Immigration Frustration

 Go to about the 2 minute mark in this video and watch for a while.

The vid shows Marc Miller the Liberal immigration minister being, as host Russell Matthews says, "Kinda forthright about" international students' "RIGHT" (our immigration minister uses that word) to work full time while attending school in Canada. 

Miller says there are industries in Canada looking for "cheap labour." Cuz labor has a U up here. The host didn't even make the mistake of being that honest. He said that industry is "struggling to find employees." Then Miller uses the phrase "labour gap" to try to muddy his honesty a bit but don't let that fool you. The fact is Canadian industry is only struggling to find CHEAP labour. There are plenty of Canadians who would work for these cheapskates if they paid properly, or enough to pay the bills. But they don't wanna. And in modern day hyper-capitalist Canada even under Liberal leadership industry gets what industry whines for. 

The immigration minister goes on to say that "If they're paying a whole heck of a lot more than a domestic student to come to study in Canada, why not?" Or something to that effect. Notice that in his rhetoric there is the intimation that international students pay a whole heck of a lot more but he doesn't say that. Why not? Because he's probably been warned against it. Cuz they don't. See Canadian students pay less at point of purchase due to provincial tax subsidies in the province where they are studying. That's assuming they're going to a school in the province where their guardians live. If they go to a school in a different province they're not paying "a whole heck of a lot less" than international students. If they go to school where they or their guardians pay taxes and you add tuition fees to tax subsidies, again it's not a whole heckuva lot less than foreign students if it's less at all.

Add to this the insult that any international student working full time at the lowball wages industry wants to pay will file tax and will get a pretty hefty refund and we should have an immigration minister who is not so "forthright" about this matter. But like so many of the capitalist schemes and scams we are increasingly subject to - they aren't even trying to hide it any more. Time was in this country when a foreign student had to breach his/her student visa agreement and/or break the law to work here while studying. Even in the early 2000's the government was well aware they were doing this and any citizen who informed the government of the occurrence ran the risk of being called a racist. I know because it happened to me. But at least it was on the books. You couldn't legally go to school AND work at your uncle's Chinese restaurant for 2 bucks an hour. I think at the time there was an 80% attendance expectation for international students as well. Any less and they would be in breach of their student visas and could be deported. I laugh now when I think of that. NOOOOObody was deported. They were put on the cheap labour list and probably fought over by companies that were tired of using their billions to pay a Canadian a decent wage.

I've done this before, but let's update it shall we? At the time I last did this there were lots of people in China making a dollar a day. Well the Chinese Communist Party has indeed lifted many people in China to a higher wage. Whether it has kept up with inflation is doubtful though. Now there are almost a billion people making 10 dollars a day! China is cheap but not THAT cheap. That's still poverty. Okay, so minimum wage in BC, where I was working with international students at Teck, is $16.75 an hour. We were getting 18 but let's use the minimum. That works out to $134 a day. Now reverse that and you will get some perspective. Imagine a minimum wage worker was offered 13.4 times his/her wage to work in China or India or wherever. That's $1795 a day! What WOULDN'T a minimum wage worker do for that wage? This is what working in Canada looks like to someone from India or China or the many other countries we are packing in immigrants from. This is why they'll work any hours, any shifts, do any crap jobs you want them to. This is why the whining companies of Canada prefer them to Canadian workers too, don't kid yourself.

 It's impossible to blame the immigrants or international students for jumping all over this sweet deal. It's a little easier but still hard to blame even the industries of Canada for falling all over themselves to cash in on this greater than ever influx of cheap labour. We need to blame our government and ourselves for historic levels of immigration and the disastrous effects they are having on Canada. We don't even have enough housing for the people we had before the biggest immigration surge since confederation. Wonder why housing prices are so ridiculous? How about unemployment? It's not just the students, it's immigration in general. 

But let's continue on in the vid. The host makes a classic blunder around the 4:20 point by equating "growing the economy" with growing the quality of life for the average Canadian. One of the most common capitalist schemes and scams. The economy largely reflects the profits of the big businesses and while they're screwing average Canadians out of work by hiring foreign students that is hardly translating into quality of life improvement for Joe Canuck. He then talks about the Bank of Canada printing tons of money increasing supply and lowering demand (value) thus manufacturing inflation while calling it "stimulus." Yes, they pissed on Canadians and told them it was raining. Again, nothing new in a capitalist society. Also messing with the interest rates and ruining lives with every decimal point. That's a fun game for central banks too. 

All this is somehow translated into "economic growth." This is what the government will call it when they beg for your votes at election time. And regardless of who is in power, they all do the same things and we all keep voting for one or the other and perpetuating the pattern. This all contributes to the classic foot-shooting behaviour I have seen in so many extreme government policies where they try to do something, often with good intentions, and they mess it up so badly they accomplish the opposite of their intention. I still feel like Employment Equity has caused people to consider sex before hiring, the problem they stated the program was implemented to fight. And it's only gotten worse. I am certified in that knowledge. I just completed my government of Canada Gender Based Analysis training. I have the certificate but can't upload it. Server isn't recognized. 

I believe that the people are seeing the huge influx of immigrants, refugees, and foreign students, and perceiving the negative effects on Canada. The only thing that might be rising faster than immigration rates is the general disenchantment toward these newcomers to Canada. This is the manufacturing of racism that I have mentioned in past posts. Another bad thing immigration is creating here.

There are some countries, and I'll say it, evidently SMARTER countries than Canada that are limiting immigration to more sustainable levels in the interest of their own citizens. Sweden and Australia are two examples that come to mind. When is Canada going to smarten up and do the same thing? Well I guess with so many positions in post-secondary educational institutions taken up by immigrants it'll be harder for Canadians to smarten up. And I suppose with so many jobs taken up by immigrants it'll be harder to afford the trip to the polls or even a residence which is necessary to vote. 

What do you reckon?