[Lanny_MacDonald]

Originally Posted by longsuffering

I beg to differ. This is an oft-repeated (conservative) misconception. With the possible exceptions of refugees, immigrants cannot receive social benefits of any kind, excepting health care. Before their immigration application is even considered, immigrants have to demonstrate that they can support themselves for at least a year without assistance.

What part of sweeping generalization did you miss? But since you wanna play, it depends on how you apply. As you aluded to, refugee status gives you immediate access to social services. We found out after the fact that if you have an immigration lawyer do the work for you you can get visas that allow you access to programs immediately. There are a ton of loop holes that work to the advantage of anyone from outside this country. It works the same way in the US btw, so its not just a condemnation of Canada.

How 'bout listing a handful of these (all sorts of) programs you refer to?

The government of Canada has been a very big supporter of programs like employment equity, equal pay and federal contractor programs, and has rewarded companies with huge tax breaks and done co-pay programs to employ immigrants. A great example of this is IBM Canada, who have made a boatload of money off of employment equity and federal contractor programs by hiring new Indian immigrant programmers over naturalized Canadians. I remember they even won an award for their work one year, which got a lot of ****les up in the industry.

Another misconception. Land of opportunity? Definitely. Unless you were born here? What a crock.

Since you obviously can't be bothered to check your facts and instead rely on the tired old standards of how everything is handed to immigrants on a silver platter, I can tell you that Canada is a very difficult country to emigrate to. It took more than a year for MY WIFE to receive her Landed Immigrant status (after our marriage) and another 5 years for her to become a citizen. I believe it now takes more than 2 years to go through the immigration process. And whether you realize it or not, Canada is the land of opportunity for everyone - except the lazy or stupid. I was raised by a single mother supporting 3 kids on a low salary with her only help coming from her parents. I managed to succeed very nicely thank you.

You're right, you're the only one who know's anythng about the process, I know nothing of immigration. My wife immigrated to Canada like yours, and went through the whole process, so I know that side of the line. I immigrated to the United States and know that whole process. I am very we aware of how each government bends over backwards for some, and not for others. My wife completed her immigration during the influx of Hong Kong Chinese, and we saw first hand how the system was inequitable. Those from Hong Kong got processed three times faster than anyone else. This was pathetic as my wife, who had two master degrees, was offered multiple jobs but had to refuse because of the BS the government made her go through. She had the wrong name and the wrong country of origin to be processed expeditiously. Only through the efforts of our MP did the matter get taken care of in a proper fashion. So please don't try and tell me how the system works. I lived it too, and I fought it tooth and nail to force the equity that was lacking in the system.

Getting back on topic, you just proved my point. The liberals in each country will go to no ends to make sure that the "foreigners" get a fair shake. That's why people flock here. They know they are going to get a much better shake here than they would where ever they came from.