Altair said:
Beggars can't be choosers, but I guess in this case, they can.
Importing people who will be nothing more than an expensive burden on a fragile province for a long period does not leave people much choice.
Dumping masses of unemployable into areas with no employment is a recipe for disaster.
Turning large sections of towns into ghettoes of non-English-speaking, welfare-dependent people ignorant of Canadian laws and customs, thereby driving more locals out of their towns and possibly province is not a viable solution.
This is happening elsewhere in the world.
Altair said:
if these people can be successfully integrated, isn't that a win?
Can they be? How long will it take? How much will it cost? At what point do taxpayers say "enough"? At what point does our immigration system become overwhelmed? When does the backlash start? When do you move to the real world?
I was a volunteer with a privately-funded Burundian family support group several years ago. I have seen similar a similar group work with my Syrian neighbours.
It takes far more effort, by far more people, over far longer than you are aware. There are only so many people willing and able to do that, and nowhere nearly enough, and they tend to need longish breaks before picking up another family, if they are willing to do so at all. Interpreters can be a huge challenge to find, and they may have, um,
quirky agendae of their own. The Burundian family included ten children. Nobody spoke any English. Nobody had any real education, and no skills, with most of the children having been born in a refugee camp (which was rife with violence; the father was severely injured in one of two attacks), and really seemed to be under-equipped to adapt to their new lives. They ended up leaving for Montreal a year later, where there is a Burundian community. I have no idea how they are doing now.
The Syrian family has one more child than that. Several of their supporters had lived in Syria many years ago, had a good understanding of the culture, and spoke Arabic, and they continue to visit frequently. A second Syrian family moved in close a year later, and there are some Libyans and Egyptians nearby, so they have a fairly happy community but have not ghettoized themselves as has happened elsewhere, and can happen all too easily.
The two older boys have general construction labourer jobs, and the father is a farm hand. How many construction companies, or farms, are looking for unskilled workers in a province with a shrinking population?
Altair said:
How would you shut off the main water supply? Build a fence?
That's a good start. Much better than turning RCMP into RCBH.
Immediately flying illegal border crossers back to their home countries with directions about how to make legal applications would be another. We already expect would-be immigrants to apply for admission from their countries and will not accept applications from those here on holidays or student visas etcetera. Word would get around at least as quickly as Trudeau's "everybody welcome" tweet did. There are millions of actual, known refugees who have, in many cases, been languishing for years in camps, some of whom we could take instead of
illegal queue-jumpers. We can't accept all, but we can pick and choose. Building camps where they could be held while awaiting adjudication on their refugee claims, rather than releasing them into the wild, would be another good thing to do.
Asking that nice President Trump to have his people better assess visa applicants from certain countries, and crack down on traffickers south of illegal border crossing points, would be a good thing to do, but that's a little late, now. Renegotiating the Safe Third Country Agreement to remove the not-crossing-into-Canada-at-an-official-port-of-entry loophole, in exchange, perhaps, for dropping/modifying supply management would be a big discouragement as well.
If only a certain prime minister had not pissed him off....