are alluding to the multiplyer effect (an economics term).

Jobs are not viable if no one wants them or consides the wages as substandard. But if there were no illegals then others (legals) would be forced to take them. Example:In the summer of 1962 I came to Canada. I worked as a dishwasher for a short while. I didn't bother me in the least. In England I had a similar menial job (for the grand sum of three shillings and sixpence an hour) in a bowling alley (Streatham) and it didn't bother me either. I eventually found a better job with long term prospects. But I had to start somewhere. What's wrong with that?

Sally

Illegal immigration is an issue but don't let it get to you too much.

kt0157

I was referring to the interaction with the minimum wage and illegal immigration. Illegals will take the job because the wages are illegal.

K.

printer

It is interesting to see some of these viewpoints because out of the dozen or so people who have been contributing it appears quite a few are in favour and indeed welcome illegal immigrants without predjudice. I am sure that you would get completely the opposite response if you asked the question to Brits living in the UK.
Illegal immigrants are often the subject of much fierce debate in the UK and many people are very definitely against it.

kt0157

Yes, and many people are for the death penalty, locking up terrorist suspects without trial, and torture. The same "many people" were also up for burning people who said that the Earth went around the Sun. Many people are idiots. The art of politics is taming these idiots. It doesn't always work, especially when the idiots become politicians (e.g. Nazi Germany).

Immigration (legal, illegal) and asylum (genuine, bogus) is a complex issue. It doesn't reduce to simple statements. Anyone reading the tabloids in the UK would think that the English words "asylum seeker" equated to "baby eater".

K.

dbd33

Agreed. Food bank operators might say that the working poor, people who barely qualify to pay taxes, are worse off but I shouldn't want to try living like that.

printer

So are you suggesting that anybody who is dead against illegal immigration is an idiot????

kt0157

Some people have studied the issue and reached their anti-immigrant conclusions based on their studies. Some people just believe the facile rubbish spewed by the tabloid TV/newspapers. The latter are idiots.

K.

dbd33

A blasphemer, surely?

printer

It would be interesting to know what percentage of people actually disagree with illegal immigration in Canada (or the UK for that matter)
So far on this thread we only have the views of a few people.

dbd33

Well it's no good asking on this board. Most posters here are imigrants, they just want to fill the country up with people who look like them, eat and drink their strange foods and speak their language.