Project Fair Overview

As a group, we chose to investigate the various discriminatory practices and biases embedded within Canada’s current immigration policies and guidelines. Issues of immigration relate to the ‘real world’ as they affect the structure of Canadian society as a diverse nation composed of a spectrum of immigrants and settlers from a multitude of different countries. We investigated the idea of Canada as a society divided by the idea of the immigrant other, with a focus on discrepancies between those who portray characteristics of ‘whiteness’ and other races. We also explored the false idea of multiculturalism and its effects on immigration policies and practices, the wrongs in the Canadian immigration system and gendered immigration practices. The immigration policies existing in Canada are relevant not just to those who wish to immigrate into the country, but also to those who are already settled, as they ultimately establish the future of the country by determining who will and will not be allowed entry. Our consensus is that many Canadian citizens, and most notably, the Canadian federal government, have prejudices and biases against potential immigrants and refugees seeking citizenship in Canada. In response to this, we created a blog where we shared our opinions and perspectives about the wrongs we see in Canada’s immigration policies. By looking at newspaper and journal articles as well as videos, we took in the perspectives of others and used these to take our own critical stance. Collectively, we have come to the consensus that the discriminatory attitudes entrenched in Canadian legislation and in the minds of Canadian citizens need to be altered. If we are truly to call ourselves a multicultural and diverse society, then these ideals must be reflected in our mindsets and our practices. If they are not, then we as Canadians risk being labeled hypocritical.

ESL Education - What to do?

          English as a Second Language is a program that requires community involvement. Instead of just providing them with this service, it may be prescribed that governments issue a program that provides a volunteer environment, free of charge to aid the learning experience and benefit the community at the same time. ESL programs that are specifically designed for a language or culture allow the transition from one culture to another to be a lot smoother. It is key for the process of immigration to instill proper language skills that translate into a fluent population with the ability to communicate with one another.

         For example, if an immigrant were to achieve landed status in Canada, it would be crucial for them to develop the communication skills that would allow them to flourish in both work and community environments. Such skills would allow for the immigrant to be perceived as an equal to other Canadian citizens who may possess long-time English skills. Coming from a personal standpoint, I believe that ESL programs allow for equality within Canada’s borders. Such programs provide the initiative that puts forth Canada as a welcoming environment. This warm image has placed Canada among priority of choices for many immigrants who view the nation as a place to start over.

          ESL programs also provide one form of cultural assimilation that guarantees access to immigrants of various Canadian programs. As spoken of in other posts, community programs can only serve so many purposes, and a basic understanding of the English program allows for the participation of immigrants in outreach programs nation-wide. 

Immigration Policy in Canada Not Rational

View Clip Here

Canada was built on immigration and continues to growth with the acceptance of new skilled people who will contribute to the growth of Canada.  There are major problems with the immigration plan now as we are accepting many immigrants, but not necessarily the right ones to improve Canada especially our economic needs.  Immigration lawyer Sergio Karas says that we are currently in a time with high unemployment, based on historical standards, and the jobs that are hiring are, aren’t being filled by immigrants. We are accepting large numbers of new permanent residences but where Canada is going wrong is with choosing the wrong types and qualifications of immigrants.  He says that because we now have a majority government the Tory’s now have a more power to muscle their bills into law. The bills that need to be passed are ones that makes it easier for helpful immigrants to enter the country quickly, and those who only hinder our economic advances need to be rejected (Koran 2011). “It is really criminal that we have immigrants in the pipeline that we need, who are waiting 3 years to 4 years for a visa, while those skills are in demand. At the same time we have people using irregular avenues of immigration” (Koran 2011). This does nothing but take money out of taxpayers hands and needs to be relooked at if Canada is to prosper economically.

This major glitch in the immigration system in Canada needs to be reformed from the ground up and contoured to the success and growth of the country.  Over 20 billion dollars of taxpayer’s money is spent annually on immigration, much of which is wasted in political red tape, and acceptance of the wrong type of unskilled immigrants (Koran 2011). The unskilled and uneducated immigrant will have a tough time finding and maintaining a job in this county, especially if they are language or culturally deficient.  I prescribe that the immigration process be torn down, and built up from the ground up as I guarantee it would become much more streamlined and efficient. This will save Canadians money, make the immigration process faster, and create a better Canada. 

Ottawa's Most Wanted

            Canadian Immigration policy has been ever changing since the idea of Canadian citizenship was introduced with the immigration act in 1910 (Brender 2013).  The procedure of immigration of new Canadians into the country has many holes in it that need to be addressed for the security, prosperity, and growth of Canada in the future. With Canada’s reputation of being a very accepting, and welcoming country it has short comings that lead to new immigrants taking advantage of the system and abusing the hands that feed them.  Canada accepted 250,000 new immigrants last year, all of which fell into Canada’s 4 main categories family class, economic class, other, or refugee (Brender 2013). This is up from 101,000 ten years prior. This is due mainly to economic need and demand. 

            Canadian immigration has become in the resent years plagued with 2 main problems, abuse of the 'refugee' system and design and abuse of the 'family reunification' and sponsorship route (Keung 2013). Both have burden out system and cost taxpayers millions, as well as adding to the growing unemployment among new immigrants. The refugee problem is one that the government is starting to take steps towards fixing but has had major problems such as boats landing off the coast of British Columbia begging for safety and sanctuary.  This clogs our system and creates bag log for good, skillful, much needed immigrants (Keung 2013). The other is Family reunification is one that many incoming governments have promised to fix and reevaluate.  This happens when a family takes in family members, be it, mother, father, son or daughter and bring them to join them in Canada. This is one that can be taken advantage of with things such as fake marriages (Keung 2013).  Again this is a burden to our system and is a major flaw that needs to be readdressed. 

ESL Education & Immigration

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          In Brian D. Morgan’s article, “Critical Practice in Community Based ESL Programs: A Canadian Perspective,” it is said that teaching ESL should be community based considering the area in which it is taught, and to whom it is taught to, the social identity and the culture. Morgan describes the field of ESL as “currently experiencing a tie of profound experimentation and debate, not simply over the best methods to achieve common goals but rather what those goals might and should be,” (Morgan 2002:141). An example used within the article references the Quebec referendum on sovereignty and the lessons learnt on citizenship (Morgan 2002:142). It is believed that teaching ESL should consider both sides equally, the immigrant background, and the country - in this case Canada - they are trying to immigrate to. The process should be transformative and reflexive to change but still ideologically focused. In other words, if you wish to come to Canada, and succeed, you must be able to adapt and accept the local culture, language and regulations. 

          I believe that the money used towards ESL programs makes up for itself in the long run. Taxpayer money used on ESL programs demonstrates that skilled immigrants who settle in another country contribute to the economy and are in fact taxpayers themselves. You could argue it’s a win/win for both the immigrant and the country.  Studies show if immigrants live in isolation with their own language and culture they do not adapt to their new countries language. As a result, they will not get suitable jobs and thus not contribute to the economy. Medical doctors, for example, have to speak English or French to be able to communicate with patients in order to get the job done. Developed countries with an aging population with decreasing taxpayers have to have immigration of younger skilled workers to provide the services and fill the needed jobs in order to contribute to the tax base. This cannot be accomplished without the implementation of ESL programs to ensure Canadian language standards are upheld.

Cultural Assimilation: A Solution

What needs to be done is a balance between the two sides, and one action that needs to be taken is policies created to do exactly what Alfred, Lowe, Coulthard and Smith propose. They have a number of goals of resistance and resurgence to the dominant order and one important one is ‘intellectual and cultural self determination’ (Alfred et al. 2006) which instead of the immigrants being assimilated into the dominant order, they are moving away from it. This is important because it gives them the ability to maintain their culture, and if other policies are created to meet the goal of ‘economic self sufficiency’ they will be able to maintain their culture while being successful in the Canadian society. ‘Whiteness’ has become the black hole of the Canadian galaxy (Baldwin et al. 2011) and as we move farther away from this black hole we will become not racialized (Day 2013), which will only prove to be positive for Canada. As a white Canadian citizen I believe that I will never know what it is like to be assimilated into the Canadian culture and so I believe that the policies that are created for the immigrants need to be made with immigrants so that the policies will truly be beneficial for the new Canadians.

More educational organizations and groups (like those mentioned in Kay’s article) need to be incorporated into the system. Originally those groups were not even designed for immigrants per say but parents in general, but it just so happened that the only ones that were using them were the ones who were trying to transition from the culture of their previous country into the Canadian one. If more groups and organizations are made specifically for new Canadian immigrants from all over the world, the transition process would be much smoother, and the change of one’s culture into another one would be less extreme. These organizations would then give the opportunity for the new citizens to talk and share ideas, to have people with similar and different cultures to relate and talk with, and it is with these things the Canadian immigrants would not only have a group of people they share common interests and experiences with, but they would be able to function well in the Canadian society.

Something that is difficult to change, but needs to be is the way the media portrays people and how this creates stereo types. The media is a great source for news, weather, and learning about issues all over the world but it has become a tool that creates preconceived mindsets among people. This needs to change because the way Canada is, it is sometimes ‘multicultural’ but most times it is not. Multiculturalism in Canada needs not to be ‘tolerance and integration’ as Abigail Bakan and Daiva Stasiulis state but for it to be acceptance and assistance (Bakan and Stasiulis 2005). In Vancouver where Ayelet Tsabari immigrated too, the Jewish culture was nothing she knew of, or had experienced (Tsabari 2013). The ‘Jewish restaurants’ were European Jewish Restaurants and the reason for this is because of how the media played a role in portraying the majorities of people and not taking into consideration the minorities. This makes life difficult for new immigrants in Canada because it leaves people a lot of the time in a state of ‘trying to fit in,’ for there is nothing around them that they know. See this is not accepting and assisting immigrants into the Canadian culture, but tolerating them and integrating them which do not prove beneficial for development. This increases the amounts of people that are assimilated into the Canadian culture and it is not an accepted change, but a forced one. What needs to be done is the government needs to take into consideration all majorities, minorities and everything in between when making policies, opening up stores, creating organizations, schools, religious centres, etc. and until we do that, too many immigrants will be assimilated into the Canadian culture without consent, and the development of Canada in general will remain at a standstill.