Immigrants taking over?

On the weekend my mother hung up on me. We were chatting on the phone and all was pleasant until she went into her theme about Vancouver being "taken over by foreigners." As usual I couldn't agree with her critcism of people of other races clumping up together, rather than being almalgated with the rest of Canadians. "They should be made to learn English before they are permitted to immigrate to Canada" she says. Whether or not this is possible for them doesn't enter the picture. She isn't interested. Also, I find this rather hypocritical of my mom because she didn't study French in school, as I did. I don't think she realizes what a huge job it is to learn another language.

It is my understanding that Canada assists these people to either learn or improve their English in order to assist them in their pursuit of a new and better life. Many of these people are highly educated in medicine and other professional careers and if not, many study in our universities, so not all are unable to speak English.

My reply to people like my mother is, "Why are 'our people' not aspiring to become doctors, computer technicians, teachers, university educators, psychologists, lawyers, engineers, dentists, etc. etc.?" Perhaps if more of us third, fourth, and fifth generation Canadians would make postsecondary education a bigger priority, we would be filling the job vacancies at the higher end of the scale. Since many of these fields are going begging (if we are to believe what we hear on CBC radio) perhaps this is part of the reason that Vancouver and Toronto are filled with East Indian and Chinese physicians and surgeons.

As for the argument that "those people" are taking away jobs that "Canadians" need, I am not sure that is true. The industry of teaching ESL is a new field that has opened up new opportunities for long time Canadian citizens. This is just one career that I can think of off the top of my head. I am sure there are other jobs that have been created due to the needs of new immigrants.