Ukrainian Refugees Coming to Canada

 

I read in my parish bulletin, confirmed by the Archdiocese of Toronto website, that there are currently 80,000 Ukrainian refugees in country, with another 500,000 expected “in the coming months.”

Those are big numbers. This swamps Canada’s usual refugee uptake. It even swamps Canada’s usual immigration intake.

I think it is a good thing.

Canada was populated by refugees: the Irish fleeing the potato famine and English oppression; the Scots driven off their land in the Highland Clearances. “Displaced persons” after the Second World War. Eastern European Jews. This is the service Canada can render the world. With conventional immigration, we are skimming off people who might be needed in their home countries: humans being the prime resource. When we accept refugees, we are solving problems for them, and for the lands from which they come.

Refugees make the best Canadians. Having nothing to go back to, they are more likely to make a commitment to in the new country, to integrate and contribute to Canada. Canada’s current immigration policy does the opposite. It favours the rich, connected and well educated. Comfortable where they are, they come only for economic benefits. Their attitude will be, “Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you.” After all, they abandoned their home country on this principle. They are only here to get what they can get. If the getting is not good, they can easily go home, or move on. Refugees cannot.

The reason the Third World is poor is because of a corrupt upper class. When we bring in economic immigrants on points, we are importing this class. They will not be the best; and they will bring with them a culture of corruption. Canada would do better with a random selection, as with refugees. 

Ukrainians ought to integrate well for cultural reasons. Most importantly, they are Christians. They share our core cultural values. This is a vital and completely unappreciated issue.

They are Europeans; their culture is similar. There are already a lar4ge number of Ukrainians in Canada, and they have been a part of Canadian culture for a long time. So integration should be relatively seamless.

Moreover, as Eastern Europeans, they have recently experienced communism. They are highly favourably disposed to Western values and the values of liberal democracy, having known their lack. They will not come, as so many immigrants do, with a chip on their shoulder, hostile to the country and the culture.

And they are familiar with winter. They will know how to cope with the Canadian weather.

One possible concern is that they may not stay. At some point, the war in Ukraine will be over, and they may want to return. Perhaps they should return, for the sake of their homeland. The more so since there will be few young men in the group. Men of military age have not been allowed to leave Ukraine. So we are often not going to get intact families.

On the other hand, if many single women choose to stay, and the issue is Canadian underpopulation, women are more valuable as immigrants than men. Women have babies. And inspire men to become fathers.