Sociologist Christian Bergeron says the intense debate surrounding the recent influx of immigrants is shaking one of the pillars of Canadian society.
“Others” are so easy to blame.
There is a definite impact to a society when they open up to outside cultures. Countries who don’t have a history of large scale immigration face challenges to their identity, and cultural strength, especially when immigrants don’t desire to integrate with the culture they migrated to. The citizens have to learn new skills, interacting with people that are different from them, and need to learn acceptance and tolerance. Those are valuable skills to learn, but it’s dishonest to pretend that immigration doesn’t have any impact on the host country. Certain European countries have been getting a master class on the challenges that mass immigration poses to their unified cultural identity. I’m from the United States, so I’m no stranger to immigration, but I recognize how there would be an adjustment period for those who are.
Countries who don’t have a history of large scale immigration
Both of our countries are textbook examples of histories of large scale immigration. Everyone in Canada and the US but Indigenous Peoples are immigrants or children of immigrants
Everyone […] but Indigenous Peoples are immigrants
Psst. The current resident indigenes immigrated.
I’m pretty sure immigration is volitional, unlike other classifications like refugees and displaced peoples
I believe this is way overblown and more just a distraction from the real issue. The government of Canada seems to be primarily concerned with real estate value and helping it achieve higher and higher values by ensuring not enough homes are available for all Canadians and immigrants. The high cost of real estate has many many downstream effects including putting people on edge. The media does a great job of blaming immigrants as why would they not…they are owned by the same people who only want to see their real estate increase in value forever. Canada is was built with immigrants entirely, less the first people who were massively marginalized in the process. Don’t buy this propaganda. Instead put pressure on your local representatives to better manage home supply.
Canada: “Canada is so great, come live here!”
Immigrants: “ok, just arrived”
Canada: “there’s nowhere to live and it’s all YOUR fault”
Canada: “there’s nowhere to live and it’s all YOUR fault”
Don’t blame Canada for what its bigot minority says into the megaphone.
It’s possible have no problem with immigrants, but also know that too much immigration without building any housing will become a problem.
I can’t blame a person for wanting to come here to create a better life, but I can blame the government for poor planning.
I mean, I understand your frustration, this and previous governments should have dealt with the housing shortage long ago. But I’d say it’s unfair to say they’re pushing up housing prices, particularly after they just released a plan to address the problem. https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2024/04/12/announcement-canadas-housing-plan#:~:text=The plan lays out a,being built anyway by 2031.
Ontario also wants to count student residences in the housing tally to make numbers look good, so our leaders contradict each other
There has been many similar plans over the past decade and look where we are? Buying into the propaganda. Just like the net zero emissions goals by some long off date. Feels good, and we can point to similar good news stories like the one you linked, but the pattern is pretty established yet we tend to fall for the hope every time. That said, I am hoping this one goes somewhere, but I am not holding my breath, especially with a change in government likely coming.
seems to be primarily concerned with real estate value and helping it achieve higher and higher values by ensuring not enough homes are available for all Canadians
That’s a pretty specific guess that Hanlon’s Razor slices up in seconds without some kind of data other than ‘seems’.
Well “seems” because it is not like the government is going to say they are favouring the wealthy and “seems” as Canada really has not built the homes for the amount of immigrants. So the evidence is pretty clear. You must not live in Canada because if you did you would not need data, but there is plenty of you look, like the cost of rent and homes. Totally out of whack. Not just my opinion but the majority of Canadian’s less those investing in real estate of course.
What does multiculturalism have to do with anything? Multiculturalism is about acknowledging, accommodating, celebrating, and even drawing strength from the diversity of those who live here, no matter their heritage.
Immigration is about who gets to come here and how many. If we’re actually letting too many in, then that is something to deal with, but it’s completely separate from whether we celebrate what we have to offer each other.
Agreed. I’m all for accepting and learning from other cultures. I’m not for propping up low wage employers with immigration, particularly when it involves exploitation in ways that the locals refuse to put up with. We’re reaching a point where the boomers are retiring and there’s not as many gen A/Z to fill those vacated positions. Let those low wage jobs sit unfilled until they can find a way to do business while paying decent wages and providing good working conditions. Or go ahead and let the entry level jobs get automated while the actual well paying ones compete for workers.
The problem is not immigrants or Multicultural shit it’s when people start segregating themselves into little exclusive communities or clubs and start operating differently towards the society around them it’s a problem when people don’t integrate into Canadian Society… it’s not about integration of immigrants it’s the segregation and exclusion of other Canadians from immigrants and their communities.
How is that really a problem? Canada has always been a patchwork country. Why is that suddenly an issue?
Seems like it’s only become an issue once the majority of immigrants stopped being white.
I don’t know why don’t you ask the Indian gangs killing each other in Alberta because no one is integrating and they’re keeping to themselves. Or ask BC how the Chinese gangs are going. Or ask Montreal how the construction racket is going. Groups that exclude other Canadians are fucking dangerous because they don’t care about Canada they care about their group
Oh, leave people not harming anyone alone. They are not obliged to play with you if they don’t want to, grow up and deal with it.
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Wow you seem so welcoming, really makes me want to be a part of your community! 😊 /s
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It’s not up to you to decide what that means. They are allowed and empowered to decide for themselves what “being Canadian” means. And if it means staying the fuck away from you and never, ever interacting, well that makes perfect fucking sense from where I sit.
