This column is definitely due for updating. Although we no longer have an active draft (just registration), an estimated several hundred AWOL American troops have found their way to Canada since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and there’s been some controversy about it, along with some deportations.
You’re right. This thread, and **Hogarth’**s thread updating the part about “landed immigrant” status, both bring up issues that need to be appended to the 1988 Column.
Isn’t that apples and oranges? In my mind there is a difference between telling a soldier he has to go fight when he volunteered (that’s what we have the army for, genius!) and plucking some guy out of his parents’ basement and putting a rifle in his hands…
The attitude of the Canadian authorities has generally been that volunteers who go AWOL are not eligible for asylum and get extradited to the US when they are found. There have been a few cases since 2001 where American soldiers were denied asylum by the Canadian courts. Desertion is just as serious a crime in Canada as it is in the US.
Since draft-dodging wasn’t a crime in Canada during the Vietnam war (they had no draft), American draft-dodgers could hang out there with little fear of extradition. But there were also deserters during the Vietnam era who were caught and extradited from Canada.
(Just to repeat my comment in this thread since the other one was locked: “landed immigrant” status is now called “permanent resident” status in Canada.)
In the Vietnam War era, you could walk into an immigration office anywhere in Canada, and ask for landed immigrant status. I knew seevral students (on student visas) who did tjust that. As long as you spoke some English or Frencha had a clean record and some education, you were a shoo-in. Also, to solve the illegal immigrant problem, Canada declared amnesty about 1976 for anyone who had been in the country; the terms were written so that even students on visas who had been there 2 years could qualify. many applied - never hurt to have that alternative residency/citizenship option.
Today, it’s much harder to get in as a resident, and applications must be made from outside the country. Most deserters are sent home as illegal immigrants - I’m sure the necessary pressure from Washington doesn’t hurt the effort to expedite their cases. Most try to claim refugee status and persecution when they are deported, but unless it’s torture, that’s not going to fly.
Canada has had to crack down on illegals because they all use the “In danger back home” excuse, arrive here and wait out the 3 to 5 year process while working illegally. We’ve had excuses of persecution from the mafia (Sicily) the army (USA) a husband (Trinidad, where domestic crime is not taken as seriously) ethnic tensions ( gypsies in Czeck Republic) and warring factions (several wives of the most notorious warlord in Somalia); not to mention those likely guilty of ware crimes in Africa, or genocide.
The majority are just economic migrants - looking for a better life, and some serious cash to take home if they lose their case in 5 years. Meanwhile, it means getting into Canada without a serious skill - which, it seems taxi driving is??? - is much tougher.
That depends on the city hack rules. For example, in London (England, that is), you practically have to prove that you’re a living GPS to get a cab license.
Yes the London taxi license is a serious skill. In Canada, Like the USA, you only need to prove proficiency in a foreign language (English optional) and be short enough to fit in the driver’s seat wearing a turban.
Seriously, this is not a racist rant; just questioning how we can make it so difficult for any immigrant who isn’t a university grad with an in-demand skill; yet we seem to allow an entire class of minimum-wage and self-employed unskilled labour into the country. Unlike the USA, we can’t blame most of it on illegals.
Well, I don’t know, but I find it hard to believe there is an immigration quota for “taxi drivers”. I suspect what you find is those immigrants have other qualifications to be here (say, relatives of citizens), and have to find some manner of supporting themselves/family when they are not necessarily fluent in the language and their credentials don’t seem “up to snuff” for U.S. employment. (For example, would a doctor who got a degree from Bosnia be looked on favorably in Canada?)
A lot of immigrant taxi drivers in the US are fairly well educated fellows. If I’m not in a particularly private mood, I’ll converse with the cabbie if they start a conversation with me. I don’t have enough fingers to count the number of Mideast, Indian, and African cabbies that have driven me who had technical degrees from universities.
Could they be blowing smoke? Maybe, but none of the ones from a country I’ve worked in and thrown trick questions to were making stuff up.
The point isn’t to complain about brown taxi drivers. The point is, for various immigration reasons, it’s somewhat difficult for people to change countries now. During the Vietnam war, it was not difficult for a person with reasonable skills from a similarly developed country to move to the USA or Canada (or most of western Europe) and get legal residency.
Waves of illegal immigrants (economic migrants) from all over the globe have pretty much caused countries to slam shut those legal avenues because of abuse.
Most draft dodgers in the 60’s and 70’s came to Canada as immigrant applicants not refugees. Today, that path is a LOT harder. The recent news cases dealt with people who had volunteered for the army and then changed their mind; a lot different than a forced draft. Based on the general public opinion about George W here, if there were an equivalent situation with a forced draft like Vietnam, I suspect any government that began shipping back draft dodgers would find an excuse not to very quickly; or else their replacement goevrnment would.
What I mean is I don’t care what color the taxi drivers are. I’m just curious why they qualify to immigrate when some average Joe Schmoe with the same education and credentials as you or I would have a tough time.
Actually, I think the majority are because of the Canadian propensity to (until recently) allow families to reunite despite lack of job skills, which meant one guy gets established and brings in his entire family, and so on… They do taxi work because (a) the skills required are low and (b) they are quite willing to, like in India or Pakistan, work 12 to 18 hours a day for minimum wage; while most locals don’t see the appeal.
My main point being that what used to be trivial, moving from one first world country to another (think Hemingway in Paris…) now seems to be very difficult without a seriously in-demand skill and a job offer. Hence the reason why deserters get easily bounced from Canada back to the USA today, unlike 1970.
Actually, the problem goes the other way too. There are a number of Canadians working in the uSA under some special program (I forget which, but it’s not green card or the special skills visas). They are tied to a single employer who certifies they need them, annually = cheap indentured labour. There have been several cases recently where these workers have gone back to Canada for a visit, only to be refused re-entry. Unless their employer puts up a fight, they are now SOL. The border guards can do whatever they want (who’s gonna complain? It’s not like they have a vote…) so if one has a bad day, he decides “No, you can’t spent your last 18 years here on an annual-renew visa” and sends the guy packing. Once denied entry, the guy couldn’t even visit as a tourist to arrange for the sale of his house, and move his family back to Canada where they’ve never been. Puede ser porque se no habla espanol?
During the Vietnam War, Canada recognized that many of what you are calling “draft dodgers” were pacifists and they were welcomed for that reason too. Most pacifists don’t volunteer for the military.
I’m sure there were pacifists, whose beliefs I can respect and even admire. But let’s not pretend that pacifists were even close to the majority of those who fled to Canada.
They’re draft dodgers because they chose not to risk getting killed whereas a pacifist chooses not to fight.
Nothing wrong with the instinct of self-preservation; or the instinct to avoid dying for some someone else’s esoteric principle you don’t believe in.
However that or pacifism doesn’t get you landed immigrant status today. We had draft dodgers in Canada because immigration requirements were much laxer in the 1970’s. If there were a draft and serious risk of death, maybe some Canadian judges would buy the “refugee status” claim; but for now, it’s hard to claim refugee status when you’re only in danger of going to jail for disobeying orders after voluntarily enlisting.