Immigration's Underclass

Diane Francis from The National Post's financial section (Apr. 29) has again exposed the laxity of our immigration system. She points out that the level of low income newcomers has jumped from 23% in 1980 to 35% by year 2000. The reason for this is the large numbers of immigrants that arrive are either non-productive relatives or as refugees, thus by-passing any criteria that rewards them for skills or language. She puts it succinctly, "Despite such evidence of economic damage, politicians have been frightened to reform or even debate policies, because the immigration and refugee industry--mostly paid by government grants--label all critics and criticism as racist." She could have added the traditional voter support that the Liberals get from the large ethnic communities in the urban centers.

In this column she runs some of the comments her other immigration columns have generated from immigrants themselves. One Malaysian immigrant tells of the Taiwanese family whose father lives permanently in Taiwan. Occasionally he flies back to Canada via the United States to make an appearance before a government officer. After only three years of this, he can claim Canadian citizenship and discontinue this charade. The family plans to go home to Taiwan as soon as the son graduates. The son plans to go to the US. This residency scam has been a favourite of the Hong Kong citizens for years. The entrepeneur buy-your-way-in system has also been exposed as mainly a scam. Large numbers of the "businesses" they set up are mere shells, that are abandoned -- once citizenship is granted.

I have been waiting for Francis to illuminate some of the less noble records that immigrants or refugees have racked up -- such as the six Somalian taxi drivers in Yellowknife (of all places) who worked the largest phone fraud in Canadian history--$6,000,000 worth of phony calls. Or the radical BC Sikhs who accounted for the worse terrorist attack in Canadian history, when they blew up the Air India plane over the Atlantic and tried to blow up another over the Pacific. Then there is Gamil Gharbi, son of an Algerian immigrant, who gunned down 14 female engineering students in Montreal. If you don't recognize his name that is because the politically correct media never used his former name, one used until age 16. The day after the massacre he was referred to only as Marc Lepine--thus making him the perfect poster boy for the feminists to tar all Canadian males as ultra-violent misoygnists. Finally, let us not forget that wonderous tribe of Aidids, whose patriarch was General Aidid, the warlord in Somalia, made famous in the Blackhawk Down incident. This family had a penchant for massive welfare fraud in Ontario. Not quite up there with the Khadrs, but trying. I know I've missed a few other record holders--ah yes, the Jamaican robber, who was deported to Jamaica, but who managed to slip back into Canada two more times to commit more crimes.

Now I am not trying to suggest that most immigrants are criminal minded. Most try to make a sincere contribution to their adopted country. It is the increasing numbers that our government lets in, who should never have been allowed in, that I am railing against. People who come here with either completely incompatible cultural attitudes, no skills, or with criminal intent should be barred. We cannot allow our beautiful country to be hobbled by the likes of these.

© Bud