generalspeaking

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Revealing Canadian Values in Welcoming Immigrants/Refugees

"Generation after generation [of Canadians complain that newcomers are not integrating into Canadian society]."
"I suspect many [of the respondents] don't know newcomers well. Those of us who do know newcomers, know they're constantly exhausting themselves to do all they need to do [to] make a success of their life in Canada."
"What are we doing to ensure newcomers are able to fit in?"
Janet Dench, executive director, Canadian Council for Refugees

What are we doing? Leaving no assist unturned, from government and private agencies assisting immigrants and refugees to acclimate themselves, learn the language, apply for benefits, use the universal health care system, register for assisted housing, look for employment, school their children and make no demands whatever on the recipients of all this largesse along with general goodwill emanating from the Canadian publicr. The better question is what are the newcomers doing to fit in?

Famously, Canada is a nation built on immigrants who have chosen to arrive at its shores to make a new life for themselves. Originally, those immigrants were supplied by English-speaking Europeans initially, along with immigrants from France. Prospective immigrants from Asia and Africa and those with certain European ethnic backgrounds like Jews were not particularly welcome. Infamously, in the late 19th and early 20th Century Canadian governments put head taxes on Asians to dissuade them from coming to Canada, and during World War II interned Japanese-Canadians, and placed European Jews escaping the Holocaust into camps alongside "enemy aliens".

All of the immigrants that arrived in Canada, those not looked upon favourably, made a concerted effort to find a place for themselves, to meld as best they could, into the prevailing social structure, to familiarize themselves with the language, the culture, the values and the laws. And the succeeding generations had no problems whatever expressing all of that, the language, the culture the values and the laws as being of utmost importance to them, as Canadians. Furthermore, at that time in Canadian history there were no government assists at various levels. "Newcomers" had to struggle on their own.

Now, when immigrants and refugees arrive, it is to a Canada that is open and welcoming to all, a country whose social and welfare support networks are all-encompassing and generous at every level of government. Where earlier, the struggle of new Canadians was to survive and at the same time integrate, currently the level of struggle to survive is hugely reduced, thanks to a generous tax-funded network of assists, and many of those arriving feel no particular urgency to integrate. In fact, second- and third-generation immigrant children becoming fully Canadian is no longer the norm.

And there lies the rub. The mass migration of people from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia to escape less than prosperous and politically stable environments under Muslim-majority rule, has led to a gradual and none-too-subtle alteration in the social customs, political-religious realities in the countries that have absorbed them. Looking to countries like Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France and Germany as an example, vast no-go ghettos have evolved where resistance to integration is the norm.

That resistance revolves around Islam. Where Muslim populations feel great resentment against the social mores, justice system and culture and heritage of the indigenous populations and where, as in the United Kingdom, mosques ring out with condemnation of the West and the democratic way of life, agitating for the imposition of Shariah law. And wherever large populations of Muslims agglomerate, there arises a number of problems. One of which is the eagerness of Muslims to live on welfare payments in favour of working for a living.

Another is the realization that criminal acts far in excess of their numbers arise out of that community. And finally, that anti-Semitism on a viral, combustible scale rears its ugly head, at the very time that Muslims decry "Islamophobia" that has resulted largely not from the enumerated social problems, but the steady rise of violent Islamism embracing jihad and trolling within the Muslim ghettos for new conscripts into jihad. The violence in the name of Islam and the hostility emanating from Muslim populations against the West and democracy is not spoken of in polite, leftist company.

To do so is to be labelled 'racist' and to invite the condemnatory label of "Islamophobic" against those who dare to offend by side-stepping the prevailing political correctness. If there is any true irony in this situation it is that Muslim refugees have been created on a gigantic scale of upheaval resulting from Muslims slaughtering Muslims through sectarian conflict. And it is not other Muslim countries by and large that absorb the haven-seeking Muslims who flee oppression and danger but Western countries who see it as their humanitarian duty. And whom the haven-seeking later turn against.

A new survey undertaken by the Angus Reid Institute determined that 47 percent of respondents from among 1,508 Canadians questioned in early February believe that Canada is absorbing "about the right number" of refugees, while 51 percent feel the number is "already too high", and eleven percent would prefer to see Canada open its doors to even more refugees. Six in ten Canadians feel the government has "done a good job" in its refugee file.

One quarter of respondents feel, however that Canada should have undertaken a temporary ban on refugees, reflecting the executive order signed by American President Donald Trump briefly halting entry of all refugees into the United States, along with citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. Canadians in British Columbia and the Atlantic Provinces were more favourable in allowing more refugees into Canada. Half of Albertans and 55 percent of those in Saskatchewan feel the numbers are too high.

It is the opinion of 54 percent of respondents of the survey that refugees make an insufficient effort to "fit into mainstream Canadian society". A Pew Research Centre poll established that 90 percent of Canadians feel the capability of speaking English or French, sharing Canadian customs and traditions are of vital importance in reflecting "truly Canadian" values. For them it appeared to be of less importance if immigrants or refugees were born in Canada, or if they were Christian.

How do supporters of Canada’s major political parties feel about the requirement to show faces at while taking the citizenship oath?

96 per cent of Conservative supporters

85 per cent of Liberal supporters

83 per cent of NDP supporters

81 per cent of Bloc Quebecois supporters

How do political party supporters feel about allowing Muslim women to wear a niqab or burka while taking the citizenship oath?

78 per cent of Conservative supporters disagree with allowing Muslim women beign allowed to where a niqab or burka when being sworn in as Canadians

76 per cent of Bloc Quebecois supporters

66 per cent of NDP supporters

60 per cent of Liberal supporters

Percentage of political party supporters who feel the burka and niqab are symbols of oppression rooted in a culture that is anti-women.

86 per cent of Bloc Quebecois supporters

84 per cent of Conservative supporters

70 per cent of NDP supporters

66 percent of Liberal supporters