Immigration
This was originally going to be a comment on Elly's Livejournal in response to this, but was getting long, so I figured it would be better suited as its own post.
I'm Canadian and don't pay that much attention to US news that doesn't directly concern Canada, so I'll say now that I know nothing about the current immigration protests and will only comment on Canadian immigration, something I know a lot about.
First off, any comments I make here are limited only to landed immigrants. If you are admitted as a refugee, you're admitted based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds and the Canadian government should help you out for a reasonable period of time (i.e. you shouldn't live on welfare for the rest of your life, but if you're not a child or senior, you should be expected to learn English or French and get a job in a reasonable amount of time, several years or more. Being a refugee shouldn't be a ticket to free and permanent care).
In Canada, it's far too easy to get in and *not* be able to make any meaningful contribution to Canadian society. Seniors and kids don't really count here, unless the senior comes by himself or herself and isn't brought over by family members already in Canada. We let in far too many people as immigrants who don't know any English or French and for one reason or another, don't have employment potential (more on this later). Since Canada *does* have two official languages, letting in people who don't speak either guarantees that either they won't work initially and, once they find out about it, will be on welfare, or if they do work, it will be for an employer of their own nationality where their native language is spoken. This isn't necessarily bad, but it also doesn't encourage them to learn English or French. If you can work in a Chinese store run by Chinese owners, buy Chinese food from Chinese grocery stores, decorate your home with Chinese home furnishings, and know enough broken English to buy a big mac and a pair of jeans, what incentive do you have to learn more English or French? In this case, what real asset are you to Canada?
I don't think that you should get to live in a new country and receive the benefits of taxes paid by natives of that country simply because you feel like it. As an example, my Mom teaches English as a Second Language to adult immigrants. Her program is government-funded, which even she admits shouldn't be the case. At one point, they were giving out free, government-funded city bus passes to people without cars. It didn't take long for some of them to stop coming to class now that they had a year's worth of free bus rides just for showing up and expressing an interest in learning English. I'm not particularly concerned about immigrants putting Canadians out of work (besides, some immigrants know a lot more about hard work and are more dedicated than some Canadians), but why should they show up and expect government handouts, free English classes, welfare if they can't work, education for their children, and so on? Another annoyance is that many government services are translated into numerous languages. Besides the obvious cost of interpreters (I'm sure it's more to hire an interpreter to answer questions about, say, healthcare than it is to hire an English speaking employee), this also doesn't encourage immigrants to learn one of our national languages. We also don't have any requirements about immigrants receiving Canadian citizenship after a certain period of being in Canada; it's entirely possible to live here for years but not be a formal Canadian citizen. If you're here for a year or a few months and intend to go back home, that's one thing, but if Canada is going to be your permanent home, you should learn English or French, learn as much as anyone else knows about the government, and vote in elections.
Of course, there are exceptions. I've already mentioned refugees. Another is someone bringing over an entire family. If the father and/or mother speak English or French well and meet any other conditions, they should be allowed in, regardless of whether the kids or grandparents who come too speak English or French. BUT, the English or French speaker should be expected to look out for the rest of the family. If Grandma wants to book a flight to visit relatives in her home country for Christmas but can't understand English well enough to book the ticket, it should be her son's responsibility to do so for her, not the airline's responsibility to translate, assuming Grandma expects she can live here and not learn English (which is fair, past a certain age, but if you're only 55 and clearly have some capacity for learning left, you should still learn English). Same with kids: the parents are responsible for them and it's up to the parents to encourage them to learn English. With young kids, this isn't a problem anyway because they pick it up way faster than their parents.
I'm in no way against immigrants, provided that they have a desire to become Canadian, not just enjoy the benefits of living in one of the world's best countries. I've had friends and classmates in the past from other countries, either as direct immigrants (although usually when they were very young) or as first-generation Canadians (meaning that their parents were immigrants). I do think that there should be limits, not just an open-door policy to admit anyone who claims to like Canada.
Something that especially irritates me is university students, especially grad students who are given positions as teaching assistants to undergraduate classes, whose English or French (depending on the language of the university) is horrible. It's much too easy to get into a university and end up in a position of authority, either as a TA or even as a prof, and not be understandable.
One last thing. We often make it either too hard or too easy for immigrants to get professional jobs in Canada. A good example is medicine. As a patient, I don't want anyone operating on me or even diagnosing drugs if they don't speak good English, aren't up to date on drugs, surgical procedures, the equipment we have in Canadian hospitals (often better than that in other countries) or even medical practice guidelines and regulations. However, letting qualified doctors into the country and not making it easy for them to find jobs as doctors, especially with Canada having a shortage of doctors, is also stupid. Making immigrants qualify for medical school and spend 4+ years requalifying is dumb. There should be a fast track program: pass standard medical exams (without taking the courses), take a course in Canadian medical practices, and maybe do an intern (paid, since you're experienced) to ensure you're up to date with the equipment, and you should be allowed to practice medicine. If you're close to passing the exams, have some way to catch up (maybe take at most two other courses with med students for exams that you didn't do that well on), and if you fail brutally on many exams, then you should be forced to go through medical school like everyone else because you clearly don't have enough training or experience to be a qualified doctor in Canada.
On the other hand, it's too easy to get into things like teacher's college as an immigrant, especially if you've taught in your home country and are a mature applicant. Of course, teaching in your home country may be much less formal than in a Canadian school and you're in no way prepared for the Canadian system, even after a year of teacher's college (which assumes that you were a Canadian student; they don't tell you anything that students would already know about how schools work). Even worse is if you're a primary teacher, who has to teach spelling, reading, and writing to kids, and you have a heavy accent. High school or higher grades of public school are one thing, but I won't let my kids, when I have any, be taught basic English by a teacher who hasn't mastered it himself or herself.
In closing (if you even got this far), I think immigration is a good thing and can have a positive impact on our economy and introduce typical Canadians to other cultures, but immigration should never have an open-door policy and shouldn't be done without careful thought.
I'm Canadian and don't pay that much attention to US news that doesn't directly concern Canada, so I'll say now that I know nothing about the current immigration protests and will only comment on Canadian immigration, something I know a lot about.
First off, any comments I make here are limited only to landed immigrants. If you are admitted as a refugee, you're admitted based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds and the Canadian government should help you out for a reasonable period of time (i.e. you shouldn't live on welfare for the rest of your life, but if you're not a child or senior, you should be expected to learn English or French and get a job in a reasonable amount of time, several years or more. Being a refugee shouldn't be a ticket to free and permanent care).
In Canada, it's far too easy to get in and *not* be able to make any meaningful contribution to Canadian society. Seniors and kids don't really count here, unless the senior comes by himself or herself and isn't brought over by family members already in Canada. We let in far too many people as immigrants who don't know any English or French and for one reason or another, don't have employment potential (more on this later). Since Canada *does* have two official languages, letting in people who don't speak either guarantees that either they won't work initially and, once they find out about it, will be on welfare, or if they do work, it will be for an employer of their own nationality where their native language is spoken. This isn't necessarily bad, but it also doesn't encourage them to learn English or French. If you can work in a Chinese store run by Chinese owners, buy Chinese food from Chinese grocery stores, decorate your home with Chinese home furnishings, and know enough broken English to buy a big mac and a pair of jeans, what incentive do you have to learn more English or French? In this case, what real asset are you to Canada?
I don't think that you should get to live in a new country and receive the benefits of taxes paid by natives of that country simply because you feel like it. As an example, my Mom teaches English as a Second Language to adult immigrants. Her program is government-funded, which even she admits shouldn't be the case. At one point, they were giving out free, government-funded city bus passes to people without cars. It didn't take long for some of them to stop coming to class now that they had a year's worth of free bus rides just for showing up and expressing an interest in learning English. I'm not particularly concerned about immigrants putting Canadians out of work (besides, some immigrants know a lot more about hard work and are more dedicated than some Canadians), but why should they show up and expect government handouts, free English classes, welfare if they can't work, education for their children, and so on? Another annoyance is that many government services are translated into numerous languages. Besides the obvious cost of interpreters (I'm sure it's more to hire an interpreter to answer questions about, say, healthcare than it is to hire an English speaking employee), this also doesn't encourage immigrants to learn one of our national languages. We also don't have any requirements about immigrants receiving Canadian citizenship after a certain period of being in Canada; it's entirely possible to live here for years but not be a formal Canadian citizen. If you're here for a year or a few months and intend to go back home, that's one thing, but if Canada is going to be your permanent home, you should learn English or French, learn as much as anyone else knows about the government, and vote in elections.
Of course, there are exceptions. I've already mentioned refugees. Another is someone bringing over an entire family. If the father and/or mother speak English or French well and meet any other conditions, they should be allowed in, regardless of whether the kids or grandparents who come too speak English or French. BUT, the English or French speaker should be expected to look out for the rest of the family. If Grandma wants to book a flight to visit relatives in her home country for Christmas but can't understand English well enough to book the ticket, it should be her son's responsibility to do so for her, not the airline's responsibility to translate, assuming Grandma expects she can live here and not learn English (which is fair, past a certain age, but if you're only 55 and clearly have some capacity for learning left, you should still learn English). Same with kids: the parents are responsible for them and it's up to the parents to encourage them to learn English. With young kids, this isn't a problem anyway because they pick it up way faster than their parents.
I'm in no way against immigrants, provided that they have a desire to become Canadian, not just enjoy the benefits of living in one of the world's best countries. I've had friends and classmates in the past from other countries, either as direct immigrants (although usually when they were very young) or as first-generation Canadians (meaning that their parents were immigrants). I do think that there should be limits, not just an open-door policy to admit anyone who claims to like Canada.
Something that especially irritates me is university students, especially grad students who are given positions as teaching assistants to undergraduate classes, whose English or French (depending on the language of the university) is horrible. It's much too easy to get into a university and end up in a position of authority, either as a TA or even as a prof, and not be understandable.
One last thing. We often make it either too hard or too easy for immigrants to get professional jobs in Canada. A good example is medicine. As a patient, I don't want anyone operating on me or even diagnosing drugs if they don't speak good English, aren't up to date on drugs, surgical procedures, the equipment we have in Canadian hospitals (often better than that in other countries) or even medical practice guidelines and regulations. However, letting qualified doctors into the country and not making it easy for them to find jobs as doctors, especially with Canada having a shortage of doctors, is also stupid. Making immigrants qualify for medical school and spend 4+ years requalifying is dumb. There should be a fast track program: pass standard medical exams (without taking the courses), take a course in Canadian medical practices, and maybe do an intern (paid, since you're experienced) to ensure you're up to date with the equipment, and you should be allowed to practice medicine. If you're close to passing the exams, have some way to catch up (maybe take at most two other courses with med students for exams that you didn't do that well on), and if you fail brutally on many exams, then you should be forced to go through medical school like everyone else because you clearly don't have enough training or experience to be a qualified doctor in Canada.
On the other hand, it's too easy to get into things like teacher's college as an immigrant, especially if you've taught in your home country and are a mature applicant. Of course, teaching in your home country may be much less formal than in a Canadian school and you're in no way prepared for the Canadian system, even after a year of teacher's college (which assumes that you were a Canadian student; they don't tell you anything that students would already know about how schools work). Even worse is if you're a primary teacher, who has to teach spelling, reading, and writing to kids, and you have a heavy accent. High school or higher grades of public school are one thing, but I won't let my kids, when I have any, be taught basic English by a teacher who hasn't mastered it himself or herself.
In closing (if you even got this far), I think immigration is a good thing and can have a positive impact on our economy and introduce typical Canadians to other cultures, but immigration should never have an open-door policy and shouldn't be done without careful thought.