The irony of the head tax reimbursement is that the vast majority of the people who paid it would not be allowed into Canada under current immigration laws.
Under the points system, you usually need a degree, related work experience and speak English and/or French.
If you speak neither, have no post-secondary education and have no family in Canada (like most Chinese immigrants who Came to Canada under the racist head tax program), you are out of luck. Granted, the point system applies to everybody, without regards to race. And there are plenty of non-white countries where many people have mastered English or French as a second language (Jamaica, Cameroon, India, etc.).
The American Green Card lottery blatantly discriminates against the Chinese. There is a quota per region and per country. Canada is disqualified because too many Canadians immigrate to the USA under other programs (obviously, that is not racist). In some places, like Northern Ireland (treated as a country for the lottery!), you are much more likely to win a green card than in China.
The American lottery is better than Canada's point system in the sense that all sorts of people get in. It is also much simpler and relatively efficient (no need to prove work experience, degrees or language qualifications). By removing the current regional bias of the lottery, it would be quite fair indeed.
What I propose is an auction system. The spots would go to the highest bidder. That way, it would be win win. Canadians would benefit (income to their government), no particular profession would be affected (as is the case now) and it would keep out the rift raft.
Sure, you might get some criminals being the highest bidder, but let's face it, the "investor class" (immigrants who invest $250,000 and "create" 3 jobs) probably admits some now.
There probably aren't that many people who want to move to Canada. So it isn't as if the bids would be that high. In fact, it would probably be about the same as what some people spend on fees and lawyers to get into Canada now.
And an auction would be much more colour blind than the current system. Seriously, how many Chinese Engineers speak English and French? They are much more common in Europe...
-Four GTA residents are repaid for head tax ;
-Immigrate to Canada ;
-If I Ran Canada;
-Let's auction off the immigration slots;
-LINKS-LIENS ;
1 comment:
If the 1903-1923 Chinese head tax was paid in 2006 dollars - It would cost $200,000 to $300,000 to come to Canada. The cost of 2 small houses in Chinatown and a few years wages.
What? That's outrageous? That would keep people from coming to Canada?
Exactly... That's what happened. But still the Chinese kept coming. So in 1923 the Canadian govt passed the 1923 Chinese "Exclusion" Act - which effectively barred any Chinese from coming to Canada until its repeal in 1947.
What? You say that's discriminatory? Keep the Chinese out, while ethnic Europeans are given land to come to Canada?
That's our country. Love it or leave it!
Or make it better by supporting the Chinese Head Tax redress campaign. Currently the Conservative govt will recognize only LIVING head tax payers or spouses... that's less than 1% of 81,000 head tax certificates issued from 1885 to 1923.n
If your father, mother, or grandparents died prior to Feb 2006 when the Conservatives came to power - too bad... so sad.
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