Xenophobia (was Re:jobs in Linux / IT)

[Paul DiRezze]

I think there are several points that may serve this discussion.

To lump Canada and the U.S. together is misleading.  Canada's concept of 
the "ethnic ghetto" (not a negative term) serves larger cities by giving 
newcomers a relatively safe and familiar environment from which to 
integrate (or not) into the rest of the culture.  While large U.S. 
cities have similar situations, higher levels of urban violence and 
corruption combined with a lack of uniform zoning, tend to turn these 
areas into the bad kind of ghettos.  Hence the phrase "from the wrong 
side of the tracks" often has a very specific meaning in American 
cities.  Not so much here.

To get even more thorny, it's probably fair to say that the biggest 
schism in how (non-english-speaking) immigrants are treated tends to run 
along urban/rural lines.  Said another way,  your immigrant experience 
in Canada will be better if you move to city with an established enclave 
from your country of origin.

Interestingly, this is one way in which english-speaking immigrants can 
be at a disadvantage to non-english-speakers.  While one might share the 
english language, there are few other cultural ties, so one often ends 
up feeling like and outsider.

While immigrant exploitation (the immigrants get all the shit work) 
exists in Canada, I have never been to a country where this was not the 
case.

There are types of policy which could be termed "institutional 
xenophobia".  For example, the certifying bodies for many skilled 
services (e.g., doctors, dentists) put up onerous and often unnecessary 
roadblocks to immigrants with comparable skills.  Someone once told me 
that this was done on purpose to keep the market from being flooded by 
cheaper foreign labour.  It's the equivalent of a union protecting the 
seniority of it's members.  This was certainly true of a dentist I know 
from eastern Europe.  It took her three years to get certified here. To 
be fair, these roadblocks are put up against Canadian professionals 
wishing to ply their trades in the E.U. or U.S.  It's just 
"service-based protectionism".

Xenophobic though?  I don't think so.

paul
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