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Originally Posted by rousseau
Canada is by most measures the best destination for immigrants there is. Who would seriously argue against this? Doesn't mean things are perfect or that we have all the answers, or even that there is something more virtuous about Canadians. The main reasons for it are probably due to accidents of history and geography.
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That is completely dependent on the preferences of the immigrant. Canada is friendly to immigrants in the sense that the level of hostility to immigrants is about as low as it gets. However, people immigrate for all sorts of reasons. If you're a tech nerd in Bangalore, you want to go to Silicon Valley even if research reveals that there is some Black / Asian tension in parts of the US. If you're a businessman in Mumbai, you want to go to London or New York City. If you hate winter, you'll prefer Australia and New Zealand.
True, a compilation of statistics on Black / Asian tension may reveal Canada to be superior to the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, but that may not be the decisive factor for those aspiring to immigrate.
Lack of hostility toward immigrants is obviously an important factor for immigrants to consider, but I feel like the main immigration destinations like the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand are all reasonably friendly. Even if Canada outdoes them by having less recorded instances of Black / Asian tension, that difference may not be material to an immigrant's decision.
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Originally Posted by rousseau
I'm perplexed by what we're arguing about here. I'm sure there are lots of immigrants in the U.S. that wouldn't be able to find Canada on the map. But what country comes out better than Canada for immigrants when you tally up the various metrics of safety, acceptance, opportunity, stability, etc.?
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Opportunity? I think for most professionals, the US and UK provide better opportunities than Canada. As a lawyer, the money you can make in major markets in the US and London very significantly exceed that which you can make in Canada. I'm sure this applies to numerous sectors.
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Originally Posted by rousseau
Honestly, think about it: we're all getting in a huff about some old white folks griping about Chinese-only signs in Richmond, BC. In what other country in the world would this be one of the biggest issues out there for immigrant-host community relations?
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I assure you that there are far more serious issues for immigrants in Canada. This includes, for example:
- Racial discrimination by police (which has been extensively reported on in the Greater Toronto Area and something that I feel I have personally been a victim of)
- Continued low representation in the political sphere at all levels of government
- Disparate employment and income outcomes
- Attempts by the majority to erase facets of your religion / culture from the public sphere (e.g., the proposed burqa ban in Quebec)
- Two-tiered citizenship
And also, of course, plain old racism. The fact that many in Vancouver harbor racist sentiments against Chinese has been discussed already, so I won't rehash it.