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©Gregory James, May 2006
Deportations and illegal
immigration became
a hot topic this past March when the Canada Border Services Agency,
started
arresting and deporting Portuguese who were living and working in Canada
without
proper status.
It is
also a hot topic in the United States
right now where there is a huge debate on new laws to address the
challenges
posed by perhaps 11 million “undocumented” immigrants.
The
bottom line is that illegal immigration
is not going to go away unless our immigration processes recognize the
“pull”
factors that attract people to work illegally in Canada.
As long as there are family
members to rejoin and job opportunities to take advantage of there will
always be
people desperate enough or ambitious enough to take the risks that are
inherent
in traveling to and staying illegally in Canada. It doesn’t matter
how much
money is spent, or how many people are hired to stop and deport
illegals, they
will continue to come.
In the United States last week a three year
old boy was found dead in
the Arizona
desert.
The Americans have worked hard to close their border with Mexico.
But all
that does it force desperate people to take more risks. Most Latin
Americans
who are trying to sneak into the United
States
now try to cross the Mexican border into Arizona.
This means that they risk death in the desert. Many are caught, but
they try
again. That little boy is not alone. Last year over 450 people died in
the Arizona desert while trying to
get into the US.
But that
does not stop others from trying, sometimes repeatedly.
Cubans
and Haitians have tried to float
across the Caribbean to Florida
on rafts and other contraptions. Many have drowned in the effort. But
they kept
on coming.
In Canada
we have seen people stow
away in the wheel wells of aircraft and risk freezing to death or
suffocating
at high altitudes. We have seen people dumped into the sea or stranded
on leaky
freighters off Canadian shores. We know that people risk crossing
rivers and
jumping onto moving trains. We have heard stories from Britain
of
people suffocating to death in the back of trucks that become too hot
and short
of oxygen.
In Canada
we deport thousands of
people every year. Yet it is estimated that there are as many as
200,000 people
living here illegally.
Our
economy relies upon such people. The
most obvious example is southern Ontario’s
construction industry. The health of the construction industry is one
of the
main indicators of our economy’s strength. Yet it is estimated that our
constructions industry is currently relying on approximately 10,000
illegal
workers.
Many
illegals are involved in the service
industry. Some of them are working in high paying professional jobs. I
know a
few who have built their own successful businesses and are employing
dozens of
Canadians.
I have
received phone calls from employers
of my clients who are outraged that their employee is being threatened
with
deportation. These employers complain that Canada
should be going after the
low-lifes and criminals instead. They know their illegal immigrant as
an
upstanding, hardworking individual who would make a great Canadian
citizen. If
you look at a group of 200,000 people you are bound to find some
criminals
among them. But most illegals are exactly like the upstanding,
hardworking employee
that this concerned Canadian employer wants to keep.
Illegals
will keep on coming as long as
there is opportunity for them in Canada.
Our immigration strategy is too heavily
geared towards highly skilled immigrants. We mislead such individuals
into
migrating to Canada
and they end up driving taxis. Why is that? Because we need taxi
drivers more
than we need engineers.
Our
immigration system does not adequately
support family unification. Illegals can find work and survive in Canada
because
they are resourceful and they have family members or friends who
provide
support networks and help them get established here. But our
immigration system
undervalues these kinds of support networks. Instead skilled workers
with no
family members (future taxi drivers) get precedence over employable
people with
solid family connections in Canada.
It is
worth remembering that illegals can
survive in Canada
because they have support networks and because our immigration programs
do not
address holes in the job market. Maybe we should think about taking
these kinds
of considerations into account when reviewing our immigration
strategies.
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