A lot of Canadians are not happy with the way our immigration system works now. Most immigrants congregate in the big urban centres and have trouble competing with hundreds of other applicants for a few jobs. This puts a lot of strain on our social services that results in resentment from established residents. I think we do need immigrants to fill up this vast country, we just don't need them in the cities.
Somehow, we have to drag our immigration beaureaucrats into the realities we face. We need skilled immigrants with the right skills in the right places if we are to benefit Canada as a whole. We have a vast Northland that is virtually uninhabited but we have employers there unable to attract employees. We have small towns all over the interior of the provinces that are unable to attract the skilled professionals we need such as Docters, Dentists, other medical professionals, and skilled tradespeople of all kinds. Most of our Northern towns are a paradise for entrepreneurs of every sort.
Most immigrants, and indeed most Canadians have an irrational aversion to living outside the densly populated areas. I confess, I do not understand this phenomonon, it doesn't make any sense to me! The quality of life and cost of living in most of the small towns in Canada is far superior to the smoggy, congested, crime-ridden metropolitan areas.
As for jobs, how many of you have kids in their mid-twenties that are making over $30 an hour and top-notch benefits with sky's-the-limit potential in the city? Yet our northern industries beg for responsible, qualified employees. If the people in this country can ever conquer their agrophobic fears and spread out a little, most of our problems would disappear! That is why I'm a strong proponent of allowing skilled immigrants in, but assigned for five years to a specific area in the North where their skills are required.
If five years of Northern service were the requirement for immigration; the immigrants would take the giant step of assimilating into Canadian society instead of huddling together in a city ghetto with other countrymen. Canada would greatly benefit from their services during that five years and prepare them for a future as a Canadian.
No better example of the truth of this can be found than in the plight, and then the ultimate success, of Newfoundlanders. When the fishing stopped, they were out of a job, so they migrated en masse to Fort McMurray, Alberta in the early days of the Tar Sands project. Now, most of that cities people are from Newfoundland. They didn't stop there, now most of the towns in the North are full of Newfies, making big money and contributing in every way to their adopted communities!
:cheers:
Somehow, we have to drag our immigration beaureaucrats into the realities we face. We need skilled immigrants with the right skills in the right places if we are to benefit Canada as a whole. We have a vast Northland that is virtually uninhabited but we have employers there unable to attract employees. We have small towns all over the interior of the provinces that are unable to attract the skilled professionals we need such as Docters, Dentists, other medical professionals, and skilled tradespeople of all kinds. Most of our Northern towns are a paradise for entrepreneurs of every sort.
Most immigrants, and indeed most Canadians have an irrational aversion to living outside the densly populated areas. I confess, I do not understand this phenomonon, it doesn't make any sense to me! The quality of life and cost of living in most of the small towns in Canada is far superior to the smoggy, congested, crime-ridden metropolitan areas.
As for jobs, how many of you have kids in their mid-twenties that are making over $30 an hour and top-notch benefits with sky's-the-limit potential in the city? Yet our northern industries beg for responsible, qualified employees. If the people in this country can ever conquer their agrophobic fears and spread out a little, most of our problems would disappear! That is why I'm a strong proponent of allowing skilled immigrants in, but assigned for five years to a specific area in the North where their skills are required.
If five years of Northern service were the requirement for immigration; the immigrants would take the giant step of assimilating into Canadian society instead of huddling together in a city ghetto with other countrymen. Canada would greatly benefit from their services during that five years and prepare them for a future as a Canadian.
No better example of the truth of this can be found than in the plight, and then the ultimate success, of Newfoundlanders. When the fishing stopped, they were out of a job, so they migrated en masse to Fort McMurray, Alberta in the early days of the Tar Sands project. Now, most of that cities people are from Newfoundland. They didn't stop there, now most of the towns in the North are full of Newfies, making big money and contributing in every way to their adopted communities!
:cheers:
