Can you be anti-immigration without being racist?

Immigration is the spice of a nation, but it shouldn’t burn the throat

When someone says they don’t like Trudeau for bringing in refugees from Syria, some of us instinctively begin to wonder if we’re hearing from a racist. But while our attentions are often drawn to the loud, obnoxious people who want to ban all Muslims or build great big walls, we don’t often get to hear from those who are more moderate.

There should be no issue bringing 25,000 refugees into Canada from Syria—even 50,000 would be fine. They’re coming in at a relatively slow pace, so our government can process them. And Canadians generally prefer to bring in whole families, instead of single men.

When it comes down to it, Canada is great at bringing new people into the country, enabling them to provide for themselves and contribute to the nation by bringing their culture and innovations with them.

However, Europe is having more problems with immigration that Canadians can’t grasp. Unlike them, we have two oceans on either side, arctic tundra to the north and America to the south. It’s very easy for us to control who comes into the country when compared to Europe, which has little with regards to borders or border police. Not only this, but 600,000 people is a massive number to process.

While the loud racists are often the first to be heard, the moderate type tend to be more subdued. I’m sure there are many people simply worried about there being no jobs for new immigrants to have, and that some countries won’t be able to afford to help them. The biggest example would be Greece, which is still in a state of financial disrepair—they can’t even afford to help their own citizens, let alone handle being the first stop for hundreds of thousands of refugees.

The other big problem is that compared to Canada, Europe does a bad job at helping their new arrivals integrate, regardless of race. This attitude isn’t everywhere, but it’s surely less common in North America. I don’t hesitate to assume everyone around me is Canadian, regardless of their appearance. In the back of our minds, we know that Canada and the U.S. are countries of immigrants, built on colonizing foundations. However, Europeans are proud of their unique culture, and they seem much more ready to protect it.

Remember that there are a lot of Europeans who believe immigrants bring crime to a country, not because they believe these refugees are bad people, but because, as a result of having no money, education or command of the local language, crime may be the only method left to make money in their new home.

You can even meet these people in the United States, who are sometimes immigrants themselves. There was a Trump supporter on the news the other day who happened to be Haitian-American. He said he supported Trump’s firm stance against illegal immigration, because he went through a long, arduous process to become American the legal way, while illegal immigrants weren’t paying the same kind of taxes or integrating in the same way.

There are reasons for people to be anti-immigration that aren’t necessarily founded in racism, but our excuses for being anti-immigration in a country as isolated and prosperous as Canada are few and far between.