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Mexicans find a rough welcome mat in Canada (BS)
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thepeel

Joined: 08 Aug 2004

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:17 am Post subject: Mexicans find a rough welcome mat in Canada (BS)

Quote:

OTTAWA � Claudia Molina used to think Canada was a welcoming place. But that was before the 32-year-old psychology graduate from Mexico City attempted to travel to Vancouver last year.

Ms. Molina, who works in the human-resources department of accounting firm KPMG in Mexico City, arrived at Vancouver International Airport in February of 2006 for a two-week visit with her boyfriend, an English teacher she met when she studied in Vancouver in 2005.

But as she came through immigration, she was quickly taken aside, suspected of trying to enter Canada to work illegally, even though she had a return ticket to Mexico and several thousand dollars in cash. Her luggage was searched and she was hauled off to a detention centre where her coat, shoes and personal effects were taken away. By the next morning, Ms. Molina was back on a plane to Mexico, angry, confused and humiliated.

"Nobody told me anything," she said in an interview from Mexico City. "They treated me like I was a criminal. ... I didn't do anything to make them do that to me."

Ms. Molina's case is part of a trend. Faced with a spike in refugee claims from Mexicans - the country is now the top source of asylum seekers in Canada - Canadian authorities have been refusing entry to increasing numbers of Mexican citizens attempting to visit the country as tourists.

Those turned away complain of harsh, insensitive and even racist treatment from Canadian officials, a view shared by the Mexican embassy in Ottawa. Increasingly irritated by the incidents, Mexican President Felipe Calderon is expected to raise the issue when he meets Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a North American summit this month in Montebello, Que.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

1) MEXICANS can claim fucking asylum??? My country sucks.
2) Mexican isn't a race.
3) Canadian border guards wouldn't bloody dare be racist.
4) The Mexican embassy should spend less time worrying about this and more time learning how to govern a nation beyond 2nd world status.

(the comment section from this article is very interesting)

On the other hand

Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 9:36 am Post subject:

Quote:

2) Mexican isn't a race.

Well, just because the complainants were from Mexico, doesn't mean that the alleged racist comments were anti-Mexican. Assuming the story is true, the guards might have said something that was anti-latino in general.

That is, of course, if the stories are true. I join you in skepticism that Canadian border guards would say anything blatantly racist. Not because I think border guards are the most enlightened people in the world(Hello Little Sisters!), just that they would know that their jobs are on the line. Mind you, a lot of the racist comments I've heard in Canada over the years weren't blatant, but were rather just a case of someone speaking in an insenstivie way without really understanding why it would be offensive.

"Look, I don't know how they do things where you come from, but over here you have to do the work before you take a break."

Gopher

Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:26 pm Post subject:

BJWD wrote:

2) Mexican isn't a race.

According to many Mexicans, it is. Welcome to Third-World nationalism.

Alyallen

Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 2:28 pm Post subject:

Gopher wrote:

BJWD wrote:

2) Mexican isn't a race.

According to many Mexicans, it is. Welcome to Third-World nationalism.

The assumption is that she is actually latina. She might Indian and hence the comment about race...

Gopher

Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 3:19 pm Post subject:

Alyallen wrote:

hence the comment about race...

Understood.

I just see "racism" as the standard ploy Mexican "immigrants" will use when denied legal access to the United States -- and now Canada as well, apparently.

Welcome to the fray, Canada: you want to police your own border according to your own rules and laws? You must be racists, then...

Alyallen

Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 5:54 pm Post subject:

Gopher wrote:

Alyallen wrote:

hence the comment about race...

According to her she has a job and had a return ticket and whatnot. I don't know. I'm not a border patrol officer and I don't know much about the immigration patterns of Mexicans going to Canada, so I won't say much on the subject. I just found it strange that she went there with her American boyfriend with the intention of slipping into the country? Isn't that a bit far fetched? Wouldn't she have had a better shot of getting married to the Canadiann and becoming a Canadian citizen? And besides, why would she put her boyfriend on the hook like that?

It just doesn't add up in my mind....

Gopher

Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:06 pm Post subject:

Alyallen wrote:

According to her...

I understand you are tightly focused on her specific case.

I am looking at how Mexicans, including the Mexican govt, seem to be associating this with a larger trend and drawing a more general conclusion from this incident and others.

Quote:

Ms. Molina's case is part of a trend [my emphasis -- g.]. Faced with a spike in refugee claims from Mexicans - the country is now the top source of asylum seekers in Canada - Canadian authorities have been refusing entry to increasing numbers of Mexican citizens attempting to visit the country as tourists.

Those turned away complain of harsh, insensitive and even racist treatment from Canadian officials, a view shared by the Mexican embassy in Ottawa. Increasingly irritated by the incidents, Mexican President Felipe Calderon is expected to raise the issue when he meets Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a North American summit this month in Montebello, Que.

Mauricio Guerrero, a spokesman for the Mexican embassy, said his country recognizes Canada's sovereign right to reject or accept Mexicans intending to visit the country. But he said, "We don't agree with the way those rejected citizens have been treated. Sometimes they are handcuffed. Sometimes they are put in police stations. Once they are rejected, they are not treated properly."

For the Mexicans, the issue is seen as a counterbalance to persistent Canadian complaints over the danger tourists face from gang violence and drugs, exacerbated by what is perceived as inefficient and sometimes corrupt policing.

Magaly Yanez is convinced that the Canadian officer who turned her away at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport last year was racist. It was 6 p.m. on July 22, 2006, and Ms. Yanez, a 25-year-old hotel receptionist from Cancun, had arrived from Mexico to visit a friend who had just had a baby.

"I bought an open ticket because I wasn't sure how long I was going to stay," said Ms. Yanez, who studied business administration in university and said she had $1,000 in cash with her but no credit cards. The immigration officer was suspicious of the young woman's intentions and accused her of coming to Canada to look for work...

"He told me that my passport was not valid," she recalled. "But my passport was okay." As for the allegation that she intended to work in Canada illegally, Ms. Yanez protests: "I have my family here [in Mexico.] I have work here. We Mexicans [do] not only travel to work. We travel to visit people, make friends, whatever.

"Then they arrested me. I had never been arrested before in my life. ... I felt humiliated because they opened my bags. They treated me like a bad person..."

But for Mexicans such as Armando Andria, a 25-year-old systems engineer who was detained and sent back to Mexico in April of last year after flying into Toronto on vacation, the experience changed his view of Canada.

"I thought Canada was a friendly country, un amigo," he told The Globe and Mail. "I had no idea they treated people in this way."

Canadians: how do you like being subjected to this kind of "criticism?" Does it sound fair to you?

thepeel

Joined: 08 Aug 2004

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:35 pm Post subject:

The hypocritical Mexican government can piss off. They treat Salvadorian immigrants in ways that we would never dream. Third world nationalism was the first thing that came to my mind too, G. Almost reminds me of the proud-beggar Koreans who demand the US get the hostages.

Gopher

Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:40 pm Post subject:

BJWD wrote:

They treat Salvadoran immigrants...

Have any good info to post on this theme here?