Greek Exodus: Workers Flee to Canada and Australia

[Darth Wagtaros]

I'd be concerned.

[crazy canuck]

Coincidence that the Government just introduced leglislation to make refugee cliams from safe European countries more difficult?

[Iormlund]

Coincidence that the Government just introduced leglislation to make refugee cliams from safe European countries more difficult?

Greece is the least of your worries. If Spain and Italy eventually implode and start losing as many people as Ireland does now, we're talking about millions looking for a new home.

[crazy canuck]

Exactly.  That is perhaps why the new refugee rules are being put into place - the Eurozone coutries are all considered "safe" in terms of human rights abuses.  We dont want a flood of economic refugees posing as legitimate refugees.

[Jacob]

I'd expect that the economic refugees originating from Europe would come in under the existing immigration laws - young people under working holiday visas and older people qualifying on education and experience in relevant fields.

The whole "safe" countries thing, I expect, is to prevent refugees from "forum shopping" as it were. It's been a big thing in Europe for a while. Basically, the idea is that if you're fleeing, say, human rights abuses in Syria and you want to claim asylum in Canada, you can't stop in Italy (or other designated "safe" countries) first. When ever you get out of the country you're fleeing from, to somewhere "safe", you have to apply there. You can't move on to Canada afterwards. The effect is that the safe countries closest to problem areas will be stuck with the majority of asylum seekers. This, of course, makes sense from a Conservative viewpoint in that Canada generally want well educated economically dynamic immigrants, not people who are scarred from civil strife and may need support.

[Jacob]

On top of that, I'd think that the majority of Greek, Italian and/or Spanish immigrants coming to Canada to Canada for economic reasons are exactly the kind of immigrants that we, as a country, want and need. In general, I'd think if you think your economic future sucks and you get your shit together enough to make it to Canada as in immigrant, you have more than the average amount of drive to succeed.  I'm sure that there are plumbers, architects, registered nurses, pharmacists, biologists and so on in Spain, Italy and Greece who'd make great contributions to Canada.

Though, on that note, I notice that the Conservative have recently put a maximum cap on the number of skilled workers Canada accepts. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. That's probably a more likely vector for trying to control immigration from Europe than the "safe country" legislation (though I'm not convinced that the Conservative government is necessarily worried about such immigration).

[Neil]

I think that Jacob probably has the right of it (except vis-a-vis wanting filthy Greek immigrants), as he is an experienced immigrant who married into a race of folks who trick their way into the country.

[Jacob]

Being interested in immigration issues is something that runs in my family, even back in the old country.

[HVC]

I thought they were doing this to keep gypsies out? When we made it harder for Romanians to get in here was a spike in Czech refuge claims. So the made it harder for
Czechs to come and there was a spike in Hungarian claimants. Sounds like
Canada said "fine, screw it, no Europeans can claim refuge status".

[The Brain]

Being interested in immigration issues is something that runs in my family, even back in the old country.

OK Slargos.

[CountDeMoney]

Well, that sucks.  Calgary is in my Top 3 Canadian cities to emigrate to, and now I have to cross it off the list because of all the filthy Greeks.

[crazy canuck]

You are mixing apples and oranges there Jacob.  Of course we can take people that have the skills we need.  What we dont want are the people that are unemployable in their own country to come here under the guise of a refugee claim so that they can become unemployable in this country.

Real refugees yes.  Fake refugees no.

[Jacob]

You are mixing apples and oranges there Jacob.  Of course we can take people that have the skills we need.  What we dont want are the people that are unemployable in their own country to come here under the guise of a refugee claim so that they can become unemployable in this country.

Real refugees yes.  Fake refugees no.

So this is basically aimed at gypsies, gay Polish lawyers and opponents of the Hungarian regime like HVC says? I guess that makes sense too.

[Jacob]

Being interested in immigration issues is something that runs in my family, even back in the old country.

OK Slargos.

Pretty much for some of them, unfortunately.

[crazy canuck]

You are mixing apples and oranges there Jacob.  Of course we can take people that have the skills we need.  What we dont want are the people that are unemployable in their own country to come here under the guise of a refugee claim so that they can become unemployable in this country.

Real refugees yes.  Fake refugees no.

So this is basically aimed at gypsies, gay Polish lawyers and opponents of the Hungarian regime like HVC says? I guess that makes sense too.

This is aimed at people who try to get in to Canada claiming they are a refugee when there is no valid refugee claim.  Those people are normally referred to as economic refugees - people who try to game the refugee system because they realize they would not get in as a bona fide immigrant. Seems pretty clear.