Canadian immigration my enemy
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Canadian immigration policies in the 1960s are not so different from what they are now - there is an emphasis on migrants being skilled labourers and ready to enter the Canadian workforce (Muhammedi 79). The "points system" is still in practice today. While some people claim that this shift in immigration policy moved away from a "racialized and discriminatory approach," I would say that it is equally discriminatory, just in a more covert way (Muhammedi 79). The factors that immigration officers use to judge the suitability of migrants--education, training, finances, knowledge of English or French, relatives in Canada--are all markers of privilege that discriminate against immigrants from the Global South. Muhammedi mentions that Canada did not have a refugee policy until 1976, which means that all refugees would have to undergo this strict qualifying process when applying to immigrate to Canada (80).
Trudeau's cabinet choosing to admit the expelled Ugandan Asians to Canada was a very deliberate and calculate choice - though they tried to market it as though they were doing so out of the goodness of their hearts, there were clear economic benefits to Canada. In Muhammedi's words, "officials understood the resettlement as an opportunity to provide asylum to a large group of well-educated, entrepreneurial, and highly-skilled people" (84). It would probably have been a very different case had these expelled Asians been the "destitute refugees" that Canada did not have a policy for at the time. In fact, we see the same thing happening today, with the Canadian government refusing to grant the same immigration policy to Palestinian refugees as they do to Ukrainian refugees. None of these immigration/refugee policies are designed to actually help the people in need - it is just about what makes Canada look better, or benefits the country's own needs.