The recent “wave” of economic refugees from Mexico will probably be dealt with like all others before it.
The press will run it on the front page, knowing few things generate more debate than “illegals abusing the system.” The smugglers or con artists involved will be assailed. Immigration lawyers and “law-and-order types” will lock horns on TV.
Some will call for a mile-high fence to surround the entire country while others will urge compassion and understanding. The public will vent its rage and the immigration minister of the moment will announce some measure to convince us the government is taking appropriate steps to deal with the immediate problem. Soon, the story will slip off the back pages and out of our minds.
Then, a year or so later, it will happen all over again in some varied form or another.
So, how do we approach this problem?
Building a better fence may help, but is clearly not the answer. I doubt any Canadian taxpayer, and I mean any, would be prepared to foot the bill for a barrier that can’t be climbed or circumvented stretching across every Canadian road, hill, mountain, river or shoreline.
How about toughening our immigration laws and policies? Those laws already make this type of immigration unlawful and allows for the arrest, detention and deportation for life of such people. How much more “illegal” can we make it?
Looking for the “source” of the problem may lead us to prosecute the scam artists “responsible” for this particular con. But that will only yield minimal or, at best, short-term, results since they will simply reconstitute themselves or be replaced by new players and a new swindle.
A more analytical approach will prove these scam artists are not the real source of the problem, as they are simply playing on the fears created by the recent crackdown south of the border on an estimated 12 million illegals. Since Canadians can’t control American immigration policy, what are we to do?
My proposal? In the space I have left here, I would start by acknowledging a couple simple truths. People only look for jobs where there are jobs left unfilled. People will do almost anything to get a job in order to feed their families. Canadian businesses want cheap labour so they can be more profitable. Canadians are generally too well-educated to provide such labour.
Since we don’t have an effective avenue for bringing in an adequate pool of low-skilled labour craved by Canadian businesses, most of these Mexicans will spend thousands of dollars in futile attempts to prove they are fleeing persecution. In turn, we taxpayers will spend millions resisting these charades and underwriting the claimants’ removal costs.
This is a lose-lose situation, which we might be able to turn into a win-win situation if only our immigration and labour policy-makers are brave enough to concede current access to foreign low-skilled labour is overly restrictive.
If it were more realistic, a serious labour shortage would quickly be filled, Canadian business would thrive, and the incentive to use illegal means to come here may, perhaps, dissipate.
