dbd33

The papers are full of stories about immigrants getting the boot, for example :

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...2154&t=TS_Home

I suggest that the Canadian economy has long depended on undocumented immigrants and that this clamp down is because the Harper government doesn't like immigrants, regardless of their status. I dunno that this iis a good time to think about moving here.

iwanttotalktoyou

ahem..they're illegal immigrants.

dbd33

A most English distinction, you assume the legal framework of the UK extends to the Dominion but I don't think it's quite so. I suppose half the people I talk to each day are illegal immigrants. Certainly, nothing would be built without illegal immigrants. My brother, an illegal immigrant, worked for ten years for a firm owned and operated for twenty-five years by illegal immigrants. There has been a tolerance for illegal immigrants here for decades. It seems to me that "legality" has never much mattered here and so a crackdown on immigrants is just that.

Rich_007

Illegal is illegal, but the whole thing could be handled with tact and sympathy, instead we get some interpretation that appers to be like something from Kristallnacht "show me yur paperz or ve vill shoot you". I've little time for S.H. and the (Neo)Cons but at least get it real....is it big boots through the door at dawn, fill these cardboard boxes sir, and here's your complimentary one way ticket to Bongo Mondo land ?

S.H.leaves me even colder after just a few weeks. A first 'big hit' and it' against illegals...hmmmm. More Americanization ahead of pace ?

A well structured amnesty could work but it has to fit with the existing shambles that is the Immigration Act and the fumbles of CIC. And of course, more bumbling overpaid paper shufflers would be needed to work it through. After all, looking at the looming shift of demographics and baby boomer scenario, Canada will soon need all the bodies it can get. Someone gotta serve those Timmies up pronto. Might as well be a converted illegal with positive settlement skills.

Now if they started deporting convicted criminals without Citizenship status.......?

Rich.

dbd33

My, even I might vote for them then.

Rich_007

I believe the press will report that particular happening in April ?

In May immigrants will be advised to pay $500 for a new hi tec combined security and ID card.

In June it will be announced you will be receiving a 'free' microchip to be located under your skin.



Rich

macmike41

I think this 'crackdown' is more to do with 'you aint paying taxes so out you go' than anything else. Legal immigrant = money for gov so - no pay no stay, pay stay.

northernbird

i agree, illegal is illegal. My husband spent 4 years contributing to the federal coffers, my husbands contract ended and we had to leave. I am now in a 3 year queue to come back to canada.

1066

Makes you wonder why people have to wait up to 4 years to get in , really, doesn't it....

MarkG

Why would anyone wait four or five years for an immigration visa if they could just enter Canada illegally, work illegally and wait for an amnesty? To make legal immigrants wait years to enter the country yet let illegals stay would be absurd: rewarding people for breaking the law.

Canada has precisely zero problems in attracting large numbers of legal immigrants. If low population is a problem, then increase the number of immigrants allowed into the country each year... even if they doubled the number they'd easily meet the targets.

AnyaT

I suspect a large portion of those illegal Portuguese in the article live in my area. Believe me, its no loss to Canada to see them go - two of them are lying on the front step of the bar across the street right now. If they were so moronic as to come here and stay bypassing the immigration system, then they can't cry foul when and if they are booted out. I doubt very much I could turn up in Lisbon without any documentation and try to elicit public sympathy when I was deported.

dbd33

Canada doesn't allow employable immigrants so it depends on a flow of illegal ones. This morning I have met five people, none of whom are in Canada on paperwork that allows them to work, all of whom were working or on the way to work. None of these people could legally gain entry to the country in order to do the jobs they are doing.

I think there's a good case that the illegal immigrants are valuable to Canada in a way that the legal immigrants are not. Illegals have to stay out of trouble as a trivial bust could result in deportation, they have to pay for healthcare so they tend not to get sick, they can't take up most regular jobs so they form businesses and provide services that are clearly required; the people I met today were two builders, one farmhand, a contract computer programmer and a coffee shop proprietor. Legal immigrants, otoh, tend to drive taxis badly and moan that they should be doctors.

It's not likely that deporting the illegals is going to result in legal immigrants taking their jobs as the legal immigrants tend not to have the skills required to find work; people who qualify to come to Canada on the strength of their doctorates and mastery of English and French tend not to also be experienced plasters or bricklayers.

dbd33

If they're thrown out who will keep the, doubtless illegal, bartender in a job ?

1066

I understand what you are saying, and a lot of it is undoubtedly true.

The other side of the illegal immigrant scene is the creation of ghettos.

As a major generalisation, Indians employ Indians, Portugese employ Portugese, etc. Many of these people cannot legally own transport, so they tend to live close to work, which creates localised ethnic neighbourhoods.

As more businesses open, more illegals work there, and the localised neighbourhoods become ghettos. It's not rocket science...it happens. Downtown areas all over the world suffer from this.

It will probably never stop, and as you say, if it did stop, a lot of people would be in a lot of trouble, work-wise.

It doesn't make it any less annoying having to wait 2 to 5 years to get in legally, though.

Tangram

I agree with both of you. Just look at how hard it is to get into the U.S. .... or you can run across the 'Berlin Wall' from Mexico