Canada ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
Posted on 06/11/2006 7:59:29 AM PDT by Clive
The allegations of a terrorism plot against Canadian institutions and politicians have, for a moment, focused public and media attention on this country's immigration policy, which is a very good thing because we don't really have one.
For the past 30 years, government after government has told Canadians that the only problem with immigration is that we don't have enough of it. The result has been an immigration system that has had as its No. 1 priority, in practice, letting as many people into Canada as possible at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.
The rules and regulations governing immigration have been little more than window dressing, unless you happened to be one of the few people caught in the random bureaucracy that lets one person in while slamming the door on the next.
Yet any serious questioning of the system has routinely been dismissed as racism and bigotry.
We're not alone in wrestling with these issues. I recently returned from a trip to Europe, and for the first time in decades immigration is undergoing a major rethink in the western democracies.
It's long been an issue with many western European voters, but, as in Canada, it's been ignored by the mainstream political parties only to become the preserve of the lunatic fringe.
The catalyst for the current change is the appearance of Islamic extremism among European-born Muslims - but the issue is larger than that. It boils down to whether nations have the right to control immigration to preserve a majority culture, and really it comes down to numbers.
In Britain, the immigration policy of Tony Blair's government is summed up in its last election platform: "Our philosophy is simple: if you're ready to work and there's work for you to do, you're welcome here."
For a small country of 60 million, already bursting at the seams, this is verging on madness. Nevertheless, over the past decade Britain has revved up net immigration from under 30,000 a year to about 500,000 in 2004.
In the wake of last year's terrorist bombings in London by young British-born Muslims, the government is now talking about how to better "assimilate" newcomers.
But you have to wonder if any country, with the best will in the world, can absorb so many new arrivals?
Especially countries that are not, in the Canadian or American sense, societies built on immigration.
The first country in western Europe to try and answer that question is, surprisingly, the most liberal democracy of them all - Holland. And the answer seems to be a resounding "No."
The Dutch minister of immigration, Rita Verdonk, was in Ottawa last week to consult with Canadian officials "on the integration of newcomers." I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at those meetings because, under Verdonk's leadership, Holland is reversing 30 years of open-door immigration policy.
I interviewed Verdonk years ago when she was beginning to rethink her country's approach to immigration. She's gone from wondering about the potential impact of policies that would make the ethnic Dutch a minority in Holland's major cities, to actually implementing tough immigration controls and making integration into existing Dutch culture an obligation - not an option.
Her approach is not without its critics in Holland, but the majority of public opinion - spooked by home grown terrorism - is solidly behind her.
No country in western Europe has yet gone as far as the Dutch, but Germany and France are moving in that direction and all across western Europe people are questioning previously sacrosanct immigration and multiculturalism policies.
Home grown Islamic extremism has done that. Will it have the same impact in Canada?
Unlike Europe, Canada is a society built on immigration, and that's not likely to change. Nor should it.
But maybe the arrests in Ontario will prompt Canadians, finally, to question an immigration policy which, in many cases, undervalues the fundamental right of a country to control who settles within its borders. We can only hope so.
-
Canada is waking up to reality after decades of living in the liberal bubble. Better late than never.
I've been saying that the immigration issue was going global.
"The catalyst for the current change is the appearance of Islamic extremism among European-born Muslims - but the issue is larger than that. It boils down to whether nations have the right to control immigration to preserve a majority culture, and really it comes down to numbers."
Canada may be waking up, but Bush/Senate seem to want to create the same problem here. Imagine how the influx of 40 - 100 million new immigrants within the next 20-30 years will affect the U.S. culture.
Canada ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.
He misses the main point of liberal immigration policy of the last 30 years. The main aim of immigration has been to produce more liberal voters, plain and simple. The government hasn't cared about the quality of immigrants, just the quantity. Let in 100 welfare bums, budding terrorists, Russian mobsters, who cares, if they vote they will vote liberal at best or NDP at worst. This dirty little secret of Canadian immigration policy should be exposed.
Australia did the same thing in the 1970s and hence the problems with Lebanese gangs in Sydney.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.