Immigrants

My parents got off the boat at Pier 21.

Dad’s first job in the promised land was shovelling coal. With a hand shovel, not a power shovel.

It was a fluke we arrived in Canada, but a well thought out fluke.

On Dad’s side, we had multiple family connections in Ohio and Illinois.

On Mom’s side, there were well established aunties and cousins in New York and New Jersey.

But we came to Canada instead.

My parents had lived the WW2 at ground level. They thought Canada would be a better bet.

They’d seen enough of war, and figured their children were less likely to see war themselves if they went to Canada rather than the USA.

And here we are.

Three generations in, the coal shoveller’s progeny are all well-established and productive citizens.

As are the third generation of the extended family on both sides of the family, on both sides of the Canada-US border.

In fact, a startling percentage of the 3rd generation seems to be enrolled in PhD programs in one thing or another.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I’m in favour of generous immigration policies.

That said, there are reasons to quibble with our current immigration regimen.

First and foremost among the quibbles; when there’s not enough affordable housing to go around for the people who already live here, what is the impact of importing ever-higher numbers of immigrants without any policies to address the acute housing crisis these people will be facing?

This policy of not having a housing policy is guaranteed to stoke resentment against immigrants.

Maybe that’s the plan.

Flooding the country with immigrants while providing no housing is a great way to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment.

The people devising these plans are keen on keeping working folks divided. 

As long as the mice are at each other's throats they'll never make common cause against the fat cats.