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Students who come from certain countries (you know where) come to look for free food and free benefits from Canada. I work at a well known university and see them come for food bank the first day they landed. Even some came to complain that their grants got cut (of course, coz they never finish the thesis) and demanded for financial support as they need to pay for family expenses including car loan!! Wtf is car loan??? If you wonder where are these students from…you guess it’s right. We see them everywhere.

At least the international students pay their way. These other people are just coming in on the dool . Let’s cut down on immigration that does not do anything to benefit Canada .

They can go back home!!! Cut the benefits!!!

If they dont want to stay then let them leave and cut off their benefits.

Ontario cut social policies to convert them into welfare for the massive influx of immigrants they received from Syria and Afghanistan starting in 2014, I was there and saw the change Toronto went through from 2013 to 2018 with thousands of people from abroad that received hefty benefits while not able to work, integrate, contribute to society, but were major PR scores for politicians and their campaigns. Aside from that, the cost of rent and food skyrocketed without any control and I've seen unjustified markups at Nofrills in just a year, let alone ordering some below-mediocre pizza for $25 or getting a hamburger meal for $15, and these were 2018 prices.

Been in Canada for approximately 25 years. I can say that the effect that Canada has on a legal immigrant is neither here nor there. If you can make lemonade out of any lemon you’re dealt, you will thrive in Canada (and anywhere else where your efforts are not overwhelmingly quashed by corruption, blatant racism or other forms of segregation). \n \nLynn, I was a lecturer in Kenya, went back to school here in Canada after wallowing in culture shock the first year, then circled back to teaching in college again after an arduous journey in school, but this time in a different field. \n \nAfter becoming a single mother of four kids, I had to also hustle on the side to build a small business empire along my life’s ladder. Partnership with God, goal clarity, the get-up-and-go, and relentlessness truly work. It isn’t the size of the dog but the fight in the dog that does it, regardless of where you live. \n \nThe starting point for a new immigrant can be very low due to the weather, unpreparedness and culture shock, but if you know that the only way is up, and are self-motivated, those challenges are soon behind you as the tests become testimonies. \n \nBy comparison people have more human rights here regardless of their status. The wheels of justice grind slow but they do grind fine. Women and children have equal rights with men. Politicians are mostly there to serve not necessarily to exploit. \n \nOpportunities for self-development galore - including being trained to become employable and going to school at any age (sometimes for free while you are still at the bottom of the ladder). There are food banks so you never go hungry if it came to that. The disabled are better treated with dignity. \n \nThere are prolonged parental leaves for both moms and dads for up to 18 months. Commensurate with earnings, parents under certain thresholds are given Canada child tax benefits and other supplements for each child under 18 years of age. \n \nDepending on the number of kids and their ages, the money can add up handsomely. Not to mention that there’s no tuition to pay for primary and high school students. Tuition fees start at post-secondary level. \n \nTo see a doctor is free as it is paid for by taxes. It the meds that you and/or your insurance pays for. Some medical equipments may be paid for by either or both the individual/insurance and the government depending on eligibility. \n \nBy and large, there’s cleanliness of common spaces. There’s also safety and relative peace. At least wherever I have lived, I can’t tell you how many times I forgot to lock my door with impunity. \n \nThere’s a lot more stressful work here in my opinion, but like you said Lynn, systems work a lot more efficiently and effectively. \n \nThe elephant in the room is the extra hard work that those living abroad must put in to fulfil expectations back home. Also known as black tax, the overwhelming financial dependency of relatives on their diasporan loved ones places undue stress on many here, especially because there are no short cuts to getting money here. \n \nAnyway, Lynn, thanks for such a great topical issue you’ve shared. I have to stop here as I have written a lot. Hope this helps someone on this forum. \n \nAnd last but not least, you’ll be proud to hear that even though Canada has been good to me, my face may now be turning towards home to see how I can be of use to mama Africa. Super excited!

You've explained it very well. For people like us who have gone through both systems, details about it are like second nature to us, like breathing. But I really want to correct that express entry in Canada is very varied and you don't necessarily need to have a job offer. A combination of your degrees, or the years of work experience you already have could likely already be enough to be approved. It's a very transparent point-based system that you can calculate on your own. Another thing to mention you forgot to mention is Green Card is still not citizenship. You need to have a green card for 5 more years before you can apply for US citizenship as opposed to only a few years in Canada. I moved from a very high paying job in the US (after studying in a US university) for exactly this reason to Canada. I took a large pay cut (still 6 figures), but I was express entry approved in 1.5 years. A year has passed since, and I'm eligible for citizenship in less than 6 months. \n\nIt is a game-changing system for Canada and it will have massive benefits down the line as skilled talent from the US drains to Canada. It will not be apparent yet, but it will become apparent in the near future. I plan to start many businesses and employ people. Canada took me in when the US did not, and so I will definitely start businesses in Canada instead and create employment here. A lot of skilled talent is reasoning along the same lines and a massive shift in the headwinds is coming.\n\nPS - The one thing Canada is not doing well, is housing. The system is set up correctly, but not enough housing is being built, cities expanded, or any coordination done to make sure people are settling in a more distributed manner. This needs to be fixed ASAP. The prices are becoming outrageous rivalling the US. Canada has always been so sparse, it's not prepared for this. It needs housing construction on war footing. I don't see the current government taking it seriously.

Aren’t we fortunate in the US to have **none** of these problems!\n\nWe have no homeless here!\n\nTake a look at SF, LA (where all “solutions” are rooted in Bolshevism; “Hi, we’re from the government and will be taking over half of your front yard for homeless yurts (Ok, tents)--true story. Take a gander at any large, medium, and even a few small cities.\n\nHave you ever heard of Detroit (once proud home of my beloved Motown music), Baltimore (complete devastation), or Chicago (my home town—don’t make me cry)?\n\nThe entire homeless situation started when mental hospitals were snake pits and certain factions demanded that people be released.\n\nSure, it sounds humanitarian but they didn't bother to consider what would happen to mentally ill patients suddenly left to their own devices on the streets.\n\nThe do gooders actually were foolish enough to believe that the seriously ill patients (schizophrenic, bipolar, borderline, and plenty of others) would take their meds on their own. It doesn't work that way for patients who are not in contact with reality.\n\nNow we add extreme drugs (crack, meth, heroine, ketamine, whatever they hand out at parties, etc) and severe cases of PTSD/PTSS. It's obscene that we have veterans on the streets.\n\nHeath care--?. Pre Obamacare it wasn’t terrible but medicine had become a CYA project. We are so litigious (side eye to John Edwards ) that doctors practice defensive medicine and carry high limit malpractice insurance (guess who pays for that?). Every decision is driven by avoiding lawsuits, not proper patient care.\n\nPost Obamacare, US health care is an unmitigated disaster at every level. We’re short on doctors, too. Many quit and students are losing interest—medicine won’t pay enough anymore to justify $500K in loans.\n\nWe could repeal every bit of Obamacare tomorrow and still not be able to fix it. The leviathan grew tentacles that released toxins into every nook and cranny of the system. Now that they have buried themselves in critical layers, it would be impossible to yank them out.\n\nI have a good PCP who is booked 6-8 weeks out. Specialists? Hah. GI, neuro, and derm? Four to six month wait post referral.\n\nI never thought I would say such a thing but I would probably swap the Serial Sexual Predator occupying the WH for your Little Lord Fauntleroy.\n\nCan Canada compete with us in corruption? Government employees seriously tried to topple a sitting president and not only were there no consequences, they were able to retire on fat pensions that we citizens work hard to provide for them.\n\nOur government is run entirely by K Street lobbyists; our “representatives” don’t even draft legislation, that’s done for them by K ST.\n\nHow about crime? Do we even need to talk about it?\n\nHousing crisis? Prices were already too high when the regime (predictably) created runaway inflation and we saw the end of affordable interest rates. Even 0.25% increase will knock out many buyers; they won’t be able to qualify.\n\nWe are seeing huge jumps; young people have resigned themselves to never being homeowners.\n\nRacism? Again, look to the US. It’s nothing even close to what the make believe media caterwauls about. If white supremacists are behind every tree, where is the evidence? Surely, in 2023 has caught a cell phone video, right? Where are the videos? Show me the proof. There is plenty of footage of BLM destroying property and injuring, even murdering innocents. If we gripe about this behavior, we are raaayyyycccciiiiissssts.\n\nNo rational adult would claim that the US is not a violent country and becoming more so. Nor can we claim to have eliminated racism. That takes time; it cannot be done by force.\n\nOur economy went from smokin hot to dumpster fire in a short span of time. Pre election, head hunters were shaking the trees to find job candidates.\n\nOur unemployment is up as are our taxes with the stomping out of the tax cuts. \n\nDespite the endless sloganeering about how the Trump tax cuts only benefited “rich” people, it’s quite the opposite.\n\nHigh earners lost their pet deductions and lower income taxpayers were quite pleasantly surprised when they did their returns. The cuts were targeted to preserve wealth for the middle and lower classes.\n\nI could go on for another 100 pages but you get the idea and I get crabby writing for free.\n\nI will leave you with the caution that it’s best if you doubt and question any data and any stats coming from our government. Those are seldom legit. If the data comes from a study, always look to see who paid for it. And how large the sample size was; how were the participants selected? We are all on our own when it comes to ferreting out info.\n\nOh Canada!\n\nYou’re welcome.

I worked 30years at one job to get benefits that I PAID INTO. Will I get cut off so these damned people can DRAW MY MONEY? It’s probably gonna come to that. And if it does, this Grandma will make a visit to some of these free-loaders before she’s Homeless and Hungry!

Look at all the tears flowing!\nJust the thought of not getting those free welfare benefits, cut the free benefits and watch the flow change direction!

Cut off benefits and they will walk back home

Just cut off the benefits. We got enough problems here

Maybe instead of trying to fix some country in the Middle East that not even history's greatest leaders have been able to take over, the US should have spent that money taking out the cartel and stabilizing the country right next to them. Then we wouldn't be seeing things like this happening. Of course for that to happen the CIA would have to cut its ties with the cartel and actually do something that benefits its own country.

I mean, isn't this clear cut in most countries? Illegal migrants should be sent back right away. To deter this, second time maybe 2 weeks in jail, then deport.\nI'm sorry but we spent about 7 years getting to be residents and then citizens. We had to go through interviews, in depth medical tests/hostory, financial and education or skilled trade scrutiny, so we are a net benefit to Canadian society. Some also spend tens of thousands, sometimes their life savings, on the fees and paperwork, which also takes years.\nRefugees from war, etc are different, but if you just feel like it's a better life and opportunity, there are official channels to apply to be a permanent resident.

If you are indigenous to North America anywhere in North America should be open to you, the Europeans came and cut up this continent for their benefit, they made borders all over this world taking other people's countries something nobody did to Europe. This is what happens when you take someone else's land and make it yours, the indigenous that you met here have children after children and people starts to migrate for a better life because again the hunger for drugs in the United States have made their homes unsaved so they move this is call life. No one of European descendent should complain this is what the Europeans did to the Americas and so the circle continues.

Well the governments of Canada have made it illegal for us to express our views. As a white English Canadian I don't think most of us hate people because they came from abroad. If people came to Canada and actually became Canadians I don't think 90% of people have an issue with that. The problem is people are coming here and are not assimilating. Especially the people from Asian and African nations. But this is not surprising to me because their culture is so different from ours. I would prefer immigrants came from northern Europe especially the British Isles and France due to having a shared history, values, and culture similar to Canada. \n\nThe other issue is mass immigration mostly only benefits wealthy people because they get cheap labour. People coming from countries with a much lower standard of living are used to earning less and living with less so they depress wages for working people here. The so called skilled immigrants that our government tells us will solve all of our nations problems are not. No one recognizes their skills here so they end up taking jobs away from other Canadians. \n\nI think Canada's solution would be to stop relying on foreigners and invest in Canadian people. I would cut immigration levels by 75%. I would limit immigrant applicants to make up only 5% from one country. Also we should only allow Canadian citizens to own property. Dual citizenship should be eliminated. You should only be loyal to Canada. \n\nThe government should also stop spending money on Black lives Matter, criminals, drug addicts, and other socialist non-sense. Government spending and taxes should be cut in half and free enterprise should be encouraged. We should be using money towards infrastructure and education. We should be training Canadians to become engineers, doctors, and skilled tradesmen. I would rather invest in our own people that try to accommodate foreigners.

What people fail to understand is that the grass is always greener on the other side...until you get there and realise that its just different shades of green. There are so many benefits to living in Africa. And there are benefits to living in western countries too. If you like jobbing (being an employee), saving for retirement and having a stable government to protect your investment or give you welfare benefits and having free healthcare and generally living a risk-free life, then abroad is for you. There are downsides though - while you have good roads and healthcare, you can hardly save, your mental health is on the line, you probably will have no social life, the genetically modified food, polluted air, chemicalized everything will cut your life span down. You can be an enterpreneur but the taxes alone, the regulation, etc can discourage you. \n\nIn Africa, there are security concerns but the same security concerns exist in all countries, only they differ in their nature. In Africa, I can grow my food, I can build my house according to my budget (no mortgage), I can start a business any day, i can feed on little money ( you can find markets that sell cheap food produce). And most importantly for me, the health factor - organic food, family and friends to help with your mental health and laugh and cry with you as the occasion demands. \n\nAnd now the icing on the cake - you can make the same dollar you make abroad from your country! So many online platforms to be a freelancer, to work for companies and individuals abroad. So you are making the same money and not drowning in taxes, in high rents, insurance fees and you can afford top-notch healthcare, even better than what you can get abroad. \n So it's up to you. Stop believing that abroad is better. it's not actually. I swore I wouldn't raise a child in London because of the high rate of knife crimes on the streets and the government' s lax attitude towards it because such crimes involve black kids. I never felt such fear in Africa. To each his own. My African shade of green works well for me. Abeg

To keep citizens a priority over the influx of immigrants and refugees Denmark had cut welfare benefits to illegal immigrants and refugees and many began leaving to more profitable countries (in benefits). Why has our country not put something like that in place? It definitely would sort out those who came for the 'freebies'.  ~ Denmark's ‘integration benefit'  measure was a significantly lower benefit level being offered to people who have resided in Denmark for less than seven of the past eight years. Foreigners will also receive a financial incentive to learn the language. These were 'integration benefits'. Citizens who have lived outside of the EU (or country?) for seven of the past eight years were also subjected to the new rules. The purpose, to make Denmark a less attractive destination while making it more attractive to work and contribute to Danish society.  It reduced the flow in to a more manageable number.

Ice is sending all illegals backs costing citizens to much when they don't work and demand things that really their not even suppose to get . They work the minimum if that and then stay on welfare while everyone else who works taxes go up bunch of free loaders . In fact we are cutting welfare and and benefits because of this we try to be nice but when we are token advantage of . Sorry are states are full of these freeloaders were also cutting letting people in because they don't do anything but demand money when their not even suppose to get in the first place then they hate us anyway and go around flying their damm flag around hollering Mexico . Mexico don't even want them they refuse to take them . They are just using them to get votes . We have enough people Canada can keep them . If he get caught here they will jail him. We are tired of the Victim act many people here have issues here to . United States has taken care of everyone around the whole world when war happens , trading but we get the short stick everytime . Beside when war break out which it will. Do you really think United States is the safest considering we're Babylon. Tell me something why are Hollywood people moving to different places ? It's only a matter of time .

Name me one plus having these people and their religion in any western country. They teach hate about everything you are and your country.Just look at the nightmare of the UK and Europe where I lived and have seen the negative changes costing countries billions with over 60% of over 50 million in Europe living off benefits. It will cost Germany alone over 22 billion Euros a year to keep their migrant/refugees. The moderate holds you down while the extremist cuts your head off.