We're Sending Them Where??!

"Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery." -- Jack Paar

Buried in the middle pages of the local newspaper a few days ago was an article about how thousands of Iraqi and Iranian refugees who had fled the violence in Syria were going to be "resettled" here. Initially they had fled their own countries for the dubious safety of Syria, and when the civil war broke out there they went to Turkey, and now there are plans afoot to bring them to Canada.

Say WHAT?!

While I think of immigration as a reasonably good thing for Canada, there has to be some lines drawn and questions asked.  Can these people prove that they are bona-fide refugees?  Are there legitimate reasons as to why they can't return to their own countries, or stay in Turkey?  Do any of them have dual citizenship that would make them eligible to come here?   Do they possess sufficient education and skills that would enable them to become productive members of Canadian society?  And, will they agree to abide by our laws and culture?

I know there are people in the system whose job it is to determine all these things.  But really, use some common sense and make sure that people meet the criteria BEFORE they are brought in.  Sometimes it seems that for every immigrant that succeeds here, there are two others who exploit the system and/or become criminals, intentionally or not.  I'm sure nobody has forgotten the murders of those four women in Kingston a few years ago, although that is an extreme example.

What's sad is that sometimes immigrants who have come here for a better life end up being deported for stupid reasons.  There was a news report yesterday about a Pakistani family with two Canadian-born children who had just won a last-minute stay of deportation on humanitarian grounds. The woman's father had not accepted their marriage, so they came here to escape the wrath of the family.  They've been here ten years and are well-established, and yet the system claims they would be in no danger if they were sent back.  How could you send two Canadian children to what to them would be a foreign country, just because you think it is "safe"?

The system sucks.