The government of Canada has recently proposed doubling its immigration offices in China, in a move helmed by immigration minister John McCallum. This is the wrong move, for a variety of reasons.
Chinese immigrants disproportionately move into large cities, driving up housing prices. The foreign workers from China are low-skill, and take jobs from Canada’s poor. In other words, the flow of Chinese negatively affects existing Canadians.
But there’s something else: Chinese immigrants have a unique history of failing to integrate into Canada’s “cultural mosaic.” And in no province is this more obvious than in British Columbia.
Enabled by the incestuous relationship between Chinese business and the Canadian government, middle and upper-class Chinese have immigrated into British Columbia en masse over the past few decades. BC, the epicentre for Chinese migration to Canada, is eleven percent Chinese-Canadian, and some cities in the province are almost fifty percent Chinese-Canadian. In many suburbs, you’d be hard-pressed to find a person who wasn't ethnically Chinese.
None of this would be a problem if most Chinese-Canadians communities assimilated into Canadian culture. But they don't. They occupy cordoned-off areas of British Columbia, and barely interact with the broader Canadian population. They live in their own enclaves, have their own customs, and keep their own company.
Travel to any Chinese-Canadian region in BC and you’ll see a facsimile of China recreated in front of you.
The Crystal Mall in Burnaby is a great example. The mall lacks English signage and is exclusively populated with businesses selling Chinese products and food.
I don’t have a problem with Chinese immigration. I don’t have a problem with Chinese traditions, and I don’t have a problem with immigrant communities retaining their customs.
What we should take issue with, though, the complete isolation of immigrant groups from the rest of Canada.
Mono-Chinese malls, mono-Chinese suburbs, and even mono-Chinese schools have all become common sights in BC. Many Chinese-Canadian communities have become totally disintegrated from Canadian society. It’s not a problem unique to the Chinese-Canadians, but they’re the worst offender.
Is this really the kind of integration that lawmakers had in mind when we instituted state multiculturalism? Many immigrant groups have imported insular traditions that isolate themselves from broader Canadian society, and refuse to adopt Canadian cultural norms. It’s hardly a surprise that Canada is more segregated than ever.
We need to be less afraid of offending people and more afraid of the consequences of a segregated society. We need to encourage assimilation.
After all, BC is a Canadian province. Not a Chinese one.
The only way anyone should be able to immigrate to Canada, is through the Foreign Worker program, as they clearly have skills Canadians lack. The best and the brightest – no more, for the next 10-20yrs!!
We have unvetted “refugees” pouring in, and security agencies admit that ISIS members are in that group. 50,000 will be here by year’s end, including ISIS fighters, and a large segment who supports ISIS. They have a habit of congregating in what becomes no-go building and then no-go districts.
Now the government wants to bring in an undisclosed number of Chinese who usually group together in “China Town” in various cities. If we don’t have the staff to vet the “refugees”, we don’t have the staff to take on any more.
When on one of my trips to Toronto I stayed at a hotel in what turned out to be a virtually Chinese area. The hotel staff, all shops in the area, just about everything and everyone was Chinese. I felt I was a stranger in my own Country.
Yes, come to Canada, but become Canadian in more than name alone. Learn our languages. Adapt to our ways.
Three years ago in Florida I tried to tell a security officer that his patrol car’s muffler was falling off. He was a rent-a-cop in North Miami. He could only speak Spanish and Cajun French, so at least I could tell him in French. He laughed it off – wasn’t his problem. This is what is happening here. If there was an emergency, and he was approached by English speaking people, he would be as useful as talking to a shoe.
Just as Muslims and Chinese (and other recent arrivals) do not integrate, Quebec French are making enclaves in lower Florida. Within the past 20 years, my condo has become 95% French. Notices are in French, everyone expects you to reply to them in French not only at the condo, but when they are in stores. I have overheard Quebecers being indigent that the staff won’t server them in French. When out of Quebec, I am no longer obligated to communicate in French, and I don’t.
Whenever Baby Doc travels on “official” business to any part of the world, he gives away our money, invites the poor of that nation to come to Canada (and be supported by the middle-class he claims to be a saviour to) or both.
Baby Doc trying to outdo his father is getting to be an expensive proposition for we, the taxpayers. When multiculturalism was explained by Papa Doc, it was that people could come here and we would not prevent them from celebrating their customs. It slowly turned into the monster of today, where their culture supersedes ours. The turning point was when a RCMP recruit demanded to wear a turban instead of traditional RCMP head ware. Now the hijab will be standard dress.
Is the government too stupid to realise that bringing in people while there are no jobs for Canadians only increases the jobless rate and bankrupts the country? But alas, Political Correctness and a worry for “Global Affairs” at our expense is what the present government is all about.
PS: Maurice Potvin, I fully agree.
ˈlib(ə)rəl/
adjective
adjective: liberal 1. open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.
It seems the ‘slippery slope argument’ is not really as much of a logical fallacy as we were led to believe.
“First of all we must insist that the immigrant that comes here is willing to become a Canadian and is willing to assimilate to our ways, he should be treated on equal grounds and it would be shameful to discriminate against such a person for reasons of their beliefs or the place of birth or origin. But it is the responsibility of the person to become a Canadian in all aspects of life, nothing else but Canadian. There is room for only two languages here, English and French. And we have room for loyalty, but only one, loyalty to the Canadian people. We won’t accept anyone, I’m saying anyone, who will try to impose his religion or his customs upon us.”
-Wilfred Laurier, 1907
….rolling in my grave.
Well that was weird.
I completely agree with you, however the majority of the growth of a country should come from it’s own people, NOT immigration.
Nice going Canada.
I agree that Chinese or filipinos or east-indians may not be as violent and aggressive as mohammedans and black-africans but look at the larger picture, they all have one goal; no-assimilation, create their own societies & nations within their host society. Subtly destroy the long established and superior culture, values, principles, heritage, language & religion of their host country and replace it with their inferior values & culture. You’ve to live among them in their enclaves to see how slyly they replace Canadian standards with their own. Over the last 2 decades I’ve witnessed the decay of Canadian society. In Richmond, Burnaby, Surrey and other parts of lower mainland a person can live & work his/her whole life without knowing a word of English. Where jobs are advertised for Mandarin/Cantonese or Tagalog or Punjabi or Urdu/Arabic speaking applicants only. Where every Canadian values are rejected over the values from every other undeveloped, failed, third world country.
However, I would like to add one more ill-effect of such inane immigration policy:
As you’ve rightly mentioned that most of these immigrants are from upper or middle class china, they run businesses or hold high govt. posts over there. It’s not a secret that due to decades of communism how thoroughly corrupt & unscrupulous chinese society has become, they’ve earned their millions & billions through corruption & NOT hard work or skill. When they come to Canada (or any other western country) they bring the same shady ethics & values to our society, they live & run their businesses based on same ethics which they’ve learned & formed in their native country. Consequently corrupting the whole society of their host country. Their children see how & what has made their parents so ‘wealthy’ & ‘successful’ and with no oversight from the society they grow they emulate the same values over here to be as or more successful than their parents.
Another fact which I must add here is that most of the new chinese immigrants are not adding even a cent to our economy because they don’t pay any tax over here. Curiously, many bring their families (or in some cases their girlfriends with children) & elderly over here to be taken care by the govt. (free schooling, medical, welfare & old age pension) while they go back to china to continue with their corrupt jobs, run unethical businesses and enjoy life with their girlfriend or wife as the case may be. (It’s not a hearsay; my neighbourhood is full of such ‘chinese families’)
I don’t understand what good will come out of this when a major portion of the population knows only the corrupt way to success and of making money. It’ll be ‘monkey see, monkey do’ and in to time our Canadian society will change for worse forever.
Sorrily, that’s the truth with most of the immigration from third world country. Many decent & honest chinese I know have asserted this fact also, looking into my own backyard I see what kind of people are coming from my native country India, the kind known as most dishonest & corrupt with fake degrees or ill-gotten wealth.
Due to PET’s official multicultural policy they are actually encouraged to retain their language and customs..and there’s not a damn thing you can do about …