How States Turns Us Against Each Other
According to a news report in the Red Toronto Star, there have been as many asylum claims in the first week of April (1st to 6th) as there were during the entire month of January of this year. But did commentators at r/Canada welcome these refugees of Donald Trump's fascist America with virtual open arms? They did not.
Despite the recent surge, the article also points out that asylum claims are only 50% of where they were last year. We don't get many cross border claims anyway, because of the 'safe third country rule'. Because the United States is a safe third country, people have to seek asylum there instead of trying to seek it in Canada. Presumably this is to prevent applicants from having multiple bites at the apple. Although ideally we would just take anyone who came, regardless of their circumstances, so long as they didn't have a history of criminality. Why not? The best philosophy when it comes to immigration is encapsulated on the state of liberty.
Take this top voted comment by 'atticusfinch1973 for example.
We should NOT be giving people asylum from the US. Hard stop. If you're a US citizen or even a refugee who went there first, you dug your own hole and don't bother trying to come here.
Atticus Finch was the protagonist in 'To Kill A Mockingbird', a novel that explored important social issues like racism, the inadequacies of the legal system, and revenge. Here is an excerpt from it.
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| Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door. |
However, there is a big problem with the present system, which is all the money the government spends on refugees. And it is a lot. The national post claims "that Ottawa budgets about $224 per day to feed and house some foreigners who claim asylum after illegally entering the country". And the asylum claimant backlog - that is people who are waiting for a court to adjudicate their claim - is pretty substantial.
And this is the fundamental problem with state action. Whenever the government does anything, there are winners and there are losers. In this case, the benefit are the refugees. And frankly, I don't buy into that whole 'economic migrant' hysteria. I don't care if they are running away from war, political repression, or they are just tired of working 60 hour weeks for a monthly salary of $400 and want a shot at a better life. Canada is a big country, we have room for everybody. But the government should not be spending so much of the taxpayers money to cloth and house these guys. I mean the very least they should be doubling them up. Actually, we could probably put 5 of these claimants in the same hotel room, bring those costs down to 20%. During Covid I was forcibly interned in a luxury suite in Mississauga for a two week quarantine and let me tell you, we could have fit two dozen people in that thing. It was massive. And forget about catered meals at what is probably $20 a pop from some government contractor with ultra high markups. It should be rice, beans, and chicken hearts every meal. I'll feed the entire hotel on $84 a day and still have change.
Furthermore, it should be legal for claimants to work. We want these people off the government teat so they can contribute to society, right? That means they should work. But we should also eliminate the minimum wage, to make it easier for them to find jobs. Because let's face it, if you are a Haitian refugee with no education or job history in Canada and you don't speak English, it might be hard to find a job for $15 an hour. Heck, people with impeccable references, a college diploma, and Canadian work history are struggling in this job market. But if you let these guys compete by taking work for $5 an hour, then some entrepreneur will make use of them. Then at least they will have some income and develop Canadian work history, and probably in short order they will be able to command a much higher wage. I stayed at a lovely hotel in the working class neighbourhood of Fontibon, in Bogota, and my hotel was on the 5th floor. There was no elevator. The porter, a wiry lad of about 20 years of age, hoisted my massive trunk suitcase onto his shoulders and raced up all five flights to get me situated. These people can work. And actually, that is exactly what our economy is hungry for. Our problem is we've got too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Too many people are college educated and looking for white collar work. But the existence of white collar workers depends on the existence of blue collar workers. And blue collar workers need to know how to actually work. Unfortunately, most of our society is too pampered, too indolent, too wealthy to be able to do the sort of hard work that the economy requires. And this translates into sluggish economic growth. But people from Latin America know how to work. They are physically and psychologically capable of that blue collar grind. So they would a huge asset to our county, empowered by the existence of large amounts of accumulated capital.
You see, in the economy, production is the product of three factors. Land, labour, and capital. Land in this context actually means natural resources. Canada has natural resources out the wazoo. That's not our problem. Then there is capital. We've got capital. As a first world country, founded during the height of liberalism, neighboured by America, we have managed to build up a massive capital stock relative to the rest of the world. We've got capital. So all we need now is labour. And don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people in Canada working hard and producing wealth. Plumbers, framers, farmers, electricians, welders. But we need more. We've got enough project managers and lawyers and accountants. We've definitely got enough bureaucrats. We need people who can grind. So let them work. Let anyone who is here who wants to work, work. Be they tourist, citizen, resident, whatever. These are just stupid artificial designations anyway.
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