Troll_Bait
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: [T]eaching experience doesn't matter much. -Lee Young-chan (pictured)
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 Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:29 am Post subject: Critics say Canada too immigrant-friendly |
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Critics say Canada too immigrant-friendly
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Canada has long prided itself for opening its doors wider than any nation to immigrants and asylum-seekers, but that tradition is coming under intense scrutiny � at home and across the U.S. border � after the arrests of 17 men from Muslim immigrant families in an alleged terror plot.
Critics contend that too many newcomers are admitted without thorough screening, that asylum-seekers are routinely allowed to move about freely before their claims of persecution are reviewed, and that Canada's official policy of multiculturalism slows the assimilation of immigrant communities.
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The Bush administration has congratulated Canada for the arrests, but some congressmen have seized the occasion to complain.
Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, asserted that Canada has "a disproportionate number of al-Qaida. ... because of their very liberal immigration laws (and) because of how political asylum is granted so easily." And Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana said many Canadian immigrants don't share "traditional Canadian values."
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The issue of integration has been hotly debated since the arrests, with commentators and civic leaders divided over whether Canada's multiculturalism policy strengthens ethnic communities or prolongs their isolation.
Tarek Fatah of the Muslim-Canadian Congress said a liberal immigration policy is crucial to the country's economic future, but he said the government should work harder to teach newcomers the values of a secular, parliamentary democracy.
"Multiculturalism can very easily provide fertile soil for nurturing our primitiveness, rather than celebrating reason and our common humanity," Fatah wrote in a recent Toronto Star column. "We risk creating a fragmented nation, divided into 21st century tribes."
Martin Collacott, a counterterrorism expert and former Canadian ambassador in the Middle East, said a strong current of political correctness � and a fear of offending immigrant voters � has discouraged reassessment of multiculturalism.
"We should continue to welcome people from all different backgrounds, but that doesn't mean we want them to continue their loyalties to all the old conflicts overseas," he said. "There are serious problems here, and we should be looking into them."
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