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Canada, our Immigrants, and Changes

So, I've been thinking lately. Canada has seen a rise in immigrants over the past four decades—I myself come from parents who have immigrated. The rise in the number of people has got me wondering: Why? Why have we seen an influx of immigrants in Canada as of late?

However, that part's easy. Immigrants have come to Canada in search of a place where they can find a stable economy, and schools for their children to be educated in. This graph proves that. In 2021—2022, a large, large amount of immigrants came to Canada.

That is well-known, and we don't need a graph to see that, either. But that question led me to inquire on another, more complex question:

What specific initiatives has Canada’s government and citizens been pursuing to combat racism against immigrants, and how effective have these measures been in fostering an inclusive and tolerant society?

Intrigued, I did my research and looked into this further.

#1 — Laws and Regulations

Canadian history is full of bias—we have seen social, economic, and environmental issues in our country when it comes to immigration. The Immigration Act, implemented in 1869, was put in place by Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, hoping it would encourage more immigrants to settle in the West... But that failed. The emigration rate stayed higher than the immigration rate for the time being.

We had a more restrictive Immigration Act in 1906. The government had the right to prohibit any class of immigrants if they felt so. They didn't necessarily restrict any specific race, but they could restrict anyone by their own will. Kind of messed up. Though that's not a surprise, given the century the Act took place...

And then they just made it worse in 1910! Any immigrant deemed as "unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada" was prohibited from entering Canada. All immigration matters were handled by the government only, with judges and courts having no place in any of them.

Fast forward 78 years, and we have the Immigration Act in 1988. By this time, multiculturalism was much more widely accepted than it was decades before. This one was much more widely accepted than the other additions to the Immigration Act, as it placed regulations that protected cultural heritage, reduced inequalities and discrimination, and even offered multicultural programs. We were actually the first country to implement multicultural laws nationally. Pretty cool of us. Way to go, Canada!

#2 — Fostering a Safe Environment

As known by all, Canada is a developed country, with multiple facilities and resources for everyone, making it a healthy country to live in. Still, discrimination persists. I think it is important to address this from cultural, social, political, and economic standpoints. And, in general, Canadian citizens (and everyone as a whole) need to give them our utmost respect and compassion.

Thankfully, we are one of the more diverse and inclusive countries our world has to offer. However, that does not mean things like systematic racism and exclusion of those of colour are completely foreign to us.

Our government is more than well aware of these things, which has prompted them to provide support for immigrants. They launched the Building a Foundation for Change: Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy 2019–2022, which catered to financially supporting people of colour, as well as giving equal rights to said humans. This project was funded for a total of $45,000,00!

Evidently, the project worked out well, but that doesn't erase racism as a whole. However, even with our efforts, discrimination will never be fully erased from Canada and the rest of the world, with how much it is in our history, our present, and even our future. Nonetheless, the Canadian government succeeded in their task here.

Additionally, we have the Sustainable Development Goals, created by the United Nations. These goals are world goals that the UN does its best to achieve. SDG Target 10 is 'Reduced Inequalities', and this specific goal caters to... reducing inequalities, as the name suggests. For example, Target 10.2 states the following:

"By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status."

This not only includes immigrants based on their race, but based on their age, sex, religion, economic, or mental/physical disabilities, if any. As Canada is a part of the UN itself, we as a country have been doing our best to follow this ourselves.

But that's our government, what about us? What have we, as citizens, done to foster a safe and accepting environment for citizens?

A lot, surprisingly. There has been an ongoing trend of immigration to Canada, therefore resulting in more diverse environments for people of all ages.

Students have access to an education that has multiple resources for people of colour to grow. Students are taught how to accept everyone, no matter their identity, as well as have inclusive and friendly conversations about culture.

Of course, some immigrants do not have a good grasp of the English language, but there are resources in school for kids to learn English.

Schools have clubs for specific groups of people too, run by the students themselves. Whether it's a BSA, an MSA, or anything else, our education system fosters an environment where anyone may be accepted.

A lot of jobs are more accepting of immigrants nowadays than they were before. My own father couldn't find a proper job when he first came to Canada 20 years ago, because every workplace turned him for being Pakistani.

But now, while there still may be some systematic inequalities, our workplaces are very diverse.

As for keeping culture, Canada, specifically Ontario, has a very diverse community, which makes it easy for immigrants to befriend and meet people like them. There are restaurants with different food for different cultures, so immigrants can keep their culture, even in an entirely different country.

#3 — Economy

Connecting to my mentioning of the workforce before, our economy has also changed because of immigrants.

Here's a graph displaying some different immigrants' median salaries. It is from 2008, and it shows how much they earn from 1 year of admission, and after 10 years of admission.

While they earned something, it was still not nearly as much as Canadian-born people earned. I happened to find more recent information from 10 years after the graph was made.

According to Statistics Canada:

“In 2018, economic immigrant principal applicants from the top source countries of immigration over the last 10 years all reported median wages exceeding the Canadian median wage of $37,400."

In easy words, in 2018, the top source countries of Canadian immigration over the past 10 years saw a rise in median wages that surpasses Canada's overall median wage of $37,400. So that's pretty good.

There's also something called the Canada Child Benefit (CCB). It's a monthly bonus from the Canadian government—tax-free—to help families with the expenses of raising kids under 18. The amount depends on things like family income, the number of kids in the family, and their ages.

Canada also has the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB), and it's like a financial boost for those putting in work. It's a tax credit that kicks in based on your job income and family size, helping out folks who need it.

These both apply to immigrants especially, considering their financial situation will probably not be the best entering the country. Chances are, finding a job as a new immigrant is a difficult task, but with these benefits and statistics, it's worth it, as Canada pays and financially supports their immigrants well.

I think that answered the question well enough. Overall, Canada has been supporting immigrants in many ways, combatting discrimination while giving extra benefits to them. As a country, we have successfully demonstrated that we can provide services for immigrants economically, socially, and politically, and I'm sure we will continue to. We should keep at the steady pace that we are supporting immigrants. We are seeing significant progress, and if we (the community) continue to support them, and so will the government, we will reach a point where Canada is mostly racism-free.

Canada is tackling racism against immigrants through measures like multiculturalism policies, anti-discrimination laws, and promoting diversity at work and in public spaces. These efforts aim to build an inclusive society, but success varies, and ongoing assessments are needed for sure. Solutions could include better education and stricter enforcement of anti-discrimination laws for a fairer and more tolerant environment. While eliminating racism entirely is a big task, and a practically impossible one, Canada's current efforts are heading in the right direction.

[themahamspace]

this is a test, ignore ! :)