A growing number of North Americans come from minority backgrounds. They pay their taxes and many struggle to make ends meet. They groan about increasing taxes and look to government to dole out more benefits to help struggling families.
In Canada, which has a better safety net than the United States by all account, many immigrants unfortunately abuse the system by bringing their parents and grandparents to join them for purely economic reasons. They bring these old folks and after a few years they qualify for old age pension and have access to all the medical and social services. Being people of great generosity, Canadians never bothered once their own individual needs were met. Times have changed. The war and the depression have taken a big chunk out of the economy. Ordinary folks are feeling the economic squeeze. There is also the question of fewer young people working to support a growing population of seniors and the fear that there may not be enough to go around. Those who have worked and contributed to the pension fund might be short changed in the end.
The Canadian government has recently come out with a new immigration policy that would priorize young people and the economic class. Parents and extended family who are over a certain age will no longer be a priority in the family class. Some immigrants have raised the cry about hardship and how important it is to reunify the family. This would be make sense if:
a) all the siblings are in Canada and only mom and dad are back home
b) if all the siblings and family members who desperately want mom and dad to join them will foot the bill in bringing them here and caring for them as it is done in the home country
c) if they would pay their parents for the babysitting and housekeeping services they expect them to perform for them when they come so that they do not have to depend on anyone but their own labour;
d) if they would take out insurance for theirmom and dad so they could access medical services whenever they like - this could be done well in advance of their coming to Canada. In fact this is a great idea for insurance companies - they could start offering insurance plans that would pay dividends to seniors and also cover medical bills;
I am not being insensitive to the needs of immigrants but at some time we have to face the truth. We have lay the cards on the table and recognize that many of us abuse a good system. There are many people who own great big houses and are well off in their countries of origin but yet come and avail themselves of free money in Canada and use that money travel back and forth in the winter and summer. The money is not free. People work hard for the money and it should be used in a responsible manner.
There are many needy people in Canada. The Aboriginal population, newcomers who are here and living in poverty, our young people need recreational outlets and services, our seniors need better care in hospitals, more supports and we need more doctors to tend to people in Canada. These are the places where our tax dollars need to go. We need to take care of our own before extending charity elsewhere. Immigrants who have settled in Canada may send for their parents to spend holidays to enjoy the good life, we need to honour our parents and we need to let them see that we are prepared to spend our own money to make them comfortable thus acknowledging to them that we love them and we care for them and we can take care of them. We can do it. So, to you I say do not let the new policy bother you, dig into your pocket, bring your parents over and take good care of them. You will be be blessed.
In this situation, I support the Canadian government for making the move. To do anything different is just playing with politics.
