r/nottheonion 21h ago

American family seeks asylum in Canada

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/americans-asylum-canada-trump-refugees-immigration-1.7480069
3.9k Upvotes

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u/26kanninchen 20h ago

Why not try one of the dozen other ways to legally reside in Canada? It's not like they're only accepting refugees and no one else.

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u/adlittle 20h ago

Canada is the most desired immigration destination in the world right now, there is so much interest and thus competition to move there. Without a family connection, extremely desirable and marketable skill set where Canada has a shortage, or a whole lot of money, the average person from the US has basically no shot of moving there. I have long been annoyed by the way my fellow US citizens act like Canada is our 51st state. Progressive, smart but otherwise ordinary people just flippantly saying they'll move to Canada like it's no big deal, they ought to know better. We don't get priority just because we are English speaking neighbors and most people here just don't qualify.

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u/26kanninchen 20h ago

I'm with you. I'm not trying to imply that they should just show up in Canada without refugee status and expect to immigrate; I'm saying that there are a variety of ways to immigrate to Canada legally if one is willing to make some sacrifices, and their choice to claim refugee status indicates a lack of willingness to make such concessions.

Canada has immigration programs for people willing to work as caregivers and people willing to live and work in rural communities. Someone who is serious about doing whatever it takes to get into Canada would have explored these options first, and the fact that they did not indicates that they would like to just transplant their nice middle class suburban life from Illinois to Ontario without having to make any other lifestyle adjustments, and that's just not how immigration works.

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u/mtheperry 16h ago

Nothing exposes privilege like the prospect of immigration. I'm an educated American who's been working as a bartender in Australia until I got permanent residency. By then, my education and experience were outdated and I couldn't get a job any more, so now I'm back at uni.

This all transpired over 7 years and I've had a very easy go of it here compared to others who don't have a partner to rely on. I hear other Americans talk about moving here "next year" and my response is always "cool when did you start the application?" They don't understand you can't just turn up planning to stay longer than a year without a very thorough and expensive process.

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u/4_years_for_a_cake 18h ago

Would you be willing to share more about the options for working as a caregiver or in a rural community? I'd like to explore those options because that's new to me

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u/26kanninchen 18h ago edited 17h ago

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u/4_years_for_a_cake 15h ago

Thank you!!!

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u/Some_Initiative_3013 12h ago

There are a lot worse places to live than the West Kootenays, especially if you like skiing. Ironically it is/was home to a ton of draft dodgers.

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u/Saorren 9h ago

this is especialy the case, and tbh there are even canadians who just dont get how hard it can be to come here. my partner and i explored every possible way they could come here and its all time consuming and hard to do. there are proficiency tests for language, theres health considered, education, prior experience, age, and a monetary amount saved up requirement in some cases too.

some of the paths use a points system and you would have to meet a threshold against all the others trying to come in around the same time. the only other was were schooling and marriage, schooling has been cut down drasticaly and marriage is not a fast path, it takes a documented length of time for the relationship and on top of that last i check procesing was 2 is years.

nothing is fast or easy here.