YOU ARE TOO KIND, CANADIANS!

OR

DON’T HELP US, PLEASE!

             I’m a recent immigrant from Ukraine. After 4 years here my family and I can say only a sincere thank you to Canada and Canadians for letting us in, to live in your wonderful country.

            Since day one we never applied for any kind of social assistance and will not do it in the future (unless something very disastrous happens).

            We just don’t feel that we have the moral right to ask for something from a country and people who already gave us a chance for a better life. Besides, when we legally (!) applied for landed immigrant status, we had to prove that we would survive on our own. Our English was checked, so were our education, professional level, and health. It took two long years, but we believe this procedure is absolutely fair. Nobody is supposed to pay for, let’s say, our illiteracy or other problem. 

            Yes, with two university degrees, at the age of 42 I started with delivering pizza. Yes, my wife, a mechanical engineer, is still working part-time for minimum wage as a salesperson. But again, nobody owes us anything. We have to resolve our problems ourselves.

             That’s why I can’t understand, why you, Canadians, feel (and act!) like you owe something to everybody who just legally or even illegally entered this country. I’m talking  not just about the recent and future (you can be sure!) “boat people”. It’s clear that the $40,000, which they pay for the smuggling trip, in China, is like 4 million here in Canada. They certainly aren’t the poorest and most suffering people, so why do you immediately start spending millions by sending lawyers, counselors, translators, arranging countless interviews and so on? We were waiting for our interview more than a year and paid for it OURSELVES.

             By the way, from my own experience of life in the corrupted country, I know that very often, the first who applied for refugee or war victims status are people from criminalized structures who actually either created economical hardships or started those wars and made good money on it.  But you immediately start to pay them welfare, give other help, even collect money by washing cars with the hands of children.

              Maybe that’s why, taking such help for granted, some of them even protest (I’ve seen this kind of demonstration myself in Vancouver) against “only” one year on full government support with everything – food, living, even college for free. Of course, 3 or 5 years, or maybe a lifetime would be much better!

             Explain to me, please, who paid welfare to your great grandfather, who came to Canada 100 or 200 years ago? Or maybe, somebody taught your grandmother ESL (English as a Second Language)? Did they survive? So why do you spend billions for new immigrants now? You believe that most immigrants would be starving without it? I don’t think so. Every time that our friends and we needed a job, we found it in a few days, even here in Nanaimo. Nothing special, like newspaper delivery at early morning hours, but still…

             But some of our other fellow immigrants laughed at us, saying, “Are you guys idiots, or what? We are paid for nothing, and work for cash.” Or just ask clerks from liquor stores, in big cities, in the area of “poor” immigrants. They will tell you how much they make on welfare cheque days.

             Or are you afraid that our children will never learn English without ESL? Come on! It took my then 11 year-old son just three days to start regular classes, and in a few months, he got firm A’s in English and even in French. 

            Another example from our experience. The government, which means taxpayers, spends about $9,000 trying to “help” my wife find a job. She was sent to different counselors, assessment and referral, skill development centres, job searching courses, etc., etc.

             Oh yes, everybody there was smiling and polite. They filled tons of papers and asked meaningful and very important questions, like what were her one-month, one-year, five-year, and lifetime goals, and so on, and so on. Then I got tired from this useless game for seven months, and found her two jobs in three days. Immediately, all these 7 or 8 organizations, put in their reports, that they helped one more immigrant to find a job, so they need more financing.

             By the way, behind one of these consultants I saw a sign saying something like “I couldn’t find a job myself, that’s why I became a job search consultant.” How true!

             You are so kind, dear Canadians, that you pay for existence of special centres to help immigrants, like “Mossaika” in Vancouver, but I’ve never seen anybody who was really helped by them. You generously sponsor a Russian magazine, which would die otherwise, simply because no one needs it, except its editor.

             So, actually, instead of immigrants, you support just bureaucracy, and paper creation. Please don’t help us in this way! Everything most of us really need, is just a little bit of patience and attention. Don’t be scared by our accent, give us a chance to deliver your pizza, work for your small shop, or a big company. Just smile and say to us “Welcome to Canada, to Nanaimo.” Believe me, we will survive like it has happened centuries ago, and happens every day now.