booboobear said:
It seems a lot also come with 3 or 4 kids who are always sick
and at the hospital emergency depts or at the pharmacy.
This overburdens our health care system.
There are many things that overburden our health care system. What you have just mentioned is anecdotal evidence that could only be considered a drop in the bucket if that. If you are still unsure then I invite you to read the Romanow Report submitted to the Commons last year. In my home town last Christmas there were a tone of people in the emergency ward with the smallest of ailments that didn't really warrant a trip to the emergency ward. How many of them were recent immigrants? NONE. Are these people therefore a burden to our system as well?
While I don't deny that there are people who come to this country to take advantage of our system, they are always a minority. We have our very own fair share of "home grown cheats" in this country. Whether people want to believe it or not, immigrants end up performing those jobs in society that others do not want or feel that it's "beneath them." Just look around you. I have met doctors and engineers driving cabs and working as garbage men simply because this country makes it impossible to gain accreditation for their profession.
We complain about a lack of professionals in this country and yet we make them do the most menial of tasks. It's sad that all the media dwells on is "how recent immigrants" hurt the system. You never hear of those that make positive contributions to society as Pool noted. The majority of immigrants are law abiding, tax suffering citizens just like you and me.
I’m sorry if this is becoming a rant but I'm getting tired of people beating up in immigrants simply because they hear some stories about so and so doing this or that. My parents were immigrants and worked very hard for a very long time to provide for our family. They endured scorn and redicule from society because they were different and perceived to be taking advantage of "the system." Ten years after arriving in Canada they became Canadian Citizens. They think of themselves as Canadian first and their ethnicity second. There are many more people like my parents out there. How do I know? Because you and I are eating the fruits of their Labour.
*
Falls off soapbox*
