Vetting and integrating immigrants will be an election issue
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Summary
In this episode, I discuss a new poll commissioned by the Canadian Council of Canadian Muslims, which shows that 57% of Canadians say they want fewer refugees, and 75% say they would like the focus to be on skilled labour, people with with labor skills coming into the market.
Transcript
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I don't want to become a broken record when it comes to talking about immigration and
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refugee issues but I think the topic is going to recur in the coming months between now and
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the election and we really want to hammer home some points about how we should be looking at
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this issue and what the solutions are to the actual problems because this has recurred in
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recent weeks in recent months but we're only going to see more of it and the latest is a new
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poll commissioned by CBC that's come out it's a poll that looks at quite a large sample speaking
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to 4,500 Canadians and they talked to them about a whole slew of issues now they're releasing these
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polls in different installments as it as it goes by topic and one that just came out was looking at
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immigration and refugees 75% of respondents say they would like the focus to be on skilled labor
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people with with labor skills coming into the market 57% of respondents say they want fewer
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refugees do not bring in as many refugees now right away sound the alarm you've got all these
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people coming in to use the R word racist at least that's what it's implied and then we have to roll
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out all these various experts to speak to Canadians about why they are ignorant and mistaken and allay
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their fears and anxieties and basically let them know that they're guilty of wrong think and then
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teaching them how to reverse that opinion to reverse that perspective now I always think the nerve of
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it for someone like immigration minister Ahmed Hussain to come out and chastise people about their views
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when you're talking about the majority of people these are the people that you are tasked with serving
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and if the majority have an opinion I think the solution is not to belittle their views or ignore it or go
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okay well this is an opportunity for me to tell these people they're ignorant and try and reverse
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their views no the solution is to take a listen to what they're saying and why they're saying it and
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try to get to the bottom of it now these polls usually don't define their terms of course and
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they're not focus groups you're not sitting down and really hashing out the issue you're just asking
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people a few basic questions and after after watching polling about immigration and refugee issues for a
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number of years now I've come to the conclusion that the isolated variable is integration now we
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had that issue two years ago when Kelly Leach proposed the Canadian values test and before it
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went out into the field before people were asked their thoughts on it I said this is going to be
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something that gets 75 percent support and I was wrong it was much higher than that there was a poll
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done by CBC that put it at something like 85 percent it was wild I mean you rarely get unity on an
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issue like that as much as they got on the Canadian values test and you looked at what people were
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saying and they were basically saying look we're happy with people coming to Canada I mean it's what's
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been happening since the country was founded and many people coming to Canada proportionate to the size
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of our country proportional to the number of immigrants and refugees other countries accept
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but if you're coming we want to make sure we're all on the same team that people are integrated that
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we're working together we're getting along and we have more or less the same values and I see that in
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that CBC poll that has just come out 57 percent of people saying they want fewer refugees I think
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if they felt the broad Canadian public that we could sort of talk more openly about these issues
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and our concerns about integration and getting people on the same page then maybe they'd say well
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I'm fine with the number or you want to bring in 5,000 or 10,000 more this yeah okay fine whatever
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because they would feel that yes integration is happening and we're all going to be part of the
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Canadian fabric together but because when those issues of Canadian values were brought up because
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Kelly Leach was was vilified and and really driven out of politics other people who have these views
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the majority of people as we've just established well they clam up and they go I can't say this stuff
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as well so then a microphone's put in front of them and they say you want more refugees or you want
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fewer and they go okay well I can't talk about the integration thing okay fewer just just shut down the
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doors don't bring anyone else in because they're not allowed to talk about basically a quality
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factor what what type of refugee you're getting how you deal with people once they're here they can
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only talk about quantity and they're only pushed to saying more more more and I think more more more
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is also probably the frame we're going to hear in the coming months both in how people talk about
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the issue the way that people who are are pushing for basically quasi open borders matters like the
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wild stuff you hear at the democratic presidential nomination to be debates are saying you've got
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that going on and then you've got people who are critical of it who are saying I don't know let's
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talk about this more more more but from a way of reducing these numbers or dealing with the
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integration I think the responsible way is just have that conversation so I don't really think people
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are all that far off yes Canada is a country of immigrants yes we're pretty welcoming so let's just
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keep it that way and make sure we can ensure the quality of the system you better believe this is
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going to be one of the number one issues in the election is October and it's vitally important we get it right