Canada curbing asylum seekers. From Mexico. Because there are too many seeking asylum in Canada and only a small percentage get accepted. (Is it safe to say the system is working to ensure only those who need protection get it?) Are we open to more of the story?
From 2014-2023, there were 7,454 people from Mexico who had their asylum claim approved. That means, their claim of needing protection was deemed credible; a claim they would not have been able to make had the visa rules been in place over that 10 year period.
Ah, but there was a jump in claims in 2023, from 7,500 in 2022 to over 25,000 in 2023. They must be gaming the system! How about this from the Mexico News Daily:
There were 27,354 homicides in the first 11 months of 2023, according to government data, for a DAILY AVERAGE of 82 murders. Compare that to Canada. The most recent data is for 2022 showing 874 homicides for the WHOLE YEAR! “Arrests are made in connection with some homicides, but impunity remains extremely commonplace in Mexico, with less than 4% of criminal investigations solved.” What would we say if our police reported a 4% solve rate on crime in Canada? How many Canadians would be looking for protection in another country if this was our reality?
Or this from Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission which has published 54 reports detailing abuses by immigration officials and private security personnel at migrant detention centers since 2019: “Torture, sexual assault and extortion are some of the abuses migrants have allegedly suffered while detained at government detention centers since Francisco Garduño became Mexico’s immigration chief.” What would we say if our immigration minister, Marc Miller, had the same allegations against him?
Or, in terms we all understand: the money in our wallets. We say 13% tax (in ON) on purchases is too much, but a 15.3% claim approval rate for Mexican asylum seekers over 10 years is not enough to warrant keeping the possibility of seeking asylum in Canada open to those who need it by not imposing a visa. It’s only 7,400 lives (or more) at risk.
Or this from Global Affairs Canada re: Canada-Mexico relations: “In 2022, a record of close to 40,000 workers were welcomed to Canada under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program. This recognizes the foundational role Mexican nationals play as a source of labour for Canada specifically in sustaining the domestic agricultural sector.”
So, it’s okay for 40,000 to come and work in our fields so we can put food on our table because we won’t do the work ourselves, but 25,000 coming and asking to please let them stay and be safe: no way!
Who is gaming whom here?
This is what happens when we don’t have a national strategy for dealing with forced migration, and we won’t counter the false rhetoric that “they” are taking our jobs, houses, and healthcare. If we can’t afford to protect a few thousand people who need it, in a country with 38 million people, those few are not the problem – we are!
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